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Showing content with the highest reputation on 04/13/17 in all areas
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Fuwa VN Reading Club: April - Deardrops
akaritan and one other reacted to Fred the Barber for a topic
So much this. I like my main characters to have presence and personality, and while of course dialogue and narration are key to that, character sprites go a long way towards building a foundation for the character in my mind.2 points -
Written by Kiririri and edited by fun2novel and Me Trinoline If there ever was a time when the quality of a story was judged purely on its aesthetics then minori’s games would be tough opponents to defeat. Trinoline continues in the same tradition as many other minori games. High-budget top-quality visuals with a ridiculous level of attention to details. This includes blinking eyes and well done lip syncing, top-notch high quality CGs, and unusual camera angles, where you walk and look to the side at a character walking next to you while a long non repeating background scrolls by. All that and more put this at the top of one of the most visually polished games around. Fortunately, visual novels aren’t judged purely on how good they look. Not usually at least. Trinoline asks valuable questions and explores some very interesting themes and ideas. It is set in a world where the science has advanced far enough to manufacture real, lifelike androids. Events become more complicated when our protagonist’s little sister dies only to later come back as an android. She is just an android and not his real sister of course, only an illusion of the real thing. However, the twist is that she has all of the little sister’s memories inside her, and the question is, 'does it matter if she is real or not?' Do memories make her his sister or is she just a replacement for what was lost to tragic events? What happens if your loved one comes back in android form? Are they the still the same person? Are androids even capable of love, even if they don’t have a heart? Do they dream of electric ships? Trinoline features three heroines. Yuuri, the childhood friend, skips school often. However, nothing is what it seems on the surface. What does she hide behind that cheerful upbeat smile of hers? Her route was the least interesting, and it is a bit of a downer for much of it. Shirone, plays the role our protagonist’s “little sister”. She is the Trino (android) with the protagonist’s little sister’s memories inside her. It explores how and if love can bloom between a human and an android. Sara is the other childhood friend. She had a leading role in developing the Trino, a new kind of android. Because of her work, she and the protagonist haven’t seen each other in a long time. Her route is considered the true route and it explores the difficulties of developing an android and the problems in their thinking. The game is pretty equally divided between the common and all the other three routes, and it touches on very interesting issues. However, at the end of the day I don’t know how I really feel about it. I can't help but wonder if I actually enjoyed the game or not. It doesn’t help how stupid the protagonist acts in some scenes and changes his opinions about androids from one route to the next with no consistency, with no regard for his personality. I wanted to like the game because I thought the heroines are really great. In addition, if it wasn’t iterated enough previously, the game is really beautiful. Unfortunately, the constant depressing atmosphere kept up throughout the game pretty much crushed me and every false hope I had for it. I don’t want to further elaborate on that to avoid spoilers. The game has a lot of great moments, but it also has many points that will split opinions. If you’re looking for a deep and exhilarating science fiction story, you won’t find it here. The narrative is slow-paced and takes its sweet time to build up. This is a game for those looking for a character driven nakige with some light sci-fi elements. However, it might keep you depressed most of the time, so take care if you don't like that sort of thing.1 point
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Fuwa VN Reading Club: April - Deardrops
akaritan reacted to mitchhamilton for a topic
yeah, i agree. i certainly really enjoy vns when they give the mc personality and a face. i remember reading if my heart had wings for the first time and was shocked when right away they show the mc's face.1 point -
Fuwa VN Reading Club: April - Deardrops
mitchhamilton reacted to akaritan for a topic
I know, I just dislike it and am of the strong opinion that it leads to bland, boring characters and lessens the work greatly as a whole.1 point -
Persona
Shikomizue reacted to Jun Inoue for a topic
All for Persona. Also, found a JoJo reference today. Quite amusing indeed.1 point -
Persona
Jun Inoue reacted to Shikomizue for a topic
I didn't even notice Yusuke was voiced by Matt Mercer until you mentioned that. All before this point I was like, "Man, I really like Yusuke's English voice. Wonder why."1 point -
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Fuwa VN Reading Club: April - Deardrops
Fred the Barber reacted to akaritan for a topic
I just finished that scene, and I sort of agree... I mean, I quite like the "gig of the month" formula, but all of the romance teases with no actual payoff thus far are a bit irritating to say the least. Especially in the case of Kanade, it's so lacking in any degree of subtlety... But apart from that, I absolutely adore this VN so far and I don't know how I've kept it installed on my computer for a year without touching it. The cast is charming, the lack of high school is always a plus, and both the music and concert scenes are absolutely wonderful. It's a little thing, but the art has a sort of "pop" to it- the lines are thick and especially in the case of the hair, gradients are used less. I think that the style is really nice and fitting for the VN. I also wish more VNs gave their main characters faces.1 point -
Visual Novels - Serious or Comedic?
Darklord Rooke reacted to Chronopolis for a topic
Serious with some comedy >> Purely serious >>>> Comedy all the way through >> Mostly comedy, with one serious part >>> Uninspired bland shit1 point -
Visual Novels - Serious or Comedic?
Dreamysyu reacted to Funyarinpa for a topic
Seriousness by far. Comedy can be fun once in a while (a la Grisaia's common route), but serious plots just bring far more to the table, are more varied, and are much more memorable in the long run. Bouts of seriousness amidst comedy is always welcome, but I'd say inserting comedy into seriousness runs the risk of killing immersion.1 point -
>comedy "Yeah, let's hide our inability to write a good story by turning it into a hilarious joke. I'm sure people won't spot the difference!"1 point
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Rewrite kinda has the same problem, common route is too long and tries too much to be funny (but it kinda works, because of what happens afterwards). Grisaia is beyond saving. Walking-deus-ex-machina-plot-device-protag really doesn't work in a comedy setting, imo. (He still doesn't work in the routes, at least for me, but that might be because I hate those kind of protagonists)1 point
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>reusing the same jokes and stereotypes seven million times >fun1 point