Scars Unseen

In keeping with the retro theme, I'll put in the only redeeming factor of Final Fantasy Mystic Quest: its awesome music. Sadly, this was my introduction to the Final Fantasy series and JRPGs in general. Happily, my second game was FF6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOTI8j1egZg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYSFNiX9Dk0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdWzayqvpWA

Well I finally found a solution(of sorts). No matter what I do, the monitor stretches things across the full screen, and even though NVidia Control Panel has a settings section specifically devoted to telling your PC how to display 4:3 ratio on a widescreen, VNs apparently aren't game enough for NVidia to do anything about them. So I set my resolution to 720P, changed my background to a plain black field, and set my taskbar to auto-hide. It isn't quite fullscreen, but the image is bigger and the distractions are mostly gone. There. Now off to play Fate/Stay Night.

*shrug* I don't always want serious. And while I do enjoy some pure comedy and pure drama, I also enjoy works that mix the two, especially in the manner that Grisaia and similar VNs do. That is, that Grisaia starts out almost pure comedy and ends almost pure drama. You are focusing on Michiru because she's the most extreme example of the VN, but all of the heroines start out as comedic characters of some sort or another. It isn't until further on that they show their serious side, same as Michiru. Some show a bit more seriousness outside of their respective routes than others, most notably Yumiko and Amane(at least in Makina's route), but otherwise they all serve to contribute to the comedic skits of the VN until it comes time to focus on one character and her problems.

The thing is that even such characters at that can have their moments. Sunohara forces Tomoya's relationship issues into his(Tomoya's) awareness in Kyou's route. Jay and Silent Bob point out the obvious truth to Dante near the end of Clerks. And of course you are well aware of the reason that Michiru is the way she is.

Well to be fair, Rin's biggest problems are caused by Hisao's involvement, so she probably turns out alright(for Rin) too. Emi though... Well it's only high school Her problems were never that major to begin with.

Ha! Yeah, I remember Grisaia making me feel bad for not choosing a previously played route, which was bad because I played them in the order their forks showed up in the common route. Which means that by the time I got to Yumiko's route I had to knowingly leave all the other girls to their depressing fates. In retrospect I should have done them in reverse order to avoid that. A nice break from that problem was the difference between Hanako's and Lily's routes in Katawa Shoujo. I played Hanako's first, and when I got to Lily's it was quite gratifying to see that Hanako turns out just fine without you.

Still trying to decide between F/SN and Umineko myself. I was going to start F/SN last night, but I got annoyed that I can't go fullscreen without stretching the images horribly. I'm trying to figure out a solution to that now. Just changing the resolution doesn't work because my monitor stretches out the screen regardless of what aspect ratio I pick...

That scene is pretty much the beginning of her route, if that helps any. As for me, I liked Michiru because of the contrast between how she acts and who she is once you get to know her. I don't think I would have liked here nearly as much without both sides of her being presented. Common Route Michiru would be pointless without Heroine Route Michiru, but Heroine Route Michiru would be boring without Common Route Michiru's antics.

That was the exact thought I had when I saw that. Given the scene that follows it, I just assumed it was aftereffects of the drugs. Then a bit later they start talking about it, and I was like "wait, you mean that actually happened‽" Since I'm taking a break from Clannad, I was thinking of picking up either Fate/Stay Night or Umineko.

*pulls phone out his pocket* "He knows."

I left a comment on the video before I realized that the video was nearly 2 years old...

According to Wikipedia, Trigun began airing two days before Cowboy Bebop.

Based on the deer suplex video, I decided to check out Nichijou. Looks like the sort of humor I go for.

I can't agree with that, though I would say that it's fairly pointless unless used to drum up interest in a new series that continues the story. The Golden Age arc isn't bad, but it's hardly the best part of the series, and I'd love to see the rest of it animated.

For me it's probably Galaxy Express 999, followed shortly by Mobile Suit Gundam. I don't really get the debate about older vs newer anime. I mean, maybe I could see it being an issue of resolution, but I would pit the action/animation of Zeta Gundam against just about any other mecha series. Newer series might do things a bit differently, but I don't think I could claim they did them better. I could also see people not liking certain art styles, but I don't think that's really a time issue.

Hmm... I'm not sure I entirely agree with this.

Well there's Berserk. I can kind of understand why no one seems to want to animate the whole manga though. Miura Kentarou seems to be in a competition with George RR Martin to see who can take the longest to complete their series(and he's currently winning).

Okay. Finished Ryou and Kyou's routes. Ryou's wasn't really anything special, but Kyou's route finally has me a bit more interested in the VN. I still wouldn't rate it above most other VNs I've played, but the drama wasn't half bad this time. Turns out that, in addition to what I posted on the previous page, the big difference that made me enjoy Kyou's route above the others is that -for once- Tomoya actually gave a damn about something. This is the first time that there was any real inner conflict in the protagonist's thoughts. In all the previous routes, he pretty much just went with the flow, not seeming to really care that much about anything at all(which I guess is the difficulty in using a delinquent as the protagonist). I hope that this trend continues. On the other hand, I may take a bit of a break and play something else for a while. I've now gone through 5 routes(though I'm not sure if I can really count Ryou and Kyou as separate), but it seems I'm not even half way through. I may start doing routes between other stuff, but -at least for now- I think I'm done trying to push through them one after another.

I still haven't watched the School Days anime. The VN was plenty entertaining. Even if I did hate everyone in it.

My big one would be Rurouni Kenshin. I really want to see the Jinchu arc properly animated(not that piece of butchery called Reflection). Otherwise, Muv-Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse would be a candidate(give it to a more competent studio). Really, just about any anime that strays too far from the source material would do.

It's not. Like a visual novel, TWD(haven't played the other one) is an interactive fiction, but it's probably closer to old adventure games like Shadowgate than it is to VNs. I see it as something of a sliding scale, as some VNs have more gameplay elements than others, but TWD is missing that vital "novel" part of the equation.

I'm not sure I'd say it falls flat(I found it's execution quite satisfying), but it certainly is predictable if you'd been paying any attention to the VN. Unless of course you're talking about the ending. I didn't really expect that, but while it wasn't the ending I hoped for, it did get me interested in Altered Fable, which I didn't think I would be.

Since you seemed not to enjoy the first joke, I'll not use you as my guiding light as to when a joke has gone on too long. As for whether a sentence makes sense or not... sentences make sense even if you can't make sense of their contents. Anyway, enough of all that. I didn't mean for this to be a thing. I'll get back to the topic at hand. Making my way through Ryou's route in Clannad. I'm beginning to see what my problem with the VN is. With other VNs I've read, you spend a lot of time with most of the main cast, and when they do focus on a single heroine, it usually starts getting fairly serious(even if there is still a lot of humor present). Clannad, at least in the 4 routes I've played so far(including the one I'm on now) doesn't do that. The only person you consistently interact with is Sunohara, and the VN has done a pretty good job of ensuring that I don't care much about what happens to him at all(after all, the protagonist is the one instigating most of his troubles). But even though routes seem to focus mostly on just that route's heroine, the tone doesn't change much. Everything seems fairly light and humorous until the very end, and by then what tone shift does occur is too little, to late. I'm just not that invested in characters that I've had little interaction with spaced out between segments of sessions of "Sunohara: the butt-monkey." I get some good laughs, but the drama falls flat because I just don't care what happens to anyone I've met in the VN yet. It's the same reason that Steins;Gate is so much more effective as a VN than as an anime. The anime isn't bad at all, but it cuts out so much of the interaction that all of the emotion I felt for anyone other than Kurisu was a carryover from playing the VN. That's what Clannad feels like to me: a story that forgot to let me get to know the characters before telling me I should care about what's going on.

In terms of roughness, that's about a 100 grit translation. Let's break this down. Of course now I've gone and explained the joke, which is a cardinal sin. How will I ever talk my way out of this one?