What are you playing?

[BookwormOtaku]

Finished Kei's route in Dies Irae...and (once it moved past the 'seen it before' parts at the start (which considering the overarching theme of this game makes me wonder if that was intentional) it was really good, it actually gave Kei some character depth and an arc which she noticeably lacked in Kasumi's route, the fights were really cool (though the last one did start to drag a little) and much to my surprise...the ending didn't suck. Considering how people kept complaining about it being a non-ending or unsatisfying I was expecting a cliffhanger or for the story to just suddenly stop but...

Spoiler

really it just comes off as a season finale to a show that didn't get renewed. Yeah there's unanswered questions but with the exception of Kasumi everyone else is pretty much fine and the arcs for their stories in this route have been complete.

Now...I have to read two sidestories before moving on with the main one . Maybe these will be better than Wehrwolf which aside from the bit with Shirou and Ellie just felt like the kind of deleted scenes for a movie where you don't really feel like anything was lost with their removal

[Deniz]

Started to play Littlewitch Romanesque.I loved the unique storytelling and random events feels like Eiyuu Senki which i enjoyed a lot.Gameplay is boring and not much immersive though.Also a protagonist with a personality and voice acting is a nice change of pace for me.

Edited August 26, 2017 by Deniz

[Canicheslayer]

Finished Princess Evangile W Happiness. Globally, it was a nice reading, an ideal refreshment for this strange summer.

Marika's route was slightly crappy (undeniably the worst moment of this VN). It was boring and her first H-scene was just...b******* and ridiculous. On the contrary, my last route (Konomi) was, probably against all my expectations, the best route. Even if it's lolicon, It is very funny and quite heartwarming (Kitamikado Sisters are hilarious, as secondary characters)

Spoiler

After PE and PE W H, here's my final girl ranking :

Ritsuko = Mitsuko > Tamie > Konomi > Ruriko = Ayaka > Chiho (because her epilogue was nice) > Marika (my image of her was ruined by her bad route) > Rise

Edited August 27, 2017 by Canicheslayer

[Templarseeker]

I'm currently continuing playing my playthrough with Kara No Shoujo that i stopped playing sometime ago due to real life problems. Despite how gruesome this Visual Novel is, i kinda find it calming to read at... Letting me forget my worries and the world for a while... Just absorbing in the scenery and the awesome art!

Perhaps after beating the game, I'll try reading/playing Littlewitch Romanesque or Kana Okaeri, maybe just continue with Kara No Shoujo The Second Episode

So many Visual Novels To choose from... So little time 

[Not_At_All]

Following up on Virtue's Last Reward:

Despite all the negative things I said about it, the characters (mostly Phi and Tenmyouji) helped me get through the worst parts and I became really invested in the story at some point. The ending was solid with a few twists I expected and some that caught me completely unaware. Also many of the faults that I found were either somewhat alleviated or completely fixed. It's still not perfect, but I really feel like I've enjoyed it now that it's over.

 

On to Zero Time Dilemma! I am a bit worried that it doesn't have a vndb entry, but I'm way too curious now.

 

E: Played Zero Time Dilemma for 10 minutes

won a coin toss, everyone lived happily ever after, roll credits. Pretty disappointing ending to the trilogy to be fair.

Edited August 28, 2017 by Not_At_All

[Mistearea]

Decided to take a bit of a break from euphoria.  There's only so much of that stuff I can handle, but I'm enjoying the stories for it enough to keep my interest.

But for now I'm playing Hatuskoi 1/1, and I gotta say that I've wanted to reach into my computer and punch the guy quite a few times, and I'm not even really on a girl's route yet.

[littleshogun]

6 hours ago, Mistearea said:

But for now I'm playing Hatuskoi 1/1, and I gotta say that I've wanted to reach into my computer and punch the guy quite a few times, and I'm not even really on a girl's route yet.

Well, I just hope that your computer was still intact after finished both of Yukino's and Runa's route. Or for that matter, hope that your hand didn't had any injury at all after punching the computer later.

Edited August 29, 2017 by littleshogun

[Zidan209]

During the Fuwapocalypse, i read Michiru's and Sakaki's endings in Grisaia. 

Now this is kind of weird, because i can't even sort my opinions about my favorite route or girl in this VN. I haven't played Makina's route yet, but i don't think she could top the others siince i don't even like lolis that much.

While Michiru's route was fun, Sakaki was filled with something more interesting and maybe a bit thrilling. Well, actually it's a fight between those 2 routes and those 2 girls, since i did not really like Amane and i found her route a little boring because it was a BIT too long (Kazuki was probably the only reason i could bear to watch all the other stupid characters). So i guess my final judgement would be Sakaki for the best route and Michiru the best girl. Nothing against Sachi, she just wasn't as likeable for me and the stupid options offered to the player on her route (and obviously their consequences) were a letdown. The same goes for Michiru, the choices the player is offered at the end make no sense whatsoever and i tried hard to think about them even after going through both of her endings.

 

Also, i just finished the last one of Majikoi's main routes. I did a good job of leaving Momoyo as the last one (though, Wanko is still the best girl). My judgement of Majikoi is rather simple: A great comedy, with so absurd ammount of dirty topics and jokes that it's actually funny. I've noticed a few wannabe dramatic scenes that were kinda out of place, because the choices don't matter at all in the story (except of some VERY obvious ones), which ruins any feeling of accomplishment for getting a good ending.

Edited August 30, 2017 by Zidan209

[Deniz]

I'm reading Brass Restoration right now.Don't know if it's because of translation but i found writing similar to oelvns.Also plot seems cheesy for the part i saw.

[onorub]

Reading Chaos;Head and now i understand the complaints about the protagonist, he's such a loser that he makes the whole thing look like some fucked up comedy.

09/03: Finished it with the best ending and watched the remaining endings on youtube (i think B ending was more to explain the murders, so i get why it's only acessible on NewGame+). Overall it's pretty good, but the MC makes it hard to take seriously, especially when it looks like he's gonna be a badass from then on and he says one or two dorky lines so you're like "oh...".

Edited September 3, 2017 by onorub

[Dreamysyu]

3 hours ago, onorub said:

some fucked up comedy.

Actually, the whole VN can be described with these words. Strangely enough, it works.

[BookwormOtaku]

On 8/31/2017 at 6:26 AM, onorub said:

Reading Chaos;Head and now i understand the complaints about the protagonist, he's such a loser that he makes the whole thing look like some fucked up comedy.

That reminds me of when I described C;H to my brother and said Takumi makes Shinji Ikari from Evangelion look like a bad ass.

 

On my end I've finished the second of the side stories for Dies Irae, which was actually better than I expected in how it showed how certain characters met and ended at the right moment where I was worried it was going to show too much. Now to finish the third one (which I can't help but feel is unnecessary so far as it's introducing several new characters and seems to expect me to have some investment in them right out the gate plus there's nothing so far that isn't convincing me this backstory regarding a certain pair needed to be told like this) so I can finally get back to the main story and see how Marie's route is.

Edit: Okay, I'm at the action part of the sidestory and it's definitely gotten better here if only because of the character banter in the battles (especially Rusalka's)

Edited September 2, 2017 by BookwormOtaku

[BookwormOtaku]

Okay, when it comes it comes to starting differently Marie's route sure takes the cake. I did not expect this to be the start of Ren's POV

Spoiler

 

[Deniz]

I was looking for an easy dungeon crawling game to satisfy my urge and finished Violated Hero 3 in one sitting.It was quite enjoyable.Contrast between the protagonist's innocence and monster girls' perviness was cute.

[Nandemonai]

On 8/31/2017 at 9:26 AM, onorub said:

Reading Chaos;Head and now i understand the complaints about the protagonist, he's such a loser that he makes the whole thing look like some fucked up comedy.

Yeah, I like the VN and everything, but good lord, is it hard to deal with Takumi.  I can only play in fits and spurts because of that.  Okabe was not particularly well-adjusted, but Takumi literally needs professional help.  The real problem, though, is that Okabe has redeeming qualities that come part and parcel with his eccentricities and obnoxiousness.  Takumi - well, I'm still relatively early in the game (I think), but not so much.

[akaritan]

6 hours ago, Deniz said:

I was looking for an easy dungeon crawling game to satisfy my urge and finished Violated Hero 3 in one sitting.It was quite enjoyable.Contrast between the protagonist's innocence and monster girls' perviness was cute.

If you haven't already, I'd highly recommend checking out Monmusu Quest. Apart from the h content seeming to be pretty similar (I haven't read Violated Hero), it's a surprisingly good time for completely different reasons.

[ChaosRaven]

So, I finished Yang's route in Pygmalion now, and I think I'll leave it at that. To be honest, I think I only made it that far because I enjoyed its music so much. I really have to try to extract its music somehow or get a download for it since it would be a waste to just have it gone. In that regard its similar strong or maybe even better than Tokyo Babel which also had a quite good soundtrack overall. For all their flaws, Propeller did have a good sense of music.

Unfortunately, the VN had a lot of other flaws that couldn't just be compensated by the music. First and foremost the weak character cast, followed by a very chaotic story flow. And the top offender was Mina itself, the protagonist. If I would be forced to find a word that describes everything about her, personality, attitude, character strength, everything in one word, then this word would be "Huh?!". Nothing else describes her complete cluelessness, lack of common sense and character strength better than this word. You can literally talk her into every crime with just a half-assed explanation because she will believe everything or just be too timid to doubt you. You can totally expect stuff like "Huh, how could I have known that the kid will be dead after I shot it?!". Overall, she acts like a 5 year old child for the most part of the VN which gets VERY annoying after a while.

The rest of the 'yuri circle' - Riko and Jessica - also didn't exactly stand out through particular smartness. Riko was as bland and boring as it gets while Jessica was at least bearable and actually has some decent scenes. Another top offender was Madame Leifang who could be considered the leader of 'Team Ruka'. Her main agenda seemed to be to cause as much infighting as possible and get her team killed as fast as possible. She also constantly seemed to change her attitude through the VN to a point where I had the strong suspicion that she might constantly having her days. At some point I just gave up trying to understand what she actually wants.

Yang, her daughter, was better and some of the characters who acted a bit more mature. Though she was essentially not more than a side character. She only appears for a short time at the start and then just joins much later on. And most of her 'route' consisted of sitting in a car and talking with Jay, which was surprisingly one of the more relaxing parts of the VN's. And speaking of Jay, he was probably the best written character by a long mile. Calm, composed and loyal - I really liked him. He would have been a way better protagonist than Mina.

Art was hit and miss. The artist had frequent problems finding the right facial and body proportions. At its best there were some really nice and beautiful CG's, but more often than not it just turned out as weird and distorted.

For the story itself, it had potential, but the weak character cast and chaotic story flow more less killed it.

Spoiler

The whole "my puppet god is better than your puppet god" battle royal was just so obvious that the characters not getting it immediately was border-line insulting. And the puppet gods itself were just abtract beings with no personality themselves. That they just gave a damn about their caring minions was almost an ironic fate. The whole illusionary world came rather late and out of the blue in Yang's route and there might be more about it in the other routes. Not really interested enough to read the other routes though.

Character ranking: Jay > Yang > Jessica >> Riko > Madame Leifang >> Mina (I use a character ranking instead of a heroine ranking this time so I can include Jay)

Overall rating: 6/10

 

Regarding other translated VN's I'm currently reading, I'm half through with Chrono Clock. Makoto's route was pretty good although a bit short. Misaki's and Michiru's routes felt really unnecessary and tagged on though, with a much lower quality than Makoto's route. They dragged quite a bit and it took me several breaks to dig through them. Currently at DD's route which I'm not sure yet how it'll turn out. But the VN certainly lives from its charming characters.

Finished Kasumi's route in Dies which wasn't that great and getting to the end of Kei's route I think. Seems a bit better than Kasumi's, but it's still rather bland and predictable. I think I've never experienced a writer that had such a tendency to blather like in Dies. Ask anyone for directions and he'll just say "Just over there, 200 meters from here on the left side.", ask Masada and you get a half hour sermon about 'going against the forces or nature', 'wilth full spirit', 'even if it costs you your life', 'and never give up' and stuff like that - you get the picture. It's only possible to digest in small doses... -.-

Also started with Fata Morgana and it's rather promising so far. In contrast to most others I didn't like the music at all and replaced it with the soundtrack from Beyond two Souls from Lorne Balfe which somehow fits the gothic atmosphere better. The original soundtrack also had too much (bad) singing and I find atmospheric music with singing horribly distracting. The sprites are good, the backgrounds... not - in half of the cases I can't even figure out what the background image is supposed to show. Oddly enough, as long as the sprites are good the weak backgrounds don't hurt the experience as much as I thought. But the writing is overall spot on so far and compensates for a lot of its other shortcomings.

Edited September 3, 2017 by ChaosRaven

[Not_At_All]

Finished Zero Time Dilemma today, so I am done with the trilogy now. I disliked that they kept changing the art between the games. Not because it looked bad, I got used to it, but because the same character looked completely different in different games. Clover in 1-2, Akane and Jumpey in 1-3 and Sigma and Phi in 2-3. They felt like completely different people to me.

About the third game itself - I liked the playing random fragments of story and trying to piece it together, it was an interesting experience. It's a shame the cast was split into teams the way it was, because I liked C and D teams a lot, but when it came to team Q I was forcing myself a bit. Mira was okay, but I didn't like Q and Eric, well, fuck Eric. Also it's a shame that this interesting story telling was used on the weakest story of the trilogy. They kept putting more and more sci-fi elements into it, but unlike in the first two games, there were no attempts to explain them and eventually I gave up trying to make it make sense. The characters of teams C and D were really interesting though, so I enjoyed it even if it made none of it. 

Specific things I found bullshit:

Spoiler

• Alien civilization transporter.
• Too much SHIFTing by the end. It was done quite nicely in VLR, but when it became usual and easy to do, it stopped being interesting.
• Mind hack.
• Causal loops. Phi had her brooch cause Diane left it to her cause Phi had it in the first place. It didn't come from anywhere.
• True ending. Delta's motivation for doing the whole Radical 6 thing was so weak that it made it all feel quite pointless.

However the biggest annoyance for me was that Phi is Diane's and Sigma's daughter. It kinda makes sense, but Phi and Sigma had great chemistry (especially in VLR) so I really hoped they'd get together, but alas.

 

On 8/30/2017 at 0:17 PM, Zidan209 said:

While Michiru's route was fun, Sakaki was filled with something more interesting and maybe a bit thrilling. Well, actually it's a fight between those 2 routes and those 2 girls, since i did not really like Amane and i found her route a little boring because it was a BIT too long (Kazuki was probably the only reason i could bear to watch all the other stupid characters). So i guess my final judgement would be Sakaki for the best route and Michiru the best girl. Nothing against Sachi, she just wasn't as likeable for me and the stupid options offered to the player on her route (and obviously their consequences) were a letdown. The same goes for Michiru, the choices the player is offered at the end make no sense whatsoever and i tried hard to think about them even after going through both of her endings.

I find it interesting that our opinions are almost completely different. For me best girl was Sachi, worst - Michiru (I just found her way too annoying). Best route - Amane's, even though both times I read GnK I thought it was a bit too long, so I agree with you there, but it was really memorable. Worst, probably Sakaki's or Makina's, they overlapped a bit too much for my liking.

I completely agree on the ending choices. Sachi's and Michiru's were just awful. Other three girls' at least made sense. 

Edited September 3, 2017 by Not_At_All

[Canicheslayer]

At last, I finished Da Capo 4 Dal Segno.

I feel released...and quite irritated. On the one hand, the setting, the art, the CGs and the Character Design are very good. But, on the other hand, this VN is so boring (ex : the common route is horrible) and almost all the girls are...hollow, uninteresting. And the Drama ? Uggh...It was probably worst than Da Capo I (except Noeri's ending...maybe).

Girl Ranking : Io >>> Ame > Himari > Noeri > Hazuki

Route Ranking : Noeri >> Ame = Io >> Himari > Hazuki

Edit : reading Hanachirasu.

Chapter 4, first playthrough. After too much moe/school setting, it's the perfect change of scenery I must say that he "uchronic" setting is just awesome. Similarly, I enjoy the villainous (but interesting) protagonist and the OST is great for the moment

Edited September 7, 2017 by Canicheslayer
2.3

[Eclipsed]

On 9/3/2017 at 0:39 PM, Not_At_All said:

Finished Zero Time Dilemma today, so I am done with the trilogy now. I disliked that they kept changing the art between the games. Not because it looked bad, I got used to it, but because the same character looked completely different in different games. Clover in 1-2, Akane and Jumpey in 1-3 and Sigma and Phi in 2-3. They felt like completely different people to me.

About the third game itself - I liked the playing random fragments of story and trying to piece it together, it was an interesting experience. It's a shame the cast was split into teams the way it was, because I liked C and D teams a lot, but when it came to team Q I was forcing myself a bit. Mira was okay, but I didn't like Q and Eric, well, fuck Eric. Also it's a shame that this interesting story telling was used on the weakest story of the trilogy. They kept putting more and more sci-fi elements into it, but unlike in the first two games, there were no attempts to explain them and eventually I gave up trying to make it make sense. The characters of teams C and D were really interesting though, so I enjoyed it even if it made none of it. 

Lol yeah, teams C&D ftw, rip team Q, I didn't care jack about them.

As for the BS true ending, I'll never get over how silly it was to hear 'my motives are complex' 

 

~~
There are so many mainstream backlogged VNs i should be reading right now, Dies Irae, the rest of the Grisaia trilogy, Fata Morgana, blahblahblah but nope I'm gonna pick the randomest thing ever and go with XBlaze Code Embryo and Lost Memories on my Vita 'cos they've been collecting dust for god knows how long

[Riku]

Just finished SubaHibi, and, well, I was disappointed. And here I hoped it'd be the masterpiece that so much people praise... Well, still liked it (more like, was kinda meh and just fucked up until the subroute in chapter 4 where I started genuinely liking it)

[Zhyareth]

Currently playing Little Busters i just woke up ready to pull the "until i dont finish this shit im not sleeping". I just finished rewrite a couple of days ago, Jesus ive been born to love Key and Jun Maeda, loved every single route with Shizuru being my fav one and ofc moon/terra being simply too good.

Ive already played some of the routes from LB before but never finished it after finishing Rewrite i said fuck it, too bad the Perfect Edition is delayed but meh.

[Eclipsed]

1 hour ago, Zhyareth said:

Currently playing Little Busters i just woke up ready to pull the "until i dont finish this shit im not sleeping". I just finished rewrite a couple of days ago, Jesus ive been born to love Key and Jun Maeda, loved every single route with Shizuru being my fav one and ofc moon/terra being simply too good.

Ive already played some of the routes from LB before but never finished it after finishing Rewrite i said fuck it, too bad the Perfect Edition is delayed but meh.

Perfect Edition delayed as in recently? or from 5 years ago delayed? back when I was a Key fanatic i was hyped for it too but tick tock tick tock the years just went by...

GL grinding Little Busters!, i unfortunately found it boring so i just did Rin 1 -> Haruka -> skip all the others -> Rin 2 -> Refrain 

[Canicheslayer]

Finished Hanachirasu...already

+ The setting is awesome : I'm a sucker for uchronia/alternative History

+ The protagonist is a total jerk, a true villain. It was hilarious (except the unavoidable rape).

+ The background music is a real plus.

+ The Eternal ending is pure genius.

- Way too short.

- I didn't like the girls' Character Design.

- The detailed descriptions of sword techniques were awfully boring.

- Some parts of the plot are not clear or too convenient/predictable.

- Unavoidable rape.

Edit : Reading Quartett!

My expectations are very, very high : Ooyari Ashito, Music, Slice of life, an unusual Comics style (for RPG connoisseurs, it reminds me of Phantasy Star IV). All the ingredients are here for a very good moment

Edited September 7, 2017 by Canicheslayer
2.0

[Limerence_]

Just started reading SubaHibi. Currently at It's My Own Invention, at the part where 

Spoiler

Takuji was forced to suck the bullies' dicks. 

Didn't really expect that.