Fred the Barber

The last point is totally valid - I had forgotten that the re-release was totally retranslated (I only played it a little bit, a long time ago); maybe it would resolve most/all of the issues I had following the plot.

Alright, so before I continue derailing the thread, let me try to offer a useful suggestion: MajiKoi has a very in-control protagonist, and might be what you're looking for (looks like you haven't played it yet but were planning to, judging by your VNDB). Now then... You seem to be trying to make an argument of some sort in this thread, but you're missing an important connecting point: if the game is good, who gives a shit if it follows a formula? That aside, even more importantly, why are you trying to shift the argument away from the actual topic (whether the protagonist has some influence and control over the situation)? Probably because Babiker was right and you know shit about Rewrite, and it was starting to show? I'll grant you that the protagonists to all of Kanon, Clannad, and Little Busters! are total non-entities. They're pretty much there for self-insert purposes only (Little Busters! Refrain is not a redeeming chapter for Riki, to me; only for the male friends); it's actually hilarious how much more interesting the KyoAni anime versions of those protagonists are in the 2006 Kanon and Clannad. But we weren't talking about those games; we were talking about Rewrite. Rewrite's Kotarou has quite a bit more going on, particularly in the Terra route. He starts off as a total scrub, he knows it, and he works his ass off to get better, and we watch him every ass-kicking step along the way. He's a refreshingly different and interesting protagonist from Key. So if you don't know what you're talking about, maybe you shouldn't talk about it?

Welcome to visual novels and to the forums, Jim! You definitely picked up some good ones there; the only one you listed that I haven't at least heard great things about is Sound of Drop (and I've actually not heard of it at all before, to tell the truth...), and I can personally recommend G-Senjou, Eden*, and Planetarian. The latter two are on the short side and are "kinetic novels" (meaning they have no choices and only one route), whereas G-Senjou is another long VN with several major routes, each with both good and bad ends. Eden* and Planetarian are also going to be thematically pretty similar - both are considered "nakige", or "crying games", and both have a post-apocalyptic sci-fi setting. The place where the two diverge a lot is going to be the characters and the execution. On the other hand, G-Senjou is... kind of its own thing. It's got your typical overused modern, Japanese high school setting, but the setting quickly fades in the face of an amazing plot. Anyway, you probably can't go wrong with any of the ones you have (except possibly Sound of Drop). Aside from Steam, you should know that there are a couple of other places to buy officially-licensed English-translated visual novels: - MangaGamer (who was actually the licensor for Eden*, and releases their 18+ games through their own website) probably has the largest catalog. That catalog is unfortunately largely "nukige" (read: porn, usually without much of a plot), but there are a number of gems in there, such as: "ef: A Fairy Tale of the Two", a longer and darker game by minori, the company that made Eden*; the "Cartagra" / "Kara no Shoujo" series; "Gahkthun of the Golden Lightning"; and a number of others that I'm probably unfairly leaving out. - JAST USA, which most notably has Steins;Gate (and, like MangaGamer, unfortunately also a ton of nukige...). Sekai Project is the other reasonably-sized licensor, but all their All Ages releases (like Grisaia, Clannad, and G-Senjou) are using Steam for distribution. If it's of interest to you, there are also often uncensored 18+ releases of their games (including Grisaia) through their sister company Denpasoft. And aside from that, you can always go with the (admittedly somewhat legally gray...) import + apply fan translation option; for Fate/Stay Night, which you mentioned, that'd be the only option. If you're interested in more details there (it's a longer story), probably best to start another thread or just PM me to avoid hijacking this thread further... Lastly, it can be a bit overwhelming at first, but try poking around vndb.org a bit - a quick way to find whether you're on to something interesting is to look up a game you're considering there and check out its ratings, themes, etc. But the Recommendations forum on Fuwanovel is pretty responsive, and of course experienced people are usually a better resource than mere votes; don't hesitate to ask.

Vorathiel, I'm curious - if you used a guide - whether you played Mitsuki's bad end - if so, what order you played the ends in I wasn't using a guide initially, and my choices led me to Mitsuki's bad end, which hit me like a truck. If you didn't have that same experience, I would bet the experience of Mitsuki's route would not be as good.

Given the alternatives above, I'd probably pick Baz Luhrmann's "trusty Longsword": http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Romeo_%2B_Juliet#Techno_Arms_MAG-7M1

I also really enjoyed FFX-2 - I think it mostly got a bad rap for having a weaker story, but in fairness, how do you follow up FFX and not look weak by comparison. The garment grid system was unique and fun, both in terms of gameplay and in terms of playing dress-up with Yuna (and Rikku and Paine, sure). Incidentally, a rather similar system with absolutely marvelous execution is also what makes Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII a joy to play. The combat in that game is the best gameplay I've ever experienced, no question, and I'd probably be horrified to know how many hours I spent fussing with Lightning's outfits. It's a shame you feel obligated to wade through the vastly inferior FFXIII and FFXIII-2 to get there, and that the story is not too great... but it's worth it for the gameplay and the Lightning dress-up! Tactics's story is pretty vague, honestly, and it suffers from an often-incomprehensible English translation. I've played through it three or four times, and even done some reading of extra material, but even so I was never really able to grasp Delita's actions and motivations (which are confusing but absolutely central). It kind of feels like there were two different stories, each of them 80% complete, which then got merged together to make a single game. The gameplay feel is one-of-a-kind even among SRPGs, and the story is definitely interesting, but I'm not sure it is good.

Thanks! To be clear, I wasn't expecting something even similar to Haibane Renmei, really, but rather just expecting something simultaneously thoughtful and enjoyable. That it's a little on the dark side... that's probably why I've been shying away from it, to tell the truth - I tend to like things that are a little brighter and more positive. I'll get to it someday, I'm sure, but I probably need to be suitably mentally prepared for it. I'm very curious to see how you feel about this show after you're done with it. Personally... I liked it less and less with each passing episode, culminating in pretty much hating the show by the time I was done. It's kind of the screwed-up mirror version of Welcome to the NHK, which by the end I really loved.

Watched a few more episodes of Nozaki (which is just getting better), but realized I was getting close to finishing the whole series (which would be terrible!), so I picked up One Week Friends as well to slow myself down a bit. I'm quite enjoying One Week Friends - my powers of suspension of disbelief are immense, so I have no problem with the basic premise, but I can see where a lot of people would hate the show just for that; to each his own, though. I'm loving the way very ordinary, believable drama ensues from the extraordinary premise, and also I find the show's overall pacing to be quite admirable. I'm about 4 episodes in, I think, and looking forward to watching the rest. One thing I'm excited about is that I'm getting the vibe that this show will have a real "ending" moment, which usually does a lot for my ability to appreciate a show. Shows that resolve only a small amount of what they set up (with an implicit message of "go read the source material" ) tend to bug me. Keep us posted - Lain has been sitting in my queue forever, since I adore the creator's other big show Haibane Renmei, but I just never feel motivated to watch it for some reason.

I can't name the last time I had to calculate the roots of any polynomial using any method, let alone that more specific question. That's why I agreed with you - I said it's "a pretty useless ability". But you are wrong on one point small - if the solution has integer coefficients, it's actually faster for me to let my brain slam the numbers together until it guesses the correct coefficients. For the sample problems I looked at online, that was definitely (still) the case. Apparently they drilled that useless ability into my head quite well.

I really love Final Fantasy X, for what it's worth; it probably is my favorite FF game. Characters and plotting were the best of any FF game, easily, and it had, for me, the most heart-wrenching scenes of any non-VN video game I've ever played. Story-wise, it's the right recommendation, and that's what Funya asked for... but when I went back a couple months ago, I literally could not make myself play it for more than a couple hours, because of that dub. I was really very sad about it...

Honestly, you can't go wrong with any of the above recommendations (6, 7, X). I loved all of them. But there are some down-sides that make some of them harder to play now: - the graphics in 7 look like absolute crap. First-gen polygon graphics = pain - the voice acting in X is so bad it makes me want to murder the main character. Seriously. You can't even fathom it. If there's an option to get Japanese voice acting for it (I have no idea), then go for it. I tried to play the re-release a couple months ago and ran away screaming, though, and didn't consider checking for such an option before running away. Final Fantasy 6 was amazing at its release, and it has aged gracefully. Play Final Fantasy 6.

Just be careful you don't get yourself over-hyped - it won't matter how good something is if you go into it expecting to be blown away immediately. P3P has its ups and downs, and is quite a bit different from P4G in all aspects aside from core gameplay (which is one of the surprisingly least-important aspects of those two games). FFVI is a favorite, and IMO it has aged very well, so I think you'll be pleased there. Just don't forget to wait for Shadow.

Well, you're nailing at least the nominals of art and music, just from the assets up on the Kickstarter; I especially love the BGM samples in the soundcloud! I don't like playing demos, so I'm skipping that, but the premise is also quite enticing. And I must add that you are clearly the modern masters of the tagline. Once I saw the t-shirt I knew I had to back at a high enough tier to get that; I will wear it to work with glee.

That's a pretty useless ability which nonetheless got drilled into my head in middle school (though I'm probably bad at it by now... hold on, checking a sample problem sheet online... nope, still good at it, hooray ). On the other hand, a few years earlier they drilled mental multiplication into my head, and I use that shit all the time still, so it wasn't a total loss.

Understatement of the year.

Confession: So I was kind of seeing someone back in November, and she left the country for a 2-month vacation. She just got back two days ago and immediately texted me saying we should meet up, so we had dinner tonight. On the way there, I was thinking "I have zero chemistry with this girl. I need to find a way to turn this 'sort of seeing' thing into a 'not seeing' thing, without hurting her feelings, so I can feel good about dating that other girl I had drinks with earlier this week". I arrived at dinner, and she casually mentioned that while she was back home, her parents talked her into moving back to her home country for good, and that she already has a one-way ticket back home in two months. First thought: Second thought: Everything worked out better than expected.

You might hold off on declaring a P4 waifu until after you meet more of the cast. Also, you should at least know your waifu's name - Yukkiko would have a pretty weird pronunciation. As for me: I got back into it, and now I can't stop playing the Disgaea 5 endgame. I'm at the point where I can simultaneously level 8 characters from 1 to 9999 in about 5 minutes... and I'm also at the point where that isn't all that useful in breaking new ground. What a lovely and ridiculous game. All other forms of entertainment have basically been on hold for the past week (including, unfortunately, very little progress on G-Senjou lately...).

False, I'm more of a vanilla fan Next person has acted tsun while feeling dere in the past week.

Coincidentally, I made this earlier this week for the first time. It was quite good! Do you add any salt to it? Obviously I salted the water when cooking the pasta, but I don't use much salt for that. I felt like the final result needed just a little bit of salt, but maybe I shouldn't have added any? Pecorino romano is pretty easy to find in the US, at least at the grocery stores I go to. I use it pretty frequently. There's plenty of good, real parmigiano reggiano as well, which is certainly what I would be referring to if I said "parmesan" (not the aforementioned Kraft junk, which I agree is terrible).

False, unless you count accessorizing with the Santa hat last month. Next person is a Dr. Who fan.

I read the whole post and I still am not sure I know what you're talking about, but I'm pretty certain I agree with it anyway, since it seems to be approving of Tohsaka's unbreakable short-skirt-with-thigh-highs combo.

Confession: I'm definitely going to have weird dreams tonight, thanks to massively underestimating dinner prep time. Eating a big hearty meal 30 minutes before going to bed was one of the dumber moves I've made in the last week, and it bears mentioning that I quit my job in the last week.

It's wonderful that you're aiming for the sky, and it's even more wonderful to see clear progress towards your goals, like the lovely artwork you've posted in other threads and the detailed background information in this thread. But I'd offer one small suggestion: you might temper your rhetoric just a little bit. Claiming that you're doing something big that "has never been done before" can alienate audiences, especially pedantic people (read: most of the internet). If they can dig up some example, however obscure, then you can find yourself in an argument that isn't interesting or useful, and that shifts the focus away from your work. I think you're clearly doing great work - whenever possible, let it speak for itself.

Gah, I missed the last page! True. I'm not great at it, but I can juggle three balls pretty cleanly, at least, or two balls in a single hand. Clubs are difficult, though, and I could never get up to either four or five balls (the pattern is quite different, so it's possible though unlikely that one could be able to juggle five but not four). Next person likes singing.