So this week's Humble Bundle is probably pretty polarizing... [Root Double/Nekopara/daily GAs here]

I mean, it's a bunch of interactive weeb books, by perhaps one of the most loathed publishers among the English VN fanbase, spread across a number of genres.

Right away, you've got about three reasons people would be immediately turned off - not a fan of Chinese picture books, an ingrained hatred of Sekai Project, or too much trash like Nekopara (I expect someone to blacklist me for that claim).

And honestly, I'm really only a fan of the sci-fi/fantasy genres, and I'm fed up with SP's shit, and I still backed the top tier. And you know what? I might buy a second bundle just to give away a copy of Root Double.

If you've followed visual novels at all, one of the seminal English releases was Ever17. The premise seems simple enough - a handful of young people with stereotypical anime personalities get trapped in an underwater amusement park, with days to survive before oxygen runs out or water pressure crushes the structure. With tensions and emotions running high, it doesn't help that nothing is what it seems initially, and in the end it turns from a bit of a slice-of-life/suspense story to a great sci-fi novel with memorable characters and twists despite a horrific localization job. The next entry in the Infinity franchise, Remember11, is even more mind-bending, and still has a large following despite never properly releasing outside of Japan.

The heads of the series went their separate ways after the company more or less folded, but they both still produced memorable works. Kotaro Uchikoshi went on to create the Zero Escape series, an underground hit sci-fi/horror series starting with 999 on the DS, and for better or for worse, even cancellation couldn't keep the series down thanks to the high demand from the English-speaking market. The Zero Escape series tended to explore a lot of the same themes as the Infinity series

The other lead, Takumi Nakazawa, went on to found his own company, Regista. He'd also direct and publish some other great VNs, such as I/O (a great sci-fi story about the difference between dreams, physical reality, and virtual reality, which was somehow even more of a frustrating mindfuck than Remember11) and Root Double, which in a lot of ways was a throwback to Ever17 - a bunch of people trapped with a matter of hours to live unless they can work together and find an escape, with their connections both to events and each other much more intertwined than they initially seem. I/O only ever received a fan translation, unfortunately, but Sekai Project picked up the expanded edition of Root Double for publication in the west, and even brought on the team from the I/O translation for localization.

Of course, Sekai Project wouldn't have been my first choice for the project, and a lot of people likely feel the same way. Even ignoring the whiny behavior of the higher-ups or questionable choices about what gets kept or cut, they regularly miss release dates and refuse to release timely updates, and they've promised nearly a dozen Vita releases over the last three or four years without actually publishing a single one. In fact, until they partnered with someone else last year, they didn't even have a real plan for developing most of the ports they'd promised. Their first console with a concrete date was supposed to be Rabi-Ribi, in December of last year - the release window was even marked on the official PlayStation blog. Naturally, the game still hasn't been published, and to my knowledge they've yet to offer any updates about its status.

Luckily, Root Double was published with minimal delays, at least on PC. The story's good, and the translation's good. Other than the Vita release slipping past its first two release windows (who could've seen that coming?) there's not a lot to complain about. It's a great sci-fi VN, even if it's not necessarily as strong as its predecessors. But is it worth $12? Of course. Did I give away my Kickstarter Steam key to a friend because I had faith that Regista wouldn't let Sekai Project screw up the Vita release? Unfortunately, yes.

I picked this bundle up because I wanted my own Root Double key, and Nekopara titles aside, I might find something else in here I genuinely enjoy. In the meantime, I already had World End Economica ep01 in my library from a bundle two or three years ago. I'll admit I've never tried it, but it's an opportunity for someone to take my spare key and see if they want to pick up this bundle for further entries into the series: https://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/9KXX6/world-end-economica-episode01 ended

For now, that's the only giveaway I've got. The Nekopara titles are going up soon (see bottom), so don't blacklist me just yet if you want a stab at them. And if you don't want to throw away $12 on my own recommendation of Root Double, take a look below.

UPDATED: Here's a Root Double giveaway (basic SGTools checks): http://www.sgtools.info/giveaways/afa47ed8-4af1-11e7-91df-fa163ee2f826
The giveaway's open until 4PM eastern time next Tuesday, so you've still got another week to buy the game if you don't win.

UPDATED again: Here's a Nekopara train, for all your catgirl-sex needs, or whatever the hell these games are actually about. Lv1 + Lv4 GAs, ending Sunday afternoon (eastern time).

UPDATE: World End Economica GA is over, but I've got most of a second bundle to give out chunk-by-chunk. Here's Sound of Drop -fall into poison-, which I've also never played.

6/8: Today's giveaway is Japanese School Life, because we needed more tired anime tropes in our lives.

6/9: This time I've got Idol Magical Girl Chiru Chiru Michiru Part 1. I guess it's some sort of spinoff/parody of the Grisaia series? I've never played this or the source material, so I can't tell you what to expect. Only other things I can glean from the Steam reviews are that the price was jacked up and the translation is questionable, so basically a quintessential Sekai Project release.