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Mr Poltroon

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  1. Like
    Mr Poltroon reacted to solidbatman in Gnosia: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Amogus   
    A friend last year recommended the VN Gnosia to me. I, being who I am, resisted for a while. VNs had hurt me. They had abused me. Pancaked my love for storytelling. But then, I saw the artwork for Gnosia and said "Screw it, letsago." 

    I grabbed it for the Switch and went to town playing it. It is the perfect type of VN to play in short bursts. For me, that meant before bed usually for 20-30 minutes a night. For those that don't know, Gnosia is a social deduction VN that plays out a bit more like Town of Salem than it does Among Us. For starters, the game's story is told in loops. You wake up at the start of a loop on a spaceship, assigned a role. The ship AI has detected a Gnosia may be on board. These parasitic aliens seek to infect each crew member and make it to a space port to continue spreading as far as they can. The goal of those not infected to to find the Gnosia and put them into cold sleep where they can spread no more.

    Each character is assigned a role on each loop. Some may be engineers that can find out who the Gnosia is each night. There may be a doctor who can discover the identity of anyone put into cold sleep. Those with Guard Duty are those who never left the ship and therefore cannot be Gnosia. AC Followers worship Gnosia and do everything they can to help them. Then, anywhere from 1-4 characters can be Gnosia. They can lie, cheat, and steal their way to survival in order to either put every crew member into cold sleep, or kill each person. They can select one person each night to kill.

    The main bulk of the gameplay is made up by debates, where characters discuss and vote on who they must put into cold sleep. Engineers and doctors share their reports, though Gnosia and AC Followers can like about their role to muddy and confuse the debate, or convince others that the true engineers or doctors are in fact Gnosia. Each character has stats that dictates how they will act during debates. One character, for example, who hates lying and is super perceptive, may be able to immediately tell when someone is lying, but has low charisma and as result, struggles to convince others of the truth.  You yourself also have stats that go up against other characters stats to see how convincing you are, or how trustworthy.

    The story is told in between the debates, as you can visit parts of the ship to talk to characters. Under certain conditions, you may get character events that shed more light on their character and their story. As you are only one of two people aware of the looping, you must discover as much information as you can to find a way out of the loop. For me, this took about 130 loops. Later in the game, you will be able to alter the starting conditions to better set up the conditions needed to trigger character events. And the game will auto-set them for you to nearly guarantee the character events as well if you so choose. 

    The game is addicting, pretty to look at, and the story quite engaging. It is the type of game better suited towards short bursts rather than hours long sessions as the loops can feel repetitive as you try to trigger events. As each loop normally only takes 5-10 minutes, playing for 30-40 minutes at a time can net a solid 3-6 loops which I think is a solid amount for a single sitting. 

    To sum up my thoughts, allow me to simply state, Setsu masterrace please play gnosia do it for setsu 

    thoughts?

     
     
  2. Like
    Mr Poltroon reacted to Angela DeMille in Penlight [16+] [BxG] [Free / Donate] (Latest Release: September 14th 2024)   
    Hiiii, everyone!
    Well, I finally did it. I crafted an ending for the Reversal story path! The version presented here is a little unpolished but still, there IS an ending! I hope it brings people some measure of satisfaction and that's it's been somewhat worth the wait ^^;
    As usual, you can find this month's release in PC, Linux, Mac and Android versions on my Patreon, itch.io or SubscribeStar pages. I've also linked the most recent flowchart guide on the latest public news post on Patreon.
    Next month, we'll have some finishing touches added to Reversal and then I'll be getting started on another, probably Hiroko-focused story path, so I hope to see you again with news of that real soon. In the meantime, please enjoy the new release!
    What's New

    WRITING: Fully scripted Nozomi's Reversal storyline up to a tentative conclusion ART: One new CG for Sayori's Doll storyline ART: Three new CGs for Nozomi's Reversal storyline GUI: Slightly reduced the black outline on the in-game text Word count is now around 356,000 LOCALIZATION: Various edits and corrections to the existing Spanish script Minor typo corrections
  3. Sad
    Mr Poltroon reacted to ChaosRaven in The newest Otome game announcements: Otomate Party 2022   
    So, like usual, they release nothing on PC? 
  4. Like
    Mr Poltroon got a reaction from Plk_Lesiak in What Anime are you watching now?   
    Funny, I had the same experience of starting with Index, giving up, and switching to Railgun which I've actually finished a season of.
    I enjoyed it, but I've got a vendetta against anime teasing ships that won't ever develop -- or at least in a timely manner -- so I've never really felt like continuing it.
  5. Like
    Mr Poltroon reacted to Plk_Lesiak in What Anime are you watching now?   
    We had a small covid outbreak in our company, so while I likely didn't catch it, I had a little repeat of lockdown experience, with nearly everyone switching to remote work... So, obviously, I binged some anime in free time.
    Already mentioned King's Game, but God damn it, what a mess that was. Quite likely the worst anime I've seen narratively speaking, constantly switching storylines, spoiling itself to the viewers and just being so inept in building tension and emotional engagement that it's barely believable. Every time I thought it was going to do something interesting, like with the rare non-lethal punishments in the death game, it immediately destroyed that potential in most stupid ways. A genuine 1/10, despite production quality not being that awful.
    With more interesting stuff, Akebi's Sailor Uniform is quite a unique slice-of-life series. Set in an all-girls middle school, it has this vividly yuri aesthetic despite not having any romantic elements. Very detailed stylization with more feminine than moe vibes... Narratively though, it's pure saccharine with the protagonist being this unstoppable ray of sunshine pulling the best out of everyone around her. Deeply pleasant to watch, but probably not for everyone... Also, I think the mangaka has a foot fetish, which leads to some weird closeups in what is otherwise a very clean show. 😛 8/10
    Also, isekais! Caught up on the slime isekai which I stopped watching after the first season. I give both seasons and all the spinoffs and OVAs a collective 7,5/10. It's quite consistent in being this slower-paced, non-evil Overlord – a lot of interesting worldbuilding and extreme power levels, but skewing towards fantasy slice-of-life and general wholesomeness... Until you have to wipe out an army or two to protect your kingdom. For power fantasy, it's really pretty solid and nuanced, showing how protagonist's peaceful nature leads to both great results and grave mistakes, even if he can mostly repair the damage afterwards.
    Than I've tried to relax with some humour and checked out Asobi Asobae... What a bonkers show. The opening is a pure trolling of yuri fans, diving 100% into the aesthetic even up to the flower symbolism, and what follows is just glorious absurdist comedy that completely demolishes the moe facade. I didn't love it as much as some poeple seem to do, but the pacing and creativity of the gags was consistently good. Solid 8/10.
    And now a bit of a curveball... I decided to get into A Certain Scientific Railgun and I low-key adore this show. I forced myself through the first two arcs (9 episodes) of Index to get some grasp of that side of the story and setting, but I'll be definitely staying away from it. It just feels like every stale, over-dramatic shounen show out there and nothing I read about it makes me feel it would get any better after the opening I've experienced.
    Railgun though I really enjoyed, also for the reasons some people criticise it. The way it intertwines slice-of-life with action, slowly building towards major arcs with smaller events and clues in seemingly unrelated scenes... It's actually pretty damn good. It's not a typical or even that consistent of a structure, but so far I haven't seen any real "filler" that I'd dislike, or episodes I felt did nothing for the characters. It's even hard to fully describe the way the show mixes its themes – it's a bit of moe, a bit of slice-of-life, a bit of buddy cop story, a bit of superpowers shounen... But most of the time, it just works. Also, Mikoto is a really fun female lead – incredibly powerful, but also inexperienced and hotheaded enough to put herself in vulnerable position on a regular basis. The worldbuilding isn't amazing, and constant yuri baiting is a bit meh (although it's not just comedy, the bonds between the girls are deep and very relevant for the story), but I find the overall writing and vibes of the story deeply enjoyable. Kind of a nice flower that grew out of a pile of shit... Hopefully, there are no Index fans around. '^^
  6. Love
    Mr Poltroon reacted to HatchWashere in Monster Girl Content Megabundle! "Season of Monster Girls"!   
    We've teamed up with creators Silumansoft and Azurezero to release a bundle full of juicy monster girl content! It's 18 different IPs available for a ridiculously affordable price, so check it out if it strikes your fancy.

    https://itch.io/b/1538/season-of-monster-girls-mega-bundle
  7. Like
    Mr Poltroon reacted to Arcadeotic in Bishoujo Mangekyou -Katsute Shoujo Datta Kimi e-   
    https://arcadeotic.wixsite.com/euphemictl/single-post/for-real-this-time-biman2-5-in-the-future-and-bishoujo-mangekyou-4-maiden-s-crime-and-punishment
    TLDR: Biman2.5 will be translated by another TL group, the game will be a collab, I am the TLC and some remnants of our team are joining in. Nothing else will be mentioned until release unless we deem it as necessary collectively and progress will start soon. My next project(finally) will be Biman4.
    Thanks for reading and you can join my Discord if you wanna follow biman4 progress or just chat about 2.5:https://discord.gg/gqbgGEE
    Biman4 thread: 
     
  8. Like
    Mr Poltroon reacted to EricMatyas in Building a Free Library of Images for Everyone   
    Greetings Fellow Creatives,

    For those of you who use my music tracks, please don't forget about my Ogg music packs. Each pack contains all of my tracks to date from my most popular genres:

    Fantasy Music - Over 261 Tracks
    Sci-Fi Music - Over 260  Tracks
    Funny / Quirky / Weird Music - Over 200 Tracks
    Puzzle Music - Over 130 Tracks
    Chiptunes Music - Over 100 Tracks
    Action Music - Over 80 Tracks
    Looping Music - Over 60 Tracks
    Dark/Ominous Music - Over 50 Tracks
    Horror/Surreal Music - Over 50 Tracks

    The packs are contained in Zip folders so you can quickly download everything at once.

    You can access them from my music pages, or from here:

    https://soundimage.org/ogg-music-packs-2/

    That said, this week's new free images are on these pages on my site:

    TXR - METAL - ARTISTIC - Tile-able

    TXR - STONE - ARTISTIC - Tile-able

    You can access them, as well as around 5000 other free images, from here:

    https://soundimage.org/images-home-page/

    Enjoy, stay safe and keep creating!  🙂
  9. Like
    Mr Poltroon reacted to Chifuyu-chan in Nursery Rhyme Translation Project   
    Insertion is 100% done but we are still in the process of testing everything. We had some crashes here and there due to bad word wrapping and insertion.
  10. Like
    Mr Poltroon reacted to Aureus in Roadwarden [Fantasy/RPG Elements/Pixel Art] [Full Version Released!]   
    Only a few weeks left! Roadwarden will be available on Steam on September 8th! 
     



     
  11. Like
    Mr Poltroon reacted to solidbatman in What Video Games Are You Playing Right Now?   
    got tired of Tecmo's Deception so now I'm fiddling around with Valkyria Chronicles 3. 
  12. Sad
    Mr Poltroon reacted to HataVNI in Steam has banned Chaos;Head NoAH from their store, unbans the game after successful community-driven campaigning   
    This morning the visual novel community was hit with a shock when they first noticed that the elusive Chaos;Head NoAH which fans have been waiting years for has been banned by Steam in an act of immaculate inconsistency. The news got known, because people started to notice that the assets and data were leaked onto the steamDB site. There has been no statements made by Valve as to why the game needed to be banned, but it can be assumed that it is a combination of blood & gore and occasional flashy/horny scenes that Valve in combination with school uniforms might deem as abusive to children. 

    Unfortunately, one can only speculate and refer back to familiar cases where the same problems arose when trying to get this game on their storefront. The kicker this is that Steam banned a game rated PEGI16 and the Nintendo Switch allows it to be sold as well as distributed in stores

    This feels like a bad joke, honestly.
  13. Like
    Mr Poltroon reacted to fuyopon in Maggot Baits   
    VNDB | Get it on MangaGamer!
    Summary
    Kantou, Pandemonium—
    Formerly known as Kajou City, a central metropolis of the Kantou region, it was transformed overnight into a demonic city where the supernatural runs rampant after it was linked to the swirling power of chaos from the Abyss several years ago.
    When immortal, unidentified beings called “Witches” began to appear, the government responded by quarantining the metropolitan area, and ceding the land from their sovereign borders.
    Though old Kajou City became a ghost town for a time, criminals, illegal immigrants, and defaulting debtors who couldn’t make a living in this corrupt world sought refuge in the city, followed by an influx of prostitutes, black market dealers, and yakuza seeking to take advantage of them.
    After growing to a population of 150,000 over several years, the curtain rises on this tale when a certain man encounters a lone “Witch” here in this unrecognized free city known as Pandemonium.
    The wheel of destiny begins to turn for one man and the “Witches”, here in this dangerous, evil city beyond the reach of law.
    Ending Guideline / Suggested Route Order
    There are three endings: a bad end, a normal end and a true end. The bad and normal end are possible in the first playthrough; the true ending is only unlocked on your second playthrough. To save you some time, I have included save points.
    Walkthrough
    Bad Ending
    "Welcome to the Monkey House"
    Normal Ending
    "Red Harvest"
    True Ending
    "Ashes and Diamonds"
    Attribution
    Summary taken from MangaGamer's store page.
    If there is anything wrong, let me know!
  14. Like
    Mr Poltroon reacted to Angela DeMille in Penlight [16+] [BxG] [Free / Donate] (Latest Release: September 14th 2024)   
    Hi, everyone!
    This month sees the long-awaited continuation of Nozomi's Reversal storyline, with its most significant update in about two years! I'm still still a fair ways from finishing it, but we have a new scene scripted plus a little outlining for what comes next. I hope those who've been patiently wanting to see this storyline continued will enjoy what I have laid out, and rest assured you won't be waiting so long for the next meaningful update to this storyline~
    With Reversal not being ready for new artwork I had two new CGs commissioned for Hiroko's original storyline instead, plus one for Nozomi's original story (Trance) as well. Hiroko's new CGs turned out lovely, but the star is the new Nozomi art. The attention to detail really is something ^.^
    Finally, this release includes an update to the text presentation throughout the game. I gave the letters a thicker outline to make them pop a bit more and made the plain background a bit lighter to show off the visuals a bit more. There's also an option to remove the background entirely, which you can access via the preferences menu in-game.
    As usual, you can find this month's release in PC, Linux, Mac and Android versions on my Patreon, itch.io or SubscribeStar pages. I've also linked the most recent flowchart guide on the latest public news post on Patreon.
    And that wraps up another month! Next time, expect to see more progress on the Reversal storyline as I work towards a conclusion at last. See you then~
    What's New

    WRITING: Scripted one new scene for Nozomi's Reversal storyline, and added some new outline for the following scenes ART: Two new CGs for Hiroko's original storyline ART: One new CG for Nozomi's Trance storyline GUI: Added a thicker outline to all in-game screen text and lightened the background for the dialogue window, and added an option to remove it entirely via the preferences menu Word count is now around 351,000 LOCALIZATION: Various edits and corrections to the existing Spanish script Minor typo corrections
  15. Like
    Mr Poltroon reacted to Angela DeMille in Penlight [16+] [BxG] [Free / Donate] (Latest Release: September 14th 2024)   
    Please note: Because of all the changes I made to how CGs are unlocked, returning players will find that many of their previously unlocked CGs will now be locked again. The new cheat function described below can be used to get everything back.
    Hello again!
    This month's release sees Sayori's alternate Doll storyline written to a conclusion, and includes all the planned CGs! As a counterpart to the original story path, I think it does the job quite well but I'm looking forward to getting stuck in to something else now.
    But Doll wasn't the only content I've been working on this month. Nozomi's Zombie storyline gets a new CG, plus the Reversal storyline sees a few little tweaks to the presentation. No new written content there to excited about though, sorry!
    And there's one more thing I've been working on: The addition of a gallery cheat! People have been wanting something like this for a good while, as long time players have occasionally lost their save data or had problems unlocking certain CGs thanks to various little bugs in the gallery code. I've since spent a lot of time completely reworking how CGs are unlocked, which should not only eliminate the bugs but also allowed the creation of this cheat~ To activate it, simply tap/click the lens of Kyou's penlight on the title screen four times to get a prompt to unlock all the CGs.
    As before, you can find this month's release in PC, Linux, Mac and Android versions on my Patreon, itch.io or SubscribeStar pages. I've also linked the most recent flowchart guide on the latest public news post on Patreon.
    Anyway, that's all for another month! Enjoy the new release, and for next time I'm hoping to finally make some progress on that Reversal storyline that's been hanging for... um, close to two years? ^^;  We'll see...
    What's New

    WRITING: Sayori's Doll storyline alternate path ("Prove to her that she wants this") now written to a conclusion WRITING: Minor tweaks made to the existing Reversal storyline script ART: Four new CGs for Sayori's Doll storyline, on the new path ART: New CG for Nozomi's Zombie storyline Word count is now around 348,000 OTHER: Cheat function to unlock all CGs in the gallery has been added LOCALIZATION: Various edits and corrections to the existing Spanish script Minor typo corrections
  16. Like
    Mr Poltroon reacted to Dreamysyu in What Anime are you watching now?   
    Kind of off-topic, but recently I started reading some English-original web-novels, and I really enjoyed this one. I thought that you may like it as well. The MC there is somewhat contradictory: being a demon stuck among people, she does have some pretty unique values, and while she is mostly self-centered with the exception of small set of companions she really cares about, she still ends up helping others a lot. I thought her character and how it changes through the novel was extremely well, done, and that's probably the main reason why I enjoyed this novel. She is also pretty hilarious.
  17. Like
    Mr Poltroon got a reaction from Plk_Lesiak in What Anime are you watching now?   
    I've never watched Elaina, but what I hear generally interests me. That said, without actually watching it I can't tell how I'd take to it or its particular execution.
    The idea of a self-centred but powerful person who doesn't help others if she doesn't need to unless she feels like it appeals to me, but it depends on how its done. Even if the character is written that way unintentionally I could still like or dislike it.
    Still, I watch like one anime show per semester these days, so the point is moot. I won't be watching this any time soon.
  18. Like
    Mr Poltroon got a reaction from Dreamysyu in What Anime are you watching now?   
    I've never watched Elaina, but what I hear generally interests me. That said, without actually watching it I can't tell how I'd take to it or its particular execution.
    The idea of a self-centred but powerful person who doesn't help others if she doesn't need to unless she feels like it appeals to me, but it depends on how its done. Even if the character is written that way unintentionally I could still like or dislike it.
    Still, I watch like one anime show per semester these days, so the point is moot. I won't be watching this any time soon.
  19. Like
    Mr Poltroon reacted to Plk_Lesiak in What Anime are you watching now?   
    I've been watching plain unhealthy amounts of anime lately, both by myself and with my GF... Not all of it worth talking about, but there were a few interesting ones too.
    First, the amusing disasters. Psychic Wars and Dark Cat are two legendarily bad old anime movies and both are hilarious in their own ways. Psychic Wars is a story of a surgeon that becomes magical shinto superman and punches demons. It's also so horribly edited it's barely comprehensible and the fight scenes are so dumb and cliched I nearly died from laughter on a few occasions. Utterly horrible and taking itself so seriously it's histerical. 1/10, highly recommended.
    Dark Cat is a story of two magical shapeshifting brothers fighting demons straight out of Maggot Baits. I'm not even joking, it's an unironic mix of Saturday morning cartoon (the dialogue, the villain and general story setup) and visuals straight out of guro hentai. Also, it was dubbed by a hentai company completely clueless on how to deal with proper anime and the dub is the only version I was able to find online. Quite a glorious combination.
    Also, I think Big Order is absolutely hilarious too. I understand that people watching it expecting anything half decent were extremely upset, but the kitsch postapocalyptic world, stupid edgy protagonist, chaotic storytelling, awful CGI and bonkers fanservice wasting tons of already too-limited runtime are an incredible mix. When it goes to full series anime, I haven't seen anything this comically inept since Hand Shakers, which means Big Order too will hold a very special place in my heart.
    When it goes to more ambivalent stuff, Elaina's Journey was quite a letdown for me... Really weird anime when it goes to tone and pacing. The idea of somewhat aimlessly exploring a vast fantasy world is definitely my jam, but the morals and structure of the story are arguably awful. Elaina is theoretically taught early on that despite her powers as a talented witch she's just one person and it's not her role to save the world... But there's no consistency whatsoever in what she does. She can be passive when all she needed to do is say something (the early episode about a slave is particularly jarring, with Elaina narrating the problem to the audience but not doing anything at all), or get herself in life-or-death situations without much need... It's just bad writing. It's also not the kind of travelling anime that focuses a lot on the episodic stuff and slowly develops the protagonist in subtle ways... It establishes Elaina as this rather obnoxious brat, gives her tons of screentime and doesn't make her grow in any meaningful way. On moment-to-moment basis, the anime isn't exactly awful, but as a whole, it was very meh... 6/10.
    Adachi and Shimamura, the adaptation of one of the most-celebrated yuri LNs... Is pretty solid but also very much hurt by being a single season affair. It establishes the characters quite well, but never gets to the point that could be described as payoff by any reasonable definition – it'd either need to be a 24 episode anime for that, or at least 13 episode one with a movie/long OVA. With the 12 we've got... I kind of understand why it's rated so low. You have Adachi, who is isolated and extremely awkward, which turns her into a walking dumpster fire when she has to confront with her feeling for Shimamura and realization of being gay. The main content of the anime is her suffering through episodes of gay panic, and Shimamura being confused with what's happening. A rather tropy affair, but not something I'd label "unrealistic" or "bad" by any measure.
    Shimamura is maybe the more interesting part of the story, as she is much better adapted than Adachi, but also having her own set of issues. She's a kind of person that lost her way, not being motivated to do much and just going with the flow most of the time. Her social interactions are mostly empty pleasantries, she cannot dedicate herself to her studies, doesn't have meaningful hobbies... When she meets Adachi while they're both skipping classes she doesn't give much thought to the time they spend together. She has a hard time deciphering the ever-increasing attention she's getting from Adachi and her drive to deepen the relationship. It takes a lot of time and minor subplots for her to start noticing that there's something different about their bond and what it could bloom into... But you don't get to see much of that, as the anime just ends.
    Some people complain that the relationship dynamic in this anime is unhealthy, but hell, it's not like people only get together in a well-adjusted and straightforward fashion. The real problem is that the series do not get to the point where they work through their issues. Also, fuck, gay dating must be scary with all the ambiguity and the low chance of your random crush being available, and in an environment like Japan it must be a nightmare. Still, the series has a lot of warmth, hopefulness and excellent attention to detail. I wish there'd be enough of it to give anime viewers closure, but still, I'll give it 8/10.
    Oh, and I finally restarted watching Kaguya-sama, which I paused early in the second season. I easily get burned out on romcoms because unless they are short and close-ended stories, the just never move forward and never give you a resolution. The only way that can be tolerable is if the comedy or writing in general is really that good... And while I still probably needed that break, Kaguya-sama is just excellent enough of a comedy to justify narratively standing still and just having fun. Shame that we'll probably only get a proper conclusion in the upcoming movie and not the season 3 finale (I'm in the middle of season 3 now)? Still, hard to dispute the universal acclaim it gets. It's just so full of fun and charm, it's hard not to love it.
  20. Like
    Mr Poltroon reacted to Plk_Lesiak in What Anime are you watching now?   
    Is it legal to praise Crunchyroll on the internet? Not only is their library in my region steadily improving, they also cut the subscription costs heavily for regions without access to their full catalogue. I don't feel bad about giving them money for the first time in years... 
    Anyway, got through some fun stuff lately! Continuing with Studio Ghibli, I've seen the legendary My Neighbour Totoro and while I understand it's a kids' movie, boy was it not for me in any way. It was mostly just two small girls screeching in headacke-inducing manner and a tiny bit of whimsical fantasy stuff that didn't amount to much overall. A beautiful thing visually-speaking and the main themes were nice, but while I'm very tolerant to narrative emptiness, this movie was a narrative void for most of the time and managed to tire me out in record time (it's actually short, especially if you exclude the OP and ED songs, but did so little in its runtime it was kind of sad...). 6,5/10?
    On the other hand, Princess Mononoke is a genuine masterpiece. Miyazaki definitely has his taste for environmentalist messages, but I really loved how it was delivered here, without demonizing either side or providing some overly-convenient resolution. It's also way more focused and intense than all of the Ghibli films I've seen so far, beautifully balancing the personal journey of Ashitaka and the grand conflict he's trying to mediate in. The environments and music are also spectacular, obviously not on Spirited Away or Hawl's Castle levels of refinement, but incredible for its time. With no nostalgia for Ghibli movies, this is the one that fully convinced me that Miyazaki's fame is not just all hype - basically flawless, considering what can be done with this formula. 10/10
    Coming back to modern stuff, I've dug out an obscure fantasy show that really fits my tastes... At least in theory. Banished from the Hero's Party is basically all ingredients I love mixed in a very sloppy fashion. A story of two outcasts once involved in the god-chosen hero's quest to save the world, but now pushed aside and trying to find a place for themselves at the fringes of the civilized world. The protagonist is Hero's older brother, who fell behind the rest for the party in martial prowess and was convinced to leave, faking his death. On his exile he's reunited with a Princess of a militaristic kingdom, who once fought alongside the hero's party, but was forced to leave her country due to a succession dispute, becoming an adventurer. Determined to leave their pasts behind and create a new, quiet life, they try to settle down, but their pasts slowly catch up to them...
    The whole thing is mostly a slow-burn romance story set in a fantasy world with bullshit RPG rules... But in abstraction, I love pretty much every idea and major plot element behind it. It even manages to build up and resolve a really complex conflict around the hero within 13 episodes, without really feeling rushed or creating too many obvious plotholes. It's just... Not that well written on scene-to-scene basis. The dialogue is clunky, the romance overly juvenile for who the main characters are... It just always slips away from being that perfect chill fantasy series I'm always looking for. Still, it's IMO quite underrated - 7/10.
    Than, Moonlit Fantasy is such a weird, contradictory spin on isekai. Basically a combination of Konosuba (a protagonist rudely dismissed by a Goddess and cursed to be a pariah among other humans) and the Slime anime (building a nation of non-humans on the fringes of civilized world), but one that transforms from near pure comedy at first to VERY REAL at the end of the season. It might seem weird/impossible to justify on paper, but it's a really interesting form of story progression. The protagonist's journey starts whimsical and chaotic, with his incredible powers kind of auto-piloting him through various challenges... But than, as he gains influence and builds a domain of his own, he's tragically reminded of the responsibilities he bears. It all begins as a farce, as it looks ridiculous and random from his perspective, but the show is shockingly consistent in building up towards something, unlike most cheap isekais that kind of just flow pointlessly - it matures in tone as the protagonist himself is forced to mature to build a future for himself and those that rely on him.
    I thought it would just be a parody series after the first episode, but the story turned out quite solid by the end and I'm really interested in what the second season is going to show, as the foundation set here is really good and the source material seems highly-rated. 8/10 
  21. Like
    Mr Poltroon reacted to Plk_Lesiak in What Anime are you watching now?   
    Hey, I've got to watch a few interesting ones while dying from the absolute insane heat that came to Poland right now.
    Finally, I've started catching up on Studio Ghibli movies, starting with Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle. Was pretty surprised with how whimsical and meandering Miyazaki's movies can be – it's a very different vibe than what I'm used to with serialized anime and movies that tie into those. There's a lot of beauty and wonder in those worlds, but not necessarily much "worldbuilding" or solid plotlines. More symbolism/alegorical stuff than just stories, which I guess put those two closer to classic fairy tales than to what anime usually is today. Also, it was interesting to see what a harrowing anti-war movie Howl's Castle was, with the motiff of chaotic lashing out against the injustice of it all. Easy to see how it was inspired by the Iraq War, I remember quite well the feeling of horror and powerlessness while my country jumped into the US' bandwagon back then. What seems a bit weird to me is to see how many people miss the fact that the whole story feeds into those themes, the absurdity of war and saving your own humanity in the face of conflict you are powerless to stop. Both movies are 9/10 for me, masterpieces mostly in the visuals/craftsmanship department, with actual storylines being on the weaker side, but overall very compelling.
    Than, going back to trash-tier stuff... Wataten. The "creepy lolicon onee-san crushes on a 10-year old girl" show. I skipped on it when it aired, as the concept seemed irredeemable, but then saw relatively positive reviews, and... Well, it's not that bad, to be honest. It's definitely a show about a lolicon, and she is very much a creep, but the way the series handles the underage characters is surprisingly not lolicon bait. Pretty much devoid of fanservice and constantly calling out how inappropriate the main character's behavior is. The comedy it also quite solid, with gags being creative and not becoming overly formulaic throughout the season. Honestly, it's way better than it had any right to be. Still a bit creepy though and labeling it as yuri kind of made it feel worse than it was (there is some very subtle subtext between the girls, but the "main" romance is so one-sided and farcical, the categorization hardly applies). 7,5/10?
    And ending with something recent, Don't Hurt Me, My Healer!... Is actually a decent gag comedy, that got me curious for receiving absolutely HOSTILE reception at first. It seems if someone doesn't like this kind of humour, it really rubs them the wrong way. It's a story about a dark elven "healer" who forms a party with a trash-tier warrior to mercilessly troll both him and everyone they meet along the way. It's kind of dumb, but also kind of brilliant – a pairing of a Don Kichot-like loser high on heroic tales and a borderline-malicious weirdo, in a world that mostly moved past the conflicts they could be useful for. Monsters just mind their own business, quests are trivial, and Karla, the "healer", usually seems to be the most dangerous thing around. Apparently "useless" at first, over time she's shows to be pretty powerful with different kinds of magic, including healing spells. She just can't be bothered to use any of it properly... Because where's the fun in that? Overall, a decent, absurd gag comedy with a tendency to subvert fantasy tropes in a fun way. 7/10
  22. Sad
    Mr Poltroon reacted to Plk_Lesiak in Official Anime News and Info!   
    Hey, don't die quite yet Fuwa. I won't allow it, because my favourite studio, Ekachi Epilka of Maou-sama Retry fame, is going to deliver us the culmination of anime history, this fall: My Life After I Became a Dummy Head Mic One Morning. ASMR themed shoujo ai original series starring a dummy head ASMR microphone as a protagonist, apparently. We can all die in piece, after we watch it. 
  23. Like
    Mr Poltroon reacted to madvanced in Fuwanovel Confessions   
    Same, but it has probably been like 2/2 years and a half for me. I have a beard too dorg, very nice. Also this is probably my first post in like 4 years. I sometimes do miss my days of shit posting between 2015-2018. Such is life.
  24. Like
    Mr Poltroon reacted to Plk_Lesiak in The unforgettable glory of early Idea Factory anime adaptation   
    This might be common knowledge, but while I was aware of VN adaptations being generally cursed, I had no idea to what extent that's true. It turns out that among top 5 worst rated anime in history, two places are taken by none other than Idea Factory and two OVA that promote some very original, totally not Evangelion rip-off PS2 VNs. Mars of Destruction and Skelter Heaven. And what treats they are, so perfect in presenting virtues of VNs to broader world: alien-fighting high school girls, male protagonists perfectly devoid of unnecessary features such as personality, extremely awkward and inappropriate romance scenarios... I can't imagine how VNs never went mainstream with such profound promotional material. ^^
    Anyway, I created this shitpost of a thread to see whether anyone knows something about how these abominations came to be, or anything else about their history? They are so hilariously misguided, I can't really wrap my mind around what the people making (and funding) them thought... Particularly when they didn't stop immediately after the first disaster (although to be fair, Mars of Destruction is so edgy and over-the-top gory it's unintentionally hilarious, Skelter Heaven less so, but people still find humour in how atrocious it is). Also, I'll probably want to catch up to all the other masterpieces of Satou Yoshiteru and share my impressions... Truly an Uwe Boll-level genius, shame he doesn't transform Idea Factory VNs into real art to this day.
  25. Like
    Mr Poltroon reacted to Eclipsed in What are you playing?   
    ^"If you're not tired of the KEY formula yet, want another dose, but don't have time for behemots such as Clannad or Summer Pockets - go for it"

    Sold. I already have Loopers on my Switch but haven't gotten around to it; but I'll definitely move it up on my to-do-list 😛 

    ~~
    AI: Nirvana Initiative was good. If you liked the general reading experience from The Somnium Files you should be able to enjoy this as well.
    The Somniums can be solved more logically this time around instead of having to trial and error yolo choosing random actions and hoping for the best so that's a plus.
    The dual-protagonist system is... unfortunate; splitting screentime between Mizuki and Ryuki definitely imo weakens the both of them than if the VN focused on just one of them. Ryuki was aight, but ngl would've totally preferred Mizuki to be the sole protagonist cuz bias
    The big twist... was a whole bunch of "...that's it?", especially with how it'll literally, and I mean quite literally, be told to you upfront in plain English handholding spoonfed style after a certain part in the story. It's VERY underwhelming.

    8/10. I gave the first game 8.5/10. The first game just keeps you hooked with the always-a-step-behind murder mystery. Second game tries to be grand with the whole Nirvana Initiative plotline and falls flat

    ~~
    Currently reading the most randomest thing ever, Making*Lovers. If you're ever in the mood for a legit dating sim where the narrative is all about a modern day no-relationship-experience whatsoever young adult male protagonist meeting a likewise no-relationship-experience whatsoever heroine by some contrived circumstantial chance, they awkwardly hit it off, but slowly and surely fall in love as they get to know each other and involve in each others' lives, this thing will be quite a treat. No overarching plot or common routes here, the entire focus of this VN will be on the protag and the heroine of your choice's fated encounter and blossoming romance.

    If you don't got a thing for the sassy just-an-acquaintance from the good ol' college days, ya oughta rethink your life decisions:


     
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