What are you playing?

[Dergonu]

Decided to try out the first raidy game, as I bought all three a few days ago. Went ahead and completed most of the game yesterday and finished it today. It was seriously entertaining.
I mean, it was dumb... but entertaining  
 

Spoiler

 

You know it's a great game when the main character, who is a hero of sorts, rapes the bosses she defeats. She is just like, "hey, you were mean to these people, so now I'll be mean to you in return!"

The gameplay was pretty freaking difficult, which is one of the reasons why I stuck around for it to be honest. I played it completely without a guide, and found myself genuinely having fun with trying to figure out how the new traps for each floor worked, where to find the maps, how to fight the bosses etc. Fonfon best girl.

The scenes were all extremely short, the voice acting was cheesy and pretty low quality, (the game is old of course, so it's no surprise.) The art was much better than I thought it would be, and the hilarious variety of rape / punishement scenes in the game was pretty enjoyable, even though they were so short.

Considering what the game is, I have to say, it was pretty good. Looking forward to playing the sequels.

 

 

On the untranslated side, I'm still going through kimisora and finished the An route. Not much to say other than the fact that it was freaking beautiful. It started off pretty simple and a little boring, but it got a lot better towards the middle, and the ending was just perfect.

Moving over to the Matsuri route now, then I think I'll go over to reading something else. The last two heroines don't interest me that much, as I really only started the game for Matsuri and An, though Sekka's route being really great was a pleasant surprise. I'll definitely return to the last 2 endings at a later date, but right now, my reading time is so limited, I want to make sure I save it for stuff I really want to read.

Thinking of reading ChuSinGura 46+1 next, as the game looks really interesting, (and let's face it, the English translation is NEVER actually happening )    

[bogdankl]

fate/stay night is gonna be a really difficult to read without spoiling myself, just looking at the walkthrough on fuwanovel is intimidating as fuck, also that was a long ass prologue 

edit: I just realized that this is probably the first vn that I read which has a voice actor for the protagonist, it took me a while to realize that :))

[Fred the Barber]

55 minutes ago, bogdankl said:

fate/stay night is gonna be a really difficult to read without spoiling myself, just looking at the walkthrough on fuwanovel is intimidating as fuck, also that was a long ass prologue 

edit: I just realized that this is probably the first vn that I read which has a voice actor for the protagonist, it took me a while to realize that :))

You really shouldn't need the walkthrough until after you finish the "normal" ending of each scenario. There are alternate endings for the second and third scenario, but frankly I didn't really enjoy either of them.

[Canicheslayer]

Root Double. Route B, Chapter 6.

I really love the contrast between Route A (à la Ever17 or 999) and Route B (Classic Slice of life/shonen detective)

 

Eclipsed => Cardia is so lovely

Edited May 8, 2016 by Canicheslayer

[Vorathiel]

Is it a scene where she's sleping, guy is doing nothing worth noticeable, and she jut kicks him in her sleep, because she 'feels' like he's going to 'attack her while she's sleeping'? Next sentences are something along "i'm sorry" from a guy and "as long as you understand" from a girl, despite the fact, that she's the one doing harm in this situation?

I LOVE that trope! I could read it every day I read VNs! Oh wait, I do read it everyday, because it's soooo overused. And it's annoyingly stupid behaviour from characters.

[Canicheslayer]

48 minutes ago, Vorathiel said:

Is it a scene where she's sleping, guy is doing nothing worth noticeable, and she jut kicks him in her sleep, because she 'feels' like he's going to 'attack her while she's sleeping'? Next sentences are something along "i'm sorry" from a guy and "as long as you understand" from a girl, despite the fact, that she's the one doing harm in this situation?

I LOVE that trope! I could read it every day I read VNs! Oh wait, I do read it everyday, because it's soooo overused. And it's annoyingly stupid behaviour from characters.

The girl was sleeping on the floor. The protagonist, because of an unfortunate reaction (he had been taken aback, disconcerted by someone or something) fell from a bench/banquette and stepped on the girl

[melo4496]

On 2016/5/6 at 5:32 AM, Turnip Sensei said:

Seeing how much I enjoyed Kara no Shoujo I just couldn't keep my hands off the sequel. KnS2 is going to be my entertainment for the weekend.

So far I read the prologue/Hitogata part. It was surprisingly interesting, although somewhere in the middle I almost forgot I was reading KnS. Still I really enjoyed the chemistry between the children and the secluded village had it's own pretty cool atmosphere. I really wouldn't have minded reading more about that. If I had to complain about something, then why wasn't Nanako&Naori a thing. 

But yeah, it's still nice to get back to the normal flow of the game. I heard the investigation systems were improved, so looking forward to that. And voiced Reiji, and more Yukari...

Also, damn KnS2 is pretty. Graphics aren't that important to me in VNs, but what can I say. Really beautiful art is just really damn beautiful. 

Have some wallpaper!

Spoiler

http://www.gungnir.co.jp/innocentgrey/products/pro_vacant/vacant_special_wp.html

Aahh.. I love Satsuki.

 

Anyway, I'm very disappointed with Bloody Rondo. Most probably because I'm subconsciously comparing it with Draculius. They have a lot of similarities as expected, and Draculius is so much better.

Now I'm reading Leyline2 to recover from the bad aftertaste. Leyline is really good! I'm only around 5mins in the game and it's making me laugh hard already.

[Vorathiel]

35 minutes ago, Canicheslayer said:

The girl was sleeping on the floor. The protagonist, because of an unfortunate reaction (he had been taken aback, disconcerted by someone or something) fell from a bench/banquette and stepped on the girl

Even worse. 

[Canicheslayer]

21 minutes ago, Vorathiel said:

Even worse. 

Yes that's the famous contrast between Route A and B. In a VN similar to Ever17 or 999, you don't expect to find that type of scene But It's not a problem for me : I don't depise that kind of "classic" humour

[Eclipsed]

Finished Saint-Germain's route from Code Realize

I should've known this guy would be too true

Spoiler

 

and pull a complete 180 from his cool-enigmatic persona, the first half of his route will be literally this as he cat-and-mouses with Cardia in an isolated mansion in the middle of nowhere with a very awkward "I need to kill you, but I don't want you to suffer" atmosphere for three days:

OMG HALP!@#@!$#%$^%$^

It's made even better by how strangely optimistic Cardia is about the situation even though you will die if you think SG ain't being serious: 

Spoiler

He ain't gonna do it


HE AIN'T GONNA DO IT!!1111



FUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

 

 

And so you're left asking why more times than you would like to before a certain millennium-old conspiracy theory is finally revealed, and then these two will finally get their Power of Love > Fate showdown of cosmic proportions. Fun Fun Fun.

Btw, Saint-Germain's currently second best guy. Victor's first, cuz he got a whooping THREE actual physical skinship contact CGs with Cardia. Van Helsing got ZERO, so he's worst guy, the scrub. And Saint Germain because he's badass went and tanked Cardia, for a total of TWO contact CGs, damn whatta stud



~~
Alright, Impey is next. Really don't know what to expect from this guy, but he's the final guy to grind before we can finally do True Lupin.

[ChaosRaven]

Code Realize really has some stellar art. It's a petty that Otomate hate the PC so much. They could make a lot of money if they would release at least their already translated titles on Steam.

Though it's definitely possible that they have contracts that forbid exactly that. Shitty consoles and their attempts to monopolize titles... 

[Decay]

8 hours ago, Vorathiel said:

Even worse. 

Eh, he freaking stepped on her, and she's small. And then she profusely apologized afterwards. The misandrist scenario you're imagining didn't transpire.

[Vokoca]

On 07/05/2016 at 4:35 PM, Fred the Barber said:

Ruri's route is practically identical. Leica's route is very different, but has large sections which are poorly translated and poorly edited, which make it less enjoyable. Al's route is by far the best, IMO. You did both endings, right? If not, go back and get the other one - they're both worth reading.

Edit: Also, Leica's route is generally just considered weaker than the other two; I'm kind of inclined to agree. But it is very different, at least, once you get past the Common Route.

Thanks for the reply! Based on that and the fact that the PS2 version seems to lack a reasonably useful skip function, I've decided to leave the routes for a bit later.

In the meanwhile, I've finally picked up Steins;Gate 0. I usually read VNs pretty slow, but if the fact that I spent around 23 hours on S;G0 in just two days alone is any proof, then the story just grabs you right from the start and never lets go. I've finished my first route, and so far I can happily say that this is a sequel worth reading. Having most of the character and world building out of the way, the sequel feels like the original Steins;Gate without the first half. Those who've read it should know what that means. 

Hopefully the rest of the routes is at least this good as well!

[bogdankl]

wait, fate has status and weapons and descriptions to discover about old gods and legends.... that's so fucking cool, it very much reminds me of the persona compendium except smaller... and more detailed... and much smaller

 

edit:ok what the hell is this, a vn or a dnd game??? this has more stats and rules than most rpgs nowadays

[ChaosRaven]

I've finished my first route in Ozmafia now. I went for Pashet the cat girl first for obvious reasons. 

The route was a bit short and more about friendship, but I still liked it. Pashet herself is the don of famiglia 'Boots' (don't ask) and somehow resembles lady Oscar from The Rose of Versailles a bit, one of my all-time anime favorites. She's a great character and I really wished her route would have been a bit longer so I could have seen more from her.

The VN itself is extremely stylish, starting from the unique and elegant character designs, over the fantastic soundtrack to the somehow flowery writing style and conversations. Although it could be probably be criticized that it's more style over substance, even if I've probably not seen enough yet to give an accurate judgement about that. The voice acting was very good, BUT there is a catch. There's just partial voice acting and not in the sense of one chaper this way and another chapter that way, very often it changes from one sentence to the next which was a bit annoying to be honest. It actually felt a bit like the script was changed or edited after the voices were recorded.

The setting is some kind of crazy mixture of popular western fairy tales, Italian mafia gangs and French aristocracy. Actually, the whole city gave me some Parisian vibes. Though I had a few culture days in that city about two months ago, so maybe it was just nostalgia.

The ruling famiglias in that city are really one of a kind. The Oz famiglia are some kind of gentlemens club and more or less the main famiglia that takes the protagonist girl in at the start. The 'Grimm' famiglia are a real chaos club with Hansel and Gretel being the VN version of Bonnie and Clyde. The Wolf gang seems to be Ozmafias take on the 'Sons of Anarchy' while the 'Boots' famiglia somehow resembles french royalty.

Obviously, the VN takes itself not all too seriously, even if the story has technically some rather gory parts inbetween which are usually just not shown. But it's somehow remarkable how different the whole style is in comparision to common bishojo titles with high school setting. The guys are (for obvious reasons) represented much more mature and civilized which is a rather strong contrast to the usual teenage simpletons. Fuka, the protagonist girl was more on the simple side so far, but she's still charming and likable.

I'm not really sure yet how many routes I want to play. For now I definitely want to play Axel's route, since he's the 'knight' tsundere character and was pretty cool so far. After that, we'll see.

[WinterfuryZX]

Japanese have a strange tendency to idolize Sicilian Mafia, expecially in female targeted fiction.

Anyway, I ffinished Phenogram, I liked all the chapters placed under alpha and beta attractors, I still don't get how the other word lines could be possible.

Also, Kurisu's chapter should have been longer.

[Fred the Barber]

3 hours ago, bogdankl said:

wait, fate has status and weapons and descriptions to discover about old gods and legends.... that's so fucking cool, it very much reminds me of the persona compendium except smaller... and more detailed... and much smaller

 

edit:ok what the hell is this, a vn or a dnd game??? this has more stats and rules than most rpgs nowadays

Oh, it's definitely a VN; even though the encyclopedia is rather interesting, the stats are completely meaningless just like your choices.

[Decay]

When I first read Fate, like 4 years ago, I knew pretty much nothing about it, and when I saw all of those stats and ability descriptions and stuff, I was so confused. I actually thought it was going to turn into some weird SRPG part of the way through for quite a while.

[Fred the Barber]

I'm still playing Grisaia in the little time I can allocate to playing VNs. I recently finally finished my first route, Sachi, and have been skipping through the common route for a second time, deciding whose route to choose next. I might actually just make a save all the way at the first fork this time so I can avoid the skipping next time, though I actually find myself occasionally stopping to read common route scenes, and at times it seems I really do feel like playing the whole common route again. Maybe when I'm on the last route. Maybe I'll get Yumiko's route out of the way this time? I dunno, every one that pops into my head seems tempting...

Once I'm done with that, I'm going to pick up an otome, mostly on the principal of branching out. Leaning towards Hakuoki, but I'm pretty interested in Ozmafia, in part because of the recent MangaGamer staff blog about editing it: http://blog.mangagamer.org/2016/05/05/ozmafia-editors-corner/ (which I know @ChaosRaven saw since I see his name in the comments ).

[Eclipsed]

Haha.... Impey's route was pretty much everything I expected. The airheaded, genius engineer who is the Michiru of the cast (the one that's always picked on for lulz) did not disappoint with his antics and dialogue, and he stayed true to himself to the very end when it mattered. Bravo. 

TL;DR this couple:

Spoiler

Ty for the peptalk, Cardia ;-;


ROUND 1

LOL REKT


ROUND 2

LOL REKT X 2!!1


ROUND 3

ATTA BOI, IMPEY

Redbull Love Gives you Wings!

 

THAT'S NOT FLYING!!! THAT'S FALLING, WITH STYLE!!!!@#11

~~
Impey shoved Saint-Germain out of the way and is currently second best guy, as he also boasts a whopping three skinship CGs with Cardia like good ol' Frankenstein, but Frankenstein wins out for first because his achievements plotwise are greater.

But hey, we can have a best couple award too, right? These two are just soooo  

D'awwww


~~
And now, finally, Mr. True Route Lupin is unlocked!@# HYPE TRAIN

Spoiler

 

[Eclipsed]

21 minutes ago, Fred the Barber said:

I'm still playing Grisaia in the little time I can allocate to playing VNs. I recently finally finished my first route, Sachi, and have been skipping through the common route for a second time, deciding whose route to choose next. I might actually just make a save all the way at the first fork this time so I can avoid the skipping next time, though I actually find myself occasionally stopping to read common route scenes, and at times it seems I really do feel like playing the whole common route again. Maybe when I'm on the last route. Maybe I'll get Yumiko's route out of the way this time? I dunno, every one that pops into my head seems tempting...

Once I'm done with that, I'm going to pick up an otome, mostly on the principal of branching out. Leaning towards Hakuoki, but I'm pretty interested in Ozmafia, in part because of the recent MangaGamer staff blog about editing it: http://blog.mangagamer.org/2016/05/05/ozmafia-editors-corner/ (which I know @ChaosRaven saw since I see his name in the comments ).

You have some insane patience if you are able to re-read through parts of Grisaia's common route prior to diving into another heroine route. Hell, I get pissed off just having to skip through common routes in general; just slap a bunch of saves at every heroine route prompt since they're back to back ;-;

~~
Oh, and be sure to give Code Realize a chance one day once you branch into otome

[Fred the Barber]

26 minutes ago, Eclipsed said:

Oh, and be sure to give Code Realize a chance one day once you branch into otome

Yeah, that one definitely has me intrigued, too; I hadn't even heard of it outside of your posts here, but you've succeeded at getting me interested.

[XReaper]

pretty much on the last spurt of "pigeon blood", guess i´ll finish it later today. all in all the story seriously managed to draw me in, btw. surprisingly creeped the very fuck out of me at times. might write a few lines about it after reaching the end :P.
next one is definitely going to be "shingakkou -noli me tangere-" from the same devs, whichs read i´ve regrettably had to stall around 2/3rd in shortly upon its release... oh dear my sanity...

edit: sure this is boys-love, BUT if you´re able of handling said matter (incl. partly very gruesome-ish content) than there´s absolutely nothing left to regret. fantastic art paired with awesome & thrilling writing, done by some of the most favourite staff i´ve ever came across. definitely sth to try out for oneself!

[Kawasumi]

9 hours ago, Eclipsed said:

Haha.... Impey's route was pretty much everything I expected. The airheaded, genius engineer who is the Michiru of the cast (the one that's always picked on for lulz) did not disappoint with his antics and dialogue, and he stayed true to himself to the very end when it mattered. Bravo. 

TL;DR this couple:

  Reveal hidden contents

Ty for the peptalk, Cardia ;-;


ROUND 1

LOL REKT


ROUND 2

LOL REKT X 2!!1


ROUND 3

ATTA BOI, IMPEY

Redbull Love Gives you Wings!

 

THAT'S NOT FLYING!!! THAT'S FALLING, WITH STYLE!!!!@#11

~~
Impey shoved Saint-Germain out of the way and is currently second best guy, as he also boasts a whopping three skinship CGs with Cardia like good ol' Frankenstein, but Frankenstein wins out for first because his achievements plotwise are greater.

But hey, we can have a best couple award too, right? These two are just soooo  

D'awwww


~~
And now, finally, Mr. True Route Lupin is unlocked!@# HYPE TRAIN

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Told you he was best husbando

[ChaosRaven]

14 hours ago, Fred the Barber said:

Once I'm done with that, I'm going to pick up an otome, mostly on the principal of branching out. Leaning towards Hakuoki, but I'm pretty interested in Ozmafia, in part because of the recent MangaGamer staff blog about editing it: http://blog.mangagamer.org/2016/05/05/ozmafia-editors-corner/ (which I know @ChaosRaven saw since I see his name in the comments ).

Yeah, I was a bit nitpicking about the lack of options. Though Hakuoki is certainly a must read if you've the right hardware to read it. I've both anime seasons from it.