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Mr Poltroon

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Posts posted by Mr Poltroon

    What are you playing?

    in Visual Novel Talk

    Posted

    49 minutes ago, Seraphim88 said:

    Yup, I've done them all! And yeah, her route was definitely the worst. I didn't find it bad it per se, but it paled in comparison to the other ones.

      Hide contents

    It's mainly because I didn't enjoy the minigame, but the entire route also seemed kinda pointless due to it having no connection to the rest of the game (unless you count when Kyousuke mentions darkness executives during the unknown lifeform part of the common route).
    The Idiot Riki sub-route was pretty funny though, with the rambling about convenience stores and whatnot!

     

    You misunderstand me.

    Spoiler

    It's not for being good or being bad. It's for being... so sad (see, it rhymes!).

    She's dying. There's nothing to be done. The final moments she will ever experience are these. But in the end, it's not her space. (I'd call you heartless for calling it pointless, but that's the very point. You need to get attached to her or there really is no point.)

     

    What are you playing?

    in Visual Novel Talk

    Posted

    2 hours ago, Seraphim88 said:

     

      Reveal hidden contents

    On one hand, I'm a sucker for happy endings and I'm glad that everyone made it through safely, but on the other hand, I feel like the impact would have been much bigger and more memorable if it turned out that Kyousuke couldn't be saved no matter what you do. It felt a bit too convenient how every single person was saved, more or less turning a traumatic event that the entire story was revolving around into a passing thought.

     

    You played Little Busters! English Edition, right? If so, have you played the three routes outside the main cast?

    If so,

    Spoiler

    Screw Saya's route! Argh!

     

    What Video Games Are You Playing Right Now?

    in Gaming Talk

    Posted

    So, about 18 hours into Xenoblade Chronicles 2. (Can you guess where I am? You have until the end of the next sentence to find out, so stop reading here if you need to think.)

    I've just started Chapter 4, I think? I'm in the save screen after a boss fight. Though I like the characters and all that, I am somewhat bothered by how much this game was lauded. I've invested considerable time, and I feel it doesn't quite give me as much as I'd like in return. I'll now talk a bit about the game and the boss I juts fought:

    Spoiler

    I am overall intrigued with Pyra's past. Clearly some things have gone on in the past, and though she doesn't feel particularly comfortable sharing, it's not like she's actively trying to hide things too much. Rex knows not to pester people about their past if they don't feel like sharing at the moment. This is fine. We'll find out in due time.

    The places feel like they're scaled in a way that they could be actual cities and villages! That's the first time I've seen in a game towns that seemed to be scaled appropriately to contain all the citizens in them. It's amazing! I love it! So large.

    In line with that, exploration is kind of fun, but I guess I dislike grinding and all the little fights on the way from place to place. That's why I'll stop doing side-quests for the most part for now. There's time to do that when I become under-levelled or post-game.

    I also like the characters in the main cast outside of Varnham. I like their interactions and the comedic moments too.

    What bothers me a bit more is just the way the plot progresses. It feels like a shounen anime, and that's... that's pretty bad for somebody such as myself.
    So there's this team of big bad guys that's following us, and they surely have the power to destroy us (as far as we know), but every time they attack us understaffed and we beat them and they're just like "I wasn't being serious lol" aside from a couple of instances we ran away.
    The boss fight right at the end of Chapter 3 rubbed me the wrong way to a sufficient extent that I came here to vent: It starts with two of the baddies joining up (Surely that's enough. The rest of the bad guy team is out grocery shopping). We grind away their health for five minutes and we transition into a cutscene that basically goes "We spent the last five minutes fighting just for sport. NOW we will activate our ability that'll completely stop you guys." which they do and it works. Big guy Varnham is finished running away with the hostage the bad guys didn't actually give a darn about (fine) and returns to kick arse with his sheer experience. He does a bit of that, but ultimately no miracles. So Rex does what he does best and disregards all good sense and his allies in order to charge and get kicked in the face (I'm generally fine with Rex-type good guys, but I hate this particular aspect of charging fruitlessly at stronger opponents -- which he has only done every single time he's fighting someone stronger). It's at this point that the shounen power-up occurs, and here comes super-powered Pyra that's not Pyra any more. For once the bad guys seem seriously outmatched, they bugger off, Pyra returns and passes out. Apparently being fine whilst fighting means nothing for after the fact. But never-mind passing out, Varnham is dead because he was one-vs-one'd by Malos whilst Ahkos was eating popcorn or something instead of taking the opportunity with all the good guys on the ground -- he needed to wait for Pyra's power-up before doing anything more, of course. With Varnham dead, it's time to grieve (except I feel nothing for the character, but that's just me).

    I suppose this is all fine, especially since the bad guys' objective might not necessarily be to kill all the good guys, which is why they've consistently failed to do so even though it's clear they could if they actually tried and the plot allowed it.

     

    The questions will now be "Why did Pyra transform?" "Who was that?" "Why only now and not the other 5 times?" "Can't you just stay that way every time we need to fight big badies?". Maybe most of these will actually have proper answers, but I fear for anime BS-ery like "We only use the biggest move at the end, or there'd be no stakes!".

    Anyway, bothered by the game so far. I'd like to continue, because I've heard nothing but good things, but for the amount of time I've invested, this seems like terrible time:enjoyment ratio to me.

    My Fair Princess/Kimihime and Choose Your Mistress/Shitsuaru will unfortunately now have mosaics

    in Visual Novel Talk

    Posted · Edited by Mr Poltroon

    11 minutes ago, ChaosRaven said:

    Hmm, sounds more like a cheap excuse to avoid censoring trouble with Japanese authorities. I actually happen to have an art book from PeasSoft with all the game art including H-scenes and pretty much all of it is without mosaics. The sinful places are instead covered by little black bars which are so tiny, that they cover almost nothing and should be easily restored. But I guess they also 'lost' the sources for that as well and all phyiscal copies too.

    I could lend them mine if they want though... :makina:

    Promising one thing and then taking it back does sound like a brilliant marketing strategy. Coming up with excuses after promising something is way better than using the excuse right away.

    Edit: Cutting the sass, it really just doesn't make sense for them to announce it wouldn't have mosaics if they didn't intend to do so.

    Unlimited Chat Works - Random Talk

    in The Coliseum of Chatter

    Posted

    I am sad that the New Game!! anime has been soured for me.

    I quite liked the first one, but unfortunately the second season focused on drama to the extent that I liked it far less than the initial season. Add to that the fact that it was doing its best to appear gay without committing to anything and I was indeed a fair bit disappointed.

    This alone was fine and all. But over time the way the characters were used as fanservice-y (especially Hifumi) just became too much for me. I don't get why, because even things which previously seemed fine to me, such as the season 2 OP, seemed so focused on making the girls seem cute that it killed it for me. The reason my perception changed over time was probably seeing fan/official art floating about a lot of the time.

    Hahh... I wish I were less sensitive. I liked it so much, too.

    Sol Press Shop is now live. Yotsunoha is now available and there's limited Onikiss merchandise.

    in Visual Novel Talk

    Posted

    4 minutes ago, Dergonu said:

    New customers finding this store, perhaps through the manga and light novels, won't know what "this is the all-ages version" means. The idea of patches being needed to play the full game is probably alien to them. They will probably get more "mainstream" customers specifically because Sol Press is a more "mainstream" company.

    I think you severely overestimate how much cross-over there is between eroge and the rest of the anime stuff such as manga and light novels. If you're not coming from H-Manga, 18+ VNs is a huge jump to make (even for those used to normal porn). There's a whole bloody lot of stereotyping, and they're not even wrong most of the time (tentacle vore, anyone?).

    That said, I do agree with you on there being better indicators that the games can be patched, if at all possible. (But I agree with @adamstan too, so :P)

    Summer 2019 Anime Discussion

    in Anime/Manga Talk

    Posted

    On 12/07/2019 at 9:28 AM, Clephas said:

    Maou-sama, Retry- My go-to show for this season... I laughed repeatedly for the first two episodes, and I love the VA and character design choices for Kunai and Aku.

    I went and watched this based on this recommendation. I was... surprised? The impression you gave me was that it'd be quite funny, but it wasn't really that. It was more like it was consistently amusing, and the main character has immense potential to be interesting. I agree on the VA and character design, though.

    Edit: The mum anime -- I was going to watch it due to how they did the eyes (I'm one of the few who prefers cartoon eyes to anime eyes), as they're a bit closer to cartoonish, but it turned out to have a few other interesting things. First, Satomi Arai voices a character, which can only mean greatness. Secondly, the mum does seem to have some mum characteristics, such as taking a bag (presumably full of stuff to take care of her child), not really understanding most of the terminology, and being devastated at the possibility of not being liked by her son.

    Blogs, articles, videos about editing (VN and otherwise)?

    in Creative Corner

    Posted

    10 hours ago, Plk_Lesiak said:

    Well, I was expecting to hear that from you, so it's something I'm definitely taking into consideration. :> I'm aware that it'd be a longshot, or a questionable choice even. On the other hand, I've seen native speakers with literature degrees doing really shotty jobs at editing EVNs, judging by the final products. JVNs... Well, the worst cases often don't have an editor at all, but we all know how it looks in practice. Even despite my relentless impostor syndrome, I have a feeling this would not be completely hopeless. :D

    I have nothing to offer that can help, but I do have a couple of opinions on this topic.

    Whilst I ordinarily would add to the pile of 'don't become an editor if you aren't a native',  for this particular field that are Visual Novels, I have to say: Go for it.
    There are so many good stories in Western VNs and even some fan translations that are simply unbearable due to how they use and misuse English. If your efforts end up alleviating these cases even a little, I'd say they were worthwhile. Maybe to some 'making crap a bit less crappy' doesn't sound like a goal, but I assure you, as part of the casual plebs that consume anything and everything without caring about the original material or anything like that, just that little bit of improvement makes a huge difference.

    All that said, dON't Do tHis tO yOUrSeLF.

    AX 2019 Schedule and Announcements

    in Visual Novel Talk

    Posted · Edited by Mr Poltroon
    Can't math

    Well, announcements are announced, so let's see how they look... The order in which they appear more or less reflects my interest in them.

    Excited:

    Spoiler

     

    Rance 01 - Gahahaha! I know everyone's been taking these for granted, but not I. Finally I'll get to see the origin of some relevant characters myself. I'm also very interested in this silly gameplay theme they've constructed. Finally, young Rance. I'll get to see the young Rance from the current canon! I think it'll showcase well how he's changed compared to later titles. (The description in the OP says 24 years ago, but it's its 30th anniversary this year! Exactly 6 days from now, according to VNDB.)

    Funbag Fantasy Sideboob Story 2 - What can I say? These stories are really good! Have you watched 'The Irresponsible Captain Tylor'? Because that's what this series feels like. Also it has H-Scenes, but... They really ought to be a bit more romantic sometimes. I feel a harem as it appears would be so much better if they didn't treat it as a competition :(

    Rance 02 - This one actually had a fantranslation, so I played it. Since it uses the same systems as the original game from over 25 years ago, it means it's clunky and convoluted to progress through (which, let's be honest, Rance games kind of tend to be) and doesn't have much plot. At first I thought my interest would be reduced because of that (there really isn't much here worth replaying for -- not even for a good translation), but I later found out (more like was reminded) that the fantranslation is for the original game using the new assets. In reality, a semi-unofficial patch referred to as 'Kai' exists that rewrites the script, meaning the story and dialogue actually changes a fair bit (I'm not sure if it's just added stuff or if it completely alters it -- I'm not even sure if it's much longer than Rance II or if it's about the same). Currently, Mangagamer has plans to localise that, so... worth playing again!

    Eiyuu*Senki GOLD - Nice! Gameplay VNs. I liked Eiyuu*Senki (even despite not getting to the ending bit, which is apparently where some sort of twist occurs?), so this should be good! People say the gameplay is better on this one, so that'll be good (even though I prefer easier gameplay).

    The Ditzy Demons are in Love with Me Fan Disc - I am unreasonably excited for a title that's a fandisc for another I didn't play. My excitement for this one comes from the excitement for the original... that I didn't play. But they all look so cute, and the chibi art looks great, and I do love me some sex comedy! I need to go play the original.

    Robotic;Notes - My excitement for this title is solely due to liking Steins;Gate. That is literally it. Hopefully it's as fun as Steins;Gate.

     

    Interested:

    Spoiler

     

    Mamono Musume - I love monster girls, and since this series seems to be consensual stuff, all the better! I'll need to play the Lamia one to set my expectations, but I'll probably love this.

    Yamizome Revenger - Escude stuff! Has simple gameplay as well, I think. That's good. I really liked Re;Lord, so I'll be playing this for sure. Just... Are we completely evil for the sake of being evil or is there some other reason for the plot to be what it looks to be?
    Also, where's the Re;Lord sequels, Sekai :'(

    Robotic;Notes Dash - The positive opinion about the original spreads to this one. If it turns out I don't like the original, this'll be dropped like a hot potato.

    Hyper→Highspeed→Genius - Looks interesting! However, 10 heroines? How long is this game? Will you just give me 10 minutes of romance with each and and H-Scene and be done with it? That's not acceptable! (The single H-Scene is, but what about the romance!?) I've got to hope it has space for everyone.

    Witch's Garden - This had a fan translation going, but I guess it died, or they went to Sol Press. At any rate, it was exciting... back in 2013. Still, the premise does looks interesting, and I particularly like the character design of Eclair, so I'll see about playing it.

    Victory Project - This seemed interesting! I'll get used to the Chinese voices (wait, does it have voices?) and see if it really is interesting. There's very little information about it...

    Cafe Enchante - What's this? Demons and otherworldly love interests? This sounds like my kind of thing. I just need to see more of the art before completely deciding...

    Amatsutsumi - This one seems interesting enough. I loved Chrono Clock, but I'm under the impression that that was mostly due to the translation... And since everybody hated it, I'm not sure I can have similar hopes for this one in that respect. I'll just have to see if the setting really is interesting and if I can enjoy it through that.

    The Seventh Sign -Mr. Sister- - Hm. More cute moege with catgirl inclinations. I must admit I've never actually played anything of Sekai's catgirl releases. Surprising. At least I should try Karakara, but it feels like it might be an incomplete story. Anyway, this one has an interesting setting and I saw a passionate CG in there. Surely I might enjoy it?

    Vikki Hornee: The World's Horniest Housewife - I know this was an April Fools game and that the trailer was bonkers, but nothing else. I wonder what sort of stuff it has? She's a wife so that earns her points, but...

    Eternal Torment - My interest in this title lies solely on what story it tries to tell. I'm a sucker for stories that cover longevity, so whether this one belongs here or jumps straight into 'Won't Play' really just depends on if this is a story of hope with a good ending or if it's just mindless brutality for the heck of it.

     

    Indifferent:

    Spoiler

     

    Muv-Luv Photonflowers* - Blast it all, I wanted Photonmelodies♮, not this one! I'm looking for the VN content of Altered Fable, you see. More SoL shenanigans. The other Muv-Luv stories are a bit too depressing and/or hopeless for me to usually handle... Though I might be convinced by the presence of Ayamine messing about. As for Photonflowers? I will at most get it for Sumika's after story, but even then, I haven't heard particularly good things. I'll have to see.

    Happiness! 2 Sakura Celebration - I know sod all about this title. I don't even know of screenshots, so I can't have much of an opinion.

    Piofiore - Hm. Mafia and the like. I lack details to form a concrete opinion, but I'd probably play it if I got a copy. The protagonist looks cute, but damsel-in-distress-y? That's not all bad, depending on her personality, but if all she does in the story is lament her fate...

    Kanojo no Seiiki - I see. This appears to be a title in a series of nukiges in the exact same setting with the same characters. I wonder if that's a way to make a full game cheaper or less risky by dividing it into parts, or if each individual part is a full fledged nukige with a single(?) love interest. In the case of the latter, I might be interested.

    Collar x Malice -Unlimited- - I was, unfortunately unable to play the original due to being stuck on consoles I didn't own (did it have something on phones??). This has been fixed, but that's not what I'm rating here. Because I know nothing of the original (The setting seems kind of hardcore. Bloody otome games...), I can't say yet whether I'll have any interest on this one.

    Love's Sweet Garnish 2 - When I saw the first title, it really seemed like a random doujin work that just knocked at Sekai's door and they said 'Alright, whatever', so it surprises me to see the sequel. I'm especially surprised at how I'm not interested in it. It just feels generic to no end, but that's really not something I can claim until I see the characters interact.

    9 -Nine- - So... is this the last one or will there continue to be more? Despite this seeming like it has some mysteries and the like, I'm honestly not interested in starting episodic VNs. I have enough things to play that actually have endings as of this moment.

    tJapan's Titles - The artstyle seems to be 3D models, which gives it a rather amateurish look, and that's practically everything I can judge it off. The premises occasionally look interesting, so maybe as more details are made known I'll become interested.

     

    Won't Play:

    Spoiler

    NG - Horror game. HAHAHA

     

    Now, let's do a counter for each publisher to see who had the most interesting stuff for me.

    Spoiler

     

    From 'excited' to 'won't play' I'll distribute points as +2,+1,0,-1 (The minus one doesn't really mean I feel negatively towards it or anything. It's just to represent that it could've been something else that'd interest me instead [even though that's not how getting licenses works] -- 'Indifferent' means I might become interested depending on reviews and the like, whereas 'Won't Play' will never have that occur bar a miracle).

    Jast: 2+1+1 = 4
    Sekai Project/Denpasoft: 0+2+0+1+1+0+1+0+0+0+0= 5
    Askys Games: 0+1+0-1 = 0
    Mangagamer: 1+2+2+2 = 7
    Sol Press: 1+1+0+1 = 3
    Spike Chunsoft: 2+1 = 3

    Well, I guess the big three got me the most excited. In Mangagamer's case (1st place), I am literally their entire audience right now. As long as they continue bringing Rance, Moege, and Yuri I'll be there to eat it up. Sekai Project (2nd place) brings so much stuff in terms of quantity that they're bound to have some interesting titles. As for Jast (3rd place), they like their monster girls and gameplay titles, so they have my full attention.
    Even if I did the rankings just by number of titles I'm interested in without taking into account points, the ranking would stay the same (because in a tie, the more interesting ones win), so :wafuu:

    Now let's do a ratio for number of total announcements VS ones that interest me.

    28 announcements, where 18 of which interest me. 18/28*100 = 64% of the announcements interest me. That's a majority!

    Now let's try to make a ranking based on my interest in the titles announced. If every title were ones I wouldn't play, then the total amount would be -28 points. And if all were indifferent, then we'd have 0 points. If all were interesting we'd have 28, and if all were exciting we'd have 56. Therefore, we get the following ranking:
    <=0 - TERRIBLE (Nothing interested me outright or there were tons of titles I'll never play)
    <14 - BAD (Less than half the announcements interested me, or only very few were exciting with all else bad)
    <28 - GOOD (Almost all the announcements interested me, or there were some exciting ones)
    <42 - VERY GOOD (There were a lot of exciting announcements, and no really bad ones)
    <=56 - WHAT IS THIS HOLY MIRACLE GIFT FROM THE GODS AHHH (Everything was super exciting this is impossible! Like, literally. There aren't enough VNs out there that'd get me hyped enough to get this many points.)

    The total amount of points this con netted was 22, so by this ranking it was a GOOD convention overall. Way to go! (Keep in mind that to get into the last two categories I'd need to be super hyped about most announcements. I can't even think of enough titles I'd love for me to reach that point.) Yay!

     

    So yeah, this was a good round of announcements! Good thing I'm part of the casual pleb audience that actually makes these publishers some monies.
    If you didn't like this convention then... sucks to be you!

    AX 2019 Schedule and Announcements

    in Visual Novel Talk

    Posted

    1 hour ago, Kosakyun said:

    Praise the Lord for more Rance announcements! I don't mind waiting (as long as it doesn't reach Sumaga levels of waiting), so news like this always excite me! Can't believe we'd be at this point where most of the titles have translations. Arunaru and Maria really were the saviors!

    ...Might give Funbag Fantasy a try, just because the artist commented on how it could be the next Rance or something. It better be that good, because my only experience prior to reading the visual novels related to it is its H-OVA. :makina:

    All the other announcements, I'll read someday... When I get a stable source of income....

    Funbag Fantasy's surprisingly good. I can see the ways it's similar to Rance, mostly the ridiculousness of how the plot progresses (for the first game, it only starts really being that way halfway through, on the true(?) route).

    Yeah. There's four Rance games officially translated now. Here's to getting one a year (starting this year) hopefully...

    Eiyuu*Senki Gold Translation Project

    in Archives

    Posted

    10 hours ago, Mannaroh said:

    Nah man probably because they did the tl for the base game and now want that sweet sweet retrain cash-money.

    Eiyuu*Senki GOLD is a different game from Eiyuu Senki. When they announced the latter, everyone kept asking them for the former (because it has better game mechanics), so that's probably why they announced it. The story's completely different (and apparently better in the one they released), so the work they'll have to do is far more than last time (where some other company had already done the all-ages translation).

    35 minutes ago, Plz said:

    Does koihime has an english ver ?? i try a lot but haven't seen the eng ver anywhere

    Yes. Koihime Musou. Search for it on Mangagamer.

    What are you playing?

    in Visual Novel Talk

    Posted

    17 minutes ago, Seraphim88 said:

    While we're on the subject of Little Busters, does anyone know if there's some way to instantly switch between languages in-game? (I'm playing the English Edition on Steam.)
    It feels like being able to switch back and forth could be good for my Japanese reading practice, but it's a bit annoying and roundabout having to enter the game menu and then "Config" every time I want to do it.

    Press L.

    What are you playing?

    in Visual Novel Talk

    Posted

    50 minutes ago, Seraphim88 said:

    After today, I have three weeks off from work and have decided that this will be the perfect time to finally start reading Little Busters. I've been putting it off for a long time after I randomly stumbled across what I assume is a major spoiler, which I've been hoping I'd forget about eventually. Sadly, I've been unable to do so, so I figure there's no reason to wait any longer.

    Could you reveal, in spoilers, what the spoiler was? Mostly just to satisfy my curiosity. I will give no reply either way.

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