What are you playing?

[monkeysrumble]

Finished Aoi's route in Hoshimemo. Definitely the second best route in the game next to Komomo's.

 

Hidden Content

A big asset she had was when she went dere (it was cute) but I was genuinely interested on how she handled the situation, which was to shut down completely. I understand how people would find that annoying but it kind of fits her character well and is a very human response. I liked that through the first half of her route and the common route she was very cold to other people but she was really just building a wall to defend herself from relationships so she couldn't get hurt again from losing them. When she finally started building relationships again and the incident with the telescope happened (she's always been bad with the supernatural; completely ignores it. I almost can't blame her for it) she was afraid of losing them again, so she just shut down. It may not be the most rational thing but emotions are rarely ever rational, and her interlude scenes do a good job describing her emotions at those times. I kind of thought that aspect of it was well done. You after the telescope incident kind of bothered me but it was for a short period of time and from his point of view it kind of made sense since you can't really have a relationship with him and not his sister.

In sum, Aoi's problem was that her feelings were stupid emotional paranoia but because I think the narrative (especially her interludes) did a good job describing it and why she feels the way she does that I didn't mind it and in fact enjoyed it. If you think the narrative did a bad job describing that then I guess I understand why people hate that route. I had no idea I was in such a minority.  

[Chuee]

>liking Isuzu

 

ha ha ha

[Mr Poltroon]

Stop laughing, guys! I'm in Aoi's team, too.

[TexasDice]

Isuzu did nothing wrong. Even Nagisa Furukawa would've had a hard time trying to looking sympathetic with this shitty script.

 
You see, normally "Defrosting Ice Queen"-stories work on a simply premise and follow a similar structure: 

1. The ice queen character rejects [whatever variable the story has]

2. Over time, the ice queen slowly opens up and we get to see glances of what's underneath that shell.

3. In the end, the walls break down and the ice queen's other side and her suppressed need for [whatever variable the story has] is revealed for you to enjoy.

Aoi Isuzu's route had way too much of the first point and not enough of the last. Finishing the thawing process takes until 70% into the story and then the plot proceeds to jump right into the next drama sequence. That's bad, because we don't actually get to spend enough time with Aoi's "good" side at all and can't bask ourselves in the fruits of all that effort we have put into the cause. 

If the frozen part takes too much time at the expense of the payoff, the reader loses interest, because all of that work just wasn't worth it.

 

And no, I'm not saying that every story should be the same. But if you're writing a romance story with the premise of romancing girls, you should probably put some fucking romance into your script!

[LiquidShu]

Finally got around to "finishing" Ever17. You see, what I did was barely skim the last two routes while playing Pokemon. Auto read + Pokemon = Bare able. 

Might have turned out different if I actually read the majority of the lines but I semi-doubt it. Need something to spark some interest in reading a VN again. Flirty, cute, going on dates,  and a bunch of romance. Any suggestions? I don't mind if it has a more serious undertone but it requires flirtation. If not then back to the mango's for me 

[Kawasumi]

Finally got around to "finishing" Ever17. You see, what I did was barely skim the last two routes while playing Pokemon. Auto read + Pokemon = Bare able. 

Might have turned out different if I actually read the majority of the lines but I semi-doubt it. Need something to spark some interest in reading a VN again. Flirty, cute, going on dates,  and a bunch of romance. Any suggestions? I don't mind if it has a more serious undertone but it requires flirtation. If not then back to the mango's for me 

you have a lot of vns that you're playing according to VNDB, maybe finish those off first?

[Chuee]

Isuzu did nothing wrong. Even Nagisa Furukawa would've had a hard time trying to looking sympathetic with this shitty script.

 
You see, normally "Defrosting Ice Queen"-stories work on a simply premise and follow a similar structure: 

1. The ice queen character rejects [whatever variable the story has]

2. Over time, the ice queen slowly opens up and we get to see glances of what's underneath that shell.

3. In the end, the walls break down and the ice queen's other side and her suppressed need for [whatever variable the story has] is revealed for you to enjoy.

Aoi Isuzu's route had way too much of the first point and not enough of the last. Finishing the thawing process takes until 70% into the story and then the plot proceeds to jump right into the next drama sequence. That's bad, because we don't actually get to spend enough time with Aoi's "good" side at all and can't bask ourselves in the fruits of all that effort we have put into the cause. 

If the frozen part takes too much time at the expense of the payoff, the reader loses interest, because all of that work just wasn't worth it.

 

And no, I'm not saying that every story should be the same. But if you're writing a romance story with the premise of romancing girls, you should probably put some fucking romance into your script!

 

No, there's nothing wrong with writing characters who aren't nice, and if Isuzu simply didn't want to be his friend that would be fine as well. But, the problem is her quirk involves telling you to kill yourself. Like I understand it's meant to be a joke, but after awhile it stops being so much funny as it is just really asshole-ish. 

Edited November 25, 2015 by Chuee

[TexasDice]

And you completely missed my point, but let's not talk about that.

[LiquidShu]

Finally got around to "finishing" Ever17. You see, what I did was barely skim the last two routes while playing Pokemon. Auto read + Pokemon = Bare able. 

Might have turned out different if I actually read the majority of the lines but I semi-doubt it. Need something to spark some interest in reading a VN again. Flirty, cute, going on dates,  and a bunch of romance. Any suggestions? I don't mind if it has a more serious undertone but it requires flirtation. If not then back to the mango's for me 

you have a lot of vns that you're playing according to VNDB, maybe finish those off first?

Geh... maybe I should remove that link.

[Abyssal Monkey]

So I started Tears to Tiara.  Fun story once it actually got past the regular SoL crap that I skipped.  Currently sitting at where Arawn returns.  My biggest problem is the endless, pointless, uncharacterized castle strolls.  They do negligible amounts for developing the characters and are needless filler designed to pad out advancement of the story after you already hit character level limits.  The party composition combat was really hilarious once I figured out how to cheat the system.  I made two archers, gave them both longbows, and manually instruct them to eviscerate priests.  They oneshot them before they get the chance to cast.  From there it's just Arthur + Arawn frontlines, supported by the two spear weilders, and Rionnan + Ogam for heals.  The system is so broken that I set it to "use judgement" and I'm clearing missions on normal with a 5 level deficit.  The story isn't entirely predictable, but the drama sure as hell is.  Arthur's conflict was "lolsowut", and Rionnan is hilariously unpitiable.  It's at the point where I'm more concerned about the world development than character progression. 

Also, why the hell is Arawn fine shagging all the other women, yet with Rionnan he is like "oh, so she does love me. okay then."  It's so fucking silly and out of character.  With all the other women he is assertive with them for some time before they 'confess', yet he waits for Rionnan?  I can't just write off that character bias as "Pwyll's descendant".

 

I also started Aselia the Eternal.  I needed some break from those hilarious onslaught of h-scenes of Tears.  Anyway I am in the prologue and in the scene where our protagonist Whiney McSleepy-kun is selected as the main role of a play.  As I head off to bed I pray to god this doesn't play the plot card "it was all a dream" or "you LIVE the play" or something like that.  That would be utterly devastatingly fatal to any conclusion the story could possibly have.  If that happens I'll once again relegate this one to "I'm more interested in the world progression than the characters who have no purpose" and "the fun is in the journey" while "there is no light at the end of the tunnel".

Pray tell me I'm mistaken on this plot.

[Eclipsed]

Stop laughing, guys! I'm in Aoi's team, too.

Disliked, Unsubscribed & Unfollowed.

 

~~

I have recovered from the trauma I received from my first KnS bad ending. Luckily, I don't think any other bad end could trump what that one made me feel, but we'll see.

Didn't make much progress, just went for the Orihime end, and the branching March 17 ends

 

So we can't save Orihime huh ;-; she either stays silent 'til the very end, or finally talks at the very end, bangs Reiji, and then they both get hacked up (die). Eh, doesn't matter, had sex

 

The things that can happen to Kazuna ._. she either lives, dies, or loses a leg and her uterus to "live a life of idleness". It's funny cuz for some reason I assumed she had plot armor, but no no no, if you screw up the detectiveness you pay big time.

 

Random: I had Reiji make love to Toko right away, wonder how that'll effect future events. Barring the age gap, these two seem the most compatible w/ each other. Certainly not Shugo x Kazuna tier compatibility, but good enough, and Toko's pretty

 

[FinalChaos]

So I started Tears to Tiara.  Fun story once it actually got past the regular SoL crap that I skipped.  Currently sitting at where Arawn returns.  My biggest problem is the endless, pointless, uncharacterized castle strolls.  They do negligible amounts for developing the characters and are needless filler designed to pad out advancement of the story after you already hit character level limits.  The party composition combat was really hilarious once I figured out how to cheat the system.  I made two archers, gave them both longbows, and manually instruct them to eviscerate priests.  They oneshot them before they get the chance to cast.  From there it's just Arthur + Arawn frontlines, supported by the two spear weilders, and Rionnan + Ogam for heals.  The system is so broken that I set it to "use judgement" and I'm clearing missions on normal with a 5 level deficit.  The story isn't entirely predictable, but the drama sure as hell is.  Arthur's conflict was "lolsowut", and Rionnan is hilariously unpitiable.  It's at the point where I'm more concerned about the world development than character progression. 

Hidden Content

The SoL parts are pretty boring and those h-scenes get really repetitive. But I'd say that overall it is a good game, definitely had the potential to be something much greater but it's still enjoyable. The part I liked the most was it's lore. The chapters I enjoyed the most were the ones filled with flashbacks. Was always more interested in what had occurred in the past rather than the current events. I'd say that blitz through till the ending half of the game.

[LiquidShu]

No thanks to Kawasumi, I started Koisuru Natsu no Last Resort ~ 

[minuore]

Just started Material brave ignition, need some gameplay with reading Fate/hollow.

[Deep Blue]

ok I guess ignorance is bliss 

Yep it just says "it' doesnt look well for kana" avoid the whole medical explanation because why not? nobody will find out and complain about it and this is considered a good translation 

 leaving aside that topic which I wont comment anymore, this novel is pretty bad, at least for me it was... I need to get one more ending but I don't think is going to change my opinion.

the whole incest thing and the dying drama wasnt handled very well in my opinion, can't say it's bad but I didn't like it so i wont rate it.

Edited November 26, 2015 by Deep Blue

[Turnip Sensei]

Guided by my dream and my curiosity I decided to pick up Clannad and find out why it's consider so influential. I'm few routes in (Misae, Kyou, Yukine and Kotomi) and quite liking it.

So far my favorite route has been Yukine's.

Yukine's route had very clear theme and the minimalistic presentation worked really well. The route wasn't too long, or at least it didn't felt like it was. I also really liked how nothing very impactful happened, not all relationships need to have some sort of conflict, and that was actually one the strong points of the route. The peaceful progression of the Tomoya's and Yukine's relationship felt both very natural and enjoyable, in a good contrast to the more moody route(s). There was some kind serene beauty in their mundane interaction, especially in lap pillow scenes, that sometimes the peaceful atmosphere of the reference room felt almost tangible.   

[Abyssal Monkey]

Kara no Shojo first impressions:

• Cartagra's title screen BGM whoops its ass

 

Hidden Content

Shit. Add another one to the list I will eventually read.  Every time I saw Kara no Shoujo I kept thinking of Sharin no Kuni.

[the_dive]

Reading Clannad for now, but I'll probs drop it for KoiChoco when the TL project for it is complete cause i've read way too many depressing VNs in a row.

[Abyssal Monkey]

Groan.  

This is my reaction to Aselia's tutorial. I just finished the first mission and it's woefully lacking.

I mean seriously, it barely explains anything useful.  Summed up it says: Blue is for attacking, Green is for Defending, and Red is generally support, while Estrangers can do anything.  They only use the skill for the position they are assigned to, and the skills have limited uses.

What happened to explaining that resist% is for defending against support attacks while defense is for defending against attacker attacks. There's one death.

What happened to explaining what attacks what.  That's numerous close calls.

What happened to explaining the order of combat? That's another two deaths.

I begrudge to think about how they plan on explaining the building system.  Hopefully it, like training, is entirely self explanatory.

Now that the first part of the first battle is done, I have to stop, find some kind of guide to explain this crap to me because the game failed to do so.  I realize tutorials weren't entirely popular when the game was developed and most of that stuff is in the manual, but this is seriously lackluster.

 

As for the story itself so far, I can really only say that this main character seems gamma as hell.  He isn't even beta, he's worse.  I don't think I've ever seen someone so submissive before.  Sure he is under restraints, and has his sister held hostage, but I can't imagine how he can be so incredibly pathetic.  I seriously hope that at some point I get to be able to purposely sabotage this country.  If that happens, this game will get an 11/10 for being creative with the plot, because as it stands, there is less than a 1/10,000 of the protagonist doing anything of the sort.

[HotTrax]

Tried playing Beach Bounce as I saw it in my library, I don't know how it got there. Art hurts my eyes. Will leave it running to get drops and sell them. Also, I've amassed quite a few bad looking vn games that I can probably get some of that trading card money.

"Kill Me"

Kimi to Boku to Eden no Ringo: 

In particular to Runa’s route. It did get quite “intense” towards the end, with the appearance of that rapist motherfucker. I thought it was pretty damn hilarious to see him in the school but then it lost its dumbness when he went all rapist. Thankfully MC was able to stop that shit. I liked it a lot, would have liked VO for MC but that would kind of be weird since he has to sound like her too.

 

 

Some sweet CG too. I do appreciate a good kiss CG.

 

 

 

[Kawasumi]

Playing Euphoria (in case you hadnt guessed LOL)

writing live impressions of it on my twitter while im going through it, most likely gonna do it in one go and write a review afterwards.

Edited November 27, 2015 by Kawasumi

[Poinu]

Currently playing through Subarashiki Hibi and should have it done relatively soon. It'll be the first VN I've finished in a number of years now, so that's an accomplishment. After finishing that are choices: Dies irae, Kajiri Kamui Kagura, Mahoutsukai no Yoru, or Sakura no Uta. Fun stuff.

[Eclipsed]

Got my first ending in KnS,

 

First thing's first, I got the BGM "Reasoning" playing as I type this 'cos it's the best BGM in the game

 

~~~

Overall the second half of KnS was pretty lacking compared to the first half. I think it's due to the more SoL idle time feel of late March/early April which I guess was to serve as a breather period after that scary/horrifying Kazuna kidnapping/murder.

 

But it broke the pacing for me, especially since the flesh-in-eggshells is introduced early on, but you have to burn through several days of idle SoL and this very obvious setting up of Tojiko being the next victim with how much increased screentime she was getting so we can get the added "tragic oomph" when she goes missing on the day of her novel publication party.

 

Mizuhara Touko was even worse, there is all this set up with her wanting to be w/ Touko and the love triangle conflict and so she hilariously screws Touko over w/ the medicine stealing sabotage, causing Touko to get run over by a truck due to her anemia (how the FK did she survive that), and so when M. Touko realizes this she just runs away, coincidentally right into the killers hands, and gets killed? Her character was such a waste >.> 

 

Meanwhile Reiji is one step behind the narrative for some reason, and you actually have to go through scenes and detective sessions of stuff you as the reader know already (ie. narration pans to the killer killing Tojiko, and you have to spend the entire next day as Reiji looking for clues to her whereabouts before the bomb's finally dropped to him that she's dead, same thing with Touko, narration pans to her stealing Touko's medicine along with her running away right into the killer's hands, but Reiji has to go find that out himself). Really weakens the detective aspect and I think they could've written those scenes to have better flow with you making these connections rather than having Reiji play catch up with the narrative.

 

 

~~~

Recap of how my ending played out:

 

Will admit, I bombed the detective segment on April 12th and so I got a game over. Mr. Attractive Distracter Shinji from the previous case not surprisingly turned out to be this case's big baddy, but I chose "Work of multiple killers -> Disposal methods are different" and so Nene shows up the next day, makes me question life cuz there's no way she can be the killer(?), maybe the accomplice, and she so obviously takes Reiji to an isolated location, drugs him, but mysteriously is dead herself when he awakens forever trapped to eventually die alongside her decomposing corpse and so I questioned life even more.

 

With the false implication that Nene was involved in the murders I reloaded a save and chose her as the perp this time, with Reiji commenting "this person's definitely suspicious, but I have no evidence" right into the same game over as above, so I reloaded and chose Dr. Murase, that shady ass evil looking guy that Nene is apparently involved with, same thing

 

So I folded and looked up a walkthrough. Oh, it is Shinji as I suspected, just have to choose "It's the work of a single killer -> Because only the four limbs were disposed of" ._. I was confused for a while because it made it seem Nene x Dr. Murase x Shinji were in on it together so I was kind of like whaaa? when Reiji was flabbergasted at why Shinji would be the one to kill Nene, but obviously Nene x Murase had their own unrelated agenda with the kidnapping Touko for ransom vs. Shinji's killing Nene and rekidnapping Touko for Kara no Shoujo.

 

 

~~~

Seems working with Yaginuma leads to an unofficial ending (unofficial in that you don't get a credits scene and the gallery remains locked), with Touko surviving limbless (jeebus christ) and a hopeful(?) tone for the future as Chizuko finally considers about talking out her troubles with Fumiya & Touko.

 

Not working with him leads to Reiji either making the final confrontation with Shinzo/Shinji without Yaginuma with Touko dying this time around, or Reiji opting to leave the case to Yaginuma to instead find out about Touko's background

 

Speaking of Touko's background, man that was.... extensive huh >.> the legendary Rokushiki Makoto, killer of pregnant women 6 years ago including Reiji's engaged Yukiko, is the older brother of Misa who was Touko's mom who was Mamiya Shinzo's assistant/model for Kara no Shoujo, btw, Shinzo had a wife Miyuki who was infertile and so they had (Mamiya) Mizuhara Mio, his niece, impregnated with Shinzo sperm + Miyuki egg giving birth to Shinji, our famous KaranoShoujo killer who would eventually grow up to kill Mizuhara Touko despite both sharing the same birth mother, yada yada yada 

 

And all this is found out if and only if you happened to visit Stella early on so she could drop her pendant to give you the Celest - Rokushiki connection.

 

Which was another thing I dislike about KnS: the free time you have to explore the country. No way you can play blind, you literally have to save each time and mix n' match the locations you visit until you get your satisfied character banters and key evidence, otherwise things like failing to visit Natsume to get her input regarding eggshell-disposed limbs will rekt you, and even if you argue "well, Reiji mentions he should go visit Natsume for advice" that doesn't explain that totally random Stella pendant Celest Rokushiki connection, I just concluded at the time that the pendant would obviously be important for the future and so I went with that combination of visits.

 

Unless of course, the Stella pendant event is scripted to occur regardless of your visits, or isn't actually necessary for Reiji to find out about Rokushiki, then nvm, but still, as a completionist it sucks that you have to sacrifice some scenes in favor of others. But that's life I guess, you can't do everything

 

 

~~

 

Anyways, I chose to not shoot Rokushiki (lmao, it's so obvious Dr. Saito was him all along, though for some reason I forgot that his identity was a secret / no one ever saw his face so I was a bit confused as to why nobody recognized him just because he had an alias change, but yeah, nobody ever saw his face 'cept Stella's fam fam so yeah ._. ) 

 

Because as poetic as carrying out revenge would be, I think Reiji will disappoint alot of people if he did so (Yukari trying to stop him from taking the Revolver, Stella thanking him for not killing her dead sister's lover, etc....) not to mention Touko's whereabouts were still unknown at the time.

 

Very impressive that Yaginuma of all people couldn't crack Rokushiki in his 'interrogation' though, wish we could've seen how that went.

 

Touko's still missing, gg ez, credits roll.

 

I'm gonna go for the shooting end next, then go for individual character H-scenes/ends and then True End

 

Edit: Shooting end: are you fking kidding me reverse situs whatta heart lung?!@# ._.

 

[Decay]

I agree with a lot of your complaints about KnS1. Thankfully, KnS2 resolves most of them. For example, your ending is based on the choices you make and not who you visit in the location selections. As far as I can tell, those are just for flavor in KnS2. It makes the branching system easier to understand and work with. 

[Eclipsed]

^Okay good  

KnS 2 hype!@#

 

~~

My gawd, getting all CGs + endings was a fking pain, 

some small KnS True End comments:

FUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH so canonically Touko ended up never found?! That's actually worse than that work-with-Yaginuma ending where Touko is at least found and the fam fam's gonna talk out their problems!@#

 

But I guess that's what KnS 2 is for right...? That is her on on the cover art right..?! Wait, there's even a KnS 3 coming out? What??

 

Idk anymore, RIP Touko ;-;  at least Reiji can hook up with Ryoko or Hatsune now, if Touko really is gone. Preferably Hatsune, so Uozomi x Ryoko can happen for maximum overall couplings. 

 

Also 'cuz Hatsune is just too cute 

 

lel.

 

 

 

Hatsune special v7 anybody?

 

 

 

small comments pt.2

Looks like Shugo & Kazuna's story ends here; gotta say, it felt pretty damn wonderful to see their new baby. It's that one small consolation prize for all the shit that's happened. Also liked the Hatsune recommending Sakura name reference.

 

Toji's showing up in KnS 2 huh.. Good. I miss her badassery.

 

Overall, regarding Cartagra vs. Kara no Shoujo because I like doing comparisons,

• Kara no Shoujo has the better murder mystery, but Cartagra has the better romance & characters
• #bias

 

That is all.