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5 points
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Post pics you like (Powered by Jun Inoue™)
Jun Inoue and 2 others reacted to Kenshin_sama for a topic
3 points -
The rules of a Good Trap Protagonist game
Chronopolis and one other reacted to Clephas for a blog entry
I will say it, yes, games with trap protagonists are one of my secret pleasures. While there are numerous types of this particular niche in VNs, and there are a disproportionate number of this type of game compared to ten years ago, there are some rules shared by all the greats that I thought I'd put out there. 1. A good trap protagonist is a voiced protagonist. Most trap protagonists are voiced. There are a number of reasons for this, but, regardless of the reason, almost all the 'good' trap protagonist are voiced. There are exceptions (early on) or ones where the voice was added on later (Tsuki ni Yorisou, Otome no Sahou), but they are just that, exceptions. 2. The protagonist has some kind of spectacularly high level skill or attractive point. This really is universal. In some cases it is housework (protagonist in Otome no Sahou) and in others it is physical prowess, force of personality, or artistic talent. However, regardless of what it is, no good trap protagonist is devoid of such skills. 3. There is at least one 'ojousama' heroine. While this is not universal, given the nature of this type of game and the fact that most of the schools they 'sneak into' are girls' schools, this is inevitable. Girls schools, even in Japan, are private institutions, meaning there is inevitably (or so says the kami of eroge) going to be at least one sheltered girl that comes from wealth. 4. There will be at least some drama when the protagonist is 'revealed' to the heroines. Easy transitions make for bad games. All the heroines merely accepting it as if it doesn't matter at all means that there was no weight at all to the protagonist's earlier whini- *coughs* ahem, worrying about being revealed. While this drama might be comedic, tense, or sexual in nature, it should not go without note. 5. At some point, most such protagonists will begin to react naturally as their female persona without realizing it (leading to many fans simply forgetting their original names, such as in the case with Mizuki in Koi no Canvas). There are two major types of this type of protagonist. One is the 'forceful personality' type, and the other is the 'submissive personality' type. An example of the former would be Ojousama no Hanbun wa Ren'ai de Dekiteimasu, and an example of the latter would be Otome ga Tsumugu Koi no Canvas. In the former case, the protagonist has a clear objective in infiltrating the girls' school, and he uses his personal abilities ruthlessly and aggressively for that purpose. In the latter case, the protagonist loses himself (herself as I sometimes think of Mizuki) in his role so completely that he often catches himself reacting entirely as a female. I like both types, and I find this particular niche tends to produce a disproportionate amount of good games compared to the rest of the VN world... but then, I'm biased. Edit: As a side note, for those who are interested in recs involving this kind of thing, there are no truly transgender protagonists in any of these games, as far as I know. There are a few who get addicted to dressing in drag or who live as a woman of their own free will even after the story is over depending on the route (Tsuki ni Yorisou, Otome no Sahou), but as far as I know none of these have been confirmed as actually being transgender. That's not to say that none of the writers/makers have intended any of these protagonists to be such (it is a distinct possibility), but so far, in the games I've played/read, none of them have actually confirmed themselves as being such, even in their own thoughts (though again, some have edged around it or verged upon it). Edit2: Examples of this type of game that have either a submissive or a dominant protagonist that also are top tier. Submissive (outside of H, since most H scenes in male-oriented VNs are inevitably bed-yakuza affairs) Tsuki ni Yorisou, Otome no Sahou Otome ga Tsumugu Koi no Canvas Otome Domain Dominant Tenshi no Hane o Fumanaide Ojousama no Hanbun wa Ren'ai de Dekiteimasu Otoboku (despite appearances, all three games) Koi Suru Otome to Shugo no Tate (though this one can be borderline at times) Hmm... there were fewer great ones than I thought... the barrage of endless Ensemble games makes me forget sometimes, lol.2 points -
The rules of a Good Trap Protagonist game
Jeremiah Sand and one other reacted to Clephas for a blog entry
Voiced protagonist is obvious. It shouldn't even need mentioning that having the protagonist voiced is a universal plus. By definition, point 2 is a quality that allows a protagonist to be 'not just another worthless non-person protagonist', so again, a plus. In my opinion, if the heroines are voiced in ANY VN, the protagonist should also be voiced... but if you like your protagonist to be a non-person cipher with no personality, that's your business. Point 3 is purely personal tastes, I'll admit openly. However, it is a commonality to all good trap protag charage. Probably because most ojousama protagonists in JVNs tend to fall into the yurufuwa (think sweet-mannered airhead), arrogant (often combined with tsundere elements, for some reason), or elegant archetypes, all of which are good archetypes for creating atmosphere. Point 4... completely glossing over the drama of a cross-dressing revelation stretches suspension of disbelief by definition, even beyond that of a cross-dressing guy infiltrating a girls' school. While no one seriously thinks any of this is realistic, suspension of disbelief for the purpose of enjoyment is a necessary process to enjoy most fiction. Oh, I'm not talking about drama on the level of Tsuki ni Yorisou Otome no Sahou's normal/bad end, but rather the kind of drama where there is real tension on one or both sides of the equation. In my experience, when all or a majority of the heroines sort of just blink and say 'that's fine' without even thinking about it, it is a serious mood-killer. 5. This is just a common comedic point that creates internal laughs for fans of the genre... and having built-in jokes is always nice. In the end, points 1, 2, and 4 contribute the most to the quality of the works in question. 3 and 5, as you mentioned, are mostly matters of taste and commonality. Well, if you actually wanted an answer, there is your answer.2 points -
I'd probably expect at least another week for it to be fully calmed down. Especially now that the mod team just got fully replaced. From what I gather about Nai, it seems he (and the other mods?) didn't want users to not just post about 18+ Loli pictures but also to make lewd comments about their... preference to lolis. I dont have time to run multiple VN subreddits (I already have another mid size sub and some discords and a full time job) but if he wants a more EVN friendly one I'd be more than happy to advertise it.1 point
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Fuwanovel Confessions
Dergonu reacted to Kenshin_sama for a topic
All hail Dergonu, the king of degenerates!1 point -
Proper way to play Umineko?
philipmikh reacted to Dreamysyu for a topic
Yep, most likely it's abandoned. Just play the Steam version with this patch. Edit. Here's the patch for the answer arcs.1 point -
If KinKoi sells well.. there is a pretty high chance that other Saga P VNs may get localized.. is what they said..from other VNs to KinKoi fandisk etc.. Also KinKoi was the most highly requested Title (right behind Riddle Joker ) on discord and NN forums and also on twitch..so i have no doubt it would sell well... It is also a very popular title among the Chinese VN audience.. as stated by Chinese users on discord..1 point
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Maybe he was talking about Clover Day's1 point
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Fuwanovel Confessions
Kenshin_sama reacted to Dergonu for a topic
Confession: My girlfriend left her sweater in my apartment, and I have picked it up to smell it on multiple occasions now. (/ω\)1 point -
What Light Novel are you reading right now?
Mr Poltroon reacted to Dreamysyu for a topic
It's been a while since I updated my progress on this thread. Here are a few things I read recently and consider worth talking about. Not in any particular order. Official releases: Kumo desu ga (volume 7). Not posting the cover for the 7th volume because it's full of spoilers. I was afraid that the quality might start going downhill after the big reveal at the end of Volume 5, and I'm so glad that it didn't happen. The newest volume managed to impress me quite a lot, even if it was almost completely action-focused. The new plot twists are just as amazing as the ones in volume 5. I want more! Honzuki (part 2 volumes 1 and 2). Well, I finally caught up with what I read in the WN version, and it looks like this book is steadily getting better and better. The worldbuilding is getting more and more detailed. In these volumes we get some glimpses of how the magic and noble society function in this world. At the end of the second volume it started going in a bit weird direction, and it makes me extremely cautions that it seemingly decided to play straight some annoying isekai tropes that it was avoiding before that, but I'm pretty sure everything will be fine. At least, the epilogue was actually pretty emotional. For some reason, while it was good, I never really felt as much emotional connection with the anime as I do with the books. Also, speaking about the anime, the first scene of the first episode was finally shown, and I think like it was mistranslated there. Actually, I still have no idea why the anime even decided to spoil this scene if the way it was shown makes the viewer to get some wrong ideas. ~ So, I caught up with Arifureta (volumes 5-10). Well, just as expected it's still just the same trashy trash as the first four volumes were, but it's also very entertaining to read. Honestly, I still don't understand why I even like this LN. There are so many things that I would normally expect to hate. At the same time, It somehow manages to always remain interesting. I guess, the main strong point in this book is that the pacing is actually pretty good. Unlike in most LNs, you can more or less always tell what the end goal of the story is, and there's nothing that feels like filler. Actually, I think I like the last two volumes the most in the LN so far. I totally didn't see the plot twist in volume 10 coming, even if now I understand that it was pretty obvious from the start. Also, come on, man, stop growing your harem. It's way too disturbing at this point. Average Abilities (volume 8 ). Well, this volume disappointed me a bit. The comedy is getting a bit old and repetative (I think, many of the jokes were already used in the author's earlier works), and the story is getting nowhere. You know, this is a good example of how light novels that start very starong often run out of steam if they continue for too long. Fan-translations. 「Omae Gotoki ga Maou ni Kateru to Omou na」 to Yuusha Party wo Tsuihou Sareta no de, Outo de Kimama ni Kurashitai (I Was Told That I Wouldn’t Be Able To Defeat The Demon Lord And Kicked Out Of The Hero’s Party, So Now I Just Want An Ordinary Life In The Capital) (volumes 1-3) is amazing. It starts with a pretty usual WN fantasy trope where the MC with seemingly useless ability suddenly turns out to be pretty strong, but there's much more in the story than just that. Quite definitely deserves an official release. First of all, it's yuri with decent plot, interesting itrigue, ineresting characters and good action scenes. Secondly, it's literally the first time when I found horror in an LN so disturbing. I don't know, for some reason the body horror gets to me a lot better than the stuff about ghost or zombies. Definitely going to follow this one! Apotheosis of a Demon – A Monster Evolution Story. (The whole story - the translation is finished). Well, another decent WN that for some weird reason never got an official release. (yet?) Overall, I wouldn't call it particularly deep or novel, but the story is immensely entertaining. It has a rather interesting and, to my knowledge, unique twist on the "reincarnated in the game world" genre, where unaware players are used by the governments and the corporation for getting resources from a real parallel world. Also, I'm pretty surprised in which direction Shedy's character developed, since I expected something different. I Decided to Not Compete and Quietly Create Dolls Instead. Well, as it often happens in the WN world, it has an interesting idea, but rather mediocre realization and not so great translation. I'm only mentioning it here because of a certain twist from the still untranslated chapters which I spoiled for myself. I definitely didn't expect this type of mindfuck from an otome villainess LN. Other than this one, there are a few more shoujo LNs/WNs that I started, but all of them are either pretty bad or still don't have enough translated chapters to judge.1 point -
What are you listening to right now?
Kenshin_sama reacted to Plk_Lesiak for a topic
So, this is like the weirdest thing I've heard in a while. The solo piano performance is so antithetical to this fast, upbeat song, that my mind can't process it properly. Ai Otsuka is genuinely talented though and while I don't really feel much about most of her songs, I just can't get this one from my head. The normal version, that is... And as a bonus, a Daoko song that I also can't stop playing in my head:1 point