Parallel Pain

I am making youtube videos about my playthrough of the English version of Tears to Tiara II - Heir to the Overlord. Now the TBS SLG part should be no problem. It'll be like any other Let's Plays. But I am making the story part seperate. I already read the Japanese version, and I am also a history buff. So I am making annotations where I can about historical referances and translation commentaries and pointing out mistakes and just general reactions and stuff. My goal is of course to promote the game. My dream is to get it so much sales that Aquaplus makes an anime for it. Yes I know it'll never happen but I can dream right? Now my dilemma is, the game is half ADV half SLG. The visual novel part in fact might even be larger. So by continuing to post the story part, annotations or no, I'd be putting the entire VN on youtube. And people might just watch it and not buy the game anymore. But people might also watch it and get really interested and buy the game. So what should I do. Should I stop uploading the story parts? Or should I keep going?

LOL okay 1) Same. But that doesn't protect her from anything in my books. I'm not a normal fan haha. 2) It was? I thought the first 1/3 was light, but Takafumi's 1/3 was heavy. Then again I was in clinical depression so it might have felt heavier than it really was. In any case yeah that's what got Maeda Jun flamed, people wanting a good ending like Clannad. I remember him lamenting "people were okay with Air's ending, why are they bashing this one?" Reading that someone from the audience yelling out "I loved Tomoyo After!" really warmed my heart. 3) That's my biggest gripe with the piece as well. If it weren't there, I'd have placed it as #1 (well it was still #1 till Really? Really! stole its place). I don't think it's ego. Tomoya himself stated that he wants to see a blood family working out as proof they will work out in the future no matter what happens. Given his upbringing it is understandable, and its something that couples need to eventually work out. Still, Maeda Jun kept writing that "a family-like group is what makes life worth living". He never said it has to be blood family, and Clannad makes it clear it doesn't. In fact even in Tomoyo After, he points out that it doesn't. Therefore they retreating from the village and raising Tomo as an adopted daughter in a loving family should be just as valid an option. Yet that path is treated as if it's "wrong" and this family is "fake" for some unknown reason. He contradicts his entire theme to write a tragedy when he could've just wrote it as a seperate story with bonding, even struggling (like say the Tomoyo's family finds out) to create a loving family. That should've been just as valid an option, and he could've kept the other option as a well fleshed-out tragedy route.

There is if you know Japanese and know where to look. Actually there is translations too. Kamidori right?

Welcome! I'm new too! I used to be like you. Then someone told me "sex is an essential part of life." Ever since that epiphany, I don't skip h-scenes unless it's cringeworthy, tasteless, or just too long. Oh don't let that scare you. I'm told the forum's full of weirdos. So I'm definately one.

Please keep in mind I respect your opinion, and I am not trying to convince you of mine. I am just explaining my opinion. Both. Yes you are right, the CG and sprites of PC version was quite bland. However the CG for the two important parts are good enough. And the three voices that matter: Arawn, Arthur/Pwyll, and Rhiannon/Primula were unchanged. In fact the only voices that were changed were the forgetable supporting female cast. At least Octavia is less forgetable in PS3 since she gets her own arc. Gaius was a cool arc 1 villain. That's it. That's not bad, and he is cool, and he is better developped than Lector (another reason in TtT taking a nose dive last chapter). However he doesn't have a complicated motivation. He's straight forward in it as a worthy opponent, and if he had been in charge of the empire it would have been a lot better. Of course he's after the throne too. Anyway I won't duct any points off him, but he doesn't get any added either. Izebel on the otherhand has a complicated motivation, with lots of foreshadowing towards it. She gets her own complicated back story that brought me to tears. And I did read through blogs and plays of Japanese players and I wasn't the only one. TtT2 also develops Dion immensely, while all of the original from Tamar gets very important backgrounds and insights to their thoughts, characteristics, and back story. (The ones not from Tamar definately weren't developed enough). Besides Arawen and Arthur, only Taliesin and Octavia develops to any extent, and Octavia only in PS3. One can make a case for Rhiannon's development, but I don't buy it. The SoL episodes fell very flat for me. It's quite clear Maruitakeshi was a newbie when writing it (which he was) and couldn't pull off what a veteran writer like Suga Munemitsu did for Utawarerumono's SoL episodes. Because it fell flat for me, all it did was slow the plot down. And really, an epic doesn't need SoL episodes. I didn't start Avalon's mysteries yet. But I am of the group that believes gaiden should be treated seperately. That's not theme. That's just backstory. Mind you it's important, and the back story is good. But it's still not a theme because its not explored. It could have been, but it wasn't. Let's assume it is a theme though (I will explain why it isn't, but let's start here). At best one can say "Religion is Bad" is a theme. That is hammered again and again in TtT1. That in and of itself is not a bad thing. But it is a simple theme. If you have to rely on emotions created one to three chapter ago, that's bad. In contrast TtT2 explains and describes all different sides and range of religion. In the end all TtT2 says is fundamentalism is bad, which was already established in the beginning. It keeps examining different facets of religion and yet never gives a definate answer. It's complicated and gives the audience a lot to think about. That's a step into the realm of heavy literature. While both 1 and 2 drops off near the end. TtT takes a plunge last chapter, and nothing can save an entire chapter (another reason why the anime's superior). In contrast TtT2 only drops off in the last scene before the conclusion, and one scene can be saved, in this case by Matsuoka Yoshitsugu, even if it had to resort to its own version of LotR's eagles. Now back to TtT1's religion. Why isn't religion a theme? Because the theme of comradery in TtT1 is "Fight not for religion or tradition. Fight for your friends." Therefore all its religion stuff is just a footnote to comradery. And really it's treated as such. It is of course everyone's opinion. However the general feeling with Japanese audience from blogs, forum posts, and reviews I read, and I agree, is the story after the rebellion gets better and better until Izebel's death at the half way mark. To me her death was flawless, and it turned out to be too strong, and overshadows the rest of the game. The reason being Maruitakeshi chickened out again. Of four cop-outs, all he had to do was pick one, maybe two, and have them played straight and the story would have ended much stronger (though personally I think it still wouldn't have matched Izebel's death).

Haha high five! It feels fine right now is all I can say. I'm very strange too so I'll fit right in. Eeeer.... Maeda Jun? I remember he was heartbroken when a lot of Japanese Clannad fans flamed on him for Tomoyo After ending. I feel so bad for him.

Well I don't know if it's the same thing, but around the time Rewrite came out I had an epiphany like "why am I still reading this?" Not VN, no. But high school harem romance where the shared route try to make you laugh and the individual route try to make you cry. I've had a lot of "I've been here before". And why do I want to keep crying for fictional characters? So I decide to go off and find other things. Like how about non-harem, reverse harem. How about comedy all the way through, or tragedy all the way through. How about RPGs and SLGs. How about all the weird stuff I can find on doujin sites. And man it was a lot of fun. I do come back from time to time to read a HS SoL Harem Romance, and I think exposing myself to other stuff makes me enjoy them more.

IIRC Kudo route gets a massive rewrite. What was a very surreal experience in LB is much better explained in EX (and makes a lot more sense). My favourite out of the entire LB verse is Kanata route, and Saya is good for fun. I would say depend on how long the wait is. How long is the wait?

I don't think it'd be fun. Marvel heroes will bring down the Titans too easily. Batman's DC yo.

Thank you everyone. My favourites depend on genre. For traditional slice-of-life romance my favourite is Really? Really!(PC) followed closely by Tomoyo After - It's a Wonderful Life (PS2 or 10th Ani). Both I have read over 5 times. I rank both of them higher than their parent games (Shuffle! and Clannad respectively) for the exact same reason, that it develop the characters and goes into more depth. RPG mix my favourite is Tears to Tiara II - Heir to the Overlord. It's so good that after reading the Japanese version I bought the English one once it came out and decide to make youtube video playthrough for it. Of course I have to facepalm at a lot of the translation...but anyway. Second is Utawarerumono. Lately I've been reading more and more doujin/indie game because of my crappy work-life balance and they are shorter. There's plenty of surprises here. For slice-of-life romance my favourite doujin is Sakuya (it's an otome-game). For RPG it's something called Guardian of the Elves. I rank it higher than Kamidori. Which I actually dropped, not because it's bad, but because for being only average or above-average its too long and I don't have the time. And of course Guardian of the Elves has an awesome soundtrack, better than many professional games I've played, and all composed by indie composers. Last boss BGM is especially amazing.

Really? Really! has 1 new heroine. Who turned out popular enough to get her own route in Essence+ Essence+ Kareha and Mayumi routes (Kikyou too if you count that) are basically ported from PS2 version then given H-scene

I'm coming in to offer my take on this First, as far as I can tell PS3 Tears to Tiara 1 has the same rewrite amount as PS2 Utawarerumono. That is, everything already written on the PC version is unchanged, while a few stages are added and a new subplot written in (and quickly resolved). PS3 version should be treated as a new game because it's TBS, not PC's RTS, but as far as the story portion goes, it should be treated as more-or-less the same. I can see why one might like Tears to Tiara 1 more, so I'll give my personal take on this, ranking Aquaplus' RPGs from favourite to least. Note I'm talking about story only. Wall of Text Warning! Skip to conclusion if you don't need details! Tears to Tiara II is definitely my favourite. But I echo hellish in that the ending isn't as strong. Quality wise it sort of starts off high, then steadily climbs until it reach Mt. Everest Level at the half way mark, before jumping onto a plateau and wobbles a bit, before climbing high again but never reach what it was before. The story after half-way is also less relatable. The second half has one or two too many cop-outs, making the ending bland except for the voice acting, which alone rescues the part. So why is it my favourite? It is an epic literature. It dumps the harem (I like harem, but I'll explain later). The story has two themes: religion, and sacrifice. The first half is almost entirely the latter, and is so well written that on second reading even some really small things like mannerism of the villain that was easily ignored on first reading becomes clear that it's actually foreshadowing the twist. The second half turns up the theme of religion, and becomes philosophical, without getting in the way of the story. The first game clearly says "Religion is Bad". But this one asks "Or is it?". It asks also "What's the role of religion in a society" and even at the end never gives you an answer. If you like thinking, as I do, this is bunch of extra points for it. Of course if you don't care for it, then all it does is slow down the story. Then, going for epic, the story drives for scale and politics and awesome. It's good to see once in a while a military genius who can walk the walk in fiction, not just make up stuff that wouldn't work irl half the time. I have to echo Hasdrubal's CV in his commentaries after the end in that rather than a game plot, TtT2 reads like heavy literature. And as a history buff, this one has a lot more references. Utawarerumono comes a close second. In fact I am really torn on how to place these two and could easily place Utawarerumono first. Utawarerumono has basically no themes and no philosophy. It is not an epic, and the plot is straightforward(-ish). But it goes for the other path. The story is written as in-universe "normal" people get thrust into situations good and bad that they have to respond to. It has the best comedy, the best slice of life parts (TtT2 has none), and even its harem in a way makes sense, which is super rare in a VN. It successfully builds and fleshes out every single character, where both TtT games only does this for a handful of main characters, and this makes all the characters extremely relatable from start to end. It is basically the best telling a "traditional" harem, personal-relatable romance story in a RPG setting. As such it starts high quality and keeps it all the way through. Finally, Tears to Tiara I It is last because it's really obvious that the author is trying so hard to write an epic (TtT2 style) but doesn't get there. It has a very forced harem. Harem itself has no place in an epic, just like love-triangles has no place in a war movie. All it does is take away screen time from the epic plot. And thankfully the harem drops off as the female cast stops being haremettes and starts being soldiers, improving the quality of the story steadily, and just demonstrates that the harem was redundant in the first place! The writing itself is a bit barebone, and many of its attempt at slice-of-life falls flat. Where-as Utawarerumono fleshes out the entire main cast and many side ones, and TtT2 fleshes out its 2 villains and 3 to 5 of the main cast, TtT1 fleshes out only the two male protagonists (PS3 at best fleshes out 2 more characters). This fleshing, however, is very well done. Its theme of comradery is easily relatable. And this part does have a lot of epicness to it. Once they enter the last arc of the story, however, the quality drops off again as the protagonists finish their development one arc too early and neither the supporting cast nor the villain picks up the slack, turning what was an original story very traditional, which while not mattering to a lot of people, gets it ducted points in my books because it doesn't do what it strives to do. My biggest grip with this work is that the plot naturally lends itself to some philosophical musing, yet through one single line before last boss, the author recons the villains' motivations already previously established for something traditional and cliche. It pains me to say this but IMO the anime version is superior to both PC and PS3. In conclusion/Tl;dr: Tears to Tiara II - Heirs to the Overlord is an epic. Utawarerumono is the epitome of transfering a personal, slice-of-life romance into an RPG setting, and Tears to Tiara (Garlands of the Earth included) is basically the author not having enough conviction to abandon traditional VN story telling in order to tell the story that he wants to tell. It wants to be an epic at the same time as a traditional VN harem slice-of-life, and doesn't quite get both right. So I am really glad he has taken the step and dumped most of the unnecessary things to tell the story he wants to tell for Heirs to the Overlord. As for why I put Tears to Tiara II above Utawarerumono. I will admit Utawarerumono is more emotionally moving and relatable. However I have always been of the opinion that Visual Novel is an art form with way too much untapped potential. It combines the best parts of novels, picture books, and screen, without having to take on a lot of their flaws. Therefore it can be used to tell all sorts of story, better than any of the other art forms. But it's burdened with its origins of being made for harem h-games, so too many authors feel they must make it at least a harem, slice-of-life story to satisfy their target demographics. So when a work like Tears to Tiara II comes along and says willingly breaks boundaries and takes risks to tell the story it wants to tell, even if it ends up not selling well because of it, it should be applauded.

Oooooh. Nanaimo? Victoria?

Hi! I'm actually a casual VN reader nowdays because of time limitations. But I know Japanese. And I'm probably one of the rare ones that go buy dlsite indie VN to read

And of course, Tears to Tiara II - Heir to the Overlord just came out.

How's your Japanese?