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Clephas last won the day on January 2
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About Clephas

- Birthday 02/24/1982
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Male
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ERROR, ERROR, FAILURE TO OBTAIN CONCLUSIVE DATA
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VNs, anthropology, writing, reading, translation, anime, video games, sharp things, firearms
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Japanese language
High
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Translator
Otaku Web
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Visual Novel Database (VNDB)
10917
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http://clephasstomach.blogspot.com/?zx=719f8f42705b40c5
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Shizuku and Shiranui's relationship in Evolimit. Their relationship is partly rivalry, part friendship, part comrades, and part siblings. They met while holding similar ambitions for different reasons and has the same sense of alienation from the other members of the crew. As a result, their relationship is ridiculously tight and one of equals. The formation of the romantic aspect of the relationship took a number of years (with neither of them even realizing it was happening), lol. It is easily one of the deepest relationships I've seen in a VN story, though it is actually typical of Higashide (the writer) who likes to create powerful relationships between his true heroines and his protagonist. Edit: I recommended this one because the Shiranui/Shizuku dynamic is one of the very few 'relationships of equals' that I've seen in VNs in general. For better or worse, most JVNs portray romantic relationships where one side is dominant for one reason or another.
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Before I lock this topic (since I can't see it bringing anything but troll wars if someone less polite than our average member joins up), I'm going to give you my thoughts. Indoctrination (a better word, since brainwashing is a tool used in a closed environment with no outside influences) is both real and omnipresent... everywhere. Any nation that lasts more than fifty years indoctrinates its people with a narrative that forms the center of their political thought process. Whether it is school curriculum, religious sermons, or a 'traditional upbringing', they all fall under this banner. The problem with the US attitude and the Chinese attitude both, is that both fundamentally assume their way is superior. I'm not saying this as a stereotyping of individuals but rather a cultural drive driven by socialization and education. There are always individuals who buck the trends and trained attitudes of their culture, so automatically assuming every person from a country or raised in a country will share exactly the same values is a specious argument. I have a strong preference for traditional American political values (a belief in democracy, free speech, and sanctity of the checks and balances of government), but I don't blindly assume our way is superior just because it works for us. Indeed, the recent election and the events following a certain orange-faced hairless monkey returning to office prove that a significant proportion of my own fellow Americans don't believe in those values anymore, and our political education system, the very indoctrination that supports our country's stability, is no longer functional. While a part of me is incredulous people would prefer China over a Western country, that is the part of me that grew up in a time we believed (key word, believed) was simpler. In reality, I had the opportunity to study enough perspectives on Chinese history to see some of the reasons why China is stable and even why that nation and its people have made the choices they have as a whole. America's history of colonialism and its aftermath differs drastically from that of China, so we don't have a common perspective on what we want from our governments. It is only natural that prejudice and slanted viewpoints would take over when generalizing about one another.
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Dating Sims – Uncovering The VN Hybrid
Clephas commented on Pallas_Raven's blog entry in Towards The End Sky
The Japanese dating sim genre hit is height back in the late 1990's and early 2000's, before vanishing almost entirely with the advent of modern visual novels. In most ancient dating sims, you would spend time polishing yourself (studying, working out, etc) on some turns while doing part-time jobs to earn money for presents and conversing with heroines (often repeating the same set of questions and interactions over and over) on a regular basis until you could get their affections high enough they were willing to go on a date. Depending on your choices during the date, you would get closer to an actual relationship, which was the end goal of most dating sims (since most of them weren't h-games). Dating sim elements were leftover in most SOL VNs during the mid and late 2000's, but by 2010, most dating sim elements (even hidden ones such as affection points) were completely eliminated from modern visual novels. As a side-note, references to dating sims persist in anime and manga long after the Japanese version of the genre died, and they made a comeback with Persona 3-5's social links system. -
Hitoribocchi no Isekai Kouryaku- The original LN/WN series is basically Haruka being an unreliable narrator. Those monologues he does in his head throughout the anime? That's what the LN reads like. As such, this is a rare case where the anime is significantly better than the original material, which was mostly a comedic presentation in Haruka's words of the horrible things that were happening to him and his class as a result of being isekai'd (though Haruka was having the time of his life, for the most part). One thing that is overlooked in the anime is that Haruka is flat-out a genius, an eccentric one but still a genius. His fiddling with the usage of his skills and stretching their meaning is classic top-level litrpg behavior, lol. Yarinaoshi Reijou- Basically a romance trying to hide as action and political drama. Despite the concealment tactics, the romance is pretty adorable. Sayounara Ryuusei- Needs a second season, but the presentation of the main character is excellent. However, the presentation of the setting is meh at best. Tsuihou Sareta Chiyu Jutsushi- I disagree with kvan about this one... the character development is generally rushed and poorly-done in an effort to force the story to the conclusion of the first arc in twelve episodes. The story itself is not that good and the action presentation is third-rate at best. Maou-sama Retry R- I'm mostly mentioning this one so that I can point out the differences from the first season. First, normal animation quality goes down somewhat, and the style is drastically different (to the point where Kunai and a few other characters are barely recognizable). On the other hand, the action animation is about as high as it gets in a low-budget anime, and the presentation of the last four episodes is downright godly. It's just sad that the drastic changes probably put off a lot of the fans of the silliness of the first season and its character designs.
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Pallas_Raven reacted to a comment on a blog entry: Death End Request 2 Review – Glitching Our Way Into True Fear
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Silvz reacted to a post in a topic: how to remove softdenchi
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Talking about JVNs. As far as I know, the in-english games aren't being treated this way, but then, I either buy or don't bother with English versions, so it isn't relevant to me. Not all cracks are infected, but the percentage is high enough that isn't worth the risk to use them, even if you just want to unlock a game that runs too heavily because of the drm (another issue softdenchi causes, as I once saw it using half a gig of RAM). I had to reformat one of my PCs after cracking a few games I bought off of DMM three years ago, because the bitcoin miners included in the package were occupying most of my RAM and my graphics card's capacity.
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You can't, if you are buying from them. The companies who put the games on DMM wanted the drm, so those who buy the games have to live with it. I agree that softdenchi is way too intrusive for a drm though, and I had to stop it from sending random data packets to its servers even when I wasn't playing the games it was supposedly protecting. Easily my least-favorite drm. Pretty sure it doubles as a spyware corporation. That's the primary reason I never buy anything from DMM anymore... I went back to buying physical only for games only hosted on DMM. Edit: Also, I don't advise you resort to using cracks, as most of the cracks for visual novels produced today are made by the same few groups of Chinese hackers who tack malware onto them. Don't be surprised if your identity gets stolen or you end up having to completely reformat your computer to get rid of bitcoin miners.
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Death End Request 2 Review – Glitching Our Way Into True Fear
Clephas commented on Pallas_Raven's blog entry in Towards The End Sky
This game fixes most of the quality of life issues the original game had, while creating an interesting atmosphere typical of Japanese horror. The death ends weren't as abrupt as in the original game, as Pallas says. They are pretty telegraphed, and by the end, I was mechanically saving right before key points and seeing the dead ends before moving on to the main story. I disagree primarily with the assessment of the rpg system, but that is because I honestly see nothing wrong with 'classic' rpg combat systems in general. I'm generally playing jrpgs while I'm half-asleep after work, so I don't want to be troubled by things like real-time battles or complex gimmicks that aren't really a 'quality of life' improvement for an old-style solo gamer like me. To my mind, the turn-based battle system was perfected with Grandia II, and I think all jrpgs should use it, lol. As a visual novel, sadly, I've read many, many better ones, even ones in the same genre. Which is kinda sad, considering that Compile Heart put more money into the game than any five of those VNs combined (with the possible exception of Minori, who was horrible about managing their funding, or Key who always blew money on mini-games and silly animations with their later games). Edit: One thing I should note is that, as visual novels and visual novel hybrids became more ubiquitous, telegraphing bad ends became more and more common, even in the horror and mystery genres. Back with Tsukihime, the bad endings (really just dead endings) were not predictable to any significant degree (the original Tsukihime of course), and most of the visual novels made from 2000-2012 used some variation of a koukando (love point/affection point) system to determine which heroine route and which ending you ended up with, if they weren't using a strict 'choose your own adventure' format. It is very rare to find a mystery or horror VN made before JVNs began to decline five years ago and after 2015 that wasn't fairly obvious about which choices led to dead ends or bad endings if you were paying attention. The major reason most people end up using walkthroughs for VNs is because it takes way too much time and effort to figure it out on your own, compared to rpgs with multiple endings and the like. Sometimes, VN-makers like to create triggers for bad endings or 'normal' endings in the weirdest places, even going so far as to erase affection point gains simply because you selected the wrong choice in a joke scene (real story). -
[Studio Frisay] Ushinawareta Mirai o Motomete Translation Project
Clephas replied to Tooko's topic in Translation Projects
Real life or burn-out, most likely. -
Rahman N reacted to a post in a topic: Need Slice of life Romcom Visual Novel and Moege recommendations (Translated)
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Shigure Sora from Devils Devel Concept comes to mind. He is devoid of conventional morals though he keeps his word once given and fulfills obligations he has made. He is absolutely brutal to his enemies and lacks the natural 'brakes' people usually have. Yurikago Yori Tenshi Made's protagonist is also inhuman and utterly ruthless when dealing with enemies. However, his personality is a weird mix of unleashed id and mechanical bloodlust with specific conditions that set him off. The characters in the VN are all broken to some degree, with Ritia being the most overtly gone (completely insane). It probably isn't precisely what you are looking for though. Technically Zephyr from Silverio Vendetta could be considered an evil protagonist, as his personality is complete trash. He seems pretty dopey most of the time, but he is pretty much a conglomeration of all the things wrong with humankind in general, lol. Oddly, this doesn't bother you when you read the story, but he is still trash, hahaha. Edit: Added a few. Nemurenu Hitsuji to Kodoku na Ookami- Basically a hitman protagonist with perpetual insomnia ends up with a psychotic girlfriend with endless bloodlust. Ouju no Shima- Didn't actually play it, but by the way a friend described it, it matches your desires. Maggot Baits- Honestly I can't outright recommend it, but the entire story is about extreme moral corruption. If there was a non-ero version (since almost all the ero scenes are also guro/torture scenes) I could recommend it, but as it is, I can only say that it is probably what you want. Someone else would have recced it eventually. Muramasa- The protagonist doesn't start out evil, but depending on the path, he falls to evil. Paradise Lost- Masada's first real success. There are no 'good guys' in this story, simply due to the nature of the world it is based in. The protagonist himself is a prime example of evil, as are the enemies he fights.
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Anime of the Year 2024-III Summer - Make Heroine ga Oosugiru!
Clephas commented on kivandopulus's blog entry in Anime of the Season
Alya-san- This season's cute rom-com anime. Edit: Basically an anime about an overly serious half-Russian heroine quietly proclaiming her love in various ways in Russian for the protagonist while he pretends he doesn't understand. It has serious moments and a rival heroine (his sister), but the romantic comedy is the focus, for the most part. Wistoria- A surprise in that it was good despite being a tropey magic school fantasy. Presentation was excellent. Edit: What is most notable is the action scenes, the way the characters' emotions and presented and bared during the battles and the quality of the action itself. Setting-wise, it is pretty generic and relies excessively on people knowing the tropes, though. Isekai Shikkaku- Excellent parody of isekai anime in general. Protagonist is hilarious. Basically, Dazai (the suicide and alienation obsessed author from the early twentieth century who was the basis for one of the main characters of Bungou Stray Dogs) tries to commit double suicide with his girlfriend, but instead gets hit by a truck that appears out of nowhere and appears on a summoning circle. Instead of receiving a cheat skill like everyone else, he is still the same physically weak, drug-addicted author he was before, but all that is bothering him was that his double-suicide failed. His nihilistic speech as he departs the church of summoning draws the elf priestess who explained things to him (who has horrible taste in men, incidentally) to follow him, only to find he has already managed to attract the intention of a lively cat-girl warrior (who also has horrible taste in men). Despite being a satyrical series, it has a number of really good serious and emotional moments, and Dazai's passion for his calling in life somehow leads to good results. Hazurewaku- The novel is awesome, and the anime does a good job of portraying the relatively early parts of the series. Edit: A vengeance-driven protagonist with a slightly sociopathic personality (and a high intelligence to accompany it) uses his unblockable affliction skills to kill his way through everything that stands against him on his way to destroying the goddess who forced him to cast aside his facade as a 'good boy' that he created for the sake of the aunt and uncle who raised him after his crap parents ruined him. He ends up accompanied by an overly sexy high elf knight, a former gladiator, and her adopted dark elf sister. Ore wa Subete wo Parry Suru- Kanchigai fantasy anime. While it was funny to watch at first, it kind of feels excessive in retrospect. Honestly, while the production values are high, the story is really absurd in retrospect and it really isn't as funny the second time as it was the first. Basically an anime you can watch once and enjoy but is impossible to rewatch. Shinmai Ossan Boukensha- Another surprisingly good anime. Protagonist and his teacher's interactions are hilarious. Basically the protagonist sets out to become an adventurer after he hits his thirties and ends up being trained by a bunch of psychotic S-rank adventurers, who drag him up to their level kicking and screaming. The story begins after the training is over and he has already been rebuilt better than before and his common sense completely ruined. A lot of this series' attraction is the comedy, as the action is really one-sided for the most part. Maougun Saikyou no Majutsushi- A human child is raised by a demon lord of the undead and poses as a lich while doing his best to temper the demon side's bad habits and ensure they win the war with humanity. Just like the novels, the anime is pretty good, and the story is already concluded, so it has the advantage of not needing a sequel, lol. Isekai Yururi Kikou- A good soft homey story with an isekai'd guy essentially raising two children while playing at being an adventurer. Honestly, if you don't want heartwarming isekai parenting, this is not the anime for you. It is even more niche than most isekai are. -
Pallas_Raven reacted to a comment on a blog entry: The Skip Button – An Anatomy of Visual Novels
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The Skip Button – An Anatomy of Visual Novels
Clephas commented on Pallas_Raven's blog entry in Towards The End Sky
It isn't really an issue if you can read a VN quickly enough, but I can see how the skip function might be an engrossment-breaking tool for the majority of people, who can't read a line a second, lol. -
Anime of the Year 2024-II Spring - Karasu wa Aruji wo Erabanai
Clephas commented on kivandopulus's blog entry in Anime of the Season
Umm... Kvan's assessment of this season is pretty off the mark, so you might as well ignore him (since he probably only watched one episode or none of most of the series he gave a 5 rating). Kimetsu no Yaiba: Hashira Geiko-hen- Basically a leadup to the final arcs of the series, the sheer drama of the last episode alone would have been worthy of a 9, not to mention the incredible animation quality, with huge attention paid to every detail and every scene timed perfectly. Dainanaoji- The black horse of this season, an anime that was immensely fun to watch, despite me initially dropping it due to the animation style. The protagonist was a commoner in his previous life, lacking talent for sorcery, but he was obsessed with sorcery to the point of madness, and he managed to make something of himself to a point, before he was essentially murdered by an aristocrat that didn't like an uppity commoner studying magic. He is then reincarnated as the seventh prince and younger brother of his best friend from his previous life, in a body with immense magical talent. Of course, he uses this as an excuse to study sorcery to his heart's content, while dealing with his obsessive maid/bodyguard and his overbearingly affectionate older brother. Lots of amusing combat scenes (I say amusing because Lloyd's attitude makes it so, with some of them being badass as well). Lv2 Kara Cheat- A merchant boy from another world gets transported to another isekai, whereupon he is rejected and exiled by those who summoned him for being low-leveled and without skills. However, he manages to level by accident soon after his exile, gaining access to all magic and becoming infinitely powerful... only to settle down and start a slow life, with his adoring demon-wolf girlfriend (eventually wife), a group of female adventurers, and with occasional visits from members of the demon army. Generally it is a comedy sol more than anything else, though there are some nice brutal slapdowns when people cross certain lines. The opening song alone is worth watching a few times for laughs. Madome- Basically a cute romance fantasy where the protagonist impulsively buys a high elf slave at an estate sale for another sorcerer when he falls for her at first sight. His inability to express his emotions toward her and her devoted service to him as a maid make for lots of romantic cuteness for those who like that kind of thing. Oh, and there is also action scenes and some dark aspects, as well, lol. Re:Monster- Evil-natured protagonist gets reincarnated as a goblin and goes all devouring and evolving monster power fantasy without the sol of Slime. Generally enjoyable to watch once, but not really worth re-watching most of the episodes, sadly. Tensei Kizoku, Kantei Skill de Nariagaru- Basically a 'warring states reincarnation fantasy' where the protagonist is reborn into a crumbling empire in an isekai to a loving set of parents of a minor noble family, with the ability to see others' talents and abilities. His essentially good nature and desire to do the best for his people results in him earning a following. This series is more watchable if you watch it with the second season, as the first season is mostly setup and companion-gathering. The New Gate- My guilty pleasure of the season, a relatively low-quality (animation-wise) series about a guy who was in an SAO-like situation getting transported into the game world's future instead of going back, whereupon he gets to see the results of the NPCs gaining self-awareness and creating their own history. It has some seriously good emotional moments and a few good action scenes (for average quality anime), but the company animating it obviously put most of the budget into Schmee's character design, so the combat animations are lacking sometimes. Kami wa Game ni Ueteiru- Basically a world where people can compete in gods' games for the fight to make a wish of the gods. The protagonist is a serious talent who gets teamed up with a crazy former goddess. A decent watch at best, if you like puzzles. Dekisoko- Probably the only series I agree with Kvan about. Basically trash, low-quality anime. Story-wise it has good aspects, but it is told poorly and the animation quality was lacking to bring the story to life. Code Geass- Easily the worst and most nonsensical Code Geass sequel/side-story I've ever seen. Pretty much just a money grab. I loved the original series, and I liked Boukoku no Akito a great deal. However, this one felt pretty trashy, quality-wise. Given that the Geass takes different forms based on the individual, someone ending up with a near-carbon copy of Lelouch's Geass was a ridiculous idea, and the antagonist stretched the limits of suspension of disbelief, even for an anime, especially given that... I also don't like that they used the movie canon rather than the original series canon, lol. Generally speaking, this season was one of the best in recent years, even if the only real stand-outs were Karasu (given general critical acclaim, since I didn't watch it), Dainanaoji and Kimetsu No Yaiba in absolute terms. It is more like the average-quality of its middle of the road series was much higher than usual, as I usually drop at least two-thirds of the series I watch halfway through the season, whereas I finished almost everything I started this time. -
Scarlet Kaleidoscope Review - Top 10 Best Rated Visual Novels Translated in 2024
Clephas commented on littleshogun's blog entry in Pretty Cure on Fuwanovel
1) Aoi Tori- I only put this one above Karenai Sekai because its production values are significantly better and individual characterization is slightly better. As nakige with utsuge elements go, this is one of the top five of all time. It shows off the mix of Purple Soft's specialties, in creating a grim and solemn atmosphere, massively erotic H-scenes, tear-jerking storytelling, and powerfully-impactful characters who burn themselves into your memory. I also was surprised to see this in any way put below Mashiro-Iro Symphony as it is a generic sol game. 2) Karenai Sekai to Owaru Hana- Easily one of the best tear-jerker VNs ever made. The tragic cost of the heroines' continued existence and the protagonist's willingness to sacrifice for them are the topmost reasons to like this as a tear-jerker. However, the lack of a distinctive path for each of the heroines makes it fall below Aoi Tori overall. 3) Hatsuyuki Sakura- Mostly a sop to Saga Planets Golden Age. While the setting is internally inconsistent and the heroine paths are of massively varying quality, it is still a memorable game for me. 4) Irotoridori no Sekai- Favorite's fourth-best work, after Sakura, Moyu; Hoshizora no Memoria; and its sequel Irotoridori no Hikari. Still, it was nice to see the localization actually appear. 5) Gin'Iro Haruka- This company consistently produces the same game with different characters, yet manages to do it well despite that. This game's high point is the massive scale of the heroine paths, which no other company ever did for an SOL game. If you invested emotionally in one of the heroines, her path almost definitely satisfied, something most SOL games fail at massively. 6-10) More or less the same. -
masster_auron reacted to a post in a topic: The Visual Novel Database ; VNDB.org is a misinformation website
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masster_auron reacted to a post in a topic: The Visual Novel Database ; VNDB.org is a misinformation website
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masster_auron reacted to a post in a topic: The Visual Novel Database ; VNDB.org is a misinformation website
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Silvz reacted to a post in a topic: The Visual Novel Database ; VNDB.org is a misinformation website
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The Visual Novel Database ; VNDB.org is a misinformation website
Clephas replied to Somebody's topic in Visual Novel Talk
Thread locked because it doesn't look like any kind of constructive conversation is going to come out of it. Please do not replicate or continue this thread elsewhere.