What are you playing?

[adamstan]

I had different plans, but today I started reading Love Escalator - apparently the last VN released for PC98 (in 1998 nonetheless ), and one of the last games for this system at all. I thought about reading it for a while (or its 2003 Windows remake Lovers), but PC98 version couldn't be hooked from the emulator. Remake works in theory (and has voice acting), but the hooking is broken - it misses large parts of text - no matter which tool I use (ITHVNR, AGTH, Textractor - all give the same bad result).

According to vndb there was Windows release of Love Escalator    , but I couldn't find anything about it on the net. (it turns out that actually there wasn't )

But then today I found out about a patch for PC98 relase that ports it to Windows - and it's hookable with AGTH

Also, I feel like I prefer the look of the old version actually. If only it was also voiced... Well, cannot have it all...

 

Edited August 26, 2020 by adamstan

[Eclipsed]

And so my Utawarerumono marathon finally comes to an end. 30 hours for the first game, 30 hours for Mask of Deception (MoD), and 45 hours for Mask of Truth (MoT). I didn't write up a review thingy after Mask of Deception because it kind of ended on a cliffhanger; a bit of a shame cuz I thought I could get a full story via MoD and then another full story via MoT but they both together make one big story. Considering Mask of Truth released only a year after Deception I guess they simply ran out of time and so they pushed out Deception first and then went straight back to the dev room to finish up the rest via Truth.

Favorite MoD BGM:

A nice surreal nostalgic reflective theme

~~
I'm probably part of the small demographic that got to binge this entire series in one go instead of reading the original and then waiting a decade for the sequels. So whereas the original Utawarerumono started you off as this amnesiac protagonist that wakes up in the arms of a beautiful nice girl-next-door type with animal-like ears and a tail whom he gropes out of curiosity, the sequel Utawarerumono Mask of Deception instead starts you off as this amnesiac protagonist that wakes up in the arms of a beautiful girl next door type with animal-like ears and a tail whom he gropes out of curiosity. Yup, you red that right. It's the same exact setup! 

Why hello there, Eruru- I MEAN UHH, WHO ARE YOU?!

Spoiler

 

I wonder what life would be like if people actually had tails...it would redefine what kind of Sekka-Harra you could do lmao 

 

The main heroine this time around is named Kuon. She's a well meaning girl who contrasts herself from the passive obedient nice girl-next-door Eruru by being the clever strong independent type. She just happened to be on a solo self identifying carpe diem journey around the world when she happened upon the unconscious protagonist and decided to become his caretaker. And she's quite the looker indeed. After exchanging some pleasantries, Kuon decides to give the protagonist a name: Haku.

Hoh... Haku, as in Hakuowlo from the first game?!

 

Naturally the first thing on my mind is whether this Haku is some reincarnation of the first Haku(owlo) and Kuon is some reincarnation of Eruru. Kind of like The Legend of Zelda, where you have multiple generations of Link and Zelda across multiple generations/timelines. That'd be cool, right? This VN however does a good job of just dangling the carrot, teasing you and never really getting around to confirming or denying your suspicions. You even meet a major character named Oshtor, and his appearance just screams a Hakuowlo ripoff complete with the mask and all and you're just like EYYY THERE'S NO WAY THAT THERE IS NO CONNECTION BETWEEN THESE GUYS LIKE WTF C'MON NOW.

Hakuowlo

Haku

Oshtor

Q: Which one of these three is the main character?

A: They're the same person

I jest. But it totally bugs me that no characters ever say "Hey Haku, you look like this one guy Hakuowlo that I knew from a long time ago". Not even Kuon, and she was the one who gives Haku his name AND Hakuowlo's trademark steel fan weapon. Hell, no one even goes "Hey Haku, you look like Oshtor", and these two will get plenty of screentime together. It's one of those audience-character red herring disjoints that will forever plague your mind as you read this. It's kind of like how Ash Ketchum and friends are always oblivious to Team Rocket's disguises when it should be an obvious as fuh thing to notice and exclaim about.

Haku's a good protagonist. I didn't realize it at the time, but Hakuowlo was actually super, like SUPER bland. He was too idk, capable and perfect? Since he was thrust into a ruler/leadership position quite early on he always had to be serious and couldn't really afford to banter and goof around. His inner monologues would be dull and to the point.

Haku instead gets the easygoing/laidback/lazy but dependable-when-it-matters persona, and his inner commentary is much more flavorful. He'll whine, complain, have snarky remarks, and oftentimes push Kuon's buttons just enough for her to want to wrap her tail around his head and CRUSH. In general the writing and dialogue in this VN flows much more nicely than its predecessor (though that could be the result of translation, or my attention span got better, who knows).

 

Characters: 8.5/10 Characters make or break a VN. Why the heck would I care about what's going on in the story if I don't care about the characters? Not gonna lie though, it did take me a bit to warm up to the new cast of heroines but man by the time I was reading Mask of Truth I was super fond and invested in all of them. Haku is great for his modern day protagonist revision and Kuon is the poster girl so she's obvious best girl, amplified onehundred fold when you finally learn just who she really is and consequently just want to give her a big ol' hug. Atuy is your local ditzy girl who calls everyone "-han" and has a bloodthirsty battle side; Nekone is the younger genius sister type that finds everything that the protagonist does stupid and scolds him accordingly; Nosuri is the well meaning airheaded robinhood justice thief type, Rulutieh is the nice softspoken girl that loves supporting everyone by cooking (lol how stereotypical), Anju is the spoiled bratty princess with Munechika as her strict honorable guardian. Then you get Saraana and Uruuru and while they're a bit overbearing with the absolute servitude with sexual implications towards Haku you learn to appreciate them too. The male cast is slightly underwhelming outside of the prodigy Oshtor and while they all have their bro moments with Haku none of them really stood out too much. It's always funny when you take a step back and think about how a cast this crazy ends up banding together.

 

Story: 

(MoD)- 7.5/10. Mask of Deception is sort of like the Muv-Luv before Muv-Luv Alternate: the calm before the storm. It devotes itself entirely to establishing its new cast and setting. After Kuon declares herself Haku's guardian, he decides to accompany her on her journey and the two will eventually settle upon the land of Yamato and then spend practically all of the VN's some 30 hrs in its Imperial Capital and dealing with its shenanigans and adding more heroines to the harem. Yamato is practically a utopia: the land is massive and flourishing and there is a benevolent ruler called the Mikado who is loved by all and recognized as a literal God for his mystical feats. He has 8 trusted generals dubbed "The Eight Pillar Generals" and two army commanders dubbed the "Imperial Guard of the Left (and Right)", and they'll all be relevant to the story at one point or another. Most of the VN is structured as slice of life; the first 20 hours you'll spend meeting new friends and allies and getting to know them while learning more and more about the land and its customs. It really gives an overall grand and satisfying feel to the land of Yamato.

To keep things interesting, there are even nods to the first game's events/lore and plenty of foreshadow-candy opportunities regarding Haku and Kuon's backgrounds. Unfortunately, the peaceful tranquil days aren't fated to last forever, and Haku will be inevitably forced to make an irreversible decision, and- CLIFFHANGER LOLOL GO READ MASK OF TRUTH NOOB!!

(MoT)- 9/10 Shit hit the fan, whoop-dee-doo. No more fun and games sadface. Can't really talk much because it's a big spoiler on the ending of MoD, but Mask of Truth is basically a 30 hour war campaign. Sounds boring at a glance, I know, but like I said, if you care about the characters you'll hopefully get a massive buff in caring about the story. Each location you visit during your conquest will actually be a hometown of one of the heroines and so you'll get to bond more with that particular heroine and see their family (many of whom were only briefly mentioned in MoD, and are prominent characters such as being one of the Eight Pillar Generals). The writers made sure to prepare them sweet sweet ethos to get you to care about these locations (unlike the first game where you could care less that some random named village got utterly decimated). Although, I can definitely see some readers finding the war campaign a chore/boring, especially if they never got around to liking Anju. Which I don't blame them if they didn't, the girl really didn't offer much in the likeable department. Overall though it was just great to see the camaraderie and struggles of the cast I grew to become so fond of during this conflict.

The REAL fun though happens after the war. I thought the VN was gonna end after the war so I was pleasantly surprised that it kept going. You get another hearty 10-15 hours to finally get some much needed Haku+Kuon alone time and fully explore their backgrounds and also revisit and tie up any loose ends from pivotal events/lore from the FIRST game. And it does so so, so, beautifully. *Tear*

 

Art/Music: 8/10. Art is modern moe, always love that stuff. Music is nothing special since the remastered first game included tracks from all three games so I heard nothing new.

Gameplay: 8/10 I said I didn't like SRPGs but they really improved the look and feel for the SRPG gameplay that it was actually decently fun. The first game was horrifically limited, you can only mostly attack or heal units one space away, unit had only one combo attack string, etc, very outdated and played poorly. MoD and MoT gave units multiple combo attack strings to fit variety of situations/positions and your heals are AoE instead of only healing one panel etc.

 

Not gonna do a longwinded misc. thoughts/comments, there are TOO MANY feelsgood/bad moments across the 100 hours I spent on this trilogy (70 for MoD/MoT), but man it was all totally worth just for this 
(ULTIMATE SPOILERS):

Spoiler

THAT'S HOW YOU DO A SEQUEL 10/10 GODDAMN CLAP CLAP CLAP

 

MEANWHILE HAKU:

Spoiler

WHATTA FKING TROLL HOW COULD YOU SAY THIS TO KUON AND THEN DISAPPEAR ON HER WTF MAN

FIND HIS ASS AND BEAT HIM UP KUON!!!!!!!!!!!!!@#! 

 

P.S. Kuon is best girl by a huge mile, but I cannot for the love of god believe she is voiced by the same VA as grumpy scientist Mio from Chaos;Child. Like wtf man. 

[NeroDragon12]

Yeah Utawarerumono is pretty sweet the music during certain scenes was epic, kinda how I felt about YUNO music. At the moment I' going to play some Miagete Goran, Yozora no Hoshi o just to see if it's any good.

 

[fuyopon]

I haven't been here in a little while but I'm finally getting some reading done in Clannad! I've finished reading Fuko's and Komura's route yesterday 

Fuko's route: 

Spoiler

Okay, she is absolutely adorable. Her party hat sprite almost gave me diabetes, c'mon, Key! I really liked both endings but I wished she would ask Tomoya out and still have his friends around... it kinda gave me the feeling that you can't date someone with your friends around lol one of the reasons I like Little Busters more... Also, I feel like Nagisa was kinda shoehorned in this route?? I know you can do Komura's and her route going through most of this one but still... I don't know , maybe it's because I wanted it to focus more on Fuko and I kinda dislike Nagisa lolol

Komura's route:

Spoiler

I can't stand Nagisa, end me, please. I'm really afraid of her route lmao Overall, I really enjoyed the simplicity of this route, it gave some more character to Komura, which was barely none before.  Not gonna lie, sweet old people are one of my weaknesses, they make me all soft inside 

As I'm writing this, I'm almost done with Nagisa's route (only 3 hours left) but yeah, I would say so far Clannad has been a 7/10 for me, hm. 

Edited August 23, 2020 by Leonor

[melo4496]

I was playing Koitate on psp emulator on my phone, but now I have my laptop so i can play it on my laptop! on a psp emulator! lol

I tried the pc version for koitate, but the protagonist is not voiced. Sad! I adore the VA of Taeko so much that i had to continue reading it on a psp version. I'm now on my second route with ren. The first one was with Yukino. Absolutely loved it.

[fuyopon]

Alrighty! I've finished reading Nagisa's route!

Nagisa's route (spoilers...?)

Spoiler

For the first half of it, I just pressed skip, as I had already read it in Fuko's route. Being totally honest, I don't really like Nagisa.  She's too passive lol but I did like to see more of her family and her relationship with them! Also, I've been spoiled about the second big plot twist of the game by a youtube thumbnail and title (didn't watch it, ofc) so I'm guessing the lights we've been gathering are for the big thing to happen? (in the after story part, I mean)

I'm now finishing After Story so I'll probably write my thoughts on that tomorrow! See ya!

 P.S.: That kiss CG is one of the best drawn so far (at least, when it comes to the kiss ones) in the entire game, so there's that 

[adamstan]

On 8/22/2020 at 12:15 PM, adamstan said:

I had different plans, but today I started reading Love Escalator - apparently the last VN released for PC98 (in 1998 nonetheless ), and one of the last games for this system at all.

Spoiler

I thought about reading it for a while (or its 2003 Windows remake Lovers), but PC98 version couldn't be hooked from the emulator. Remake works in theory (and has voice acting), but the hooking is broken - it misses large parts of text - no matter which tool I use (ITHVNR, AGTH, Textractor - all give the same bad result).

According to vndb there was Windows release of Love Escalator, but I couldn't find anything about it on the net.

But then today I found out about a patch for PC98 relase that ports it to Windows - and it's hookable with AGTH

Also, I feel like I prefer the look of the old version actually. If only it was also voiced... Well, cannot have it all...

 

I'm going through it. However, that aforementioned Windows patch is a bit buggy - it doesn't play sounds (only music, and with some bugs), there are no screen transition effects other than fading, so most scene changes are abrupt, skipping doesn't work properly, and it's a bit laggy/unresponsive in general.

But! Today I found out about NPTH - a version of NekoProject II PC98 emulator that is compatible with text hookers. Yeah, I'm horribly late to the party, since it's been out for 5 years already Well, better late than never I tested it with Textractor and it works like a charm So I'm probably going to restart with this emulator, skip through already read scenes, and continue from there.

[fuyopon]

Phew... I finished it. After 3 months of reading it, little by little, I decided to seriously read it and finished today!

I enjoyed Clannad as a whole, it wasn't a bad experience, but After Story didn't hit me as hard as I thought it would. Maybe it's because I already knew what was going to happen or maybe it's for other reasons. Either way, it was 7/10 for me.

My thoughts on After Story:
 

Spoiler

 

I feel like Clannad is one of those works in which the reader's view and opinion of it heavily depends on his view about family, their own experience with family and for sure their maturity. I say this because, personally, I was skeptic all the way from them moving in together to Ushio's death. Nagisa is way too imature and frail to bear a child and Tomoya only wants to live with Nagisa, which is NOT a good reason to have a child. Overall, they romanticized the whole early pregnancy thing and well, mostly everything else: abusive families, (bad) parenting... there's also a lot of sexism throughout the entirety of the game but I could "ignore" that because, well, this is a Japanese VN from 2004 lol

It bothered me when Nagisa was like "no, I don't want to end this life inside of me". Was that supposed to be... emotional? It's just stupid, since that's not even a legit life yet, but ok, you do you and die lol I really despise Nagisa

The Ushio raising scene made me gag. As someone with abusive parents, the way the game made a whole scene out of Tomoya doing the bare minimum bothered me, ngl.  Also, when Tomoya's grandmother said his father "was a splendid father" and I was like "he what?". How? Because he didn't abandon his child? Because he didn't let him starve? Good fucking job, asshole. Guess what, you forgot to emotionally raise him, in a healthy way. Parenting is not just feeding and housing someone.

Anyway, the Ushio dying CG was pretty neat! In the way it was drawn, I mean lol

Oh yeah, I almost forgot about the girl under the tree... Is that Ushio? If it is, how is Ibuki or Fuko not older? Were they too lazy to do more sprites? lmao

 

After that, I did Sunohara's Ending and Jet Saito and had a damn good laugh, hahaha!

-----------

My next reading will be the little bit left to finish Ace Attorney: Miles Investigations and then return to Kara no Shoujo 2 

[adamstan]

10 minutes ago, Leonor said:

I enjoyed Clannad as a whole, it wasn't a bad experience, but After Story didn't hit me as hard as I thought it would. Maybe it's because I already knew what was going to happen or maybe it's for other reasons.

I'd say it was probably mainly because you didn't like Nagisa. And, as you pointed out later, it was apparently too old-fashioned for you, and so it clashed with your (more progressive) worldview. So there's no wonder it didn't work for you.

(For example, I seem to like it exactly for some of the reasons you disliked it for...)

Edited August 25, 2020 by adamstan

[fuyopon]

5 hours ago, adamstan said:

I'd say it was probably mainly because you didn't like Nagisa. And, as you pointed out later, it was apparently too old-fashioned for you, and so it clashed with your (more progressive) worldview. So there's no wonder it didn't work for you.

(For example, I seem to like it exactly for some of the reasons you disliked it for...)

You're probably right haha I try to ignore some things because of the context of the work but yeah, that's probably what happened. Welp!

[Silvz]

Not trying to make fun or anything, but complaining about sexism in VNs/anime is, sadly, redundant. About Nagisa's statement, there are plenty of "parents" who think that way, and a lot of them do the same thing that they did.

[adamstan]

Playing Love Escalator using NekoProjectTH with Textractor is much smoother than Win port with AGTH Now I also could make the window double-sized (1280x800), so now it's a breeze As for the game itself, I'm liking what I see. It isn't the greatest thing I've ever seen or played, but interesting enough to keep me hooked I like how it looks, and Rie (main heroine) is cute

It's also worth noting that this version has actually better opening than the remake (unless the latter has another one somewhere later). It's a nice animated sequence, in the style of anime openings, while the remake has only some credits appearing over the backgrounds slideshow.

The story itself so far is rather generic high-school romance, but not as fluffy as typical later moeges. Also, the game itself is a mix of VN and dating-sim segments, a bit like Fureraba or SukiSuki. I'll try to write more when I finish it.

Edited August 27, 2020 by adamstan

[Silvz]

14 hours ago, Leulight said:

Playing Grisaia no Kajitsu right now, my 2nd VN, unless the first Danganronpa game counts as some sort of VN.

DR is VN. Also, play the other games in the series.

[fuyopon]

On 8/25/2020 at 11:58 PM, Silvz said:

Not trying to make fun or anything, but complaining about sexism in VNs/anime is, sadly, redundant. About Nagisa's statement, there are plenty of "parents" who think that way, and a lot of them do the same thing that they did.

Oh, for sure! Hahah sadly it IS redundant, I just said that in Clannad's case, it really affected me ^^" I do like to point out these things, even if it's just from a critical and personal point of view 

[fuyopon]

On 8/26/2020 at 9:28 AM, Leulight said:

Playing Grisaia no Kajitsu right now, my 2nd VN, unless the first Danganronpa game counts as some sort of VN.

Personally, Danganronpa is a vn, but I'd say it's both a vn and an adventure game, in a way. Grisaia sounds fun, I have been wanting to read it for a long time x_x have fun! 

16 hours ago, Silvz said:

DR is VN. Also, play the other games in the series.

I agree! The second one is considered the best, although the third is my favorite haha 

Edited August 27, 2020 by Leonor

[alpacaman]

14 minutes ago, Leonor said:

Oh, for sure! Hahah sadly it IS redundant, I just said that in Clannad's case, it really affected me ^^" I do like to point out these things, even if it's just from a critical and personal point of view 

I kind of have the same criticisms about Clannad as you, except that I found Nagisa somewhat bearable which in turn made the emotional scenes impactful enough for me to still love the game.

Spoiler

If Clannad has one big weakness it's its tendency to romanticize problematic interpersonal dynamics. From their personalities, immaturity and personal circumstances I totally get why Tomoya and Nagisa would want to start their own family as quickly as possible. But nobody (including the writers) ever bothers to seriously ask if they actually should. 

Also the abusive parent redemption arc might be the anime trope I hate the most.

 

As for my personal reading progress, I recently played Three Fourths Home, a seemingly pretty obscure game from 2015 which sadly isn't on vndb. I get why, as it has continuous gameplay (although very minimalistic; you basically just push down one button) and no sprites. The core of the game is a long telephone call where you pick dialogue choices though so for me at least in spirit it's enough of a VN to mention it here. If you want an impression of what the game experience is like, the developers uploaded a video of the first five in-game minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKVvglBBRmk

It's only about three hours long even if you count in all the bonus content which includes a soundtrack about 50 minutes long where most of the tracks didn't even make it into the actual game (and which you have to listen to in full to unlock a bonus scene). There also is a collection of short stories and a photography project which gives the experience a mixed media vibe. Also it's very good and you should play it, at least as long as you're not allergic to metaphor. It's not super pretentious or cryptic or anything like that but its elements tie together more thematically than plotwise.

 

After this pleasant surprise I started reading YU-NO (the remake). I still think it's kind of a weird decision to do a shot for shot remake of a VN with only updated art and sound and a few added quality-of-life features. The game still feels somewhat dated, not in a bad way, but the overall pacing as well as the "raunchy" parts still give out rather clear early VN days vibes. As for the VN itself, so far I like it. I already mentioned the pacing which can drag a little in the beginning. I'm nine hours in and the game still hasn't really set up what its central conflict is going to be (or at least why I should care), which feels weird in a mystery game. Other than that it has been a nice read so far.

[fuyopon]

On 8/27/2020 at 6:57 PM, alpacaman said:

Also the abusive parent redemption arc might be the anime trope I hate the most.

YES!!!  

On 8/27/2020 at 6:59 PM, Leulight said:

Well It's just my 3rd VN (after DR), but I still want to say it's been really great so far.  It has a genuinely great cast and character writing. So, definitely try it when you get the time.

Yes, I can't wait! 
----------

As for personal progress, I've read more of Kara no Shoujo 2 and woah, I managed to bug it as it kept turning upside down and back to normal a bunch of times before I finally restarted it lmao

[ciel_yuri]

I'm always reading a bunch of stuff, but the game that really surprised me is Raging Loop. I wasn't expecting it to pull me in like this or be this good. If it finishes strong this will definitely be one of my all time favorites. If not then I suppose at least I'm really enjoying the ride. I hope Kemco makes more VNs. Normally, they're just making a crazy amount of mobile JRPGs.

Edited August 29, 2020 by ciel_yuri

[littleshogun]

Read Real Life Plus, and let's just say that the middle school and high school period here is not as long as Ginharu (And the elementary school period is also short for the info). Then is that mean that it's a good news if you didn't like Ginharu long writing? Not exactly because all of the sections are over rather quickly, as in it just jump directly without some warning. Granted that it's just short VN so I can't exactly fault it, but I think they can at least add some more lines. The VA here is honestly quite bland as in she's very stiff, but apparently she's AV stars in Japan so there's that (I didn't find her performance in sex scene is that good either, though what do I know about AV stars acting in adult video).

Then if I say negative things, is that mean that it didn't have positive? Of course it is, in that the heroine did cosplaying Cure Marine from HCPC (Heartcatch Precure) and there's also some reference's talk about Marine's relationship with one of cadre. There's also the fact that the MC have sex with her in Cure Marine costume, in that after the MC do the deed the heroine lament that she can never wear the cosplay outside. With that while I didn't know whether it's true or not, I guess I can say that the author might be a hardcore fan of Cure Marine so much that he wrote about MC have sex with someone who cosplaying as her. In order to get that scene, you need to use the guide from Steam in order to get 'The Happy Couple' ending, so you better aim for that ending if you play this. By the way I also tried the other endings, and it's ranged from either the heroine is going overseas or live together. And speaking about heroine, rather than dream actually in here she's more or less grew up based on your choice so in summary it's sort of like Princess Maker except without gameplay.

Overall even with the gimmick of having sex with Precure cosplay, I just think that this VN is not quite detailed as Ginharu when it come to describe the growing up story and therefore it's not as good as that. Although of course feel free to disagree here, especially if you didn't like Ginharu long writing.

PS - By the way I sort of think that HCPC here is kind of overrated, although I understand though on why this series manage to have a lot of people took a liking to Precure, especially with the ending which to say quite unusual for Precure series.

Edited September 10, 2020 by littleshogun

[adamstan]

Today I finished Love Escalator, but since I wasn't completely satisfied with it, now I started reading remake - Lovers ~Koi ni ochitara~ (I found working hook for it) - to check if they fixed the most annoying problems. I'll write more on both titles together, when I complete it.

Edited August 29, 2020 by adamstan

[Eclipsed]

Wow, it's an end of an era. I actually played soooo many VNs on my Vita, ranging from the thrilling Danganronpas and Zero Escapes to sci-fi shenanigans Steins;gates and Chaos;Child's to fantasy funtimes like Ar Nosurge and Utawarerumono trilogy, even Muv Luv, and a whole crapton of Otomes. All on a "dead" device that is the Vita:

 

 

 

 

 

....But now it's time to Switch it up  

Yup I finally caved and got a Nintendo Switch. Originally wanted to wait for a New Nintendo Switch Pro XL or something, but they came out with the fking Lite instead. Pretty excited~

[Silvz]

13 hours ago, Eclipsed said:

Wow, it's an end of an era. I actually played soooo many VNs on my Vita, ranging from the thrilling Danganronpas and Zero Escapes to sci-fi shenanigans Steins;gates and Chaos;Child's to fantasy funtimes like Ar Nosurge and Utawarerumono trilogy, even Muv Luv, and a whole crapton of Otomes. All on a "dead" device that is the Vita:

 

 

 

 

 

....But now it's time to Switch it up  

Yup I finally caved and got a Nintendo Switch. Originally wanted to wait for a New Nintendo Switch Pro XL or something, but they came out with the fking Lite instead. Pretty excited~

new rumours say it'll come next year

[littleshogun]

Finished Evenicle 2 trial, and let's say that it's gameplay is more or less very similar to first Evenicle although with some changes. Storywise, it's more or less resembled Evenicle first chapter albeit with some difference. I'll try to write more about it later but overall I look forward for the overseas release.

[Xx-GraemeMorton-xX]

Currently playing Hapymaher, i found it pretty good especially the ost,. The last VN that i finished was Majikoi, one of the greatest pieces of media that i touched, wonderful comedy, excellent chemestry between the cast, nice protag. For the future i am looking foward for Aokona, and waiting for the complete translation of Ginharu

[adamstan]

Yesterday I finished Lovers ~Koi ni Ochitara...~, which is a remake of Love Escalator that I played before.

It's quite decent high school romance VN with some light dating sim elements. Main heroine is Rie, and her route is pretty good. I guess I actually shouldn't use the word "route" here, as it doesn't apply too much. The thing is - Rie and Takashi (MC) get together at the end of the prologue, and whole game is mostly about her. There are two side heroines, Noriko and Hanako, but they don't have proper routes. And to get their endings you basically have to be a dick and neglect your girlfriend, while dating side chicks instead.

It's all especially grating in PC98 version, where in story part there are no choices, and everything happens in dating sim part. By taking chosen girl to a date that she likes, you collect "relationship points". If you fail to establish good enough relationship with Rie she'll leave in December, and that opens path for other endings. But other than that, the story doesn't in any way react to the fact that you're cheating bastard neglecting his cute girlfriend. And as for Noriko and Hanako - apart from some scenes in prologue when they get introduced, they don't have any events at all. You just take them to the dates during dating sim segments - which are just a few repetitive lines, and once you get enough relationship points, you can take them to the love hotel and watch h-scene. And then hold ctrl key right to the end - which again is very short and rather unsatisfying. That's why, even though main route was good, I rated Love Escalator with 7/10. It would probably be 6.5 or even 6, but it got bonus points for great pixel art graphics But with only one good route per three heroines, it doesn't deserve higher score.

Now, having the bad out of the way, let's talk about good.
(this applies to both versions, I'll point out the differences in text where relevant)

While MC isn't exactly great person, he was relatable to me with his insecurities. And his indecisiveness comes back to bite him in the ass. I really liked the main story - it follows basic high-school romance conventions, but not necessarily moege conventions, since it predates almost all moeges So it isn't all fluff, flowers and rainbows - MC has his insecurities, there are rivals appearing a few times, and well, there's main problem of secretly dating a girl that your best friend has crush on. The thing that stood out - in a good way - was how side characters were treated. This VNs introduces tons of side characters - and almost all of them have sprite and voice. Also, the friends of MC and Rie aren't there just to provide background - they have their own little stories, and they even get short arcs shown from their perspective. There are lots of funny interactions between cast. Well, there's one thing this VN shares with lots of moeges - best girl Mayumi isn't a heroine

(and there were no fandiscs...)

Lovers ~Koi ni Ochitara...~  was great improvement over Love Escalator when it comes to the structure/system - it at least partially fixes the most glaring shortcomings of previous version.

1. Main story got extended - they added two additional arcs (school trip and cultural festival) that were only briefly mentioned in PC98 version. Also, there are lots of choices added - some are meaningless, but some affect relationship score, so now it isn't restricted to dating sim part.
2. Noriko and Hanako got at least their mini-routes. When you unlock them by getting enough relationship points and failing Rie's route, there are two additional events for each of the girls. So while not full-fledged routes, it's great improvement over PC98 version. (Also, they added more h-scenes for them, with the first one happening in-story instead of dating sim.) Noriko's story was okay. Hanako's was a bit WTF to me, I don't get what did MC see in her, but to each their own
3. Dating sim part was greatly improved and expanded. Now for each date spot there are bunch of scenes, which also form kind of mini stories (and some are random). Also, in some spots there are quite funny minigames of various kinds. Beating those unlock secret CGs or H-scenes. Which brings us to the next point...

H-scenes.

Animated and interactive. It's quite interesting, since it adds kind of role playing element to the game. There are only two in-story scenes in Rie's route. The rest is up to the player. You can go to the love hotel or home on every date and keep fucking (and there's a lot of animations/CGs to discover), or you can have more "wholesome" relationship. It doesn't affect the ending, so it's possible to finish this VN with different approaches. And the H-scenes are also kind of separate minigame, where both characters gradually "level up". MC has "action points" - starting with 3, but can get up to 7, while Rie has "endurance" - some actions have greater cost, so when you overdo it by demanding too much, she'll either slap you (at low relationship/sex skill levels) or start to cry, so you have to watch out. So I guess it's kind of realistic in showing that when it comes to sex people need to get used to each other, and it was actually quite satisfying to observe how they gradually got more comfortable with each other. Also "leveling up" gradually unlocks different poses or variations of those.

For side heroines Noriko and Hanako the system is simpler - after the first time, if you go to the "H" date, you get three random poses each time.

The animations looked very good, and I found them quite hot. I think they were the best animated H-scenes I've seen so far.

So, considering all of the above, I'd rate Lovers ~Koi ni Ochitara...~ with 7.5/10. Good, but not without thorns - I stil miss a bit longer epilogues, proper routes for side heroines, and Mayumi's route And I still consider the way to enter side routes solely via dating sim part flawed.

Also, there's this review. I mostly agree with it.

For my next read I might finally try Bokuten. But it's also possible that I'll get tempted by Sakura Strasse or Sukimazakura to Uso no Machi

Edited September 8, 2020 by adamstan