What are you playing?

[r0xm2n]

1 hour ago, Fred the Barber said:

Actually, the dudes are exactly the reason Little Busters is a good game. The girls are just window dressing and a way to get you to spend some time with the characters and learn to like them all. In the end, it's all about the bromance.

Yep, totally agree. Probably the only VN I've read that has this level of bromance.

[Stormwolf]

Hoshiori. Just did Marika's route and thats probably the most beautiful pure romance route i've ever played. I knew these guys had potential when i played Hatsukoi. They failed then, but holy crap how they made up for it with this title, or atleast this route.

[Phantom]

1 hour ago, Stormwolf said:

I knew these guys had potential when i played Hatsukoi. They failed then, but holy crap how they made up for it with this title, or atleast this route.

What routes in order did you like from least to worse from Hatsukoi? Also I'm curious about how comes you think the game was lackluster. I haven't played Maya's or Yukino's routes yet, I disliked some of the parts in Midori's, Kyou's and Runa's route...

Spoiler

Especially Midori's break up reasoning and the painful aftermath, Runa giving away her chance to Yukino in Runa's route was pretty sad too and Yukino I generally disliked because of her actions in Runa's route and Yuuma being dense really bugged me at points (including some questionable actions he took).

What do you think?

[littleshogun]

I guess it's only logical if tone work's did their best to write childhood friend route in Hoshiori, seeing that in HatsuKoi it's one of the most infamous route. That said, while I still didn't play it yet I already think that Marika here is far better compared to Fureraba's Himahima when it come to childhood friend that met again cliche. As for Hoshiori, I would say that perhaps you should play Misa's route first considering that it's one of the weakest route according to the review that I'd read, but then again some people may like her route the most so it's more subjective matter to each people (I'm still like Misa's route here, okay).

As for HatsuKoi's order, judging from people reactions and review I think it goes like Runa is the worst, then Yukino, Midori, Maya, and finally Kyou. Keep in mind that it's only based on my observation, so I may be wrong on this.

Edited December 30, 2018 by littleshogun

[Phantom]

8 hours ago, littleshogun said:

 I think it goes like Runa is the worst, then Yukino, Midori, Maya, and finally Kyou. Keep in mind that it's only based on my observation, so I may be wrong on this.

I actually liked Runa the best; I heard that Yukino's route is pretty bad so I never played it however I will be replaying the game at some point so I'll see for myself! 

[adamstan]

Yesterday I finished Sakura Sakura - after 36 hours, according to Steam timer.

It was great fun - it just ticked the right boxes and scratched right itches for me

First thing that grabbed me was lovely "classic" art style, and facial animations for character sprites - blinking and pseudo-lip-sync. I felt almost like playing remastered Sakura no Kisetsu Music is great too, and some of the tunes also feel like lifted almost straight from that classic era - for example that upbeat theme that plays during most Kurumi's scenes.

Characters were also very likeable - Tooru, Naoki, Akira and Masashi make really nice group. I actually didn't have any problems with Naoki - either as side character or protagonist. It gives that "group of friends" vibe that we loved in Little Busters or Majikoi - it isn't as strong, but it's there.

All four heroines are lovely too - if I had to choose one to take home, I'd take Sakura

I really loved all her different sides - she resembles Ritsuko Kitamikado a little (not visually, mind you ). On the surface - very strict and cool, but hidden underneath is quite playful and jealous girl.
And why specifically Ritsuko? Just compare those two scenes

Also, her hairstyle is one of the few short hairstyles that I really like - usually I prefer longer hair.

Nanako's route (and some parts of common) have numerous Maison Ikkoku anime references, which I loved. The dorm looks very much like 一刻館, Tooru gets room No.5, his indecisiveness rivals that of Godai, Akira and Naoki keep invading his room - and there are some scenes in "sub routes" where Naoki behaves a little like mysterious Yotsuya, and finally Nanako shares many personality traits with Kyouko - mostly how she gets angry at Tooru after jumping to conclusions And the phones in both houses are identical It all added another layer of entertainment for me - loved it.

Akira is pretty good - if maybe a bit violent -  osananajimi, and she makes great pair with Naoki. She has also surprising caring side to her However Kurumi's route was really nice too, so I'd have hard time choosing best girl for Naoki. (Actually it's the same with Sakura vs Nanako). One of the things I liked about Kurumi's route were some fourth-wall-poking scenes, like when she stated on various occasions that "this is just like in eroge" 

The "map movement" segments were pretty nice too, with pixel-art chibi sprites, resembling a bit those from LittleBusters batting practice, and NES-style music.

Sakura Sakura is very lighthearted, but does it in a really charming way. I laughed very often seeing the banter between Naoki and Akira or Masashi, or Kurumi fooling around with Moe (who gave her such name? ) Also, all characters are still present during the routes - which is always welcome.

The game is pretty unusual in one aspect - there's almost no narration (outside h-scenes), all story is delivered almost exclusively through dialogues. It works, but sometimes may be a bit confusing - during some scenes I had to check the backlog to make sure what's going on.

I started with all-ages version, and completed Nanako's first route, but something felt off - like, some jumps in the story were a bit too sudden. Unfortunately, all-ages version of Sakura Sakura is really poor hack-job. I don't know if original console version was the same, or if it was done by SolPress exclusively for Steam edition, but it simply doesn't work. There are no replacement scenes, and cuts are waaay too broad, cutting off pretty important bits of dialogue or story as a result. So for this game adult patch is absolute must-have. It is free, so no problem here.

That brings us to the h-scenes themselves. They were nice refreshment after disappointment that SukiSuki was for me. While they are still full of hentai/eroge cliches, it didn't bother me, because for most of the scenes writers managed to make them "love scenes" rather than just porn. It's clear that all that characters do is expression of their love and affection towards each other, and not just fapservice for the player (Well, some of the scenes in Nanako's after story have more fanservicey feel to them, but still they're good) And they don't break characters personalities. There are also some nice bits of dialogue - before, during the act and after - and cutting them is pretty big loss.

Now let's talk a bit about translation. There is "honorifics on/off" switch in the options menu, and in theory it looks like nice idea - including two versions of translation, to satisfy both camps. Unfortunately, it's rather messy. Default setting is "Off", but this version doesn't work too well. It looks like it was done with some kind of automatic replacement, with "honorifics on" version as a base. It almost always defaults to characters first name, event when it doesn't make too much sense - especially when switching from last to first name is significant story point and marks important progress in the relationship. Also, replacing both "Nanako-sensei" (in dorm) and "Sakura-sensei" (in school) with just "Nanako" sounds really off. It should have been at least "Ms Nanako/Sakura", just like they did with Bitou-sensei. After a bit of toggling, I finally left that switch in the "on" position, but that version suffers from some lack of QC as well - some of the lines are still translated as if they were from the "off" version, and sometimes honorifics are messed up - like senpai <> sensei or san <> kun. Also, it's a bit inconsistent - probably due to multiple translators. For example, the way Naoki speaks about Sakura. He often says something like "Kirishima no nee-san" ("桐島の姉さん"?), and even in "honorifics-on" version it's often translated as "Little Miss Kirishima" (which I like, as he mostly says it in a tongue-in-cheek way). However, in some cases he refers to her as just "Nee-san", and that was left untranslated - unnecessarily IMO.

I personally think that this game could have been translated properly without honorifics, but it would require some more work from the team - as it is, "non-honorific" version doesn't work, and "honorific" (or "weeby" ) version has its issues too.

Despite those complaints, it was great experience - 8/10. (I think it would have been 8.5 with more polished translation)

 

Edited December 30, 2018 by adamstan

[Larxe1]

Finished ChusinGura Chapter 3, the game really is long. My short break sadly dampened my immersion and enjoyment in the latter half. 

Spoiler

 

I really found Suguha wise and cool in the beginning but was kinda frustrated at his understandable rejecton of what he really feels and that is actually being with his Ako comrades. The process of him realizing what he really wants was one of the best moments in the chapter for me. Seeing Chikara bind herself just like Suguha and suffer a lot just for his sake, touched my heart. I didn't like Chikara at first but after seeing her devotion it's really touching. Their relationship feels more equal and not just Suguha being ordered around by Yasube or Kuranosuke. While I do like Chikara, I liked Shinpachi A LOT. Her yandere-ness was appealing and it's sad that her path was just a bad ending and fuck was I surprised at that random bad ending. I feel like I would have cried a lot more in the end if I didn't stop in the middle for like a month, my immersion dampened. Also the end with Ichigaku wtf (was that the right name?). I'm a bit afraid of what some otherpeople say about ch 4 and ch 5 and WHAT Im really afraid of is chapter 5 main heroines which is the blond imouto. I'll take Sayo over that blond imouto anytime of the day( I won't say I'm a lolicon but while she is younger she feels more better as a character than blond imouto and I already forgot her name

 

 

[adamstan]

I'm starting Wind -A Breath of Heart-

I was drawn to it mostly by art style - we'll see how it turns out...

[Stormwolf]

Just did misas route in hoshiori.

Spoiler

It wasnt as good as marika for sure. Well, it was pretty boring in comparison. I guess being boring was this routes problem. Misa was fine in general, but the fish obsession did become a bit tedious during the course of the story, but not to a degree of disliking her.

 

[Hitazo]

Finished Rikka's route in Hoshio.

 

It was great! Loved how it still included the other characters and I enjoyed the chemistry the MC and Rikka had together. It was definitely longer than Misa's and Mariko's routes but I didn't feel like it was dragging.

[adamstan]

You guys really raise up my hopes for HoshiOri. I'm waiting either for full patch or for my Japanese to become enough to read it raw, but will definitely read it!

[littleshogun]

As for Misa's route, I think it would be better if we play that as the first route seeing that it's the lowest in one of the available review. Although perhaps the right word here would be rushed seeing that both of Ryousuke and Misa did have least interaction in the common route (I may be wrong about this), but in the end it's still interesting though with the things like Marinpia revival and more importantly no drama like HatsuKoi. As for Rikka's, it's believed to be the best route in Hoshiori here although in regard of other characters inclusion I'll see about it later. About in regard of whether it'll be better to learn Japanese or read it translated, I would say that you can read it translated (ie just wait for the full patch).

PS - Still waiting for Touko's patch here because I decided to read her route next.

Edited December 31, 2018 by littleshogun

[Stormwolf]

Spoiler alert about Rikka's route, even though i'm not really that far into it!

Hino is really a different character in this route. He goes from being one who does what needs to be done (like in the other routes) to a donkan and somewhat hetare protagonist similar to Yuuma in Hoshiori. First he wants a girlfriend, and that's all fine and good. Then he enjoys watching Rikka but doesn't know what he's feeling (like some robot) and that drags on forever. When he finally mans up, he wusses out and asks her out via his mobile. He's certainly a different person in this route compared to the other's i've read.

The other characters act like side characters in a typical anime so far, and Hino acts like a typical anime protagonist. He's on a first date with Rikka, finds out that it's her birthday, naturally he needs to invite everyone to party and for all we know, cancel their first date from that point. Then after over a month of not having their first kiss, it's interrupted by everyone watching and saying stupid stuff just to interrupt. 

Yeah, people might call this the best route because there are seriously some cute stuff as well, but damn has it been bogged down by anime cliches, protagonist being bad, side characters taking up too much space.

Edited December 31, 2018 by Stormwolf

[Larxe1]

Playing ChuSinGura 46+1 Bushi no Kodou . I actually haven't finished the main game yet still in chapter 4 but I heard there was a shinpachi route here that continues off from the chapter 3 of the game so no spoilers I guess. Spoiler-ish thoughts:

Spoiler

The beginning of the game shows their daily married couple's life. Asking Suguha for his regrets of being with Shinpachi and ofcourse suguha does not regret as he is happy right now. Then proceeds to narrate and show this CG which just warms the hell out of my cold heart and also hurts me knowing how their canon story ends. https://imgur.com/a/f29uVsu

 it assumes that you werent randomly sabbed by Shinpachi in the bad endAlso

2

 

[Dergonu]

12 minutes ago, Larxe1 said:

Playing ChuSinGura 46+1 Bushi no Kodou . I actually haven't finished the main game yet still in chapter 4 but I heard there was a shinpachi route here that continues off from the chapter 3 of the game so no spoilers I guess. Spoiler-ish thoughts:

  Reveal hidden contents

The beginning of the game shows their daily married couple's life. Asking Suguha for his regrets of being with Shinpachi and ofcourse suguha does not regret as he is happy right now. Then proceeds to narrate and show this CG which just warms the hell out of my cold heart and also hurts me knowing how their canon story ends. https://imgur.com/a/f29uVsu

 it assumes that you werent randomly sabbed by Shinpachi in the bad endAlso

2

 

Are you just playing Shinpachi's route? Because you should absolutely NOT play the main story in Bushi no Kodou yet, as it is a direct sequel to CSG, and will spoil lots of stuff from Ch.5.

If you're just playing Shinpachi's route, then it's... kinda fine, I guess. The route is brilliant, in my opinion. Probably among my favorite parts of the whole game. (The fandisk.)

That being said, there is actually one fairly big thing about Bushi no Kodou, including Shinpachi's route, you won't understand without reading the whole game, so if you want me to tell you that, I can, but know that it will be a spoiler for the fandisk, and in a way, for the main game's conclusion. I honestly recommend going back to the main game first, and doing the fandisk after, if you haven't gotten too far in yet.

But here goes, (spoilers ahead, obviously)

Spoiler

Suguha has to go home to the real world, and will eventually be phased there automatically. Time basically wants to fix itself, and will send him back. But, if he vanishes from the Edo period without leaving a child behind, he himself will never have been born, as the current Suguha in the Edo period is the person who carries on the "real" Suguha's bloodline.

So, he has to have a baby with one of the heroines before he is sent back.

(He does NOT know this at the time of Shinpachi's route, as... well, I won't spoil the details, but someone else tells Suguha this, and that has not happened yet in the Shinpachi route timeline. And since he is alone in the mountains with Shinpachi, they never will. 

 

[Larxe1]

Just now, Dergonu said:

Are you just playing Shinpachi's route? Because you should absolutely NOT play the main story in Bushi no Kodou yet, as it is a direct sequel to CSG, and will spoil lots of stuff from Ch.5.

If you're just playing Shinpachi's route, then it's... kinda fine, I guess. The route is brilliant, in my opinion. Probably among my favorite parts of the whole game. (The fandisk.)

That being said, there is actually one fairly big thing about Bushi no Kodou, including Shinpachi's route, you won't understand without reading the whole game, so if you want me to tell you that, I can, but know that it will be a spoiler for the fandisk, and in a way, for the main game's conclusion. I honestly recommend going back to the main game first, and doing the fandisk after, if you haven't gotten too far in yet.

But here goes, (spoilers ahead, obviously)

  Reveal hidden contents

Suguha has to go home to the real world, and will eventually be phased there automatically. Time basically wants to fix itself, and will send him back. But, if he vanishes from the Edo period without leaving a child behind, he himself will never have been born, as the current Suguha in the Edo period is the person who carries on the "real" Suguha's bloodline.

So, he has to have a baby with one of the heroines before he is sent back.

(He does NOT know this at the time of Shinpachi's route, as... well, I won't spoil the details, but someone else tells Suguha this, and that has not happened yet in the Shinpachi route timeline. And since he is alone in the mountains with Shinpachi, they never will. 

 

Yeah just downloaded a save file and directly went to Shinpachi's afterstory. I was already spoiled by my bitch ass friend so I know how ch 5 ends. Curious about your thoughts on the heroines. Who did you like best and what whas your favorite chapter

[Dergonu]

1 minute ago, Larxe1 said:

Yeah just downloaded a save file and directly went to Shinpachi's afterstory. I was already spoiled by my bitch ass friend so I know how ch 5 ends. Curious about your thoughts on the heroines. Who did you like best and what whas your favorite chapter

Oh man, that sucks. Slap him for me

Hmm... I honestly can't decide whay my favorite chapter is. I just love them all, tbh. For what I think about them:

Spoiler

Chapter 1 is just overall really solid, and is probably what I'd consider the most "true" chapter. Kuranosuke is definitely my favorite of the heroines. I also love the way Suguha grows over the chapter. Really just a perfect introduction to the game universe overall.

Chapter 2 is the most heartbreaking of them all. I mean... ugh. Between Koheita dying in your arms and having to watch Yasubee scream and cry as Suguha disappeared left me crying like a little girl.
Though, as horrible as it sounds, I really liked how Suguha went back thinking he could just fix everything himself, and wound up basically making everything worse. It's nice to see a time travel story where the protag can't just magically fix everything. Truly a good, (and sad,) chapter.

I wasn't that big on chapter 3 at first. Matsunojou wasn't my favorite girl by any means, and her silly attempts ay seducing Suguha at first just seemed kinda... dumb, idk. Lol. But, after Suguha loses his mind, and Chikara, (name switch.. ), lies inside the cottage with him in her own urine to try and feel the pain he is feeling I was like "Damn girl..." She really started growing on me after that, and wow... the ending was so beautiful. Chikara grew so much over the chapter, and when I saw her staring up at the sky in her white robe with cherry blossoms scattering around her at the end I wept like a baby. (Again.) The romance between her and Suguha was so beautiful once the silly start of the chapter was over. Overall, the story in ch.3 wasn't as great as 1-2, but man, the romance was fantastic. Ugh, just remembering when Suguha goes back to the rock where she etched in their names in the real world makes my eyes watery. And, ofc, Shinpachirou is amazing as well. Like I said, her route in the fandisk is among my favorites. She really needed her own chapter in the main game, tbh. But oh well, the fandisk route more than makes up for her lack of a route in the first one.

As for chapter 4, I actually really like it. Don't know how far along you are atm, so I'll just leave it there. But man, the feels... and I just love Kasumi as a character overall.

Ch.5 I won't get into mcuh either, due to spoilers. (I'm sure there's still stuff you don't know yet.) But man, I thought this ch. would be lame, and it ended up blowing me away completely. The character development for Emoshichi is just brilliant. They took a character I didn't really like at all and made her one of my favorites. Truly a great conclusion to the game.

 

I honestly can't rate the chapters and heroines more than that, tbh. Kuranosuke is my favorite, but other than that, I love them all equally, heroines and chapters alike. They all have their good and bad sides.

 

[Phantom]

Has anyone played White Album 2? I'm interested in it, is it worth the pick up?

[ciel_yuri]

I got Steins;Gate 0 for Christmas, so I've been playing that among other things. It's interesting, but it feels a little fan fiction-y with the premise so far. Also, the art definitely seems different. Some characters look great and some not so much. The music is still pretty great and seems consistent with the first game, at least. Hopefully, it turns out to be a worthy sequel. I've avoided everything news and review wise for the VN and anime, so I could go into this one with a clean slate and I don't really know what to expect, but I am enjoying it so far.

[Toranth]

4 hours ago, Dergonu said:

Oh man, that sucks. Slap him for me

Hmm... I honestly can't decide whay my favorite chapter is. I just love them all, tbh. For what I think about them: <snip>

Dergonu pretty much covered it, but yes!  Shinpachi's route in the ChuSinGura fandisk is awesome.  It wouldn't have fit in the main game, but it deserved it in terms of quality and character.  Best girl FTW.

Personally, I like Shinoachi's fandisk route best, followed by Chapter 4 (second best girl).  The main three girls all grow on you as their stories go on, but I don't think any of them can compare.

[r0xm2n]

Playing Rin's route in Little Busters. Results of the Baseball match....

Pretty much they were slowly scoring (but most of the time, they wern't scoring at all). And my team wasn't scoring at all. 0-3 at one point.

Then suddenly, we scored 4 times in a single session (I yelled out when Kud crossed the line).

 

In the final session. 3rd and 2nd bases loaded, 2 out! 3rd batter hits the ball, runner heading towards home!...... Kurugaya catches it!! Victory!!

RNG couldn't have scripted that match any better!

 

As for the battle rankings, Masato ended at #1 this time. Rin actually made it to #1, but fell to 6th. She defeated Kengo twice in a row.

[Larxe1]

14 hours ago, Phantom said:

Has anyone played White Album 2? I'm interested in it, is it worth the pick up?

If you're playing the English one, i can't say much about it but from what I heard you should stay away from it. 

From my icon you can probably guess who my favorite character was. The game is absolutely phenomenal I cant stop reading it once I started it. It breaks your heart everytime but you can't stop because you want to know what's next. Don't expect to finish the game completely happy you're bound to have some holes in your heart by the end. As for me,  I stopped playing VN's for a while since I compared everything to WA2. Character depth is one of white album 2's best areas. If you want drama. this game is the apex of drama.

[r0xm2n]

Playing Little Busters.....

WELP! Well that route terminated very suddenly.....

Spoiler

Guess that was the bad ending? Did the protag die?

 

[littleshogun]

20 hours ago, Phantom said:

Has anyone played White Album 2? I'm interested in it, is it worth the pick up?

As for my advice here, i would suggest that you can see the translation first. And if you find the translation is quite bad, then perhaps you better stay away from this. As for the patch itself, it's still incomplete because the Coda Chapter that was still unfinished, but I think the translation is serviceable enough. Oh and if you're the type that dislike love triangle with full of angst, then perhaps you better stay away from it because the main draw of WA 2 is the dramatic love triangle coupled with Haruki's (The MC) indecisiveness.

[cro-mag]

8 minutes ago, littleshogun said:

because the main draw of WA 2 is the dramatic love triangle coupled with Haruki's (The MC) indecisiveness.

Oh geez... Another one... And i wanted to try that one too, cuz heard it's quite good. And as far as i'm correct, only the first part wasn't translated, which is not so long. So maybe it's not that important for the plot (correct me if i'm wrong). Well, now i dunno if i should read it or just watch adaptation (yes, 50+ hours VN into 13 episodes, i know, but...)