Leaderboard

Yup, but for what it is, I think it was only a little bit too short – could've used slightly more development around the moment when the romantic parts kicked in. It makes sense the author rushed it for an event, as it even feels similar to the higher-end NaNoRenO or Yuri Game Jam VNs, but it probably doesn't deserve half of the bashing the dev himself gives it in the author's notes. 7/10. I've also read through Planetarian and well, it definitely lived up to the hype when it goes to the emotional impact. I have a hard time remembering when a VN genuinely made me cry, but I was completely defenceless against this ending. It's also all-around a great example of how awesome short stories in VN form can be – whether literary adaptations or original ones, I think these are the ones where visuals and good music offer the greatest added value. You never get that stale/repetitive feel that @solidbatman likes to talk about, and which is inevitable when you deal with tons of dialogue and similar events repeating over and over again, but all elements are synergizing with each other all the way through. Anyway, quite a compelling little game. 8,5 tears out of 10. I think I'll go through Harmonia now, I know it's considered to be a lesser Key game, but it's also pretty short and kinetic, and I feel like playing another one of those. :3

Oh hey, is it just me, or is this song absolutely brilliant?

The bolded part is where you are completely wrong, he does get back into playing FC but you HAVE to read all 4 routes to see that which you already refused to do for stupid reasons (I don't care how rude that is, your reasons are just lame excuses, both Mashiro and Rika's routes are good), you only read two routes which means you have by no means completed the visual novel at all, there is no point in you even giving it a rating when you haven't even finished it.

Honestly, I'm with you there. If you have little to no interest, forcing yourself through those routes can make the score sharply drop by the end or even ruin your overall experience. It's not like you have get every ending/quest/item/line of dialogue in a game to say you "finished" it. One ending is way more than enough in my book (I would argue about skipping your whole way there, but eeeeh I'm biased against speedruns in general so I can't really provide arguments). People experience games the way they find the best. You either finish enough of it as a masterpiece or play long enough for it to become kusoge. Routes should be DLC tbh then I could buy only the ones I want. Signed: a completionist that grew out of it because it's damned unworth it.

Maybe it's supposed to show her indigestion?

Indeed, although people say it's based on her personal trauma of working as a waitress and getting an intestinal disease out of stress. So it's symbolic. Some of it at least. Not sure about the closeup at the very beginning, but the rest...

It indeed is But the video is really bizarre - as were many of 80's MVs actually

Exactly. That's why I say that in the end Planetarian has the best writing in a Key VN. It just singlehandedly shows that the whole Key formula (typical for VNs in general, actually) that you need to start with lots and lots of SOL to make the later "serious" scenes more impactful is simply wrong. Not that I dislike SOL, I actually like it a lot if it's done well. The problem is that I'm almost never satisfied with it in most VNs (and Key VNs are actually a nice exception).

This needs to not be a thing.

I’ve gotten pretty tired of the standard school setting moege style myself too. I can only enjoy some of it in small amounts at a time nowadays.

Welcome to weeb land o/

I never died!!!

It would maybe seem like a good fit, but all of the anime I listed are actually nothing like toradora and the discussion here had to some extent shifted towards romance in general, which is why I just threw some examples out there of romance anime which tackle different angles of the spectrum rather well. (In contrast to toradora which was mentioned here as well)

I've been slogging through Muv Luv on and off for the past few months Still in Extra lol But I've managed to finish Sumika, Meiya, and Chizuru's Extra routes MuvLuv Extra is truly... Average. Which means it's probably boring af to seasoned readers who've seen all the cliche high school SoL shenanigans by now. Doesn't help that Muv Luv is technically 2003 so it has the older type of writing/humor/dialogue and outdated graphics with them lovely body proportions. I found both Sumika and Meiya to be fairly annoying, it's the classic should I bang my lifelong airheaded clingy and naggy childhood friend who's been by my side through thick and thin since forever, or this enigmatic super-privileged-super-rich and lacking-in-normal-people-common-sense/mannerisms girl that popped out of nowhere who seems to have larger than life fate/destiny ties to me? I did like the moral crisis Takeru faced when it came to choose time, the writers did a good job setting it up by making Takeru reflect on both girls via inner monologuing flashbacks reinforcing the whole "childhood friend vs destiny girl" dilemma. Needless to say I banged Chizuru first (Jk about "banged", I'm playing the Vita version LOLOL). Anyway she's the class rep strict by the book hardhead who tries to shoulder everything by herself. And she looks damn good when she lets her hair down and takes off the glasses. Her drama was pretty eh, a lot of LEAVE ME ALONE, I CAN HANDLE IT!!! And Takeru being NO YOU CANT, LET ME HELP!!! But yeah, Chizuru's my best girl atm. I really really don't feel like slogging through Miki and Kei's Extra routes, might just start Unlimited now...

The older someone gets, they get closer to the target audience of these vns

Was this intended for this thread?

(Belated) All Best Wishes to @Clephas and @Kawasumi!

I mean, I remember her being more 2Dy

Well have fun with Shibuya Scramble there, and as for what you should expect it's should be a thriller story that focused on the kidnapping. Also while some people argue that this is not a VN, I would say that this is more than enough to be classified as the VN seeing that it have VNDB entry. Admittedly it use photograph though which obviously very different fro usual VN, although it tell us enough that Chunsoft really pour their money on this seeing that it mean that the staffs really need to set it like a movie. Of course Famitsu here definitely didn't miss that high production value that Shibuya Scramble had, so much that they gave perfect score for this back at 2008. If you need more reason, then I would say that this is the only VN that was standalone out of those other three, so you didn't really need to play the prequel to fully enjoy this. It did spawned a sequel though in form of anime (Canaan), so if you like that anime then Shibuya Scramble here should be very interesting to try.

Wow, you're like the ~3rd person I've ever met who's watched Chuck. As for Toradora I do want to say that I think the melodrama worked in it as at that age things tend to feel far more significant than they actually are, especially when it comes to emotions. Feel free to link those threads, but I'm pretty new to anime and I've basically not read any manga, so it's distinctly possible I won't be able to speak to any of it.

I agree with the sentiment, I stopped reading teen based romance vns because of that. in all honesty it takes forever and it's filled with tons of pointless banter that comes off as filler and tires the reader out.