What are you playing?

[Dreamysyu]

Finished the main story in The House in Fata Morgana: Requiem for Innocence, and, great, now I'm crying over a fictional story. Nice job. Good that I was alone at home when I reached the end.

I'll write more when I read the side stories, but overall I can say that the story was really good. It's just on the same level as the main game, and, if you liked it, it's definitely worth a try. Especially if you, like me, are a fan of Morgana and

Spoiler

Jacopo.

 

5 hours ago, Ranzo said:

I've got one of the endings so far and I guess there are three to go?

Yeah, but the endings are actually really short. This VN only branches when it's practically finished. And don't forget to skip through the whole VN again after you reach the true ending. A few additional scenes will unlock.

[Inorin]

1 hour ago, Dreamysyu said:

Finished the main story in The House in Fata Morgana: Requiem for Innocence, and, great, now I'm crying over a fictional story. Nice job. Good that I was alone at home when I reached the end.

I'll write more when I read the side stories, but overall I can say that the story was really good. It's just on the same level as the main game, and, if you liked it, it's definitely worth a try. Especially if you, like me, are a fan of Morgana and

  Reveal hidden contents

Jacopo.

 

Definitely one of the most depressing fandiscs I've ever read. Most of the side stories are also rather serious as well, though there's one which was quite lighthearted and entertaining. As for

Jacpo, I didn't think much of his character in the original story since it felt like his past was summarized, rather than being expanded upon. The character development shown in RFI was incredible, and while I saw some plot twists coming (like Ceren being a spy), I certainly did not expect everyone related to Jacopo (and Jacopo) to die. The whole truth behind the events wasn't revealed in the original story since Michel interfered, so when the truth came to light, it goes to show that the truth isn't always as nice as you think it is.

 

  

[Funyarinpa]

Requiem for Innocence was so fucking good

Spoiler

I didn't cry somehow, but I'm amazed that they managed to almost redeem Jacopo in my eyes.

 

[adamstan]

Today, as a break between Fureraba routes, I decided to revisit the first VN I played loooong time ago - True Love ~Jun'ai Monogatari~. It has something in common with Fureraba, as it's too a mix of VN and dating sim (although leaning much more towards dating sim side).

What can I say - it shows its age, but nevertheless it was enjoyable experience. Girls are nice and pretty good looking - the whole game has that pixel-art charm to it. It seems to me that main heroine is Mikae - she gets most of the screen-time, and her route is easiest to get.

Actually I liked her - I wonder if it's because of this that I have soft spot for osananajimi heroines

As it was mentioned in other threads - it is possible to get all but one endings in one playthrough (you have to chose between Mikae and Remi), although that requires some heavy saving and reloading to beat the almighty RNG - many events are happening at random, and if they don't trigger, you're locked out of the route they belong to. It made the game little annoying at times. Second complain I have is the localization quality - it's rather messy. Supposedly browser version at Asenheim Project's site has some translation fixes, but I played old Win95 version. There were many typos, grammar errors, and often dialogue lines were mislabeled - like the girl's part was labeled as protag, and the other way around.

So considering it all - 6.5/10  (it got +0.5 for sentimental reasons )

Not bad, you can give it a shot if you're feeling sentimental, but don't expect breathtaking greatness either.

Edited June 1, 2018 by adamstan

[r0xm2n]

Finished Yuzuyu's route in Fureraba the other day. And I absolutely loved her. Maybe I just liked the fact that she just throws her emotions out there (to the point she can barely control them, and gets flustered easily).

 

Then I took a break inbetween routes to play Voices from the Sea . It's a very short visual novel, that is free, and probably no one has heard of. For what it is, it's pretty good. The beach backgrounds are really colorful, and it even has scrolling clouds, very nice. The moral of the story, about "counting your blessings", was also something I could really appreciate.

"Magical Girl" Maris made me chuckle more then once. There was also a freaking Chrono Trigger reference in there!

Some of the unlockable side content ........... was really weird and out there. Seriously....

I'll give it a 7/10. If you want a relaxing read for an afternoon, check it out.

 

And now back to Fureraba. Let's see what the childhood friend Himari is like....

[MaggieROBOT]

8 minutes ago, r0xm2n said:

Then I took a break inbetween routes to play Voices from the Sea . It's a very short visual novel, that is free, and probably no one has heard of. For what it is, it's pretty good. The beach backgrounds are really colorful, and it even has scrolling clouds, very nice. The moral of the story, about "counting your blessings", was also something I could really appreciate.

"Magical Girl" Maris made me chuckle more then once. There was also a freaking Chrono Trigger reference in there!

Some of the unlockable side content ........... was really weird and out there. Seriously....

I'll give it a 7/10. If you want a relaxing read for an afternoon, check it out.

Oh me me me me me, I heard of it! I played it as well! I can't really add much since you said pretty much everything about the good points of this VN: Short but nice, simple and perfect for relaxing, Maris is cute and her reactions are totally worth of loading previous saves to get all shells. I gave it a 7 as well.

[Plk_Lesiak]

34 minutes ago, r0xm2n said:

Then I took a break inbetween routes to play Voices from the Sea . It's a very short visual novel, that is free, and probably no one has heard of.

Zeiva Inc., the dev behind it, is actually the author of X-Note and Area-X, highly regarded western otomege and the game iself isn't that obscure. Just FYI. And I agree, quite a sweet little title, played it a long time ago but have some fond memories of it. 

Edited June 1, 2018 by Plk_Lesiak

[Inorin]

After weeks of grinding through the individual character routes in Little Busters, I've now finally unlocked Refrain. Looking forward to see what lies in store for me 

Edited June 3, 2018 by wei123

[snowbell55]

7 hours ago, wei123 said:

After weeks of grinding through the individual character routes in Little Busters, I've now finally unlocked Refrain. Looking forward to see what lies in store for me 

Hope you enjoy it - Refrain is one of the best routes in the VN. Planning on doing the EX routes after or?

[Inorin]

3 hours ago, snowbell55 said:

Hope you enjoy it - Refrain is one of the best routes in the VN. Planning on doing the EX routes after or?

Yes, I am

[Ranzo]

51 minutes ago, wei123 said:

Yes, I am

Uguuu your sucsess reminds me that I need to take on the behemoth that is Little Busters again if I wanna get at the extra scenarios

 

So, I finally finished Pygmalion and arggh man the feels, man the feels! I really loved it and Mina is definitely going down as one of my favorite protags

I think I might start on Memories Dogma next as I've got quite the steam library I need to get through

Edited June 4, 2018 by Ranzo

[PiggiesGoMoo]

Have been reading Grisaia.  I'm really impressed by the writing in all of the slice-of-life scenes. Not just the humor, but in the way that it explores the depths of personality of the characters.  That includes the common route. So far I've done the routes of Makina and Amane, and am currently in Michiru's.  I saved Sachi and Yumiko's routes for later because I was very curious about WTF is wrong with Michiru... a very unusual character lol. Michiru's character + route might end up being my favorite. The only character I find kind of uninteresting is Amane, although her route is very riveting (it felt like I was reading a totally different VN).

 

I also read Cartagra recently, and it was decent. It almost felt like I was reading a nukige, with all of the very short routes and h-scenes.  Looking forward to KNS 1 & 2.

Edited June 5, 2018 by PiggiesGoMoo

[cro-mag]

On 6/5/2018 at 2:01 AM, PiggiesGoMoo said:

Have been reading Grisaia.  I'm really impressed by the writing in all of the slice-of-life scenes. Not just the humor, but in the way that it explores the depths of personality of the characters.  That includes the common route. So far I've done the routes of Makina and Amane, and am currently in Michiru's.  I saved Sachi and Yumiko's routes for later because I was very curious about WTF is wrong with Michiru... a very unusual character lol. Michiru's character + route might end up being my favorite. The only character I find kind of uninteresting is Amane, although her route is very riveting (it felt like I was reading a totally different VN).

Common route was good. I liked how they introduced characters and didn't rush with the story to let us get used to them, to know their personalities. Enjoy Michiru's route, it may surprise you. It was rather heartwarming for me. As for Amane - at first i also thought that she's your usual cliche anime girl, but for some reason later i changed my mind a bit and discovered that she's not bad at all. And her route even my fav one, still remember deep impressions i got reading it.

Spoiler

Plus it has Kazuki - my fav girl (and character as a whole) in Grisaia.

Also i like how all these girls form such an interesting and funny (in slice of life moments) group that you feel it would be lacking something if one girl is to be removed. They just complement each other, and in result we have great VN with unique characters, each with their own personal background.

[Orakana Newbie]

Well, starting read Onii-chan, Asa Made Zutto Gyu tte Shite!, Nothing bad this far and definitely great. this VN boiling my Lolicon soul, and of course, Most of heroine voice make me so excited and this was----------- sfx*bam* - *DASH RUN*

*POLICE SIRENS*  - *DOOR SMASHED*

* "FREZEEE!!!!" * -

* " ... " *

* " The suspect is gone! repeat, The suspect is gone!" *

[adamstan]

37 minutes ago, Orakana Newbie said:

sfx*bam* - *DASH RUN*

*POLICE SIRENS*  - *DOOR SMASHED*

* "FREZEEE!!!!" * -

* " ... " *

* " The suspect is gone! repeat, The suspect is gone!" *

And, to not be completely OT - I'm currently playing Fureraba. 3 routes finished, mysterious senpai route left.

Edited June 6, 2018 by adamstan

[Dreamysyu]

So, I finished the side stories, so The House in Fata Morgana: Requiem for Innocence is officially finished for me. And, though not without some flaws, it was quite a fantastic experience.

First of all, I doubt anybody on this forum would attempt that, but I really wouldn't recommend reading this fansidisc before the original VN. Since it is a prequel to the original game, the main story works well on its own, but if you attempt that you will be spoiled on several very important plot-twists from the original game. What I personally like about RFI is that, unlike how it is with most fandiscs, it doesn't try to add meaningless filler to the original original VN, but instead, basically, serves as an extended backstory for a certain important character which was mentioned in the original game but never actually shown. And, you know, if you want more Fata Morgana, you'll get it here. For me personally the most important thing in all types of fiction I consume is the characters. I love watching how they develop in different circumstances and how they interact with each other, and both Fata Morgana and RFI literally excel at showing this.

Spoiler

The character development for both Morgana and Jacopo was absolutely amazing. I personally think that the original VN showed pretty well what type of people they actually were, but RFI gives them a lot more depth and explains how exactly they became that they became in the end, so it was really enjoyable to read.

They main flaw for me personally is actually the same thing that bugged me about the original game. You may consider it nitpicking, but I feel like the characters in this VN are simply way too modern for somebody in living in the Middle Ages. Well, I understand that showing this story and being completely faithful to the time period would be impossible, so it's not an important thing for me, but this could be a deal breaker for some people.

As for the other episodes, I'm honestly a bit disappointed. They are very short and don't have time to show anything meaningful, and I felt like they were basically trying to artificially continue the story that was already over. Well, that's exactly the reason why I'm generally not a fan of fandiscs.

And thus, the overall score is 9/10 for the main story, 6/10 for the sub episodes, and 8/10 overall.

[adamstan]

Yesterday I finished Fureraba. Wasn't perfect, but nice.

Comedy stuff in common route was really good - Genki, Momo, Masayoshi-sensei - pretty funny team  

I started with Yuzuyu's route, and was little disappointed. Yuzuyu herself was sweet, both in tsuntsun and deredere modes, but the route itself felt somewhat... flat? Like, after they got together, it didn't seem to go anywhere and became a little too repetitive. Sometimes I had a feeling, that the events were there only as a lead-in to h-scenes. On a plus side - Yuzuyu opening more to others was nice change. So that route was when I started to think that even lighthearted moege needs little bit of drama, so the sweet bits would taste even better.

Next I went with Rina's route and... O my, that was amazing! Rina was absolutely great, and the route, while still light hearted, had much better flow. There was a tiniest bit of drama

Spoiler

With Rina getting sad at her parents forgetting her birthday, and her general loneliness.

but it was enough to serve as a "spice" for the route. And Rina was soooo cute At the final epilogue CG I had to resist the urge to kiss the screen

Himari. Nice route too. Not as good as Rina's, but still nice. However I abolutely loved the epilogue

Spoiler

With them getting married and starting a family.

And the last route I played was Misaki's. Another cuteness overdose - she was amazing. Initially she reminded me of Ritsuko from PrincessEvangile (mostly thanks to her looks), but as we get to know her better, there are so many new sides to her. I'll tell you

Spoiler

She's no ojousama at all

Kaoruko from Wagahigh comes to mind too.  I have hard time choosing between her and Rina. The route was nice too, with some surprises waiting along the way. I also liked how it involved other girls

Spoiler

Thanks to becoming friends with Misaki, Yuzuyu also becomes more friendly - similarly to her own route, and Himari overcomes her dislike for carrots

So my ranking for both girls and routes would be Rina > Misaki > Himari > Yuzuyu.

The game looks and sounds good - no complains here.

Now something about localization....

Initially I was afraid, as the translation leans more towards the "liberal" side, but it works surprisingly well in this setting, especially for comedic stuff. Idiot Genki was perfect They could tone-down the f-bombs for the MC a little, as he suffers from some ChronoClockitis but overally it works. I have one minor complaint regarding the TL (but it's just a matter of personal preference). I really like Japanese expression for having sex, often used in VNs - 一つになる (hitotsu ni naru)　- "to become one". It has that certain romantic feeling for me, so it would fit pretty well in romance VN. However, localization team treated it just like any other synonym for "having sex", and it isn't translated directly even once - always replaced with "doing it", "having sex" etc etc. Considering, that the characters use other expressions too (like "ecchi suru" or straight-up "SEX"), it would be nice to keep that distinction. But that's just me.

Editing could use some more QC, as there are typos and wrong words here and there - like "over <> other", "rarely <> really" etc.

Overally - nice experience, didn't met all my expectations, but was enjoyable. 7.5/10 (BTW, I gave same score for WagaHigh, but I feel it was better writing-wise. However Fureraba gets bonus points for Rina and Misaki )

Now I'm going to delve into ancient times again, and read Sakura no Kisetsu (1996 version under DOSBox - I actually feel that it looks better than "enhanced" version from Jast Memorial Collection. And I love FM music).

Edited June 7, 2018 by adamstan

[littleshogun]

After seeing the post above, it remind me that I need to finished Yuzuyu's route and finally going to read Misakichi's route. I'll play Fureraba as soon as possible,

Recently I just finished Eden, and from what I see it did good enough job to convey what minori want to tell. It's an utsuge like I said earlier, and especially so

Spoiler

because we have our Sion dying and the Ryou left alone in the dying planet (It's his choice though).

While I say that minori did a good job especially with the art, unfortunately the setting was a bit underdeveloped considering that it was very interesting, with the world was about to destroy and the great war was happening in the past. Also the relation between Sion and Ryou was can come as pretty sudden for some people because they development was happened off screen, although it's not like it didn't affect anything though - actually minori could show us some development between them what's happened in the journey though like what happened with Elica, but I guess what's done is done. It's not as bad as off screen school festival in Supipara, because we can see more of Sion and Ryou even though their early development was happened off screen. So in the end, I'm more or less content with Eden here and just in case you didn't agree with my notes there, you may treat that as my nitpicking there lol.

PS - Interestingly Inaba's seiyuu is Yuuto's seiyuu back at ef and Elica's seiyuu was also Yuuko's seiyuu, while Natsume who supposed to be Inaba's lover was voiced by Kei's seiyuu. I don't say that they didn't do the good job for that (In fact they did good job), but I think it would be more interesting if for example Yamada Yuna is voicing Natsume, or alternatively Kyousuke's (From ef) seiyuu can voicing Inaba there. Not that I mind current cast though, I just think that it might be more funny if we have what I suggested lol.

Edited June 7, 2018 by littleshogun

[Thyndd]

On 7/6/2018 at 1:29 PM, littleshogun said:

While I say that minori did a good job especially with the art, unfortunately the setting was a bit underdeveloped considering that it was very interesting, with the world was about to destroy and the great war was happening in the past. Also the relation between Sion and Ryou was can come as pretty sudden for some people because they development was happened off screen, although it's not like it didn't affect anything though - actually minori could show us some development between them what's happened in the journey though like what happened with Elica, but I guess what's done is done. It's not as bad as off screen school festival in Supipara, because we can see more of Sion and Ryou even though their early development was happened off screen.

Yep... As much as I like eden*, one of my biggest regrets will be not having been able to see how Sion and Ryou 's relationship built up during their travel together. Come on, it's such a perfect setting, why would you let it go to waste? 

As for the lack of depth in the apocaliptic setting and sci-fi department... Well, yes, I would have not mind getting a little bit more of information, but I also understand that it was simply not the point of the story. Eden* is a tale about freedom, about the beauty of life and our existence in this planet. In that sense, going into too much detail could have diverted it from the main focus, especially given How short it is. 

Anyway, hope you at least enjoy the VN in spite of its flaws 

[Ranzo]

Finished playing Memory's Dogma and I quite liked it. It was refreshing to play a protagonist that not only has voice acting but is a university student to boot. The characters were all pretty interesting and I especially Reina who I quite liked. The setting was pretty interesting as well. It kinda got a little stale towards the end (God, I have no patience for boring villain monologues)

It definitely felt unfinished which I know is because it's only a part 1 but at least the ending was somewhat satisfying.

 

I moved on to Highway Blossoms and I'm glad that I waited to play it thanks to their update. At first I wasn't sure what to make of the voice acting but it grew on me as the story went on.

[r0xm2n]

Finished Himari's route in Fureraba the other day. Yeah, her and her route didn't really do it for me. Other games have done the childhood friend routes better.

Taking a short break from Fureraba to read Planetarian....

[adamstan]

I'd say, that in Fureraba Rina also plays almost-osananajimi role - she didn't know Kyousuke as long as Himari, but they also reached that level of being so close friends, that they cannot imagine being romantically involved with each other. An then - surprise, surprise

[r0xm2n]

..... and I finished Planetarian.....

.... seriously KEY, why do you get off on making a grown man cry?? *sniffle*

Spoiler

KEY sure loves making it's main female characters die in sad ways. That seems to be a common thing in KEY novels.

 

[adamstan]

I just finished Sakura no Kisetsu

It was nice romcom VN - I can see how it stood out in the '90s among the sea of translated nukiges It has quite well-written characters, some funny dialogue, and isn't focused on h-scenes, which appear (one per girl) only in the epilogues. There are eight heroines. The routes share most of the events, and they branch based on "affection points", but differences aren't big - some different dialogues, and - in case of some routes - additonal events.

I think that my favorite routes/endings were Kiyomi (I like girls with glasses ), Ruri and Aki (with Ruri's and Aki's endings being most emotional in whole game). 

Spoiler

That kiss in the snow with Aki was really heartwarming

Some more screenshots from these three:

Spoiler

Weakest one (and the shortest) was Shoko's (pink haired girl), who didn't have much of a route actually

Spoiler

She tried to seduce Shuji right in the prologue, and then if you focus on her, and accept her when she comes to your house the night before sports festival, there's H-scene and it jumps right to the ending. That was rather disappointing.

Reiko and Mio - two blue haired girls - were nice too, but their routes didn't stand out that much. Nevertheless I liked them.

Spoiler

Nice, and no too common thing, is that your comic-relief friend (Makoto) gets the girl too in some endings

Spoiler

It seems that the four "main" heroines are Kiyomi, Mio, Reiko and Aki - these are the four that confess to you on Valentine's Day - and if you end up with Kiyomi, Reiko or Mio, Aki starts going out with Makoto.

Now let's talk a little about technical aspects. The game looks really good despite suffering from VGA limitations. I really like character design. I know that they are almost directly lifted from popular anime shows of the time (MKR, Evangelion and Saint's Tail), but I just like that style. I'd actually like to see similar character designs and art style in some modern VN. Another nice thing are little details used to liven-up the sprites - although they only have one pose (except for CGs of course), there are numerous facial expressions and outfits for each girl, and the faces have little animations - like eyes blinking, or anime-tears flowing  - nice touch . The backgrounds also change slightly depending on time of the day (lighting) and situation (like classroom can be empty or have some students and/or teacher in it).

The gameplay is that of modern text-adventure games (like Eric the Unready for example) - so there's no parser, but you choose from set of commands like "look", "talk" etc. It can be quite tiresome - I'd actually prefer the style of modern VNs, when there are only choices. As it is, to listen to whole dialogue you often have to click "TALK">"character" numerous times. OTOH - no one can say "This isn't a game!"

Localization is actually decent. There are some grammar errors and mislabeled lines, but nothing game-breaking. It is perfectly readable. Funny thing is, how JAST dealt with characters being in high-school. Instead of putting standard warning ("This is a work of fictioin, all characters are +18 yadayadayada") they tried to rewrite story - by changing HS to "prep school" between HS and college, and renaming "principal" to "dean", and yet at the same time failing miserably right at one of the first screens

Overally - it was nice read, with likeable and beautiful girls. 7/10 - give it a try if you have some time (and use a walkthrough )

Next one to read will be either Crescendo or Hatsukoi after stories.

Edited June 9, 2018 by adamstan

[littleshogun]

On 6/9/2018 at 1:14 AM, Thyndd said:

Yep... As much as I like eden*, one of my biggest regrets will be not having been able to see how Sion and Ryou 's relationship built up during their travel together. Come on, it's such a perfect setting, why would you let it go to waste? 

As for the lack of depth in the apocaliptic setting and sci-fi department... Well, yes, I would have not mind getting a little bit more of information, but I also understand that it was simply not the point of the story. Eden* is a tale about freedom, about the beauty of life and our existence in this planet. In that sense, going into too much detail could have diverted it from the main focus, especially given How short it is. 

Anyway, hope you at least enjoy the VN in spite of its flaws 

I guess you might be right in regard of the setting, so perhaps it was understandable if minori want us to see both of Sion and Ryou. While I did say that it was a bit undeveloped, in the end I'm pretty much fine with this because at last it shown that the world ending is still inevitable and therefore unavoidable.

As for your last point, don't worry about that because I'm still enjoyed it through the playthrough. Although I think I'll skip plus Mosaic for now though (I'll consider to read those sex scenes later).

Edited June 10, 2018 by littleshogun