solidbatman

Note: This game was already reviewed on Fuwa by Valmore, I encourage you to check out his review as well
Those that follow this blog for a while might have noticed that I like to complain about the lack of identity that many Western-made VNs suffer from. As a medium utilized pretty much exclusively by the fans of original Japanese visual novels, EVNs far too often borrow extensively from those when it goes to setting and story elements, to the point of replicating various tiring anime clichés and kitsch tropes. They also frequently copy elements that really have no interest being in a game created by someone living in the USA or Europe, more often than not having only very superficial knowledge of Japanese culture and reality of life in Japan. 
            A Little Lily Princess, developed by Hanako Games and published on Steam in May 2016 (under the "Hanabira" label, signifying an outside scriptwriter), is a game that I like bringing up as an example of a Western VN that was able to differentiate itself from the crowd and create unique experience exactly because of the ability to not be completely defined its “weeb” roots, creating a setting and a story far detached from typical anime tropes. Paradoxically, the classic English novel A Little Princess, that this game adapted into the VN/dating sim format, is not a title unknown to anime fans, thanks to the highly-rated series from the 1980’s, Little Princess Sara (it even inspired a few less known projects, such as the slightly outlandish Strain: Strategic Armored Infantry). Hanako’s version tries to differentiate itself from those other adaptations mostly by giving a yuri spin to the story – still, as I will try to show in this review, calling it a yuri romance is rather misleading and says little about the true appeal of this game.
Read the full article at evnchronicles.blogspot.com

Ebi-hime is one of the very few OELVN developers who managed to establish themselves as reliable and respected creators even among the JP-centric visual novel fans. Having released over 20 titles since 2013, both freeware and commercial, she is probably best-known for her yuri titles, such as Asphyxia and The Sad Story of Emmeline Burns, and memorable horror stories, such as Sweetest Monster and The Way We All Go. Most of her work stands out through uncommon, Western settings, a deep connection to English culture and literature, and artwork that diverge in various ways from generic, anime-style illustrations you can find in most EVNs. Blackberry Honey, ebi-hime’s latest commercial VN, is both a very typical title for her – with its yuri themes, Victorian England setting and interesting stylization – and an unusual one, as it the first project of hers to include explicit sexual content, through an optional 18+ patch. So, how did this venture into the world of eroge turned out for the OELVN scene’s star creator?

The game has its share of interesting and surprising moments, but the overall pacing is painfully slow and predictable, even for a romance
Blackberry Honey follows the story of Lorina Waugh, a young, poor maid that starts working in a rural residence of Bly, after being sent off in disgrace from her previous job, in unclear circumstances. Being mistreated by some of the older maids in the estate and Lady Constance, the young daughter of the owners, she struggles desperately to hold on to her position, so she can financially support her mother and sisters. After being hurt while performing a pointless chore for Constance, she stumbles upon the Bly’s unusual, foreign-looking parlour maid, Taohua, sparking a relationship that will completely change her life.
Read the full article at evnchronicles.blogspot.com

Some time ago I've offered you a short list of stand-out Yuri Game Jam VNs - titles that went beyond what you normally can expect from the free game jam entries, presenting compelling stories and surprising aesthetic values. While that list included some of the most-appreciated western yurige, such as well-known Ebi-Hime titles, among hundreds of YGJ and NaNoRenO entries produced over the years you can find many more worthwhile VNs with f/f romance themes that never received similar recognition. Today, I'm presenting you a list of another 5 free OELVNs with yuri elements, along with some honourable mentions for games that I'm less comfortable recommending to everyone reading this post, but are still worth appreciating for some of their achievements. Every title will be listed with an appropriate link to download them on Itch.io - I hope you'll find them to your liking!
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Butterfly Soup

Brianna Lei's story about a group of lesbian teenagers has gathered a significant amount of mainstream attention thank to its unique subject matter (focusing on minority queer women and their experience) but is definitely more than just a piece of social commentary. It offers a well-written, charming story that tackles its main themes with a lot of subtlety and doesn't overstate the sexuality of characters, saying more about universal challenges of growing up than just minority issues. And while it definitely attempts to create a more realistic representation of homosexual relationships, straying away from the typical, idealized yuri romance, it's a fun and lighthearted read that should be appropriate for anyone not allergic to close-to-reality LGBT stories. 
Her Tears Were My Light

Nami's allegoric love story about Space and Time is a simple, short game, that nonetheless managed to gather an impressive amount of praise from the readers, apparent, among other things, through its impressively high VNDB rating (7.54 average, 6.91 Bayesian). With beautiful visuals and high-quality writing, it's a really touching and surprisingly unpretentious read, appropriate not just for yuri fans, but rather everyone not afraid to shed a few tears.
Disaster Log C

Sofdelux's Disaster Log C is not in any way a traditional love story, but apart from some slight LGBT+ themes and wacky visuals it offers a highly amusing, unusual story about two drastically different and initially antagonistic individuals trying to survive through a cataclysm that threatens to destroy their world. Interesting characters and Nami's strong writing makes it a thoroughly enjoyable read, if you can get past the game's obvious eccentricities.
Taarradhin

Taarradhin is a fairly well-known NaNoRenO VN that only partially relies on yuri themes, but manages to stand out thanks to an appealing aesthetic, India-inspired stylization and a simple, but well-executed plot. It follows the story of Netqia, a young and naive daughter of a powerful noble in a country struck by catastrophic drought, who's unexpectedly presented with a gift of two beautiful slaves. While, just like other games on this list, Taarradhin is fairly short, it manages to create a setting unusual for VNs on a few different levels, a pretty well fleshed-out cast of characters and an interesting intrigue, that lets you connect to the main cast through multiple playthroughs and rewards you with a compelling "true" conclusion at the end of the road.
Romance Detective 1 & 2

Quintessential work by Nami, the Romance Detective duology showcases both her characteristic artstyle and the casual, mostly-comedic storytelling typical for her VNs. While the second game was never truly finished, missing some art assets, the whole series is complete story-wise and offers a lot of fun for those looking for a light, cheerful read - although the sequel has its share of more sober, touching moments and should be compelling also for those looking for some actual romance and drama.
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The honorable mentions go to the second Sofdelux title, Mermaid Splash, for a great aesthetic and atmosphere, despite rather predictable writing, Nami's Tunnel Vision for another minimalistic, heartwarming story that charms the player with its visual style, Toki Production's Princesses's Maid for a great protagonist and amusing romance, and finally npckc's Magical Witch Bell and Her Non-Magical Friends for great writing and the simple, but effective stylization. If you enjoy cute, cheerful stories, all these games are also worth your attention. And regardless of whether you decide to check them out, I hope you found this week's recommendations interesting.
As always, all feedback will be deeply appreciated. Have a great week everyone!

Two weeks ago I've brought you an interview with Reine Works' Jackie M., where we talked about realities of OELVN publishing and the specificity of women-oriented western VNs. Today, I have an immense pleasure of bringing the spotlight onto one of my favourite western VN creators. Nami is an indie game developer and author of highly appreciated yuri titles, such as Her Tears Were My Light and Syrup and the Ultimate Sweet. If you observe VN contests such as Yuri Game Jam or NaNoRenO, or you read my post about the best YGJ VNs, you should probably be at least somewhat familiar with her work – and if you’re not, I hope reading this short interview will convince you to change that ASAP. 😉 Enjoy!
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Plk_Lesiak: Hello and thank you for agreeing to this interview! Many people interested in the OELVN scene might know your Itch.io handle NomnomNami or at least recognize the style you use in your projects, but probably not much more. Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
Nami: When I’m not making my own games I’m usually screaming about Disgaea, but most of my time lately goes into working for Lab Zero on their big crowdfunded RPG, Indivisible. Right now my life is work, work, work, so I’m afraid I don't have much interesting stuff to say about it.
PL: Usually, developers that try their strength in the visual novel format have a strong connection to otaku culture and borrow various ideas and elements of style from Japanese media. How is it in your case?
N: I've been a huge fan of Japanese anime/manga/games since I was like 10, and I’ve loved a lot of games that use a visual novel style format so it seemed really natural to me. I think my subconscious goal is to write things that feel like a Disgaea cutscene - I just really love Disgaea!
PL: Disgaea is, above all, a strategy game series. Are there any visual novels that you think influenced your work? Do you read any Japanese or Western VNs nowadays?
N: While these aren't pure VNs, I really enjoyed the original Ace Attorney trilogy, Hotel Dusk, and 999. Nowadays I don't play games that often, but I browse Itch.io a lot and try to check out what other people make for NaNoRenO and Yuri Jam!
Read the full article at evnchronicles.blogspot.com

Incest is not a rare theme in visual novels – many titles, even very serious ones, have romance routes involving protagonist’s sibling in various different configurations, while nukige are full of taboo sex in every conceivable form, including that between family members. Still, this topic is very rarely done in a deep, compelling way, usually leading to a cliché conclusion like “we’re not blood-related after all, we can be together” or simply ignoring the deep social stigma connected to it and delivering an unconvincing happy ending. Even pieces of Japanese media that tried to get away from these tropes, like Oreimo, authors of which wanted to lead brother/sister romance to its logical conclusion, were cut short by the producers wary of negative reactions such story development could gather.
            Love Ribbon, a yuri visual novel developed by Razzart Visual and published on Steam in January 2017 is a rare exception to the trend I’ve described above – it not only offers a rather unusual sister/sister romance scenario, but also gives its full focus to the theme of an incestuous love affair and explores it in interesting and rather realistic ways. It’s also an example of OELVN that offers very explicit erotic content, but implements it as an optional feature that fits rather well with the story content, but isn’t in any way essential for experiencing it and doesn't affect the "SFW" version of the game in negative ways.
Read the full article at evnchronicles.blogspot.com

For the last few months, I’ve published reviews and top lists, presenting worthwhile or interesting OELVNs that usually have little presence on Fuwa and don’t get discussed as much as they deserve. From the very beginning, however, my goal was to focus not only on the games themselves, but also the people behind them – the independent creators and small studios that make the core of the Western VN market. Today, I present you with the first “Developer Spotlight” post, where I’ll be talking to Jackie M., the founder of Reine Works, authors of multiple yuri and otome VNs and the studio behind the recently-published otome title Seven Districts of Sin: The Tail The Makes the Fox, about the game’s somewhat-turbulent release and the realities of today’s OELVN market. Be sure to check out my review of the game first, where I also touch on its unusual appearance on Steam.
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Plk Lesiak: Hello and thank you for agreeing to this interview! Let’s start with your latest VN. It’s pretty rare for me to be the first person to rate a game on VNDB, especially four months after its release. What happened to The Tail Makes the Fox that it went so much below the radar of the VN community?
Jackie M.: Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think there are nearly as many users on VNDB who rate otome games, as compared to anything that could be construed as aimed at men. I took a quick look at some other developers' titles out of curiosity, and it seems that female-aimed titles in general tend to have very few votes. Funnily enough, I can confirm that we do get sales referrals from VNDB. We've had a few of them.
PL: For a few months, your VN was only available on Itch.io, a platform usually associated with free games. Regardless of other plans, what was your experience of trying to sell your title there?
JM: Itch.io isn't really a storefront where a developer can make a profit unless the game in question is very low budget, nor should they particularly expect to, what with the smaller userbase. From when pre-orders opened before release till today, itch.io sales have only amounted to roughly 1/4 of the game's development cost.
That said, we do like it, because it isn't subject to a lot of the restrictions that similar shops are, and transferring earned funds out is also much quicker than anywhere else that I'm aware of. We just wouldn't recommend that anyone only ever sell their games there.

Blossoms Bloom Brightest
Read the full article at evnchronicles.blogspot.com

I want to preface this by saying that I enjoyed Highway Blossoms. But if I want to see better stuff out there in English language Visual Novels, whether OELVN or in translation, people are going to have to start criticizing the problems they have, and I didn't see criticism of the problems I found in Highway Blossoms. So, so that the creators (be they OELVN writers or translators) can learn and benefit from criticism and hopefully come back with something stronger next time around, and so that potential readers know what they're getting into, here's my critique of some of the flaws I found in Highway Blossoms's writing.
I'm really just talking about the writing here. I'll start by talking about macro-scale problems: issues I had with themes and how they were handled, and problems that should have been solved in developmental editing. I'm, frankly, not very good at seeing these kinds of problems: I'm better at seeing small-scale (line-by-line) problems. I'll talk about those second.
For what it's worth, I think the macro-scale issues are not that bad, but the micro-scale issues are pretty bad. If your reaction to the broader problems I talk about first is "yes, but all games have issues like this, and many/most are much worse about it", let's be clear that I'm totally with you on that one. I just think that this game could be made better by addressing some of them, so I want to talk about them a little bit. Let's start there.
 
Themes - Americana and music
"Americana" is a big overarching theme for this game, but in spite of that, the VN includes a lot of Japanese-isms. Why is an earthy late-teens American girl fretting about "indirect kisses" (scare quotes courtesy of the original text) like a typical Japanese schoolgirl eroge heroine? Why are both of the heroines flashing peace signs in a photograph, again for all the world like Japanese schoolgirls? In one scene that I blocked out of my mind until I found it in my screenshots, some late-teenage American guy is bowing repeatedly. Highway Blossoms wants to be about the rural American south-west, but these weeaboisms, in part, compromise that goal. Examples:
The topic of music was treated very oddly. It was almost constantly there, hanging over the conversation and the action, but it somehow never made its way into being a focus. One character liked to talk about music, and it seemed to hold a deep meaning for her as a personal connection to her grandfather, but the others just kind of nodded or frowned along when the topic came up - they understood and accepted the importance, but there was no real discourse about it, just constant name-dropping. Music as a theme featured prominently in both minor scenes and key scenes, but somehow never felt particularly important to the narrative. When I was done reading, I still didn't really feel that Marina and Amber had connected over music, and I still didn't have a good handle on what music meant to Amber. By way of contrast, I read VA-11 Hall-A about a week after I read Highway Blossoms. In the space of three drinks with Kira Miki, I learned more about the significance of music to that character than I did throughout all of Highway Blossoms's music mentions.
 
An unnecessary scene
Lastly on macro-scale problems, I did feel that there was at least one whole scene that should have been cut from Highway Blossoms: the Jumbo scene. The actions of the main characters in this scene actually subverted their characterization: I don't view Amber as the sort of person to commit petty vandalism against an individual, nor Marina the sort of person to laugh prettily about it afterwards, even if the victim was a redneck who wouldn't stop hitting on both of them. This scene was, I guess, meant to be comic relief? But it didn't succeed, at least for me. It just introduced a flat side character who served no purpose but to be the butt of a bad joke. Cut it.
 
Telling rather than showing
At a micro scale, which admittedly is something I'm more picky about, the writing has a few big problems. First, it tends to tell rather than show, a fair amount of the time. Examples:
The telling/showing issues are at their worst when the narration adopts what I can only call a first-person omniscient point of view, where the narrating character somehow reads the mind of the other main character and narrates all of her emotions directly. The first time I saw this, it was just a straight-up description of complex emotions and motivations; this does not make for an interesting or compelling read. In contrast, the very next line was a solid example of showing: it described actions in a way that vibrantly communicated the underlying emotions. The potential for solid work is here, but it's headed off by missteps like the above examples.
 
Purple prose
Second, verbosity and purple prose are a serious problem. Examples:
Most of these are not describing crucial events, and even the ones that are need better handling. For the second screenshot, for instance, all that needs to be communicated is "we drank a lot of beer" (not necessarily in those words; just that idea). Instead, it's been turned into a mess of mixed metaphors and unnecessarily complex verbiage. Unfortunately, this is par for the course - every well-executed line is balanced by one full of dead weight. Important lines fade into the background because descriptors are bloating the unimportant lines as well. Economy is an essential element to good writing, and it's sorely lacking in Highway Blossoms.
 
Awkward prose
Finally, there's a lot of simply unnatural phrasing and odd language choice, some of it even apparently intentional. Examples:
 
In closing.
When the writing avoids all of these issues, or when (as happened to me in one noteworthy scene) the music and CG combine to carry the reader pell-mell through a scene, so that you skim the text rather than actually reading it, the VN has some great moments. Unfortunately, a whole lot of the time, it does fall victim to one or more of the above issues and becomes a lot less of a joy to read.
Now, look, I know that all sounds pretty bad; it probably sounds like I hated this game. I didn't. I think the art was generally gorgeous, especially the background art and some of the CGs. I rather liked the soundtrack, and I thought it fit the setting well. On that topic, I love the setting — different is good! I am always up for VNs outside of high schools and outside of Japan. But the bulk of the experience in a visual novel, for me at least, is the novel part. It's the script, the writing. The writing in Highway Blossoms, especially when looked at line-by-line, comes up short.

You'd expect them to be of a size adequate to fulfill the role of spread on a particular food, but I can't think of any widely consumed product that would require this little butter. This is inconvenient especially because I don't know how many butter packets to take when I need to use them in the future, which is exactly their intended purpose. How am I supposed to know how much butter something warrants when the amount of butter in the packet isn't set to any standard? If it were set to cover a regular-sized slice of bread, then I'd say "I'll just take two" when I intend to apply the butter to a bagel. But no, I cannot fathom any metric justification by which the mass of butter abides. The size of these packets serves no righteous ends. By that I mean that they may be convenient for those who have power over their specifications, because some companies profit liberally by excessive packaging and other iniquitous forms of mass production. But viewing the situation from a zero-sum perspective, this obviously isn't beneficial to the general population. That extra packaging probably costs small companies an additional marginal sum, which adds up to a lot across the board. And it certainly doesn't help myself and other consumers who want larger package sizes.

Since I don't have anything set up to get pretty images, we're gonna have to make do with title screen images and links for this month.  Next month will be shinier, promise!
Here are all of the FuwaReviews for the month of October, 2015.  Pretty solid month, overall.  Some solid 8/10 titles that you should definitely look into, and some stuff that's more "If you like this genre, then maybe you'll like this."  I'd like to offer a huge thank you to our Community Submissions this month - Zakamutt, OriginalRen, and InvictusCobra.
Review Count for October: 12

fault -milestone two- side:above (by Ryechu) - October 2 - Rating 8/10
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A Kiss For the Petals - Remembering How We Met (by Zakamutt) - October 6 - Rating 8/10
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Cocoro@Function! (by OriginalRen) - October 7 - Rating 8/10
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Black Closet (by Palas) - October 10 - Rating 8.6/10
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Over The Hills And Far Away (by solidbatman) - October 12 - Rating 7/10
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The "Jewel Stars" Series (Ruby Striker, Lapis Gunner, Amber Breaker) (by Ryechu) - October 12-14 - Ratings 4.5, 6, 5
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The Menagerie (by solidbatman) - October 18 - Rating 3/10
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Hoshizora no Memoria -Wish Upon A Shooting Star- (by OriginalRen) - October 19 - Rating 3/10
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The Royal Trap (by Palas) - October 24 - Rating 7.5/10
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Hanachirasu (by InvictusCobra) - October 26 - Rating 8.5/10
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Hello everybody!  Ryechu here~
I decided to go ahead and do a monthly recap of all the FuwaReviews released by our in-house team.  October's Recap will be up in the next day or so.
 I am interested in feedback in regard to how everybody would like to see this formatted.  Should I use images with the Pros/Cons and the score and make the image clickable (which is mostly just a bunch of image copy/pasting on Paint.net for me), or would you prefer just an image of the game cover/title screen (In other words, the "Featured Image") with a link to the review without the spoilers?  Let me know below!
Anyway, I wanted to take a little time to talk about what we do, and who our members are (at time of writing).
What is the Goal of FuwaReviews?
Our goal is the same as the motto you see on the forums:  "Making Visual Novels Popular in the West." We do this by presenting honest, thoughtful reviews on all sorts of visual novels, from the latest and greatest OELVNs, to the latest fan-translation releases, to the major releases from Mangagamer/Sekai Project/JAST.  We want to be that one-stop shop for all things Visual Novels, and reviews are our way of doing that.  Translated, untranslated, we don't care.  If it fits the requirement of a Visual Novel, it's something that is on our list to review.

We using a scoring system when it comes to our reviews, and our scale is on a 1-10.  Some of our reviewers break that number down a bit further and translate their score from a 1-100 scale, so you may see a number like 7.8 or the like, but that's all the more specific we intend to get.  This is how the reviewer rated the game.  This number is based on their opinion, and their scores may very well differ from yours.  Are your tastes different from the reviewer's?  Quite possibly.  Are you going to read the review anyway if you're genuinely interested in the game and regardless of whether or not you've played it?  Quite possibly.  Will fans of certain franchises/fetishes/characters get incredibly angry and locate their nearest pitchforks if we don't give their favorite game a 10/10?  Quite possibly.  Here's my answer to that:  We are not going to please everybody.  Honest reviews will never please everybody - that is the unfortunate truth about this business.  For me, my review has the same score that I put on my VNDB profile, and if it doesn't follow the bandwagon average, then there will always be justification in my reviews.  Well, there's always going to be a justification for my score in my review, but you get the point.
Some of our reviews will tell you "If you like x or y, then you'll probably like this," but it's not required.  If I play a game filled to the brim with gore or the like, it'll be the first one I play.  I won't (and don't, to be perfectly honest) know other titles in the genre, and I can't provide suggestions, so I'm not going to.  Many reviewing sites don't do that, because there's a chance that mentioning other titles may detract from the publicity of the game we are reviewing, though that is an arguable statement from either side of the coin.  The information in the review should be more than enough to help you make a decision on whether or not you may be interested in the title being reviewed.
We have two styles of reviews:  Featured (which are full-length, 800+ words, multiple pictures, "complete" reviews), and Minute reviews (300-500 words, one-two images, "Overview" reviews).  Most nukige and short OELVN reviews will end up being Minute reviews, while basically everything else is Featured.  Virtually all of my nukige reviews are Minute reviews.
We know we're gong to get the same flak as every other reviewing site, and that's fine.  We appreciate any and all feedback about the site, even if we don't immediately acknowledge it.  That much I can assure you.
 
Who Are We?

Ryechu - I'm the PR guy for FuwaReviews.  I do most of the talking with companies to get review keys for the team, I run the nukige corner, and I handle Community submissions.  I'm also the author of this blog! Flutterz - He's our editor.  He's also a god.  You will bow down to him. Full-Time Reviewers
solidbatman - This guy was the one that started it all.  He's also my bae.  He handles a lot of newer, popular releases, and is often abused for his honesty. Palas - The OELVN god.  He normally snags all of the OELVN keys, and puts out excellent reviews for them. Tyrael - The fresh meat.  We just picked Tyrael up as a full-time reviewer.  Can't wait to see what he has in store! Part-Time Reviewers
Down - He had a soul once, then Batman ate it.  Down still hasn't recovered since that day. Exenorate - He's hiding most of the time, but he's still shiny. Community-Submitters (that I would pick up in a heartbeat)
OriginalRen - He needs to write more reviews.  Straight up.  C'mon Ren, you know you wanna~ Zakamutt - #blamezaka There are also other reviewers that I've spoken with, and they'll be mentioned once I get some reviews published by them!
 
I hope you enjoyed this little post, and I look forward to hearing some feedback about how you'd like to see our Monthly Wrapup posts!
 

*** astro has shared contact details with Joe. ***
Joe: Hi astro, I'm wondering can u pls translate Aiyoku no Eustia?
 
Me: sorry I really don't have time to take on more projects right now
 
Joe: But it's a rly good game
 
Me: I'm sure it is. look, I hope that you're not asking me to do it for free at the very least - I don't even know who the heck you are
 
Joe: Well how long will it take u to do it? I can pay u $2000 at most depending on how long it takes
 
Me: ...Do you have any idea how long the game is?
 
Joe: No idk japanese so I've never played it before
 

 
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Well, this isn't really Tay's fault, but my rule of thumb is to always blame Tay. taypls

I forgot that I was doing weekly updates on my covers here. Whoops. Oh well, I've posted a lot since last time, so I'll just do a quick update on some of the better ones.

Cruel Angel's Thesis:





God Knows:





Little Busters (The Remake):





Still Alive:





Want You Gone:





Yuuyake no Marginal:





Anyways, I don't think I'll continue with weekly updates unless people specifically say they want them, in which case I can easily make it happen. Otherwise I'll just do periodic bulk updates like this one.

...Unless I do another original song like Gentle Jena, in which case it'll get a separate post.

Hi everyone, this is my first blog post but hopefully not my last. I wanted to show off my most recent cover, as I feel immensely proud of it. Plus, I've started playing Steins;Gate and it's SO COOL. I can't wait to get into the meat of the story! I'm sure there's some Steins;Gate fanatics here, heheh. Enjoy!

Well, the ass safari was less than I had hoped. Meryl will literally run away if she spots you, not to mention, her footsteps sound different than the other guards. A shame.





Meryl runs off to the bathroom and we are treated to a nice long scene of character development. Meryl claims to have wanted to be a soldier all her life after seeing and hearing of heroes like her uncle, Campbell, and Solid Snake, soldiers who are soldier and not the genetically modified soldiers of FOXHOUND. Snake claims he is no hero (a theme we will see more of). Regardless, Meryl wants to help Snake. Snake is reluctant at first, but agrees since Meryl tells Snake to shoot her if she slows him down. She pulls out a Level 5 key card and says the next area we need to get to is the Commanders Office. Off we go!

The guards have all gone for some reason. The strange haunting music that was playing before has also stopped. All is quiet. We enter into a long hallway, and the music is back. A strange, haunting hymn like chorus. Meryl runs in front of us, and falls to the ground. The screen starts flashing, and the perspective keeps changing. Meryl suddenly stands back up, and in a hollow voice claims to be okay. Her voice sounds as if its behind a mask.

"Come on Mr. FOXHOUND. The Commander is waiting."

We enter the room and the door locks behind us. Meryl seems to lose her mind, raising her gun to us.

"How do you like me Snake?"

"Make love to me Snake! Hurry!"

Snake sees a man in a gas mask floating behind her.

"What? You don't like girls?" the man asks.

Well, we need to subdue Meryl before doing anything else. Preferably in a non-lethal way, requests Campbell. We unleash a few punching combos and knock her out. The floating man in the gas mask finally reveals himself as, Psycho Mantis. Now we let him read our saves, deaths, alerts, and memory card. Mantis tells me that I am "a highly skilled warrior well suited to the stealth mission." He obviously does not read this blog. And with nothing on my memory card, he moves on to shaking my controller. Thank you Dualshock 3. Thats it for the demonstration. Time to fight.

The Mantis fight is a very strange, meta fight. The first thing we need to do is a fun controller trick, otherwise he will dodge every single one of our attacks. The screen will go black at this time, and the word, "HIDEO" appears in the top right corner. Mantis has a few attacks. For one of them, he goes invisible, and appears in areas of the room to throw some sort of energy blast at me. Another attack is picking up furniture and spinning them around in a giant circle. He will also flat out just throw crap at you too. One trick to find him sometimes is to go into first person mode. The perspective will be from his, and not yours.

This fight is as simple as just dodging his attacks and popping a round off in his face in between his attacks. After a while, he will again, take over Meryl. Same drill as before. We knock her out. Mantis commends us for being highly skilled. It takes skills to beat up women in the MGS universe apparently. Failing at his plan twice now, Mantis now orders Meryl to shoot herself. We stop this from happening, again by beating Meryl up, and Mantis takes things to the next level, again. Now we use the first person perspective to spot him as he no longer removes his cloak except to throw things at us. A few more shots, and he down for good.

Now for a codec call. We reassure Campbell that Meryl is safe. Naomi claims that the effects of the mind control will wear off. Then in a passive aggressive manner, Naomi asks Snake why bothered to save Meryl when he has killed tons of others of people. Mantis tells us the way to get to Metal Gear, claiming that Snake has no past, no future, and no hope. He is helping Snake, because Snake is just like him. Mantis then drops that he did not agree with the Boss' revolution. He just joined up to kill as many people as he could. Snake, is worse than the Boss he says, and says Snake is a monster compared to himself. It also seems Meryl has fallen for Snake, but there may be no future together for the two. Mantis then opens a secret door for us, and claims it was the first time he had ever helped someone.

Now for Meryl to have a crises of doubt. Snake threatens to leave her behind, and she quickly regains control. She then pushes snake about what Mantis said about him. She drops the issue and asks Snake his name.

"A name means nothing on the battlefield."

"How old are you?"

"Old enough to know what death looks like."

"Any family?"

"No, but I was raised by many people."

"Anyone you like?"

"I've never been interested in anyone else's life."

"...You're a sad lonely man."

And with that line, we end Part 4. Psycho Mantis is an extremely memorable villain and was just awesome to experience the first time around. His theme song is haunting, and matches him perfectly. The first time I ever did his battle, I did not know the controller trick. I died enough that Campbell eventually called me and told me what to do. It was funny and sad. Like this playthrough.

Part 4 was almost completely typed up and ready to go, but Chrome's shitty backspace shortcut fucked me over and caused me to go back a webpage, erasing all of my work. I'll retype as much as I can remember tomorrow evening.

As for the good news, with summer here, I will hopefully be pumping these out at a much faster rate. Maybe we even get to the mess of MGS2 before June?

Common

First, I should say this VN isn't like Purple Soft's last few works. The common route is straight comedy and heart-warming antics combined with some minor drama and with a bit of personal growth for the protagonist on the side. It is good comedy and the personal growth is actually quite nice, since the protagonist as he started out would have driven me insane inside two hours. It is also relatively short, as are the heroine routes so far. I managed to finish the common route and one heroine route in around seven and a half hours...


Makoto

Makoto is a very straightforward girl, the daughter of a local yakuza group who has been ordered to live as a normal girl by her family. The funny thing is, she isn't one of those template heroines who dislikes her criminal family, but rather respects and loves them. This results in a rather hilarious personality that comes out a great deal in her route. This VN's route structure is really unusual, in that there is literally no H in the routes themselves, though there are a few nude scenes. As a result, this route passes by with relatively little ichaicha and most of its focus on the drama, which is one of the reasons why it is so short... there is no time wasted whatsoever.



Michiru

Aaah... Michiru is probably the most blatant example of the 'adoring little sister' I've seen recently... and combined with her being a total yamato nadeshiko and blind, this makes her the standout amongst the four heroines available at the beginning of the VN. One of her most hilarious aspects is how she sounds like a 'niisama-cultist' when talking to others, and how aggressive she is in her pursuit of her older brother... so naturally you'd expect a 'oh, I'm not sure if I can cross the line!' kind of route, right? Fortunately, my expectations were betrayed quite nicely on this, and the route itself is highly emotional, following a track I can guarantee you won't guess without spoilers. That said, it is mostly heart-warming and tear-jerking stuff, and that is one of its biggest draws.

Because of the policy they are using for this VN - no H in the actual routes - it is really easy to focus on the plot flow, and there is none of that sense of 'you interrupted the story for a pink-colored scene?!' that comes so frequently with many VNs of the type. To be honest, I'm really surprised that no one has done this before, as having the choice as to whether to pursue the H in the extras section rather than go through it in the main game makes it a lot easier to enjoy the character interactions and story in general.

Edit: Adding Misaki


Misaki
Ummm... I'll be frank, I was disappointed with Misaki's route... but that's because I went for the two most unique heroines - and least annoying - amongst the four starter heroines first. It isn't that it is a bad route. Indeed, if you go by the standards of your average VN (cutting the low and high ends off the curve) I'd say that it was in the upper ranks as individual heroine routes go... but after Michiru it just lacked impact. Misaki is one of those heroines who is a lot better as comic relief than as a heroine... or at least, that is how it felt to me. A big issue is that they reused Alice's face and voice (from Hapymaher) for her, and I was always a bit frustrated that Alice was the true/main for that one (I liked her the least, though I still liked her). Cutting out those emotions, her struggles are actually interesting, if a bit overly familiar for those who have seen (this really is a spoiler, though indirectly)

That said, the theme for this particular one has been touched on so often in VNs lately that it seems overly dull...

That said, if you weren't me, you'd probably be able to enjoy this route just fine - actually, you'd probably enjoy it a great deal - as long as you made sure to play it first or second (I'm not really interested in the annoying foreign girl heroine, since her speech patterns make me want to punch her).

I died a million times trying to get past the laser beams at the end of the hanger. But screw it, we finally did it.





The moment I step out into the new area, a snowy patch of land between two buildings, I recieve a codec call. This new person calls themselves Deepthroat, as in the informant from the Watergate Scandal. He warns us of claymore mines around the area as well as a tank up ahead waiting to ambush me.

As expected of myself, I died twice from claymores. Then the tank ran me over... then I killed myself with capture claymore.

I've lost count now of how many times I've died. Lets just round to... 15? Regardless, I finally kill the tank through some lucky grenade throws and advance into the next area. But not before a cutscene takes place, introducing us to a future boss character, Raven. To emphasis his name, ravens fly everywhere, and he has a Raven tattooed. Subtlety isn't a big thing with Metal Gear bosses. Good voice acting, also is not a thing either. Raven, in some strange, Austrian accent (but he's Native American) talks to his Boss, along with Ocelot. They want Snake left alive for the time being, with Raven ending the nice talk with, "The raven on my forehead thirsts for his blood." Its super dumb but who cares.

In the next room, we can't use any weapons or be spotted. The room is where the government stores all of its nuclear warheads that have been dismantled. Snake makes a quick jab at how careless the storage is, but regardless, we carry on, aiming to get through this room without being spotted.

Shit.

I got spotted and died. I finally make my way to the next elevator, and alert every guard in the next room by throwing a stun grenade by mistake. At this time, a fatal flaw of the game shows itself. In an effort to be cinematic in a sense, leaning against walls only grants you view of in front of you. This is horrible when hiding behind a pillar, as I can only see one direction and cant easily switch to see the other side. A guard easily spots me because of this, by luck managing to stay in my blind spot the entire time. Death again.

I quickly fix my mistake and grab a rocket launcher on the floor. I'll need it for the next floor down. Upon arriving, Deepthroat calls again to inform me that the floor is electrified, and that the room is filled with gas for some reason. Nice.

I have to use the rocket launcher, which is remote controlled, to destroy the power supply for the floors, then run past the room as fast as possible. This part is absolute bullshit. Due to the nature of the top down view of this room, you cannot see in front of you as you control the rocket. Meaning navigating the rocket to the power supply is a test of trial and error. After 8 attempts, I get it, grab a few goodies, including a FAMAS, and move into the next area.

In the next room, we hear the sounds of someone begging for their life before a thump. What could this be? I move forward, and the sight is a grisly one. Blood everywhere, and bodies line the hallway as a strange noise plays. The victims appear to have been cut with a blade. Who could this be I wonder? A single survivor stumbles from the end of the hallway, his last words being, "Its a ghost." We turn the corner, and find a soldier suspended in the air. Then, the ninja appears, his cloak turning off. He finishes off the soldier he has, and moves into the next room. Time to follow him!

The next sight is pitiful. A man in a lab coat is pissing himself as the cyborg ninja stands over him. The ninja turns and looks at Snake, demanding a fight to the death. As you fight him in hand to hand combat (quite easy I might add) he asks if Snake remember this, if its familiar to Snake.

The battle itself is easy enough. Simply keep moving, and avoid the ninja heft punches and kicks. As soon as he attacks, unleash a 3 punch combo. At one point, he will use his cloak and hide. Just look for a polygon distortion in the area. Finally, his last form, walk directly at him, and avoid his power punch. Then, its a simple matter of shooting him a few times when he starts losing control of himself.

After the battle, it is revealed that the ninja in question is Gray Fox, the leader of the Zanzibar Rebellion which took place in Metal Gear 2 (not to be confused with Metal Gear Solid 2). I Metal Gear 2, Snake kills Gray Fox, but Naomi explains, he was revived to be a test subject for gene therapy. He was forced to undergo all kinds of tests and experiments. Naomi seems worried we might try to kill him, and that the info on Gray Fox is confidential.

Now to handle the man in a lab coat, Hal Emmerich. The man who pissed himself. He also designed Metal Gear, though he thought it was built to shoot down nuclear missiles. Snake loses his cool, believing the Emmerich knew Metal Gear launched nuclear missiles. Emmerich is adamant he knew nothing of this. He then gives us a quick rundown of the armament of Metal Gear; a rail gun, vulcan cannon, and a laser. Some post- "discovering your life work is a walking nuclear equipped deathmobile" depression conversation takes place, and we get back to the root of all of this.

Meryl's ass. Emmerich says that this female soldier who found him had a cute way of walking, how she wiggled her butt. REMEMBER WHEN I SAID THIS WAS IMPORTANT!? We have to find Meryl now, by looking at butts. Emmerich decides that Snake should call him Otacon, which is a play on Otakon. Otacon is a nerd, is what the game is getting at.

With that, we call it a day. I died way way too much and generally continue to suck at this game. BUT! Next time, its an ass safari.

Death Count: 16ish
Alert Count: I give up on this
Stupid Convenient Plot Element: 2
Ass Safari Hype: >9000

I died 5 minutes into the game, and killed 3 guards. I still got it.





Anyway, a few beginning notes. Naomi's accent is a British one in Metal Gear Solid and Mei Ling is a super stereotypical Asian girl accent. No doubt we'll see those two voices stay the same through the entire series. Hideo Kojima, the director, loves cinematic games, and Metal Gear Solid opens very similar to a move opening. Snake swims through water as opening credits appear on screen. As you complete the first stage, those credits keep going. Its a nice little movie style touch, and we will see plenty more of those.

Like a typical Metal Gear Solid later, the game opens with plenty of exposition. Kojima has a thing about details, and boy does this game go into detail. We get explanations about the Codec communication system, which is basically a radio, but we also are told why no one else around Snake can hear it. Then we get an explanation of how Snake was able to swim through cold water, and how he smuggled cigarettes through Naomi's strip search before the mission (he swallows the box).

Early on in the game, we are given a quick tutorial about the semi-open endness of the sneaking. The game points out that there are a few ways into the facility we are sneaking into, and our commander, Campbell tells us to choose our own COA (course of action so says the game).

Naturally, I make as much noise as possible, get spotted, and chased across the stage until I happen upon a gun. It is much easier to sneak around when all of the guards are simply dead. When I try to save once I've snuck into the building, I finally remember why I meant to buy a digital version of the game. Mei Ling's lines cant be read off the disc when saving thanks to a tiny little scratch I never resurfaced. This is of minor importance since I can still save. A shame I won't get to hear all of her quotes (a tradition all mission data specialists seem to carry on post MGS1).

Once we are in an air duct, Master Miller calls us. He is Snake's old friend and mentor. He also speaks with a hint of a British accent. The name Miller will appear later on when we hit Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. He lets us know that if we have questions about Alaska, to call him. We won't be calling him. Ever. Fuck Alaska.

Oh shit, I forgot why I was here. We are apparently looking for the DARPA chief who has been taken hostage by terrorists being led by someone with the code name, Liquid. The terrorists have a miniature army of soldiers and a nuclear weapon at their disposal. Using this they have taken over a military base in Alaska located on Shadow Moses Island. If I recall, the terrorists demand money. Its never that simple though, is it?

While crawling through the air duct, a guard tells another guard that the ducts will be sprayed for rats soon. No better time for pest control than during a hostage situation that has the whole US government paralyzed due to nuclear threat! I need to find an elevator to get to the basement where the DARPA dude is.

Annnnd I died again trying to find the elevator. Things are going swell. A quick reload, and elevator ride and we are back into more air ducts to get to the DARPA chief. Along the way, we see a red haired girl doing sit ups in her cell. Moving on from that, we get to the DARPA chief.

He informs Snake that the terrorist have a hold of a nuclear equipped walking battle tank... a Metal Gear which was being stored in secret on Shadow Moses. It also turns out that the President of Arms Tech is also on the island. The terrorists need DARPAs and Arms Tech's passwords to launch their nuke. Now, we have to go on a quest to get card keys to cancel the nuke launch. Oh shit the DARPA guy had a random heart attack right when he was about to explain something crazy!


And thus completes the first hour of Metal Gear Solid.

I really suck at it so far. The controls are a little wonky, but otherwise, the game holds up fairly well through the first hour. The voice acting is pretty good, which is a nice thing for a game so old. The more gameplay heavy parts are coming up now that the basic premise and quest of the story have been established.

Death Count: 2
Alert Count: 4
Stupid Convenient Plot Element Count: 1

Lets get one thing out of the way really quickly. In Part 1, I said the terrorists were demanding money from the US government or they would launch a nuke. That was incorrect. The terrorists are actually demanding the remains of Big Boss, a super solider that we will learn more about down the road. Sorry for being a moron.






Picking right up from where we left off last time, the DARPA chief is dead, from an apparent heart attack. Outside, we hear a commotion, and then cell door opens up. Snake is quickly held at gunpoint by a female guard while a guy in the background, is knocked out cold on the floor and without any clothes (SUPER IMPORTANT MAYBE?). The female guard mistakes Snake for Liquid for some reason. Its clear that this girl has little combat experience, but a shooting gallery sequence gives her the experience she needs and reinforces the idea that I am terrible at this game.

In this sequence, armed guards come rushing through a door and you simply have to shoot or knock them out. I began this bit with no ammo however, and nearly died running for the two boxes. After dispatching the first wave, a few more appear, with one wave rushing in after throwing these grenades. I mistook them for stun grenades and stood over top of them. They were explosives instead. Goodbye cruel world. On the verge of death, I somehow complete the sequence... a Key miracle if I've ever seen one.

The female guard runs off but not before we get a good look at her ass for plot related reasons I'm sure. In the middle of all of this, a cut away scene takes place with three men, one of whom wears a mask. One of them complains that another killed the man, diving too deeply into his mind for the launch codes. They have another plan, however. This is our introduction to Psycho Mantis, the psychic embedded with FOXHOUND, the former special ops group that has turned terrorist.

At this point, I am completely at a loss as to what to do. I pick up some C4 and begin knocking on walls to find false walls, as instructed by calling Campbell, before falling to my death in a trap floor. Of all the ways to go, a cartoon villain trap does me in. I'm really glad I'm not streaming or recording this.

This seems to be the first major use of sound as a game play element in Metal Gear Solid. You can knock on walls to draw guards away from their posts, but in this case, we are looking for walls that have rooms behind them. Their is a visual cue as they do look different than the rest of the walls, but they also sound very different when you knock on them. Once you find the wall, simply place C4 on it, and detonate. Its a fun game play element the series ran with in this installment, though I can't recall if it shows back up again. We'll find out eventually.

Here we go. I find the room with the Arms Tech guy in a literal bind. The Arms Tech President is tied to a bunch of C4. From behind the set up steps a man wearing cowboy boots calling himself Revolver Ocelot. We wants to see "if the man can live up to the legend". Time for the first boss battle.

I vividly remember this battle from my first playthrough many years ago. Ocelot uses a 6 shot revolver that takes time to reload. The key is to keep moving and hit him as he reloads. Doing this, I manage to only be hit once or twice and easily defeat him. My only major screw up was shooting the tied up Arms Tech President once. He took the bullet like a trooper though. Honestly, I'm surprised I didn't hit any of the trip wire to detonate the bombs.

Upon defeating Ocelot, he prepares for round 2, before an invisible being enters the room and slices off Ocelot's arm, freeing the Arms Tech President too. The Arms Tech guy seems to recognize the new being, exclaiming about the exoskelton as the invisibility wears off. The new person is wearing some sort of cybernetic suit and using a sword as a weapon. When he lays eyes on Snake, he goes crazy, screaming and seizing up before fleeing the room.

What follows is a trademark of the Metal Gear Solid series; a ton of talking. This scene goes on for about 10 minutes or so. The Arms Tech president explains what his company does, and why he created Metal Gear REX, the new Metal Gear. He tells Snake to find Hal Emmerich, his chief scientist and to contact the female solider via codec. The female soldier in question is actually Campbell's niece, Meryl. In the first big 4th wall breaking moment, he tells Snake to check the back of the CD case for Meryl's coded frequency. He also lets drop that the terrorists of FOXHOUND got the code out of him. Once again, just as he is about to tell Snake something very important, he dies of a heart attack. His final words being, "...they are using you to..." and then he dies. Convenient is it not?

Now the terrorists have both nuclear launch codes for Metal Gear REX, so we have to find Meryl or Hal Emmerich to stop this things from happening. Luckily for me, I have my CD case still! I call and.... I get no response. Perfect! I exit the stage and try again. Bingo.

Meryl is a fan of Snake. Most ladies are. Snake proceeds to hit on her. The writing in this game is funny at times, but not overly in your face with comedy. Meryl claims that women have more hiding places than men, so she was able to hide the cancellation information from guards. After much talking, Snake tells Meryl to stay the hell out of his way, while they work together (tsundesnake). Snake decides if he is unable to cancel the nuke launch, he'll destroy Metal Gear REX. He's destroyed a Metal Gear before (pre Metal Gear Solid games). Snake now heads off to find Hal Emmerich. And this is where we save for the day.

One of the major complaints about the Metal Gear Solid series is the high amount of cutscenes and codec conversations. Of the 2 hours or so that I've played, at least a solid 1/3 of it has been cutscenes or codec talks. Sadly, for an older, smaller title such as the first MGS, it leads to gameplay sections being somewhat short and choppy. This could be because of the limitations of the PS1, but also maybe Kojima going too cinematic for the game. I do recall the game opening more as it goes along, so we will see if I remember that correctly. With the amount of plot twists that the series likes to use, it really is no shock that there is a ton of story telling going on, and the attention to detail only compounds the issue. I'm looking forward to seeing how the series evolves in this regard, though I know MGS2 suffers from the same issue.

Death Count: 3
Alert Count: 4
Stupid Convenient Plot Element Count: 2

First off, hello, and welcome to my shitty blog. I am a huge huge Metal Gear Solid fan (it is where the name, solidbatman, came from). I am so hyped for Phantom Pain, set to be released later this year, and seeing that I own every single Metal Gear Solid game to have been released, I decided to replay the entire series, starting with Metal Gear Solid, and ending with MGSV: Ground Zeroes. Along the way we will also hit MGS2, MGS3, MGS: Portable Ops, MGS: Peace Walker, and MGS4.

It has been an incredibly long time since I last played most of these games. I have played through MGS2, 3, and 4 numerous times though, but I still expect to be horrific at these games just because I'm rusty. Due to that, I will be playing all of these on normal. European Extreme is for another day.

I hope anyone reading this will enjoy my experiences on this vast replay journey. No doubt there will be much salt, anguish and then depression when I am all done.

Lets get one thing out of the way really quickly. In Part 1, I said the terrorists were demanding money from the US government or they would launch a nuke. That was incorrect. The terrorists are actually demanding the remains of Big Boss, a super solider that we will learn more about down the road. Sorry for being a moron.






Picking right up from where we left off last time, the DARPA chief is dead, from an apparent heart attack. Outside, we hear a commotion, and then cell door opens up. Snake is quickly held at gunpoint by a female guard while a guy in the background, is knocked out cold on the floor and without any clothes (SUPER IMPORTANT MAYBE?). The female guard mistakes Snake for Liquid for some reason. Its clear that this girl has little combat experience, but a shooting gallery sequence gives her the experience she needs and reinforces the idea that I am terrible at this game.

In this sequence, armed guards come rushing through a door and you simply have to shoot or knock them out. I began this bit with no ammo however, and nearly died running for the two boxes. After dispatching the first wave, a few more appear, with one wave rushing in after throwing these grenades. I mistook them for stun grenades and stood over top of them. They were explosives instead. Goodbye cruel world. On the verge of death, I somehow complete the sequence... a Key miracle if I've ever seen one.

The female guard runs off but not before we get a good look at her ass for plot related reasons I'm sure. In the middle of all of this, a cut away scene takes place with three men, one of whom wears a mask. One of them complains that another killed the man, diving too deeply into his mind for the launch codes. They have another plan, however. This is our introduction to Psycho Mantis, the psychic embedded with FOXHOUND, the former special ops group that has turned terrorist.

At this point, I am completely at a loss as to what to do. I pick up some C4 and begin knocking on walls to find false walls, as instructed by calling Campbell, before falling to my death in a trap floor. Of all the ways to go, a cartoon villain trap does me in. I'm really glad I'm not streaming or recording this.

This seems to be the first major use of sound as a game play element in Metal Gear Solid. You can knock on walls to draw guards away from their posts, but in this case, we are looking for walls that have rooms behind them. Their is a visual cue as they do look different than the rest of the walls, but they also sound very different when you knock on them. Once you find the wall, simply place C4 on it, and detonate. Its a fun game play element the series ran with in this installment, though I can't recall if it shows back up again. We'll find out eventually.

Here we go. I find the room with the Arms Tech guy in a literal bind. The Arms Tech President is tied to a bunch of C4. From behind the set up steps a man wearing cowboy boots calling himself Revolver Ocelot. We wants to see "if the man can live up to the legend". Time for the first boss battle.

I vividly remember this battle from my first playthrough many years ago. Ocelot uses a 6 shot revolver that takes time to reload. The key is to keep moving and hit him as he reloads. Doing this, I manage to only be hit once or twice and easily defeat him. My only major screw up was shooting the tied up Arms Tech President once. He took the bullet like a trooper though. Honestly, I'm surprised I didn't hit any of the trip wire to detonate the bombs.

Upon defeating Ocelot, he prepares for round 2, before an invisible being enters the room and slices off Ocelot's arm, freeing the Arms Tech President too. The Arms Tech guy seems to recognize the new being, exclaiming about the exoskelton as the invisibility wears off. The new person is wearing some sort of cybernetic suit and using a sword as a weapon. When he lays eyes on Snake, he goes crazy, screaming and seizing up before fleeing the room.

What follows is a trademark of the Metal Gear Solid series; a ton of talking. This scene goes on for about 10 minutes or so. The Arms Tech president explains what his company does, and why he created Metal Gear REX, the new Metal Gear. He tells Snake to find Hal Emmerich, his chief scientist and to contact the female solider via codec. The female soldier in question is actually Campbell's niece, Meryl. In the first big 4th wall breaking moment, he tells Snake to check the back of the CD case for Meryl's coded frequency. He also lets drop that the terrorists of FOXHOUND got the code out of him. Once again, just as he is about to tell Snake something very important, he dies of a heart attack. His final words being, "...they are using you to..." and then he dies. Convenient is it not?

Now the terrorists have both nuclear launch codes for Metal Gear REX, so we have to find Meryl or Hal Emmerich to stop this things from happening. Luckily for me, I have my CD case still! I call and.... I get no response. Perfect! I exit the stage and try again. Bingo.

Meryl is a fan of Snake. Most ladies are. Snake proceeds to hit on her. The writing in this game is funny at times, but not overly in your face with comedy. Meryl claims that women have more hiding places than men, so she was able to hide the cancellation information from guards. After much talking, Snake tells Meryl to stay the hell out of his way, while they work together (tsundesnake). Snake decides if he is unable to cancel the nuke launch, he'll destroy Metal Gear REX. He's destroyed a Metal Gear before (pre Metal Gear Solid games). Snake now heads off to find Hal Emmerich. And this is where we save for the day.

One of the major complaints about the Metal Gear Solid series is the high amount of cutscenes and codec conversations. Of the 2 hours or so that I've played, at least a solid 1/3 of it has been cutscenes or codec talks. Sadly, for an older, smaller title such as the first MGS, it leads to gameplay sections being somewhat short and choppy. This could be because of the limitations of the PS1, but also maybe Kojima going too cinematic for the game. I do recall the game opening more as it goes along, so we will see if I remember that correctly. With the amount of plot twists that the series likes to use, it really is no shock that there is a ton of story telling going on, and the attention to detail only compounds the issue. I'm looking forward to seeing how the series evolves in this regard, though I know MGS2 suffers from the same issue.

Death Count: 3
Alert Count: 4
Stupid Convenient Plot Element Count: 2

I died 5 minutes into the game, and killed 3 guards. I still got it.





Anyway, a few beginning notes. Naomi's accent is a British one in Metal Gear Solid and Mei Ling is a super stereotypical Asian girl accent. No doubt we'll see those two voices stay the same through the entire series. Hideo Kojima, the director, loves cinematic games, and Metal Gear Solid opens very similar to a move opening. Snake swims through water as opening credits appear on screen. As you complete the first stage, those credits keep going. Its a nice little movie style touch, and we will see plenty more of those.

Like a typical Metal Gear Solid later, the game opens with plenty of exposition. Kojima has a thing about details, and boy does this game go into detail. We get explanations about the Codec communication system, which is basically a radio, but we also are told why no one else around Snake can hear it. Then we get an explanation of how Snake was able to swim through cold water, and how he smuggled cigarettes through Naomi's strip search before the mission (he swallows the box).

Early on in the game, we are given a quick tutorial about the semi-open endness of the sneaking. The game points out that there are a few ways into the facility we are sneaking into, and our commander, Campbell tells us to choose our own COA (course of action so says the game).

Naturally, I make as much noise as possible, get spotted, and chased across the stage until I happen upon a gun. It is much easier to sneak around when all of the guards are simply dead. When I try to save once I've snuck into the building, I finally remember why I meant to buy a digital version of the game. Mei Ling's lines cant be read off the disc when saving thanks to a tiny little scratch I never resurfaced. This is of minor importance since I can still save. A shame I won't get to hear all of her quotes (a tradition all mission data specialists seem to carry on post MGS1).

Once we are in an air duct, Master Miller calls us. He is Snake's old friend and mentor. He also speaks with a hint of a British accent. The name Miller will appear later on when we hit Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. He lets us know that if we have questions about Alaska, to call him. We won't be calling him. Ever. Fuck Alaska.

Oh shit, I forgot why I was here. We are apparently looking for the DARPA chief who has been taken hostage by terrorists being led by someone with the code name, Liquid. The terrorists have a miniature army of soldiers and a nuclear weapon at their disposal. Using this they have taken over a military base in Alaska located on Shadow Moses Island. If I recall, the terrorists demand money. Its never that simple though, is it?

While crawling through the air duct, a guard tells another guard that the ducts will be sprayed for rats soon. No better time for pest control than during a hostage situation that has the whole US government paralyzed due to nuclear threat! I need to find an elevator to get to the basement where the DARPA dude is.

Annnnd I died again trying to find the elevator. Things are going swell. A quick reload, and elevator ride and we are back into more air ducts to get to the DARPA chief. Along the way, we see a red haired girl doing sit ups in her cell. Moving on from that, we get to the DARPA chief.

He informs Snake that the terrorist have a hold of a nuclear equipped walking battle tank... a Metal Gear which was being stored in secret on Shadow Moses. It also turns out that the President of Arms Tech is also on the island. The terrorists need DARPAs and Arms Tech's passwords to launch their nuke. Now, we have to go on a quest to get card keys to cancel the nuke launch. Oh shit the DARPA guy had a random heart attack right when he was about to explain something crazy!


And thus completes the first hour of Metal Gear Solid.

I really suck at it so far. The controls are a little wonky, but otherwise, the game holds up fairly well through the first hour. The voice acting is pretty good, which is a nice thing for a game so old. The more gameplay heavy parts are coming up now that the basic premise and quest of the story have been established.

Death Count: 2
Alert Count: 4
Stupid Convenient Plot Element Count: 1

I died 5 minutes into the game, and killed 3 guards. I still got it.





Anyway, a few beginning notes. Naomi's accent is a British one in Metal Gear Solid and Mei Ling is a super stereotypical Asian girl accent. No doubt we'll see those two voices stay the same through the entire series. Hideo Kojima, the director, loves cinematic games, and Metal Gear Solid opens very similar to a move opening. Snake swims through water as opening credits appear on screen. As you complete the first stage, those credits keep going. Its a nice little movie style touch, and we will see plenty more of those.

Like a typical Metal Gear Solid later, the game opens with plenty of exposition. Kojima has a thing about details, and boy does this game go into detail. We get explanations about the Codec communication system, which is basically a radio, but we also are told why no one else around Snake can hear it. Then we get an explanation of how Snake was able to swim through cold water, and how he smuggled cigarettes through Naomi's strip search before the mission (he swallows the box).

Early on in the game, we are given a quick tutorial about the semi-open endness of the sneaking. The game points out that there are a few ways into the facility we are sneaking into, and our commander, Campbell tells us to choose our own COA (course of action so says the game).

Naturally, I make as much noise as possible, get spotted, and chased across the stage until I happen upon a gun. It is much easier to sneak around when all of the guards are simply dead. When I try to save once I've snuck into the building, I finally remember why I meant to buy a digital version of the game. Mei Ling's lines cant be read off the disc when saving thanks to a tiny little scratch I never resurfaced. This is of minor importance since I can still save. A shame I won't get to hear all of her quotes (a tradition all mission data specialists seem to carry on post MGS1).

Once we are in an air duct, Master Miller calls us. He is Snake's old friend and mentor. He also speaks with a hint of a British accent. The name Miller will appear later on when we hit Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. He lets us know that if we have questions about Alaska, to call him. We won't be calling him. Ever. Fuck Alaska.

Oh shit, I forgot why I was here. We are apparently looking for the DARPA chief who has been taken hostage by terrorists being led by someone with the code name, Liquid. The terrorists have a miniature army of soldiers and a nuclear weapon at their disposal. Using this they have taken over a military base in Alaska located on Shadow Moses Island. If I recall, the terrorists demand money. Its never that simple though, is it?

While crawling through the air duct, a guard tells another guard that the ducts will be sprayed for rats soon. No better time for pest control than during a hostage situation that has the whole US government paralyzed due to nuclear threat! I need to find an elevator to get to the basement where the DARPA dude is.

Annnnd I died again trying to find the elevator. Things are going swell. A quick reload, and elevator ride and we are back into more air ducts to get to the DARPA chief. Along the way, we see a red haired girl doing sit ups in her cell. Moving on from that, we get to the DARPA chief.

He informs Snake that the terrorist have a hold of a nuclear equipped walking battle tank... a Metal Gear which was being stored in secret on Shadow Moses. It also turns out that the President of Arms Tech is also on the island. The terrorists need DARPAs and Arms Tech's passwords to launch their nuke. Now, we have to go on a quest to get card keys to cancel the nuke launch. Oh shit the DARPA guy had a random heart attack right when he was about to explain something crazy!


And thus completes the first hour of Metal Gear Solid.

I really suck at it so far. The controls are a little wonky, but otherwise, the game holds up fairly well through the first hour. The voice acting is pretty good, which is a nice thing for a game so old. The more gameplay heavy parts are coming up now that the basic premise and quest of the story have been established.

Death Count: 2
Alert Count: 4
Stupid Convenient Plot Element Count: 1

I died 5 minutes into the game, and killed 3 guards. I still got it.





Anyway, a few beginning notes. Naomi's accent is a British one in Metal Gear Solid and Mei Ling is a super stereotypical Asian girl accent. No doubt we'll see those two voices stay the same through the entire series. Hideo Kojima, the director, loves cinematic games, and Metal Gear Solid opens very similar to a move opening. Snake swims through water as opening credits appear on screen. As you complete the first stage, those credits keep going. Its a nice little movie style touch, and we will see plenty more of those.

Like a typical Metal Gear Solid later, the game opens with plenty of exposition. Kojima has a thing about details, and boy does this game go into detail. We get explanations about the Codec communication system, which is basically a radio, but we also are told why no one else around Snake can hear it. Then we get an explanation of how Snake was able to swim through cold water, and how he smuggled cigarettes through Naomi's strip search before the mission (he swallows the box).

Early on in the game, we are given a quick tutorial about the semi-open endness of the sneaking. The game points out that there are a few ways into the facility we are sneaking into, and our commander, Campbell tells us to choose our own COA (course of action so says the game).

Naturally, I make as much noise as possible, get spotted, and chased across the stage until I happen upon a gun. It is much easier to sneak around when all of the guards are simply dead. When I try to save once I've snuck into the building, I finally remember why I meant to buy a digital version of the game. Mei Ling's lines cant be read off the disc when saving thanks to a tiny little scratch I never resurfaced. This is of minor importance since I can still save. A shame I won't get to hear all of her quotes (a tradition all mission data specialists seem to carry on post MGS1).

Once we are in an air duct, Master Miller calls us. He is Snake's old friend and mentor. He also speaks with a hint of a British accent. The name Miller will appear later on when we hit Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. He lets us know that if we have questions about Alaska, to call him. We won't be calling him. Ever. Fuck Alaska.

Oh shit, I forgot why I was here. We are apparently looking for the DARPA chief who has been taken hostage by terrorists being led by someone with the code name, Liquid. The terrorists have a miniature army of soldiers and a nuclear weapon at their disposal. Using this they have taken over a military base in Alaska located on Shadow Moses Island. If I recall, the terrorists demand money. Its never that simple though, is it?

While crawling through the air duct, a guard tells another guard that the ducts will be sprayed for rats soon. No better time for pest control than during a hostage situation that has the whole US government paralyzed due to nuclear threat! I need to find an elevator to get to the basement where the DARPA dude is.

Annnnd I died again trying to find the elevator. Things are going swell. A quick reload, and elevator ride and we are back into more air ducts to get to the DARPA chief. Along the way, we see a red haired girl doing sit ups in her cell. Moving on from that, we get to the DARPA chief.

He informs Snake that the terrorist have a hold of a nuclear equipped walking battle tank... a Metal Gear which was being stored in secret on Shadow Moses. It also turns out that the President of Arms Tech is also on the island. The terrorists need DARPAs and Arms Tech's passwords to launch their nuke. Now, we have to go on a quest to get card keys to cancel the nuke launch. Oh shit the DARPA guy had a random heart attack right when he was about to explain something crazy!


And thus completes the first hour of Metal Gear Solid.

I really suck at it so far. The controls are a little wonky, but otherwise, the game holds up fairly well through the first hour. The voice acting is pretty good, which is a nice thing for a game so old. The more gameplay heavy parts are coming up now that the basic premise and quest of the story have been established.

Death Count: 2
Alert Count: 4
Stupid Convenient Plot Element Count: 1

Hey Fuwans! Lino here again to bring you some more fabulous happenings from the community.

As some of you may be aware, solidbatman is holding a contest, and a mega big ultra one at that. For the next 8 weeks we are going to be subject to many an event set by the man himself, earning points after the completion of each one. Why do this you ask? 'Cause he is our Dark Knight, and we do not question that.

So why participate? Well, the participant with the most points at the end of it all will be taking home a big big prize. To see just what is at stake, you can check it out over on this thread. If you want to participate, you best head on over there now, as the first event is going to end on the 13th of March. All you need to do for the first event is voice your wish to join in on the fun, and the first challenge will be complete. I'll be hoping to see you there myself, as I too will be participating. Probably going to be a bloodbath, so all the more reason to head on over!

Good luck guys, and may the strongest bat Fuwan win.