Clephas

To be quite frank, there isn't one really. If there is a difference between chuuni as many see it and your average epic, it is that chuuni has a habit of transforming someone who might possibly be the reader into a hero, whereas epic stories idolize heroes to the point where they become something more than the humans their stories might or might not be based off of. The essential nature of both is the same, but they are colored by the times they were written in. If you want an example of early Japanese chuunibyou portrayed in anime, check out the protagonist's female friend in 12 Kingdoms. Edit: She is pretty much the poster child for modern chuunibyou, as it is understood now. That insecurity I was talking about in a previous post tends to reach a critical point in early to mid puberty where the boundaries of what is real and what is not have a tendency to blur, which causes chuunibyou as it is understood in Japan.

I'm pretty sure some people will be offended by this statement, and at the same time, it is an expression of my own cynicism toward human nature in general. So, if you don't want to be pissed off, don't read what is in the spoiler box.

Games that don't have any basic character development scenes are fairly boring, as well. If you don't get to know the characters at all, even the best story idea will frequently fall flat.

We all have our little pet peeves. In fact, our taste in anything is generally framed at least a little bit by our pet peeves. For an otaku, the more jaded you become, the more your pet peeves bother you if you don't make an effort to repress them. So, what are your pet peeves, and how does it effect what you prefer to play? My VN pet peeves are: Plot inconsistency in story-focused VNs Hetare protagonists Multiple main protagonists the entertainment industry (as a game focus, though I can usually stand an idol heroine, if it is just one of them) weak-willed, submissive, foolish female protagonists (DID {damsel in distress} Syndrome) Protagonists with no redeeming value (a protagonist who is completely and utterly average or below average, with no particularly admirable traits or stand-out capabilities) G-Senjou no Maou's path structure Meaningless sub-heroine routes nukige well-designed but poorly utilized settings (someone went through the effort to make an incredibly detailed setting... but the story doesn't do anything with that setting) How these effect my enjoyment... generally speaking, they simply decrease my enjoyment of the game in general (though a few, like hetare protagonists and the meaningless sub-heroine routes are game-killers for me). I've played enough VNs that I've learned to suppress my pet peeves until the game is over, in most cases. Generally speaking, I don't have high enough expectations of the average moege to go insane with hate over it touching on my pet peeves. However, if it is in a game I had expectations for... watch me explode.

Because it was only near the end that everything went to shit. I kept hoping that the game would redeem itself, but it failed utterly to do so. It is one thing to stop when the game starts out awful, but when it is near the end, you might as well finish it. I hoped the ending would redeem the overall story for me... but even that failed miserably.

There are tons of kusoge out there, but the worst experience I ever had with a VN wasn't a kusoge. I have a lot of pet peeves, mostly born of having read so many books, played so many games, and watched so much anime that my tastes have if anything become more solidly defined than most otaku. My worst experience was Aiyoku no Eustia. Looking at that game from an objective perspective, I realize that the writing was above-average and the main story was cohesive and well-designed... However, it hit all the wrong buttons for me. First, it used G-senjou's story structure, which turns every heroine besides the main into a sub-heroine and gives you half-assed spin-off paths for them. Making it worse was that the very existence of those paths made no sense within the greater context of the setting and story once you'd played the true path. Third, Eustia has to be the least interesting, most annoying main heroine I've ever run across in a story-focused VN. I honestly couldn't find any redeeming value in her as a heroine, which made the fact that she was the true heroine a thousand times worse for me. Finally, the finishing blow was the way the protagonist suddenly went hetare (becoming indecisive, self-pitying, and whiney) for a long section of the last part of the true path. Considering that he was the opposite of that throughout the rest of the story, it destroyed what connection to the story I had left completely, leaving me feeling disgusted with the story as a whole. The biggest problem was the inconsistencies that plagued that game's story, which would have been forgivable if it were a moege, nakige, a charage, or even the lighter story-focused. However, Eustia presented itself as a serious, solid story-focused from the beginning, so when all those blatant inconsistencies began to pop up, I gradually found my distaste for the game rising, until it exploded after I completed the game. I erased it from my hard drive and broke the disc in a fit of anger... I haven't been that pissed at a game in over six years. The point is, I can overlook minor inconsistencies as a mild irritation, but in a serious story, major inconsistencies are unforgivable, at least for me.

Medieval fantasy vns tend to either be rape-fests, gameplay-fests, or rather pathetic... I mostly despise Eustia because it is another example of August completely wasting the potential of an interesting cast of characters and a setting. It would have been forgivable if it had been a kinetic novel, straight to the true ending. However, it included side-paths that were completely inconsistent with the general situation that world is in. It was blindingly obvious, at least to me, that they were tacked on after the main story was written for the sake of h-scenes. The best swords and sorcery fantasy VN without gameplay I've run across is Tiny Dungeon (the whole series), and it is about one half comedy.

Avoid Aiyoku no Eustia. It uses G-senjou's route format, the side-heroine paths are even weaker (they make no sense in the context of the true route), the protagonist goes hetare near the end of the true route, and the main heroine is incredibly weak, pathetic, and annoying. This is the most overrated fantasy vn I've ever seen, at least partly because some people insist on recommending it to everyone.

Having played both of the Grisaia sequels, I seriously warn you that even if the second gets a translation patch, wait for the third before you play it. The main route is a serious cliffhanger that will have you throwing things at your computer if you play it before that.

Bad ends like that aren't always terrible. I'm particularly fond of Raziel's bad end in Tokyo Babel. I hadn't realized I was on the bad end path, until I actually got to it. It was fairly horrifying, but it was also well-written, to the point where it was obvious they put real effort into it for the sake of the reader, rather than it being a half-assed bad end where you suddenly die for an unknown reason.

Umm... I was just describing learning ALL languages. While the syntax and basic grammar of Japanese is dramatically different from Western languages, the basic methodology for learning it if it isn't your first language. The only real difference is the presence of kanji, which is an example of a symbolic writing system, which aren't used for most Western languages. Edit: In addition, there is no such thing as a 'casual' way to learn Japanese. There is formal study and individual learning. The former has you sit in a classroom, the latter has you work on it without the crutch of fellow students and a teacher. You either learn and master the language or you don't. Edit2: Also, I remarked that my method was the harder one and isn't really to be recommended. It takes more effort, more energy, and it takes longer. If I had continued to sit in a classroom past those two semesters in high school, I would have picked up the language much faster (though my approach to understanding it would have been different, and I most likely wouldn't have succeeded in reaching the point where I can think naturally in Japanese). I was fortunate, in that my teacher prioritized forcing us to learn grammar first, thus giving me the basis I needed to understand a great deal more later.

Here are January's candidates for Clephas' VN of the Month. I will post again when I get my hands on the first out of this group. http://vndb.org/v12609 http://vndb.org/v13342 http://vndb.org/v12562 http://vndb.org/v13224 http://vndb.org/v12830 http://vndb.org/v13717

Bradyon Veda... that is on my list of games as a potential candidate for January's VN of the Month. Because it is in my favorite genre, I'll put down comments on it, but I won't make it VN of the Month unless there is nothing that matches it in another genre (it is hard to impossible to make an unbiased comment on my favorite genre, so I've decided to compromise that way).

Cool. Incidentally, look forward to Kagome's and Hisoka's routes, as they are the best of the group. Mayuki's is a bit lighter than the other main heroines' routes, and Ayaya's is a joke/side route. Kagome's route is the true route, and it reveals pretty much all the most important secrets of the setting.

Without grammar as a framework, it is impossible to learn a language (edit: in a reasonable amount of time). With most languages, you pick up the ands ifs and buts of the language first, along with basics like hello, no, I, you, and the like. You then move on to making small sentences, along with learning simple vocab in a concentrated area (like food, shops, clothing, etc) before expanding into more complex grammar. If you don't know the sentence structure a language uses, for instance, you can't comprehend just what the mass of words in a sentence mean. Kanji is basically a shortcut for understanding individual words, since it is a symbolic rather than a phonetic written language, but without the grammar, it is like having a bunch of puzzle pieces with no reference points as to how to put them together.

I learned grammar and a limited vocab first... then I filled in the vocab watching anime and studying on my own... I didn't learn any kanji until after I'd started playing VNs in Japanese, lol. By then, I had a complete knowledge of the vocab, grammar, and linguistics of Japanese... so playing with jparser was a piece of cake (I knew how Japanese syllables worked, so I was able to figure out correct romaji for times when it was obviously incorrect through linguistic reverse-engineering, lol) However, the other way, learning in a balanced manner, makes a lot more sense. tbh, my way is really roundabout and as a result, I can think in, speak fluently, and understand spoken Japanese completely, but I'm more iffy on kanji than someone who learned it all in the traditional manner. I can only recognize at a glance about a thousand kanji, and the rest take time and sometimes a dictionary to figure out. On the other hand, if I have the correct pronunciation available, I never miss, so my way might work for some people...

Ayakashibito is definitely something to look forward to, for you all who are condemned to the fate of playing only translated games. I would also suggest that you look forward to Comyu's completion, whenever the project hiatus ends. For me, I'm looking forward to: http://vndb.org/v12609 http://vndb.org/v12455 http://vndb.org/v14069 http://vndb.org/v13108 There are others, but these are the ones that come to mind.

This is a HUGE spoiler: Also, all h-scenes in this game are automatic. There are no secret ones.

I'm generally not a fan of manga/anime to VN transformations. Most anime and manga's VN versions are third-rate or outright terrible.

When I have the energy to revive it. Probably this Saturday, since that is the next time where I don't have anything scheduled, lol.

One thing to recommend for checking out non-nukige doujin VNs is that occasionally you come across a truly superior writer who just has no interest whatsoever in being bound by industry standards. Here are a few examples of that... http://vndb.org/v3068 http://vndb.org/v2537 http://vndb.org/v1813 None of these had voices, but all three were great or at least good. Nonetheless, such games seem to be the exception to the rule, unfortunately. I've played a few doujin moege and charage... and they were universally horrible. It was basically like reading something by Feng without the voices and with crappier art... a pure nightmare.

Some games do suffer, others don't, when they don't have voices. Abyss Homicide Club didn't suffer from a lack of VA, and neither did Tsukihime... but that is because their stories and writing were exceptional enough they didn't need voices to help push them along. The idea of playing ANY moege without voices... makes me want to shudder in horror. Those games cover up for so much with character voice and tone...

I'll repeat my recommendation of the Secret Game series from above, but I'll also recommend Harumade Kururu (this game is a serious mindfuck, though its beginning doesn't show it) and Natsukumo Yururu (same company). Most utsuge don't quite make it onto the mindfuck train, because confusion often takes away from the emotions they are trying to induce. For utsuge, I'll recommend Konata yori Kanata Made again, as well as Boku ga Tenshi ni Natta Wake (this one has some mindfuck, though it is relatively minor). Konakana is an emotional hammer, but Tenshi is significantly darker, because of the hidden aspects that are only revealed near the endings.

It is true the protag generally has the highest number of lines. However, the 'personality-less protag' that is common to old jrpgs and FPS games in general is a tool that has increasingly served to weaken the plots of the games it is used in. This flawed perception that the protag should either have a 2D personality or be a cipher for the player's own psyche is deleterious to story-telling in general. If anything, the protagonist should have the strongest and most overwhelming personality in the game, because he/she is inevitably the center of events, or at least the eyes through which you are supposed to be viewing the world. His personality, views, and way of thinking should all influence the way you see the world of the game, and it is the duty of the player to get behind the eyes of someone who is completely different from themselves and has a distinct personality, rather than a cardboard cut-out that has no reason to exist but to provide a pair of goggles for you to mechanically view the world through. Sorry, vented a little. I absolutely loathe the trope of the 'average guy' protag in VNs. It is so overused that I'm starting to get to the point where just having an average, everyday guy for a protag is enough to give me a bad impression of a game's story. Basically, my complaint is that most people have something they at least do moderately well in, and the idea of a completely average person providing protagonist material is fundamentally ridiculous, as your average person would probably never get into the situations you see in VNs. This makes the believability of the story (already frequently weak in the first place) vanish completely. The 'everyone loves the protag' trope, in particular, is something that makes absolutely no sense with most of these protags, though there are exceptions. Unless it is a chuuni game, I won't ask for the protag to be a genius or excel above and beyond all those around him... but at least let him be capable in one or more areas or have some qualities that are worthy of admiration. Edit: Sorry, to come back to my point, the game that converted me to the 'voiced protag' point of view was Evolimit, one of my two all-time favorite VNs (will never fall from the list). The way Shiranui's voice-acting served to enhance the story in general, both the humorous and emotional aspects, made me realize that voice-acting does not in any way serve to weaken the player's connection with the protagonist. If anything, it can bring the protagonist to life in the same way it brings other characters to life. As for the money aspect... nothing to be done for that. If the makers aren't willing to invest the time and money, that is their decision. However, 'protagonist immersion' isn't a legitimate reason.

Cthulu Mythos falls into the fantasy arena, so that is where Demonbane is, despite the mechs. If you start putting everything with mechs in it into sci-fi, all sorts of things that have no business being labeled sci-fi will end up there. You'd have to put Jingai Makyou and Muramasa there as well. Neither belongs in the sci-fi arena, for similar reasons. Planetarian... forgot about that one. It was one of the first VNs I played, but it got buried under everything else. As for Galaxy Angel, I couldn't get into that game, overall. The series as a whole never held much of an attraction for me. This is a list of 'great' sci-fi VNs, so while Planetarian probably qualifies, Galaxy Angel doesn't, at least in my opinion.