Arvis

Great taste. Clannad is fantastic. DAT MUSIC. I'm noticing a few people mentioning Grisaia no Kajitsu. I noticed that that particular VN just got an anime adaptation picked up, slated to be released this year. It looked a little.... "ecchi", to me. I assume it's not an all-ages VN? IMHHW is a VN I have been itching to get my hands on for some time, but I just have so many other things taking up my time. I can't believe how gorgeous it looks, though, everytime I watch a trailer or look at screengrabs. What's the native resolution of IMHHW? I mean, I'm finishing up Symphonic Rain and, while it's an amazing VN, it would be nice to play/read something that isn't in a tiny little box on my computer monitor the whole time. -Arvis

Hrrmmm... well, I have only played three VNs ever: Clannad, the first one, I got because I was in love with the anime (there goes Key getting innocent folks into VNs again). And, in fact, I was SO in love with Clannad that I simply HAD to find people to talk about it with. Since GameFAQs is my main haunt on these here interwebz, I searched it up on that site and discovered that it was a VN before it was an anime. I chatted up some folks on Clannad's message board there and they pointed me toward Fuwanovel. I downloaded and played through Kyou Fujibayashi's route and felt satisfied (that was really all I wanted). I then decided to browse through Fuwanovel's selection and play something else. I randomly picked Ever17 (all ages and highly rated) and proceeded to have my brain melted (in a good way). Despite how much I enjoyed Ever17, it was still a bit grindy, which is why it's not my favorite VN. That distinction goes to my third (and current) VN... Symphonic Rain. I discovered SR the same way I discovered Ever17 and couldn't be more happy with it. Just a beautiful VN through and through. Really, it seems my story is very similar to Snowtsuku's up there in the first post. -Arvis

T_T

What you describe exists: http://store.steampowered.com/app/293680/ -Arvis

^ LOL, I was thinking of playing Little Busters next, but now I don't know... -Arvis

That makes sense. But I wouldn't say that I think she "deserves" Chris, as such. Not any more than anyone "deserves" being with anyone else. You either both love each other or you don't. There's no "deserve" about it. Rather, I was expressing why I wanted her to be happy and to have her heart's desire. Were Chris NOT in love with her and left her (like he did in the other routes, which are now horribly heartbreaking in my eyes), that would suck, but it would be worse if he forced a relationship to try and make her happy. You're definitely right, though: it really doesn't matter how much someone needs a person. But it definitely affects how much I can empathize with them, for sure. -Arvis

Yep. I predicted the twist a while ago, even though I haven't played that route yet, so I can't imagine that my feelings are going to change. Also in regards to Torta, I agree with you, she is probably the most complex character and she certainly deserves more attention. The only problem is that I would have to reread both her route and Al Fine in order to fully understand her. In fact Torta may very well be the next character I do a character analysis of. I would like to agree with you on that, except , so I can't. However, I would DEFINITELY love to read your character analysis of Torta, if your post above is anything to go by. Please do analyze her. You're welcome. But Al Fine was more than enough to make up for it, and she ended up being my favorite. Lise's route was the most emotional, though. She had the best route, in my opinion (since Al Fine wasn't really a heroine route), but her character was a little bland for me. She was cute, though. Thank you for your vote! You're right, the drama was definitely telegraphed, but the twist changed everything, to my mind. Regarding Lise, she was cute, certainly, but not particularly interesting. Her route was easily the most predictible (not that that is a dealbreaker or anything) and probably the least interesting, for me. It did, however, serve to make me like Torta more, as her scenes in that route were simultaneously sweet and heartbreaking. Honestly, I think every route made me like Torta more: the standard bad ending, Fal's route, Lise's route, both Torta routes... I wonder if Phorni's route will make me like her more. Regarding Snowtsuku and Zalor's little discussion above... I've seen people say that Lise is the best heroine because "she needed Chris more than any of the others." That could not be more wrong. What Lise needed was a friend. Anyone, boy or girl, to care more aout her than their own ambition. Anyone could have filled that role. Torta, on the other hand, needed Chris, speciifically, and nobody else would ever do. She needed him, everything about him: his unconditional love and concern, his affection, his thoughts, feelings, words, music, likes, dislikes, interests, and time. There was a far greater need on her side than from any of the other characters, period. *whew* I feel better now. -Arvis

Thank you for the warm and... eclectic welcome, everyone. Hard to argue with this. I appreciate everyone's suggestions. Kanon is defintely near the top of my list. Also been wanting to try If My Heart Had Wings for a long time now, as well. The official release removes the 18+ scenes, so I want to support it. And yes, I'm All Ages all the way, in case you couldn't tell. Why spend all this time getting to know these interesting characters only to objectify them at the end? But I'm sure I'm in the minority on that opinion. Thanks to Zalor for the Symphonic Rain discussion. I'm heading to that other thread now. -Arvis

Not really. I'm Arvis. I just wanted a unique topic title. Dang I'm bad at this. Anyways, hi, I'm Arvis and I started reading Visual Novels at the end of last year. I had fallen in love with anime Clannad and wanted to try the VN. Fuwanovel made that possible. From there, I thought "why not go ahead and try another VN that's not related to any anime?" So I played Ever17. It was amazing and made me want to try even more VNs. Now I am just about wrapping up my third ever VN, Symphonic Rain, and I think I'm pretty hooked on this particular storytelling medium. If anyone wants to talk about Symphonic Rain, please point me in the appropriate direction because I am bursting at the seams with thoughts/feelings on this VN. If anyone wants to make recommendations for me, then here is kind of what I'm thinking I'll do next: a - Buy official Steins;Gate release and play that. The anime is my all-time favorite. b - Get Little Busters from Fuwanovel. c - Hold out for Root Double despite knowing nothing about it. Which option is best and why? Nice to meet all of you. -Arvis

Do any of you.... have any idea.... how painful it is to finally get to "Al Fine", play through it, become overwhelmed with emotion and "feelz" as the kids say these days, desperately search for some kind of community with which to share said feelz..... finally find a forum and thread where people are talking about it... only to discover that Torta only has two lousy votes in this poll?? Well... three now that I'm here, but you know what I mean. And not only does she have two (three) lousy votes, but nobody is even talking about her!! It's all "Lise lolicon hnnnng!" and "OMG Phorni so kawaiii!~~ ^_^" and "Fal is a cold, heartless b-word and that's why I like her." Give me a break. I have to ask: why the lack of love for Torta? Not only is she the most tragic figure in the story (by far), but she's the most likable and most interesting as well. Her dialogue with Chris is extremely real and relatable, she's oozing personality, she's funny and smart, and to top it all off her story is so tragic that you simply have to love and cherish her. And yet: Arietta has 4 votes. Torta: 2. My brain is about to explode. Somebody please help me understand. Will I magically stop caring about Torta once I complete Phorni's route? I have yet to do it since I am allowing time for Torta's true ending to soak into my mind and heart. -Arvis