Leaderboard

Clannad is the kind of game where it's pretty fun to just go with your heart and see where you end up. After you do that once, I suggest resorting to a walkthrough. But there should be no issue with one playthrough like that.

Gotta say, I'm beyond disappointed with Muv Luv Alternative. I slogged through Extra and Unlimited with naiive anticipation of reading the 40+ hour epic rollercoaster that VNBD, and all of Alternative's fans, led me to believe. Shame that this is what I got. I have no idea how it got rated so high on VNBD or why it has such a devoted following. It's certainly not the worst VN I've ever read, but it still sucks. I feel as if it's important to say that I played most of it, and kinda read up on the ending because it got so unbearable. So maybe my thoughts are contradicted by things happening near the end. I don't know if I'm going to be kicking the hornet's nest posting this here, but after investing so much time into the game, I feel as if I have to rant, so this is happening regardless. Here's my grips: 1. The protagonist sucks. He starts off great. He's a marty stu and you root for him because we've become invested in a world that has little to no chance, but then one little thing goes wrong and he goes down a path of self-degradation. He's so self-important and arrogant that he believes that everything that does not go 110% is his fault. And he never shuts the hell up with his internal dialogue. 24/7 he's repeating obvious nonsense or raging inside his head about something. There is no good scenes in Muv Luv that have Takeru's presence, which is 99% of them, because he has to interrupt with his inane angsty prattling throughout even the most dramatic scenes. Think of Majikoi. Think of Grisaia. Remember the Main Characters inner dialogue? If you do, you barely do, because it was so seemlessly inserted into the narrative that it was almost undetectable. 2. The pacing. There's too many times where Takeru is talking back and forth about nothing pertinent with people (or, of course, himself). Most of Muv Luv is just full of nothing happening. This kinda leads onto the next point. 3. Infodumping. Self-explanatory. Even if you disagree with every other little thing I say, this is simply an undeniable fact. Exposition is supposed to be weaved into a dialogue, not fed to you like you're in a classroom, which you are half the bloody time in Muv Luv AND Alternative. Reading this stuff feels like work half the time. Yuuko, your life tutor, seems to love the sound of her own voice. I get that Quantum Physics is a thing in Muv Luv, and it's very hard to understand for even 'experts' or whatever, but do we really have to have lectures in 20 minute intervals that drone on forever about a subject nobody cares about. Steins Gate did it fine. 4. The plot is garbage. It doesn't go anywhere. There's really not much more to say. The only time there was any semblance of a plot was the Coup-Detat, but that's hardly ever mentioned again except for whenever someone wants to gush about how awesome 'the Shogun' is, even though it's clearly established she's nothing more than a walking figurehead. Other than that, what was actually going on in between all of these raids on Hives that wasn't Takeru just mindlessly talking to his companions about nothing in particular? 5. Shock value. The chomp scene was the only death scene that had any significance, since an entire almost-unendurable arc was based around it. Everyone else just died randomly and had little impact on the story on their way out. Hell, they didn't even serve as development for anyone else, with the exception of the one Captain lady, and that was so forced and spontaneous it was pathetic. Like, they all instantly become the characters they end up as in their routes because a dying woman that they knew for less than a couple of weeks told them to. Yeah. Humans don't really work like that. Speaking of shock value, let's talk about the Beta Rape scene. 'Spoilers' were included in the title, so no whining about that. It was utterly stupid, simply put. So, the Beta decided randomly after not even seeing us as worth worrying about, or as 'life forms', for so long that they're going to find out how to make a human female moan? Even if there was a reason, why the female and not the male? Objectively speaking, what's the difference? We're not talking about reproductive qualities, of which females are far superior, we're just talking about pleasure. Answer = Because that fate would shock the viewers more, of course, and conjure some stupid reason to put Sumika in a sympathetic light. Well, I couldn't care less about her because that was contrived and her character is weak. 6. Characters were horrible, yo. Their dialogue was inane and their growth non-existent, at least by any believable or substantial means. They served little more than as triggers for Shirogane to do stuff. It's very easy to forget the original cast exist in Alternative. They're overshadowed by other characters, and even they suck. Most of them exist just to die, and the ones that survive have NOTHING compelling about them at all. This entire game is like a submit of a clumsy first draft. 7. Romantic interests. This is more of a minor gripe, relatively. Why give us all these options and characters to explore with in the last games and then force us into a relationship with the most generic and insipid character ever created? A character that has NO depth, even in the original. A character that has no likes or interests that are not Takeru related? A character that whines, complains and is only useful due to a power that is not her own? A character two steps from becoming a Yandere, and yet even that somehow prevents her from becoming the least bit compelling because she doesn't do anything. She is the main heroine because, and only because, she inherits the bewilderingly popular role of 'Childhood Friend'. /puke. 8. The ending. What? It's bad. It erases literally everything Takeru did so he can be placed smack bang into square one. And he doesn't even remember! We might as well consider Alternative non-canon. 9. Angst. So. Much. Angst. Takeru is always screaming and nobody inside of his head, and even outside of his head in front of people, creating awkward atmospheres. The one point where I was like "Oh, this dude is awesome" was in the retelling of the scene where those two jealous soldiers sock the crap out of him. He embarassed himself in Unlimited, but took the situation like a champ in Alternative. Where did that Takeru go? The dude who was willing to get beaten the hell out of to get stuff done, and stay calm throughout the whole thing? He was awesome, and he didn't stick around long. He was replaced by a dude who screams in the middle of an entire classroom and hugs his teacher. People thought Shirou from Fate Stay/night was embarassing? Lmfao. So, that's my rant.

@Lambda :: YES. I played re:connect and never the original...maybe that was why I was so fecking confused about how the route-choices were laid out. I know I have to check out the original. @Novel21 :: Of course, happy to! I just got so excited I couldn't contain myself hah. And yeah I do too. But tbh with the amount of work they're putting into it, I dunno. Maybe they'll do free to play but pay for unlocking routes like Mystical Messenger? ;;;; Regardless, I think I wouldn't mind paying, as long as it's not stupidly expensive. I can't believe how much some of these VN games go for. @Nandemonai:: Ah, thank you for the heads-up. :3

I'd recommend System76 laptops. Solid specs, fair prices, comes with Linux, but pretty much allows installing whatever. https://system76.com/laptops

At that price point I would suggest the Microsoft Surface Book, HP Spectre X360, Dell XPS or some Lenovo Yoga, not too familiar with their models. Personally I would choose the Suface out of those, but the Spectre X360 is a solid laptop too and the battery life is enough to last through a school day.

Watched this again just the other day. 9/9.

Agree on that. I have an onboard Intel graphic in my laptop (i5 8gb RAM DDR3 1 TB storage) card and tell you, if it's within your budget, go for a Radeon graphic card.

This isn't good enough for you?

English version of Schwarzesmarken situation looks like this: There will be demo released on Steam, but after they finalize all, or almost all of Muv Luv kicstarter promises. If there will be much interest and good sales for MuvLuv, there will be a full translation and release. So, around 2019 Schwarzesmarken release looks reasonable.

Just to be on the safe side, I recommend a laptop with a Radeon graphics card pre-installed. Some VNs require high specs to run properly, especially those that use the Emote system for animations. Standard Intel graphics cards may have difficulty running those.

Yeah I saw that and reacted the same way. Hnnng.... Then I noticed the "all-ages" tag on it, and my interest in the "story" died down a bit Think its this girl: Parts of the game is already out in Japanese. Though, idk about the English version.

Stick with Windows or setup Linux. Mac is crap from a VN-player's point of view. I recommend you find one that lets you keep Windows 7, as many older VNs and games simply don't have workarounds for 10. At least with 7, the issues with various VNs are relatively well known. Stay away from gimmicks like SSDs if you aren't a heavy gamer. They inflate the price a lot. Consider getting a refurbished laptop if you find one that looks interesting within your budget. For someone who uses a laptop for writing, smaller laptops mean a smaller and more simplified keyboard... in other words, they mean a crappier experience. At the very least, you'll want a 15". Get last year's or 2014's model. It'll reduce your costs if you don't find something refurbished.

One of Asus' Ultrabooks. Alternatively, if you're thinking about gaming as well, consider MSI laptops. Don't buy a Mac, please.

I would actually recommend you an ultrabook. The cons are power and ... well storage, but you're not a power gamer and an ultrabook will easily allow you to watch anime, play VNs and retro games, and surf the web. They have far more power than a typical netbook (don't confuse the two) and typically are priced lower than your price range. The storage issue is because they typically come with solid state drives. An ultra book is light, slim, and easily portable. Ultrabooks are fast, typically with solid state drives, but then again any computer with those drives are fast. An ultrabook has a longer battery life because they don't need much power. Check the link below for some suggestions http://www.techradar.com/news/mobile-computing/laptops/best-ultrabook-18-top-thin-and-lights-1054355 Actually I just looked at the prices in the link I posted … yeah, don’t check out those laptops 0.0

Avoid consumer models if build quality sturdiness concerned. For $1000-1500 you can go gamey flashy high speccy 15.6" model with i7 and 970M+, something like Asus ROG Strix that still manages to weight < 5lbs (4.8ish) in the end and not a massive brick 6lbs+ https://www.amazon.com/GL502VY-DS71-Gaming-Laptop-NVIDIA-GTX980M/dp/B01G1TURPG // review http://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-ROG-Strix-GL502VY-DS71-Notebook-Review.167930.0.html Or mainstream "i has da monies and don't need specs!@#" premiums 13.5" Microsoft Surface Book. Kinda small to have 2000p resolution on a 13.5" screen so you may wanna consider other premium options, but lemme tell you, small <3lb convertibles/2in1s lappys where you can detach screen from keyboard are actually really, really neat in the portability department and your lounging around potentials if all you really intend to do is web browse, youtube, netflix, manga, VNs, any media in general http://www.notebookcheck.net/Microsoft-Surface-Book-Core-i7-940M-Convertible-Review.160679.0.html

The issue is that Clannad has a lot of ridiculous choices to get on some of the routes-to this day, I don't understand how you would figure out on your own that you need to talk to Nagisa to get on almost any route, and that one old teacher's route just plain doesn't make any sense. It's similar to Root Double's A route or Cross Channel, where it's very easy to screw up without realizing that you're doing anything wrong. I'd recommend at least looking at a guide so you can figure out who has routes, if nothing else.

I've been watching a lot of TV shows about tattoo cover-ups recently. In those shows, a bunch of people go to the tattoo artists, show them their ugly pieces and get something cool stitched over it. In mind though, I am always thinking why these people always decide so fast to go with the first sketch provided by the artist. I mean, shouldn't you sleep over a decision like that? But I guess if that's how they'd think, they wouldn't need a cover-up in the first place.

So you felt it like some kind of second-person-embarassment? Now I can understand how can somebody not 'get into' that scene.

Only thing I disagree with really. Takeru started off as an obnoxious, self-absorbed douche, and ended as an obnoxious self-absorbed douche. I might've liked the story tons more with a different MC - though hard to say.

Great rant, great read. And I must say... I agree with most of your points. Cast, pacing, rape scene (I literally felt like I was slapped in the face. Not the physical pain on my cheek, but pain inside, that I was betrayed, I trusted and I got pain), plot, unconstant 'power' of enemies which killed the tension, etc. Almost. I loved the cast. They we're all cliched archetypes, but they 'buyed' me in Extra, I laughed aloud with them many times. (except for Sumika, Sumika suxx). And probably that's why I liked Altered Fable the most from whole muv luv series. Infodumping - I found it fascinating. It was necessary and perfectly fine within boundaries of this story to tell all of this stuff in some 'summary' to Takeru. And I felt probably just like him during those brefings. Kinda bored, but still fascinated. Angst - no. Crying in the middle of classroom after 'chomp'? Come one, you heartless bastard. I loved every second of that 'story arc'. Takeru was completly broken and his pain was depicted perfectly. I rarely get emotional these days, but with Takeru there, I was crying probably same amount as him. But considering all of this, that's why I gave it 'only' 8/10, later changing for 8.5. It's imperfect game, far from it. But with scope as big, and 'high points' as high as they are, I can forgive much. Muv Luv Trilogy is still my favourite VN. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Neon genesis Evangelion is best anime ever, and everybody should watch it. And for all of you Shinji haters (worth read, but heavy spoilers for Evangelion): ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I as well can't wait for Baldr Sky, and hope that it will be, while being at least as 'big', even better than ML. Anybody knows if Baldr Sky have 'routes' or rather more linear, like MLAlternative? Because ML series are the example of perfect 'structure' in vns. I can't even imagine story heavy VN with typical for charage route system. Tsukihime, while great, felt like an anthology of short stories.

It was a shame that Ren didn't have more participation at Hoshimemo (in the common or Komomo's route at least) 7/10

Interesting. So round up to 10K lines to account for tweaked lines in the original (total guesstimate), and let's say the target is 200 days to finish the translation. That's ... 50 lines per day. Huh, much more doable than I thought at first. And thanks for taking the time to respond to some random dude on the Internet questioning whether you know what you're doing

Alright, so we dropped the "one hour per day" and replaced it with something more flexible. We come from the SciADV fan community. Our image editor, Cypert, worked on the Spanish translation of STEINS;GATE (which was done in under a year), through port lead developer SomeAnon we're friends with the Russian translators of STEINS;GATE (which took about a year too), and TLC SnowedEarth is currently working on an unannounced medium-length VN translation project (which started in early October and is predicted to finish next August). These two aren't his first projects either. We don't have precise numbers for the size of the text original to Noah yet. But indeed, the larger part of the script was in the original Chaos;Head and is already translated. TLWiki lists 24k lines for C;H, 32k lines for Noah (though keep in mind there are changed lines too). So yeah, we think "under a year" is a quite realistic target. The routes are proper routes, with flags to set and changed scenes throughout the VN - it's similar to how STEINS;GATE changes depending on how close you get with Kurisu. The biggest differences are the endings, of course, but unlike S;G they're not the only differences.

The steampunk saga is actually aimed at both audiences.

You could say that the Steampunk series is at least partially aimed at women. Really though, the "otome game" label is for heavily romance-dominated stories aimed almost exclusively at women.

A) MC is female B) Story is about romancing dudes If the VN doesn't have both, it's not otome.

Guys can we at least avoid throwing personal insults at dovac? Criticizing his job decisions is one thing (although I disagree with circlejerking over it but alas), but name calling is something I'd like to avoid seeing. Dovac is a real human being, please keep that in mind before commenting.

I don't get the point of this thread. Digging up a month old livestream so the community can shit on him some more doesn't seem very productive. He does indeed have some health issues and I hope he gets better soon.

I'll take the bait. 1-9 Takeru: In the majority of most circumstances I would agree with you but I actually think Takeru's angst (not the right word you're looking for but whatever) has a place in the vn. Remember this is the same Takeru that went through all of the events of extra and unlimited and who has developed friendships and relationships with a good portion of the class. Now he's been dropped on a world to fight for him what is a relatively unknown enemy combatant. I imagine that in some of these situations you would likely go through a similar process. Admittedly you have to realize that Takeru develops PTSD and depression relatively early on which really can you blame him. He is a flawed character but that is one of the reasons people actually can understand a bit of his character. 4: I would disagree the plot was very similar to Starship Troopers and this is more of a combat vn than a vn like Steins;Gate, Grisaia, or even Majikoi. It tries to depict war and if you've ever seen/read something like starship troopers you realize that the time between the combat is spent growing closer to characters so that you can cheer or feel sad when they often inevitably kick the bucket or manage to survive. The plot delves into Takeru's training as a soldier and then his battles as a soldier. The entire coup scenario just goes to show that there are human conflicts as well. Just be glad they didn't try to make us feel sorry for the BETA. 5. The chomp and further deaths are there to showcase death. While often times it might hit people over the head with it the fact it often had little real impact on the characters is actually development on its own. They grown accustom to it. They were impacted each when seeing someone near them die for the first time and then slowly but surely you notice that the deaths begin having less impact. Humans are funny because they don't always work as one would expect. The BETA Scene: While initially I like most people despised this scene the feeling behind it I feel is important. You have to remember that in this scene it's not just a scene where she is being sexually experimented on but also a scene where the Takeru of the alternative world was essentially eaten alive as he tried to save her. While yes the sexual experimentation was then happening you have to remember one thing...learning about the physiology and sexual behaviors of other species is something that we ourselves do as human beings (just look at the scientific history). I mean hell what the BETA are doing is not too different from what people used to do with people of a different race to themselves. The human race is fucked up. I can't help but think of that scene as something scientific on the part of the BETA. They wished to understand the creatures and what made them feel. Perhaps it wasn't the orgasms they were interested in learning about but rather the emotions and physicality of their enemy. Regardless it was a disturbing scene and arguments can be made for whether they should or should not have kept it in. The BETA are essentially colonizing earth and don't see the creatures living on it as lifeforms...honestly it really reminds me of colonization. Perhaps because of Takeru's actions in Alternative they will begin seeing them as sentient creatures and may try a different way to deal with them. 6. The characters for the most part are rather ordinary which transfers over from previous games in the series. Not everyone is going to be some awesome personality but they are going to feel human. You also have to remember that we are seeing things primarily from Takeru's point of view and only from a certain point. It's quite possible that the characters changed more than we know but we are limited to only seeing what Takeru sees and hears. That said though I do agree a good portion of the characters were uninspired and static from appearances but then we humans do not always change. War can definitely help with that but for some there might be little change at all. I do believe this was one of the weakest points in the series though as such a big change definitely should have impacted the characters more than just keeping the quirks from extra and unlimited. 7. Romantic Interests: A big part of me wishes they would have just left out the romance part. I mean if the game really wanted to still sell to the crowd that likes sex they could have just had Takeru sleep around and not develop any close attachments to everyone. The sex could have simply been a means to feel closer to people even though it didn't mean anything. I have no issue with just sticking with one heroine in a game but I think having choices of the heroines could have given the bit more development some of the characters really did need. Just seeing how each of them deal with being in a relationship of sorts during the events could have been interesting. How would they respond would they be hopeful would being in a relationship give them more reason to live? Would they respond to a relationship as a token thing to do before they died? Would one of them just want the closeness of being with someone but not the physical relationship? Or vice versa perhaps one of the characters would want a purely physical relationship and nothing else. Relationships in war is an interesting thing that I wish they would have done a bit more in depth on or not done at all. 8. The Ending: I agree it's bad. I loved the ending but not the very ending. There were a number of ways I wish this could have been done instead. Hell let Takeru die would have been a better ending. Perhaps he dies in the final attack and after seeing the base explode it fades to black and the credits and music playing. I also wish that it would have taken place over a longer period of time. Perhaps have Takeru and one of the other love interests leave a child behind and they could make him/her the next protagonist 18-30 years in the future near the end or the war. Honestly I feel as if sending Takeru back home was a mistake as it makes everything he did in Alternative essentially meaningless for the reader. Sure he might have helped the world of that particular verse but it doesn't really resonate if there are no consequences or responses to his actions. The very end of alternative was disappointing it would be great if they could fix it by giving Takeru an option to stay or go. If he stays maybe he would be a war hero and could have a cameo in a future game where he is training the next set of recruits. It would be nice if the option was there then people could choose what they wanted and that would make it just slightly better.

That's me lol, I didn't even see this thread and I check Fuwa more than HF, especially since HF doesn't even load properly for me anymore. Whoops. Does HF load properly for you? I keep getting timed out now.

Nothing about it weirded me out. Shiroganes response was completely logical, regardless of your country. If your best friend, a guy, suddenly became a girl overnight, just like that, no lead up to it, you just woke up, and he was a girl now, you would not be a little put-off? That's all Shirogane is. As for Steins;gate, it's not transphobic at all. It's logical. If you're not gay or bisexual, it means you're not attracted to men...doesn't make you an awful person, just like being gay or bisexual doesn't make you an awful person either. It's perfectly fine for gay people to have Gay Only bars, but try pulling a straight only bar, and you'll get a law-suit so fast. It's pretty unfair, honestly. I guess you can call me transphobic, but if my best friend, who is a guy, became a woman and suddenly the prospect of being sexually attracted to them arose, yeah, I'd be freaked out.

Jesus christ, are you serious? I'm on the wrong forum.