What are you playing?

[WinterfuryZX]

6 hours ago, SCG_1037 said:

Going to start  reading The House in Fata Morgana , i had bought this vn close to its release date but now is the only time i had the change to start reading it , i heard great things about this vn and if its no good , then i shall haunt everybody that wrote  a good review on this 

Depends if you like tragic love stories or not. And if you're from Portugal you should be able to somewhat understand the ost... maybe...

[Vokoca]

So somehow I ended up picking Amagami again, and after 534535462 attempts I finally managed to ignore Rihoko (  ) and do a different route. Juggling Kaoru and shit-senpai Haruka at the moment... both because it is faster.... and because I want to see the terror that will follow.  So far Kaoru is much better than I thought - Haruka is just as shit as ever though. Really not a fan of that attitude, and even less of a fan of what the MC turns into in that route.

[Yuuko]

Playing Amagami too. Shit dog senpai is awesome, fuck you Voko www

All the side characters are also lot better than the main heroines...

[Lucius]

Juggling with a bunch of titles after a returning interest for visual novels since a long time ago:

Umineko Chiru, Episode 5
Things started to slow down after the grand finale of episode 4, dragging the pace a little bit. Much like the other titles on this list, I took a long break before picking it up again (at episode 5, in this case), so returning to the VN where the story isn't that exciting kinda made me feel lazy to sift through it all. I miss the killing and the emotional drama from the first three episodes. Things also just aren't as fun without Beautrice's hyperbolic demeanor. Erika is 'okay', I suppose.

Spoiler

Can't wait to get to see her yandere side.

G-senjou no Maou
Finally got to the final chapter - and what a brilliant presentation to start it all off. Sure, I already accidentally discovered the big twist long ago, making it less than satisfactory than it would have been, but man, I love how the twist was presented. Everything was silent one moment and BAM, "Final Chapter - G-senjou no Maou" bursts out of the screen with the dramatic music as the twist unveils itself. Anyone unaware of the twist beforehand would probably have lost his nerve. It was really cool.

To be honest, I really didn't have much expectation after the spoiler was revealed. I was stuck between reading Tsubaki and Mizuha's route out of order because I skipped Tsubaki earlier because I just wasn't that into her and was more interested in Kanon, so I had to do some backtracking (after I discovered that I had accidentally stumbled onto Mizuha's route). I lost interest in the VN and all VNs in general shortly after, so returning to this title after such a long time did kinda feel like a chore as well.

G-senjou didn't really end up as my favorite title in the list, even when taking into consideration of the dramatic final chapter opening, and it probably wouldn't be by the end of it. I do enjoy how its ideals are less naive than stuff like Clannad and DaCapo, straying away from trite themes about the importance of family (aside from Tsubaki's token 'family' route because every VN has to have one of those), but there's just something iffy about the presentation of the novel that puts me off from enjoying the VN as much as its fans do. The characters are pragmatic, the story is intense, and the mystery is tightly wrapped (were it not for the revealed spoiler) so there's very little room for me to point out what exactly it is that I dislike about this VN. But there it is - 'meh' is how I feel. I might dive deeper in analysis after I finish reading it some weeks later - or months, depending on my busy schedule.

Or maybe it's because I read it out of order and Tsubaki's good end left a bad taste in my mouth, considering how cliche it is.

Kimi ga Nozomu Eien ~Latest Edition~ (Chinese Patched)
It's a bit challenging for me to read this because I'm not fluent enough in Chinese to grasp hold of all the complex idioms and phrases, but because of all the things I've heard about the twists and turns in this title, I just couldn't resist the temptation of picking up a complete patch right now, especially after watching the anime several years ago. I love deconstruction stories, how they turn the norm into something shocking or more realistic, so this one easily made my list of most wanted VNs. The English translation is taking forever, so I sucked it up and picked up the Chinese one instead.

So far, it's pretty okay. I haven't made it far yet, not even to the not-so-surprising twist approaching me. There was some festival, some classroom banter, the usual harem stuff for now. I remember how shocked when I was pulverized brutally with the twist at a very early episode of the anime, and when the real theme song began to play, it was brilliant. I love dramatic presentations like that. Hope the VN could at least achieve some semblance of that awesome moment.

euphoria
Haven't made any progress since I completed Rinne's route long ago, but I had to refresh myself since it's been a while and replayed the route again. Still as bizarre the second time.

Also, the big twist for this VN was spoiled for me too. Yeah, that seems to happen a lot for me. Need to stop searching for information regarding VN plots and characters. I think this spoiler was more detrimental to the reading experience than the G-senjou one though

Spoiler

because the true end makes the other routes redundant.

Sigh. I would kick myself right now if I could. I hate this.

Analogue: A Hate Story
I initially thought I would be bored just reading emails. Turns out... I was still kinda bored reading emails, but I managed to make it to about 80% completion of this short-length title, so it's not bad. Other VNs, I usually don't bear an annoyance to the characters - yes, even Tsubaki - but this one, I just find Hyun-ae kinda annoying. I understand where she's coming from and all, but her diary entries just make her sound like she's some whiny brat throwing her temper around. I'm not one to support nonsensical social etiquette that makes no sense myself, but her way of handling the adults are just impractical and, well, kinda nuts.

Spoiler

I mean, she did commit mass-genocide.

Second worst of all, after opening Mute's questions, you're locked onto the route of whichever AI you had opened the questions in front of. That's not the worst part - the actual worst of all is that I was forced to choose "I trust you, you crazy woman" in response to Hyun-ae or be forced to see a game over without unlocking any of the five endings. Wow. Even the 'download' command had unlocked one of the endings. That just feels like lazy design to me. Couldn't I at least have some kind of neutral option, like, "Uh, I don't know if I should trust you after what you did"? Man.

Thank god it's a short VN.

Aoishiro, Corpse Party, 9 Hours 9 People 9 Doors, VA-11 Hall-A
Haven't got to any of these VNs yet, but I recently acquired all of them, so I might play them soon.

VNs I might consider acquiring soon
- Ever11
- Remember11
- Possibly Muv-Luv Extra, depending on how I feel about its spin-off prequel of sorts, KimiNozo.

Yep. Got quite a lot on my plate. Hope I'll stay in this reading mood for a long while... this time.

[Eclipsed]

Finished Fate's route

Uhh

6/10 so far, some of the end game plot revelations regarding the Holy Grail were underwhelming and expected, the drama between Saber and Shirou with his whole "I know what you want better than you do!" was absolutely meh, and the big baddies' "I'm evil for the lulz" was just ._.

I would've preferred more confrontations with the other Masters and Servants, more Rin and Archer, hell even more Illya. The route kinda just went downhill after her arc.

[Suzu Fanatic]

23 minutes ago, Eclipsed said:

Finished Fate's route

Uhh

6/10 so far, some of the end game plot revelations regarding the Holy Grail were underwhelming and expected, the drama between Saber and Shirou with his whole "I know what you want better than you do!" was absolutely meh, and the big baddies' "I'm evil for the lulz" was just ._.

I would've preferred more confrontations with the other Masters and Servants, more Rin and Archer, hell even more Illya. The route kinda just went downhill after her arc.

Better luck next route    One thing I can say I really liked about that route, even if I really dislike his mentality and ideals (or at least how he goes about it/thinks of himself)

 

"---- This path, I don't believe it's the wrong one." "---- I see. Then you..." "I don't need the Holy Grail. I can't stray from the path for the people I've left behind"

I really respect that preseverance, even if I disagree with him.

The thing I like about FSN so much, is finding the parallels (at least for me) I like to see how everyone is connected - either just through my perception, or objectivaly.

"I know what you want better than you do!"- God, that whole thing made me want to slap the hell out of him. You'll find that a common theme for him, he's surprisingly selfish, under the guise of selfless. Things get good/interesting when he finally realizes this for himself. You'll just have to wait and see.

[Fred the Barber]

3 hours ago, Eclipsed said:

Finished Fate's route

Uhh

6/10 so far, some of the end game plot revelations regarding the Holy Grail were underwhelming and expected, the drama between Saber and Shirou with his whole "I know what you want better than you do!" was absolutely meh, and the big baddies' "I'm evil for the lulz" was just ._.

I would've preferred more confrontations with the other Masters and Servants, more Rin and Archer, hell even more Illya. The route kinda just went downhill after her arc.

The good news for you is that Fate is the worst route

[Suzu Fanatic]

Just started up Dangaronpa 2... Gotta say, very early impressions are not good at all - it's feeling veeeerrryyy forced. we'll see though, maybe I just find the sprites abit jarring, scine they are very clearly a blend of the previous cast, just ...different... in some ways.

 

Think my real beef is just how fast it hopped to the island - it feels like lazy writing, or perhaps it'll make sense later "shrug".

 

"... leave me alone." hoooh boy, I can tell this protag is gonna be a real winner.   complaints aside, should be a interesting read - I'm just being nitpicky, I'm interested to see if some of my early suspicions about the plot are groundless or not.

[Funyarinpa]

1 hour ago, Suzu Fanatic said:

Just started up Dangaronpa 2... Gotta say, very early impressions are not good at all - it's feeling veeeerrryyy forced. we'll see though, maybe I just find the sprites abit jarring, scine they are very clearly a blend of the previous cast, just ...different... in some ways.

 

Think my real beef is just how fast it hopped to the island - it feels like lazy writing, or perhaps it'll make sense later "shrug".

 

"... leave me alone." hoooh boy, I can tell this protag is gonna be a real winner.   complaints aside, should be a interesting read - I'm just being nitpicky, I'm interested to see if some of my early suspicions about the plot are groundless or not.

Danganronpa 2 is better than DR1 in every way except setting and tone, but then again DR1 didn't utilize its more oppressive atmosphere effectively (I mean the school and being trapped etc., DR is too wacky for its own good at times), so DR2 is leaps and bounds ahead of the first. 

[WinterfuryZX]

The house in fata morgana 7th door:

(warning: major spoiler)

 

best yuri story ever, despite having recovered her lost memories, the protagonist didn't realize she was a woman until the end

Now let's se what this final chapter has to offer.

[Eclipsed]

12 hours ago, Suzu Fanatic said:

Just started up Dangaronpa 2... Gotta say, very early impressions are not good at all - it's feeling veeeerrryyy forced. we'll see though, maybe I just find the sprites abit jarring, scine they are very clearly a blend of the previous cast, just ...different... in some ways.

 

Think my real beef is just how fast it hopped to the island - it feels like lazy writing, or perhaps it'll make sense later "shrug".

 

"... leave me alone." hoooh boy, I can tell this protag is gonna be a real winner.   complaints aside, should be a interesting read - I'm just being nitpicky, I'm interested to see if some of my early suspicions about the plot are groundless or not.

I had a similar first impression about the... exaggerated flamboyance of the new cast and setting. DR was always a bit wacky in its own right, but DR2 takes it to a whole 'nother level.

They eventually grew on me though, to the point I considered DR2 > DR1. We'll see how it goes for you though 

BTW, Who's best girl so far for ya?  

~~
Rin has the potential to be my most favorite VN tsun tsun of all time; if you think about it, she's a glorified Louise: is a mage, has a waaay better familiar, sassier, and is in an appropriate setting/environment for having such traits...

Too bad she doesn't have pink hair 

I especially enjoyed her last minute pep talk in Fate's route (though, pls don't give me any more heart attacks ._.)

[Eclipsed]

Jesus, wtf is gonna happen to this guy if he sees her nekkid 

Unlimited Blade Works is going well so far, just because Archer exists.

RE: Issei

Spoiler

In the middle of the "find the other Master at the school!" arc.

I seriously thought it was him (maybe it could still be?), especially considering how he basically goes MIA during Fate route which would eerily correspond with Caster offing her Master along with him being connected to plot-significant Ryuudou Temple 

So I was feeling all genius, but nope, no command spell(?), gg

I'm pointing my finger at the creepy looking Kuzuki-sensei then. This guy has warning flags all over him, Harry Potter Professor Snape style. We'll see.

 

[SCG_1037]

Just finished  reading The house in fata morgana , it was pretty good , and since i am lazy and do not wont to write a proper review , i will just post a score that has almost no meaning by itself , anyway in my opinion  this vn a 9.5/10 , thank you for reading this.

[Eclipsed]

14 minutes ago, SCG_1037 said:

Just finished  reading The house in fata morgana , it was pretty good , and since i am lazy and do not wont to write a proper review , i will just post a score that has almost no meaning by itself , anyway in my opinion  this vn a 9.5/10 , thank you for reading this.

"Pretty good" doesn't sound like 9.5 to me, you should create / link your VNDB, so I can see your other VN scores and make a judgement on how potent your scores are 

Don't need to write a full on review, but can you list what you enjoyed from Fata Morgana? 
 

[SCG_1037]

1 minute ago, Eclipsed said:

"Pretty good" doesn't sound like 9.5 to me, you should create / link your VNDB, so I can see your other VN scores and make a judgement on how potent your scores are 

Don't need to write a full on review, but can you list what you enjoyed from Fata Morgana? 
 

Well then i really enjoyed the story , even some plot twist i could predict would happen , the write somehow was still able to surprise me , i love the art , it looked like a misture  of the italian renaissance art (http://italianrenaissanceresources.com/wp-content/themes/nga/images/home-unit-1.jpg) with your average anime style art , the ost was...,well it was so good that i cant even begin to describe so instead i just put some of my favorites ones here ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeOUQYNoOPI&index=10&list=PL1cFLEd7jERztNiN43JVOSP_kEzJaFlWn  ,   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATMCU3i6-1c&index=23&list=PL1cFLEd7jERztNiN43JVOSP_kEzJaFlWn   ,  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phboVbQawV4&list=PL1cFLEd7jERztNiN43JVOSP_kEzJaFlWn&index=29 ) , well as you can see i almost liked everything there was to like , the only problem was that rarely i would find some grammar errors in the text , that was the only reason i did not give it a 10/10 

ps: i do not have a VNDB account , the reason is that  i never believe it would be most of use to me , since i would only have one to be able to know all the visual novels that i read , but since i write all the visual novels that i read in a notebook that i have , i never had that problem.

Thank you for reading this.

 

[Eclipsed]

5 minutes ago, SCG_1037 said:

Well then i really enjoyed the story , even some plot twist i could predict would happen , the write somehow was still able to surprise me , i love the art , it looked like a misture  of the italian renaissance art (http://italianrenaissanceresources.com/wp-content/themes/nga/images/home-unit-1.jpg) with your average anime style art , the ost was...,well it was so good that i cant even begin to describe so instead i just put some of my favorites ones here ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeOUQYNoOPI&index=10&list=PL1cFLEd7jERztNiN43JVOSP_kEzJaFlWn  ,   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATMCU3i6-1c&index=23&list=PL1cFLEd7jERztNiN43JVOSP_kEzJaFlWn   ,  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phboVbQawV4&list=PL1cFLEd7jERztNiN43JVOSP_kEzJaFlWn&index=29 ) , well as you can see i almost liked everything there was to like , the only problem was that rarely i would find some grammar errors in the text , that was the only reason i did not give it a 10/10 

ps: i do not have a VNDB account , the reason is that  i never believe it would be most of use to me , since i would only have one to be able to know all the visual novels that i read , but since i write all the visual novels that i read in a notebook that i have , i never had that problem.

Thank you for reading this.

 

Thanks for your thoughts  

~~
ps: Well I can't see your notebook, so go make a VNDB so I can see what you've read 

[onorub]

Finished Al Azif's route from Deus Machina Demonbane. Fun in a B-movie way, but could not see it working as a anime adaptation.

[Suzu Fanatic]

8 hours ago, Eclipsed said:

BTW, Who's best girl so far for ya?  

~~
Rin has the potential to be my most favorite VN tsun tsun of all time; if you think about it, she's a glorified Louise: is a mage, has a waaay better familiar, sassier, and is in an appropriate setting/environment for having such traits...

It's a toss up between Chisaki (Gamer) and Sonia (Princess). Haven't gotten much further , due to rl being annoying.

~~

Rin is the best tsun tsun of all time.

[Lucius]

Going to start up euphoria and hit Nemu's route for a little while before I go to bed (at 7:38 am in the morning). Probably gonna be as lengthy as Rinne's route.

Edit:
Oh, I'm really digging the instrumental version of the theme song at the title screen. 

[Fred the Barber]

2 hours ago, onorub said:

Finished Al Azif's route from Deus Machina Demonbane. Fun in a B-movie way, but could not see it working as a anime adaptation.

That is a fantastic way of putting it. Demonbane is cheesy and ridiculous, but definitely fun. Oddly, I don't really enjoy B movies, but I did enjoy this game (well, particularly just Al's true ending; the other ones didn't really do much for me).

[Eclipsed]

Unlimited Blade Works is great, just passed Illya's farewell. 

For one there's no focus on Shirou x Saber so we're spared from Shirou spouting out his infuriating BS philosophies at Saber, I don't think he annoyed me at all so far this route, +1

Rin's still as awesome as always, Archer actually gets to have an impact on the story (and piss me off in a good way(?)), the conflicts and confrontations are more complex and entertaining rather than just consisting of Saber 1v1ing everyone ggez call it a day (i.e. fk everybody, especially Archer, Shirou x Rin dream team vs. the whole world np, gogogo!), and I can't believe a character like Illya who creeped me out so much managed to make me tear up this time around ._.

Pacing's much better too. Fate route had to do ALOT of setting up, not to mention Shirou cockblocking Saber with his ridiculous reluctance to fight, and so there were many, many days wasted with Shirou just idling, training or getting magic lessons before anything interesting happened (then when it finally does, it's a very cliche 'must stop the evil big baddie!' - underwhelming and boring.)

That's kind of a weakness with plot heavy multi-route VNs: some characters who have prominent roles in one route will get glossed over in another route due to the 'it'll be redundant!!' syndrome. Makes individual routes feel incomplete, sometimes I would just prefer one grand route that jams everything in there, have Berserker and Caster and Rider all wreak havoc before throwing in the G man to really make things look hopeless

Favorite moment in this route so far:

Really captured the intensity of the moment for me, and for once I shall cheer on Shirou's reckless superhero-must-save-all-even-at-the-cost-of-my-own-life attitude  

And it's #worth, especially for the scoldin' he gets after 

Spoiler

D'aaaaaaaaaaaww

WHY COULDN'T YOU BE THIS ROMANTIC WITH SABER, YOU TWAT, I WOULD'VE ENJOYED FATE ROUTE ALOOOT MORE IF YOU WEREN'T SUCH A 

 

[Lucius]

I really like euphoria's interface system. It's probably one of the most user-friendly interfaces I've ever seen in VNs:

• The auto-mode doesn't skip over voices and yet doesn't lag behind when the voice acting is over (immediately moving onto the next line, unlike Umineko which has no pause between each voiced-line in auto-mode it becomes unnatural, or G-senjou no Maou when there's sometimes weird awkward pauses after a voiced line is finished).
   
• There's a warning that tells you that the next line is a voiced line so you wouldn't skip over any voiced lines you're currently listening to. For example, if I am currently listening to a voiced line and I hit 'Enter' without knowing it's finished playing or not (since some voice-acting has awkward pauses before a voiced line is finished), and the next line contains voice acting, it will replace the one I'm currently listening to, so this feature helps to prevent that.
   
• Best of all, and definitely a must-have for all eroges, hitting 'Esc' minimizes the game and turns off all sounds of the game you might be embarrassed about. lol No more fear for barging relatives who look at you with a disappointed face... 

I wish most visual novels contain an interface like this. A lot of them have problems with the playing of the voices, resulting in pauses or skips in-between.

It's interesting how controversial eroges have better game-designs than non-eroges (as far as the English-translated ones go anyway). For example, School Days, which contains a massive amount of branches and animated dialogue scenes, something you don't usually see in VNs (aside from the Oscar-winning exception of Key games with their massive branches, particularly Clannad). Then again, I heard that most h-game designers were forced to make them out of a need for money, so they might have seized the opportunity to place their focus on creating better game-design since they have no interest in the sex stuff they're forced to create.

[havoc]

1 minute ago, Lucius said:

I really like euphoria's interface system. It's probably one of the most user-friendly interfaces I've ever seen in VNs:

 

• Best of all, and definitely a must-have for all eroges, hitting 'Esc' minimizes the game and turns off all sounds of the game you might be embarrassed about. lol No more fear for barging relatives who look at you with a disappointed face... 

Quite a few games do that better, they pause everything the moment they lose focus. Maijkoi is a great example.

[Lucius]

Just now, havoc said:

Quite a few games do that better, they pause everything the moment they lose focus. Maijkoi is a great example.

What do you mean 'lose focus'? And I don't remember Majikoi having that. I had to manually minimize the game myself while hitting the mute button on my keyboard.

[havoc]

16 minutes ago, Lucius said:

What do you mean 'lose focus'? And I don't remember Majikoi having that. I had to manually minimize the game myself while hitting the mute button on my keyboard.

the moment you click on another window.
 

Example i have maijkoi and a web browser open at the same time.
I am currently playing/reading maijkoi and suddenly i get the urge to look something up on the internet.
So i click on the browser, the moment i do this the game loses focus (get hidden behind the web browser) and at that point it pauses and stops playing all sounds.

Now i dont remember wenether this was the default behavior or you needed to set it in the advanced settings.
Looked it up, the relevant settings are under the visuals tab.