What are you playing?

[fuyopon]

Alright, alright! I finally finished Ace Attorney: Miles Edgeworth Investigations and it was pretty good! I was a little lazy to finish it because the last case was a little frustrating but I really like Edgeworth haha now I miss Phoenix and Maya tho!!

[fuyopon]

I finished Kara no Shoujo 2 and I loved it! I almost cried at the end too, but damn, that sure got me hyped for the third episode!  

---------

Next VN will be Saya no Uta 

[Stormwolf]

10 hours ago, Leonor said:

I finished Kara no Shoujo 2 and I loved it! I almost cried at the end too, but damn, that sure got me hyped for the third episode!  

---------

Next VN will be Saya no Uta 

Now you'll just have to be good with waiting forever!

And Saya no uta is a good choice.

Edited September 30, 2020 by Stormwolf

[Larxe1]

Starting to play Fate/Empire Dirt, saw it was recently released and damn for a fan game it has impressive production qualities and its even voiced. I love anything fate related so I jumped at the opportunity

[Eclipsed]

Alright I'm apparently 69% of the way done with 2017 YU-NO Switch ver. , so I'll do a midway thoughts review thing. I went Mitsuki -> Mio -> Ayumi -> currently gonna start Kanna's route

^----- 69%

 

It's been pretty fun so far. A bit "grindy" via the time travel/jewel save point mechanic because you'll have to frequently backtrack to recollect items that are needed to progress through whatever branch you are pursuing, because certain items are once-you-use-them-then-you-lose-them, even if you return to the past where you did not use that item yet, and so you have to return to the point where you actually got the item (did that make sense LOL) and then return to that branching point in order to see the other branch.

And then there's also the HUGE vulnerability where you forget to replace a save point (whenever you use a jewel it returns to your inventory AKA that checkpoint is removed from the map and you have to set the checkpoint again if you want to return to that point again but its soooo easy to forget when you're skip-grinding through the VN). AKA you set checkpoint A, load it, checkpoint A is now gone. If you continue the story without setting checkpoint A again, which is very easy to do, then you literally locked yourself out and if you want to go back to checkpoint A then you'll have to start the VN from the beginning and grind back to that point. Very annoying especially when you just want to see the other branch on a lategame decision.

One thing I like regarding the flow of the events though is how, uh, consistent? all the heroine routes are with each other. In other VNs with branching paths/multiple heroines it's very easy for the writers to just give whoever's not the main focus the vanish treatment, where in the back of your mind you're always wondering like, "Ok I'm currently flirting with girl A so they're obviously the focus, but I wonder how and what girls B/C/D/E are doing right now"...

Well, technically, the vanish treatment still happens, but since all 4 of YU-NO's heroine routes take place over a very, very meager 3 DAYS the writers have the luxury of allowing the reader to keep tabs on what the other heroines are up to, even if you aren't on their particular route. And the vanish treatment is a bit justified because even If you're off flirting with the hot teacher Mitsuki trying to find out what's the deal with Ryuuzoji, you'll still get glimpses of tsundere classmate Mio doing her Triangle Mountain investigations, you'll still see gentle stepmother Ayumi getting shrekt HARD by her Geo Technics controversies, and more often then not you'll bump into enigmatic student transfer Kanna mysteriously appearing and disappearing during pivotal moments as if watching over Takuya.

That being said, even though it's just 4 heroines over 3 days you may fall victim to the Time Travelers' Omniscient Burden, where you're burdened with knowing things Takuya technically shouldn't know because his own memories are reset every time you start over, and you can become overwhelmed with keeping track of what's going on/has happened/will happen/only happens in another timeline yada yada yada if you're not taking notes on the side or something lol. 

The remastered soundtrack is 9/10, very good stuff, idk, most of the BGMs just clicked with me. Very catchy and memorable and I found myself playing them in my head more often than I did any other VN that I've read this year. The heroines all have distinguishing themes appropriately titled after their names. I can't even remember any heroine themes of any VNs I've read in the past... Ok wait I just thought of one. Rewrite's Kotori's piano flower theme. Ok YU-NO's heroine themes have nothing on that tbh lmao, but the main point is that they were distinct and memorable to me and would bring a smile to my face to see Ayumi or Mio pop up on the screen with their accompanying theme.

Dialogue/writing/translation feels subpar, it's still readable but there are times where my very limited Japanese familiarity can call out the translation freestyling. One example being Takuya audibly saying he knows a girl's "three sizes" and yet the dialogue instead said he knew her height. I'm like dafuq, is that a result of censorship??. Also sometimes he/she pronoun is mixed up, very confusing when it happens. H-scenes are reduced to Takuya and the heroine professing their love for each other, making out, and then blacking out to post-coitus-cuddle dialogue. I actually prefer it that way, I was never into H-scenes to begin with and would always skip through them.

 

~~
Ok I'll be honest, I ended up wanting to write this post because I just finished Ayumi's route. Mitsuki and Mio were aight, nothing too special to note. But Ayumi, man oh man Ayumi, there was just something about her that drew me in so I was heavily invested into her. Dare I say it was the whole pretty, gentle, caring stepmother and forbidden love concept LOL. Overall her route wasn't too special either, more infuriating if anything due to the worst scumbag of the earth ever that is Toyotomi, but that bad ending though!

Misc. Thoughts/Spoilers! (Ayumi route)

Spoiler

Can't have a misc. thoughts on Ayumi's route without playing her BGM mang!

Really liked Ayumi's theme. There's this joyful tranquility feel to it that really reflects how Takuya feels about her.

Okay. Ayumi. Takuya's stepmother/widow to his dad Koudai. It's only been a month since Koudai's presumed death but Ayumi's been putting on a brave face to be the support pillar for Takuya who's been slacking on his studies and having a one night stand with his teacher Mitsuki while on his downward spiral as a result of his standard rebellious-teenage-trying -to-cope phase.

Ayumi's work load at Geo-Technics however increased to the point of her working late nights and just leaving money on the table for Takuya to order takeout, so they miss out on a lot of bonding time together. It doesn't help that her work is also sparking some mad controversy with all the lightning strikes that are occurring supposedly because of the construction work Geo Technics is doing, and she has to face the brunt of the criticism aka getting egged by protesters and being harshly interviewed by journalists since she's the project lead while Takuya is mostly helpless to support her though tries to do what he can. The stepmother-stepson bond is established fairly decently when one day Ayumi comes home drunk and Takuya ends up cuddling with her to comfort her, with hints that their bond could be more than just familial love...

Then comes the most annoying disgusting scumbag of a villain that is Toyotomi, who white knights for Ayumi when he's really the one sabotaging her work and manipulating her status as a grieving widow, and- Ayumi, oh Ayumi why did the writers do this to you- Ayumi is oblivious to it all and will side with Toyotomi over Takuya all the way until the fucking bitter end. They also have the gall to have CGs where Toyotomi makes his move on Ayumi. Is this what NTR is? Cuckold? Ayumi is technically a widow, and there was no greater-than-familial -love established between Ayumi and Takuya at the point, so technically not really? But GODDAMN I felt Takuya's anger lol. Simply INFURIATING!!!

AYUMI STAHP PLS NO OH GAHD NO

 

CAN'T YOU SEE IT'S THAT FFFFFUCKER TOYOTOMI WHO'S BEEN SCREWING YOU OVER, BOTH LITERALLY AND FIGURATIVELY?? IT'S HIM, FKING BELIEVE ME AYUMI PLS

 

Then in the final showdown you are FORCED TO FAIL because you get the evidence against Toyotomi AFTER failing and getting the bad ending in which you can then time travel to before you failed and use said only-obtained-after-failing-item in order to finally secure the good end. But I'm jumping the gun. Ultimately in the first round of the final showdown without evidence to make Ayumi believe Toyotomi's transgressions Takuya just physically lashes out at Toyotomi and Ayumi slaps Takuya to stop him, effectively completing the "she sides with Toyotomi over Takuya to the bitter end tragedy":

I-....AYUMI ...WHY WON'T YOU BELIEVE ME.... IT'S TOYOTOMI... HE'S THE BAD GUY.... HE'S THE REASON ALL OF THIS WENT TO SHIT, WHY OUR TRUST... OUR FAMILY... IS BROKEN....IT WAS ALL HIM...I WAS DOING THIS ALL FOR YOU..........;-;

NGL, Ayumi's contrived ignorance was ALMOST enough to make me dislike her, but in the end I could appreciate that her route was able to invoke such immense feelings of helplessness on why she wouldn't believe Takuya and absolute anger on how oblivious she was to Toyotomi's false white knighting. It was some good emotions. 

Oh, and that bad ending. We need a proper BGM theme playing before I discuss it:

Spoiler

 

 

Welp, Ayumi sided with Toyotomi over Takuya and actually slapped the poor boy. Takuya then runs off, being the rebellious teenager that runs away from his problems that he is, and then runs into and bangs Kaori the journalist with hidden ambitions who thanks him for his good work with the 20th document and then gives him the photographic evidence he needed against Toyotomi's shady dealings for Ayumi to finally believe him. Great! All our problems will finally be solved! Let's go back home to Ayumi and settle everything once and for all!

...

...

 

...

 

 

HOLY SHIT NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What can I say...this one hit HARD. I haven't cried this hard on a heroine death in a long while. Again, don't know why I'm so fond of Ayumi. Like, even all of Mitsuki's deaths in this VN were whatevers for me.

But yeah, there was just something eerily beautiful about this ending, from the suspenseful build up as Takuya optimistically mutters in front of the bathroom door thinking he would be able to reconcile with Ayumi, to the slow realization that something is horribly, horribly wrong, and finally to the dreaded opening the door to confirm his worst fears. I even braced myself for the reveal but as soon as this CG popped up I just turned my head away and bawled LMAO

 

...

...

...

 

Luckily Takuya can time travel, THANK GOD for that, and so you jump back to before Ayumi slaps Takuya, show the damn evidence incriminating Toyotomi, and stepmom and stepson finally get to cross the boundaries of familial love and bang each other as romantic equals. Hot diggity. LOL

Yo dw Ayumi, Time Traveler's Omniscient Burden ain't got nothing on mah boi Takuya. Just gotta play the Song of Time like Link in Majora's Mask and we can fix all problems eventually after a bunch of trial and error and skipping text, np~

 

Oh, but Ayumi and Takuya getting together poses a whole 'nother issue if her husband/Takuya's dad Koudai ends up being alive, which the possibility is heavily hinted at. Errrrrr, awkward~~

 

 

 

[Ranzo]

So I'm playing Ginharu and I gotta wonder

How long does this middle school thing last for?

It seems to be taking its sweet time

[BackMode]

11 hours ago, Ranzo said:

So I'm playing Ginharu and I gotta wonder

How long does this middle school thing last for?

It seems to be taking its sweet time

It is even longer than the common route

[Silvz]

On 9/25/2020 at 8:14 AM, Leonor said:

Alrighty! I've been away for a while but I'm back with a finished vn! This time, it was Room No. 9.

Was it sad? It was. Was it sexy?  Was I hoping for more? For sure!!
I thought we would have more freedom of choice and especially more gore... Well, overall, I wouldn't say it was a bad experience, not at all. I did like it a lot. This left me wanting more, I think I'm gonna read Euphoria or Maggot Baits very soon... 

  Hide contents

I loved ending F (for friendship) as it was the happiest ending but boy oh boy, that ending A... the mind break sure was smexy~ 

------------

The next one I plan on finishing soon is Kara no Shoujo 2!

is there any meat to the story? I've finished endings A, B and C and there's no plot whatsoever

[the tales of Sora]

I didn't like Nemu's route in da capo 1 even though I liked the characters the writing was so bad and the ending was rushed and messy, is it worth it to play the other routes? I wanna try at least Sakura's route before going to da capo 2 but if its as bad as Nemu's I wont bother.

Edited October 8, 2020 by the tales of Sora

[Eclipsed]

I'm about midway, or maybe in the final stretch of Yu-No's lategame/true/final route, and wanted to drop some comments before I finish

It basically pulls a Muv-Luv Unlimited, or Rewrite post common route/Terra route in terms of the story and pacing just flipping on its head

And unfortunately it doesn't do it too well

Main complaint being the pacing, the story events themselves are passable though definitely not what I was expecting.

Pacing-wise it'll take you a solid 20-30 hours to read through a mere 3 days worth of events for 4-5 heroines.

The final route in YU-NO? in just 4-5 hours you'll go through 4-6+ YEARS worth of events. It's jarring af. Characters like Illia, Kun-Kun, Amanda, even Celes, feel so insignificant since they're introduced so damn late into the VN and then only get like 30min - 2 hrs of screentime. The connection to these characters who are supposed to be really important just isn't there. And then you meet the G-M and it's like HOLY SHIT I MISSED YOU JFC I SPENT THE LAST 5 HRS 5 YEARS WITH STRANGERS WHO I DIDN'T CARE ABOUT

The sad thing is even though I'm complaining that the pacing is bad because too much happens in too little readtime, I actually don't think padding the 4-6+ years of events to take like 10-15 hrs of readtime or something would've helped, because when you're this late into the game on the supposed final, all revealing route that extra padding to flesh out these characters would probably instead just make you feel like it's too dragged out lol.

[adamstan]

16 minutes ago, Eclipsed said:

Main complaint being the pacing, the story events themselves are passable though definitely not what I was expecting.

Actually that change of pacing didn't bother me much. Rather, the final route was perhaps my favorite part of the game.

16 minutes ago, Eclipsed said:

Pacing-wise it'll take you a solid 20-30 hours to read through a mere 3 days worth of events for 4-5 heroines.

I'd say that it was a bit artificially slowed down by all that adventure game mechanics. Of course final route makes some huge timeskips, but it still worked for me. And I really appreciated that it ditched the point'n'click mechanics.

Disclaimer: I played fan-TL of original with added voice patch. Maybe remake does some things differently?

Edited October 8, 2020 by adamstan

[alpacaman]

5 hours ago, adamstan said:

Disclaimer: I played fan-TL of original with added voice patch. Maybe remake does some things differently?

Afaik the remake uses the original script (without H-scenes).

5 hours ago, Eclipsed said:

I'm about midway, or maybe in the final stretch of Yu-No's lategame/true/final route, and wanted to drop some comments before I finish

It basically pulls a Muv-Luv Unlimited, or Rewrite post common route/Terra route in terms of the story and pacing just flipping on its head

And unfortunately it doesn't do it too well

Main complaint being the pacing, the story events themselves are passable though definitely not what I was expecting.

Pacing-wise it'll take you a solid 20-30 hours to read through a mere 3 days worth of events for 4-5 heroines.

The final route in YU-NO? in just 4-5 hours you'll go through 4-6+ YEARS worth of events. It's jarring af. Characters like Illia, Kun-Kun, Amanda, even Celes, feel so insignificant since they're introduced so damn late into the VN and then only get like 30min - 2 hrs of screentime. The connection to these characters who are supposed to be really important just isn't there. And then you meet the G-M and it's like HOLY SHIT I MISSED YOU JFC I SPENT THE LAST 5 HRS 5 YEARS WITH STRANGERS WHO I DIDN'T CARE ABOUT

The sad thing is even though I'm complaining that the pacing is bad because too much happens in too little readtime, I actually don't think padding the 4-6+ years of events to take like 10-15 hrs of readtime or something would've helped, because when you're this late into the game on the supposed final, all revealing route that extra padding to flesh out these characters would probably instead just make you feel like it's too dragged out lol.

The main issue with the final route imo is how disconnected it is from the main game. The "not caring about side characters introduced 30 hours into the game" part wouldn't be as much of a problem if there was something you cared about in the first half that carried over, like

Spoiler

giving Takuji a proper reason why he had to return to his world or bringing over or having more characters from there appear in the fantasy world. For example you could have Kanna, who kind gets build up as the main heroine, whose route you have to do last anyway and who seems to originate from Dela Gratia, transfer over with Takuji and become the romantic interest instead of including Celes. You'd immediately have a stronger bond with their child as well (they would have to change Yu-No's hair color to blue or black though).

 

[Eclipsed]

Aight, finished YU-NO. I actually only had 1-2 more hours of readtime when I made my prior post lol.

Overall enjoyable. My failure to appreciate the final route as much as I could've was more due to my tendency to come into final routes waaay too overhyped. I blame Ever17. Ever since that VN I've always expected true routes to be mind blowing braingasm experiences so it can be very easy for me to bamboozle myself and end up disappointed.

One of the things I liked the most was the jigsaw puzzle plot revelation format, where every heroine route focuses on a core mystery and you only get the complete picture once you've read everything. It's a great way to keep the reader hooked.

Not gonna do too much of an indepth misc. thoughts, I'm kind of out of mental power atm sorryz

(Spoilers):

Spoiler

Kanna route:

Spoiler

Kanna's my guilty pleasure heroine. Gotta love the spikey blue hair, really love how great she looks modern compared to her 1996 self:

 

I think it's a shame they didn't do more with Kanna. Why was she at the prologue overlooking the Ryuuzouji-points-gun-at-Takuya scenario, where both Ryuuzouji and Ayumi get flung into Del Grante and thus make an appearance in the final route, and yet Kanna is nowhere to be seen? She was also fairly prominent in Mio's route, always watching over/warning the duo and then at the end when Takuya is mourning Mitsuki/Yuuki's death she LEAPS DOWN THE WELL to go fetch Takuya and set him back on the right track. Point being she's established as this enigmatic girl who knows what's going on, has great physical prowess, and maybe even has her own Reflector.

And then in her route she just fumbles around getting shoved into the sand, getting slandered and bullied for her promiscuity, and getting hot fevers that make her bed-ridden all day errday.

Takuya says he has some unknown attachment to her and can't explain why he's so fond of her. Reflected in him instantly settling on calling her Kanna-chan despite not knowing her that much which I think was simply adorbs.

Btw, who thought Amanda was Eriko the first time around? *Raises hand*

Based on the photo, we know Kanna is the daughter of who you'll eventually learn to be Amanda. Guess who Amanda banged prior to getting sent 50 years into the past during the final route climax showdown vs Ryuuzouji? Takuya! I don't think the VN pointed this out, it's one of those clever HORY SHI! revelations that the writers decided to let readers connect the dots for themselves and I thought was pretty neat.

 

Kaori

Spoiler

NGL, I totally tripped out when I was going through Kanna's route and saw a green branching line path. I was like, wait what????? Kaori has her own route? No friggen' way, isn't she just a side character like Eriko-sensei?

And yeah, she ultimately is. Her route is basically 80% the same Kanna-centric events except you can become Kaori's partner in crime towards the end.

Also NGL, I indeed got bamboozled by "Hand over the stone", because even though you already know you should hold onto it to save Kanna, I was actually trusting of Kaori because of her help was what was needed to reach Ayumi's good end via the incriminating photo evidence vs. Toyotomi, and there you had to trust giving her the 20th document page in order to do that. Man she was such a wildcard.

Btw, most here's the most criminally underused epic "make your decision!" track that was used for the above. Legit only used THREE times in the VN iirc: 1 for 20th document Kaori, 2 for hypersense stone Kaori above, and 3 for partnering with Mitsuki or Yuuki during Mio's route:

 

Tangent: they should've made the late game final route "untie Ryuuzouji" be an actual player choice rather than Takuya automatically doing so and then play this theme, and it would've been up to the reader to deduce that Ryuuzouji is and always will be a bad guy whom cannot be trusted:

Because, well, okay, call me stupid, but at this point I was actually starting to get red herring'd and reverse big brain myself into thinking "maybe Ryuuzouji is not a bad guy, he's pulling a Harry Potter Sorcerer(Philosopher)'s Stone Snape act and only looked like a villain all this time, he's actually been trying to get the Reflector to go after Koudai/Takuya's dad who will end up being the true big baddie. Yes, I had this train of thought at one point LOL.

But I digress. Ultimately disappointed in Kaori's route ending in that she was just another pawn of Ryuuzouji's, the girl legit appeared to have her own goals and ambitions...

... but she ended up being a Mass-Effect-3-Illusive-Man-tier fodder. Whatta shame.

 

True Route

Spoiler

Don't laugh at me, I thought Celes would turn out to be Takuya's real mom or something. Really weird that the story/motivations behind Koudai + time travel/rewrite history to pursue Takuya's mom is never properly concluded, since that was one of the main big questions of the entire VN. 

Characters who's deaths I didn't care about: Illia (waaaay too little screentime), Kun-Kun (waaay too little screentime), Celes (decent screentime but felt too sudden/underwhelming. How did she die again? She bit her tongue and bled to death from that?

WTF was up with Kun-Kun's death. 30 minute screentime lizard thing, it flies you to safety, dies, and you have to eat it to survive but Takuya is being a lil' bitch about it cuz of the whole morality thing. Felt like VERY cheap attempts for the feels but i simply didn't care for any of it.

The disconnect between the final route and the main game was so stronk I even didn't care for God-Monarch Ayumi's death, even though she is the 'original' Ayumi in the prologue who suffered through 5 years of solitude and even though I bawled like a baby for Ayumi's suicide end in the main game. But yeah, Ayumi is my best girl so it did make my heart sink a bit to have her canonically die in the true route. At least it's not as bad as Mitsuki, who apparently is fated to die on day three no matter what (so she doesn't even get an epilogue end like Kanna/Mio/Ayumi do, RIP). Btw kudos to the writers for bamboozling me on who the God-Monarch was, I was 50/50 on Ryuuzouji or Koudai but Ayumi legit came out of nowhere and it absolutely caught me off guard.

Btw, missed opportunity with the post game Epilogue ends for Kanna/Mio/Ayumi that are obtainable only after finishing final route: most of the 'good' ends on the main game end on kind of a bittersweet tone where the heroine laments for a bit before Takuya has to jewel or get Chaos Corrected back to the beginning, an example being Kanna's:

And so when I finish the final route and then grind back to here I expect it to pick up from this exact bittersweet moment and Takuya to be like, "Yo, I'm back". It would've felt so COMPLETE and satiated all of my "They earned their happy ending" cravings for years to come. But nope, there is no continuity. There's no Kanna survives -> Kanna wishes Takuya luck  -> Takuya goes through YU-NO -> Takuya returns to Kanna -> Happy end going on here. It's just Kanna survives -> Happy end. A small little nitpick tbh but yeah I think these post game epilogue ends would've had alot more OOMPH if they went for continuity. Hell the VN even makes you CHOOSE whether to get the epilogue end or the normal bittersweet end:

HOW ABOUT, CONTINUE ON REGULAR ROUTE AND THEN GIVE ME AYUMI'S END YA DAMN GAME. FEELS MORE COMPLETE THAT WAY.

Celes appeared in Mio's route, right? When the duo were lost in the underground lake area and growing fatigued she guided Takuya to find the lightning tower. But Celes is dead in the final route, so which Celes was that? Obviously a parallel universe one, but why would she know of the Takuya of that specific moment? In general the time travel/multiple dimensions/parallel universe concept for this VN was waaay too hard for me to grasp I gave up lol. I still don't know how/why a Reflector works, I just know that it does despite all the pseudoscientific jargon used to explain it. Also the whole 8000 year / 400 year cycle loop, and how Dela Grante came to be and end up in that cycle. Oof. My head hurts I'm done.

...

"WHO COULD SHE BE?" are you effing serious, I hate how oblivious Takuya was. Sure YU-NO grew up from teen to adult in like a year since you last saw her but this was just pathetic.

YU-NO is voiced by the same VA who voices Hina Hikawa from Bang! Dream / Bandori franchise. Her fking voice was nagging at me for 90% of the final route where I was like, I FKING KNOW THAT VOICE, WHO IS IT?!??!

No commento on YU-NO's incestual lust for her papa. In general I was surprised by the amount of taboo relationships explored in this VN. And you have student-teacher, stepson-stepmother, father-daughter incest via TakuyaxYU-NO and TakuyaxKanna, high school girl sleeping around with many guys, grieving widow getting white knight rebounded, random one night stands, all in 1996. 1996 man!

In general Takuya was pretty abysmal during the true route. Him getting unreasonably angry and shouting at Celes early on and going off in the desert like a dumbass and then his constant insistence on "protecting" YU-NO by not letting her accompany him through the desert or later on vehemently denying her to do her priest duties for all the typical selfish "I DON'T WANT YOU TO DIE, BUT IT'S OKAY IF DIE DW YOU'LL BE FINE WITHOUT ME"

..Ryuuzouji died way too easily, super anticlimactic for a tens of thousands of years old consciousness multidimensional traveling entity.

Feels like 100 years ago? Nope sorry bruh, it was only like 2-3 hours ago for me. I think Muv Luv trilogy learned from this. Muv Luv Extra is the main game, then you have Muv Luv Unlimited to world build Dela Grante/Celes/YU-NO/alternate dimensions/parallel timelines concept, it ends with Celes dying, and THAT'S when you do Muv Luv Alternate and have Takuya cross the desert and begin his epic saga. Also fking utilize Mitsuki/Mio/Kanna, really surprised only Ayumi and Eriko made the cut for the final act.

 

TL;DR:

Spoiler

 

 

 

And that's that. Love reading VNs. Every time I finish one I get antsy because it's like, damn that was good, I wanna read another one like this, will the next VN i read even be as enjoyable? Then I pick a completely different genre and setting and then come to enjoy that and the cycle repeats. Question is... what shall the next VN be..? (and no, it's not gonna be AoKana, sorrz no pureblood high school SoL for me plx)

*Looks at the date* Oh, I know!

Spoiler

 

[adamstan]

3 hours ago, Eclipsed said:

Overall enjoyable. My failure to appreciate the final route as much as I could've was more due to my tendency to come into final routes waaay too overhyped. I blame Ever17. Ever since that VN I've always expected true routes to be mind blowing braingasm experiences so it can be very easy for me to bamboozle myself and end up disappointed.

Ah, now I see. Before YU-NO (and after it ) I played mostly charage of various kinds, so I went into it kind of blind, without specific expectations. Maybe that enabled me to enjoy it more, since it was the first of its kind for me.

Fully agree on your note about alternate happy endings. It would be really nice if they did it as you described.

Also, have to say that while I wasn't too fond of Kanna's remake sprite, she looks really good in that CG you posted. Generally, when I look at your screenshots, I start to warm up to this remake a bit. Maybe I'll really get it on winter or summer sale

[Eden]

I don't know if it's the right topic to ask, but it's just a simple question for those who already played Totono: do you think this VN can be an as impactful/enjoyable experience for a girl as it is for a guy?

[Mr Poltroon]

17 minutes ago, Eden said:

I don't know if it's the right topic to ask, but it's just a simple question for those who already played Totono: do you think this VN can be an as impactful/enjoyable experience for a girl as it is for a guy?

Spoiler

"can"? Yes. Is it likely? I do not know. This is the sort of thing that depends on the person, but I figure it is less likely than for a guy.

 

[Seraphim]

There are some parts that might be awkward from a girl's point of view, but you're likely to be impacted by the story to a decent extent no matter what your gender is.

[alpacaman]

Totono is clearly targeted towards a certain (male) audience, which doesn't necessarily mean you can't enjoy it. If you like dark, somewhat exploitative VNs like Saya no Uta, I'd say go for it. If you're not that experienced with eroge or want to try Totono because it gets compared to DDLC a lot, I'd suggest you read other stuff first (like Saya no Uta, which is better anyway).

[ChaosRaven]

Finished some visual novels, so it's time for some short mini reviews.

Spoiler

I played 9 -Nine- Episode 3 pretty much when it got released. I liked the previous two episodes and this one didn't disappoint either. It focuses on Haruka Kousaka, which was pretty much my favorite character so far, so I was really looking forward to play this one. I hoped it would focus more on her alternative self-confident personality, but it was more about having her true personlity grow up and free herself from needing her other self. Makes admittedly more sense story-wise, but part of me still wished they would be a sister pair since I liked her 'Empress' personality.

Nevertheless, this episode further expands the story and it's slowly shaping up to get something bigger. It's a really unique mixture of slice-of-life, chuuni, mystery and romance with a healthy dose of Stein's Gate and Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica. I must also admit that I respect the writers capability to tackle and mesh up all those genres with each other pretty well. The characters all have their individual quirks and their interactions with each other are highly entertaining. On the other hand, the characters can be almost shockingly twisted and ruthless when they turn (out) evil. Some characters that didn't leave a big impression in previous episodes also show a surprising depth when you get to know them better, like Renya's 'Betrayer' really hitting home several times. I really underestimated that dude.

I wasn't aware that the writer Kazuki Fumi was also the writer of Nanairo Reincarnation, which was was still a bit rough around the edges, but certainly showed clear signs of a talented writer in the making. No surprise that both Navel and Yuzusoft hired him for some of their recent titles.

Not much negative to say about it. The episode clearly focuses on quality over quantity so what's there is mostly good. The romance part at the end could have been better but it's not a biggy. It's also a bit dabbling in dangerous waters with its reality branch theories. I think Stein's Gate had a 'home branch' which was the measurement for success. But I didn't see something like that here, so why should the villain bothered if he looses on one branch but wins on a thousand others? A 1000 : 1 win doesn't sound too bad for me. But well, maybe episode 4 shed's some more light into that. At least the cliffhanger for it was already promising.

Overall rating: 7.5/10

Since the series is really shaping up to get something bigger, I'll rate the first episodes up to 7.5 as well.

Spoiler

The first half of City of Broken Dreamers was recently released on Steam and since I've tried the first 4 chapters already earlier this year, and was quite impressed by them, I picked it up immediately. Overall, this is clearly the best 3D VN on Steam right now and IMHO a prime example how the genre should develop. Unlike its closest competitor Being a DIK, which was still mostly a porn gallery, this one really takes its plot serious. It's a real cyberpunk thriller with decent world building, an intriguing atmospheric soundtrack that gives you Bladerunner or Shadowrun vibes. It's also a theme that harmonates very well with the somewhat synthetic render look. In exchange you get really high production values. Almost everything is rendered or even animated, from main characters to side characters, backgrounds, etc. (We're talking 5300 renders and 274 animations)

The VN also has a clear Western style. No cheap Japananese anime tropes, no kawai loli's, no idiot friends. The most important male main character Henry is a real badass who resembles more Riddick alias Vin Diesel than anything you'd usually find in a Japanese VN. Half of the heroines are also real femme fatales that don't have a problem to wield a gun or to engage in combat. All of them have a clear background which is well interwoven with the world and story: A doctor, a spy, a mercenary, or just the daughter of your boss. The protagonist itself is a battle-tried mercenary. And no, it's not a teenage boy, it's an already divorced guy probably in his thirties.

The story around illegal augmented people is probably not that unique for that genre, but considering cyberpunk barely exists in VN's it's still rather unique. The closest thing among Japanese VN's is probably Tokyo Necro minus the zombis, though I didn't read it so it's just a guess. Although Baldr Sky is tagged as cyberpunk it didn't feel cyberpunk at all, so no. Kikokugai - The Cyber Slayer maybe, but I didn't read it yet and the central loli character makes me doubt it. Steel Witch Annerose would be probably the closest thing in style I read myself. Especially since City of Broken Dreamers still has a strong erotic touch to it. Even if you can avoid almost H-scenes, you will still see a lot of nude skin.

That said, the VN also has a rather unique fast paced writing style, which makes it often feel more like an interactive movie with subtitles than a real VN. And I'm pretty sure that will also scare a lot of people away who like and expect a more traditional prose style VN with manga art and school life setting.

Heroine ranking: Victoria > Katie > Sonja = Sasha > Gloria = Chandy > Ellen > (Venus) > Shanlon (super hot, but unfortunately a crazy bitch)

Overall rating. 8/10 (Could get even higher or lower when the second part gets released)

Spoiler

I think I finished Kyonyuu Fantasy 2 already months ago and just forgot to post about it. Im many ways it felt like a remake of ther first one that makes one step forward, but also a step backward. The protagonist felt identical to the one of the first one. The start felt better, but the mid and end parts dragged on quite a bit. The heroines were more even, fortunately none of them as bad as Luceria or Roxanne of the first one. On the other hand, none them came close to Gladys and Elicia was worse than Isis. They also tried to make Zebia too much like Shamsiel, at least in the interactions with the protagonist. A mistake, the childish behavior didn't really fit to her overall dark elf nature.

The story was fast-paced and somewhat entertaining, but the overall B-movie style was still a turn-off and made me play several times with the uninstall button. It did tackle some rather sensible topics like racism (against demi-humans) surprisingly well. On the other hand, it still does a bad job in such trivial things as being a nukige.

Heroine ranking: Nadine > Zebia > Lorelia > Shahari > Elicia

Overall rating: 6.5/10

Regarding VN's I'm currently reading, I've just started with Flowers part 3, which I'm liking quite a bit so far. I'm also almost finished with Mako's route in Senren * Banka. Didn't read that much lately though, since her route is pretty dull even if I like the character. Furthermore, I'll probably drop Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception, since it does focus too much on clown characters like Dekoponpo or Maroro, the character cast got worse and worse with crap characters like Nosuri, Atuy, or the two royal sex slaves and it's just dreadful boring with literally no (serious) plot to speak of.

Edited October 11, 2020 by ChaosRaven

[fuyopon]

On 10/5/2020 at 11:11 PM, Silvz said:

is there any meat to the story? I've finished endings A, B and C and there's no plot whatsoever

About Room No.9? Yeah! I mean, the plot itself is how the experiences affect their friendship. I would say the last endings are the best endings!
-----
Sooooo, I just finished Saya no Uta! Man, it was depressingly amazing!

Spoiler

My favorite ending would be the last ending, in which they kill Saya, Fuminori kills himself and Koji goes crazy. That one was the most bittersweet for me, but damn, it was so creepy. I was never once creeped out while reading this vn but when Fuminori's dead sprite showed up, I got so many fucking chills, uuuugh ;u;''

my next vn will probably have to wait as I am quite busy with school right now, but I'll probably read Magical Eyes - Red is for Anguish 

[Eclipsed]

Ehehehehe

I wonder why Robotics;Notes scored relatively poorly compared to Chaos;Child and Steins;Gate (130 votes avg 7.36 vs 1806 votes avg 8.39 and lol 8132 votes avg 9.02 respectively)

I'd like to think it's just that most peeps who tried R;N were going off of the high from S;G and then got disappointed, or maybe it's the use of 3d sprites, which can look pretty jank:

Worst case scenario it's cuz the plot actually is subpar, god I hope not. We shall see~

[Seraphim]

I'm excited about R;N, but the localization is apparently a bit questionable, resulting in inaccurate character portrayals and faulty terminology among other things, so I'm gonna wait for the CoZ patch that'll drop in roughly a month.

[Stormwolf]

FanTL group said they'd fix Robotics notes within a month.

[littleshogun]

After I consider it for a while, I guess YU-NO remake graphics are quite refreshing and therefore the remake release are not so redundant. While I accept the new graphic, I also think that the old version graphic is still be able to hold its own even today (ie it's still nice to see). For the comparison, remake wise most of those are okay in that there's no much change, although if I may say I would say that I prefer the old design for both of Eriko without bang and Yuuki. Also I prefer the older school uniform instead of newer one. I guess that's all for what I can say in regard of YU-NO remake graphic wise. No much comment about the new voices either, other than Kugimiya Rie was casted as Shimazu Mio which is her usual role because Mio here is a tsundere (Kugimiya is usually play a tsundere female characters).

By the way I see the complain in regard of isekai when it's adapted into anime (Doesn't help that there're some isekai anime aired at the same season when YU-NO adaptation aired), although I would say that in wake of that it's still refreshing to see isekai in non-nukige VN even with the VN in question are at almost 25 years old. Also if you want to play YU-NO remake, please remember that it's 25 years old VN and should be treated it like that (Or borrowing a word from Hardcore Gamers article comparing it with Policenauts instead of Somnium) so that you won't find it disappointing because of some similar plot point in the newer VNs.

Edited October 15, 2020 by littleshogun

[Larxe1]

Playing Hamidashi Creative. I played wagamama high spec in the past and thought it was an average moege without a semblance of proper plot, so i was expecting a mindless moege from hamidashi right at the start. Unexpectedly, there was an actual plot driving it that was interesting for me, and thats something since i usually skip daily life scenes that are just plain cliche and not interesting. I wont say anything about the quality of the heroines since well, thats very subjective but damn I extremely adore Hiyori (the lil sis character) and her seiyuu I found extremely cute. She's just so adorable and the little flashbacks about them are nice.

Shio-senpai is interesting too since I like competent and reliable type of characters and seeing them dere is cute as hell. Also its the seiyuu's first character, and damn her voice is good and fits the competent and adult atmosphere of the character. Although I didn't like how she was introduced though so thats a negative.

Also prob why I liked this game is I rarely see student council president protagonists. I'm probably go just flip a coin whether I play Hiyori or Shio first since both of them are likeable for me.

Unexpectedly good game so far, although I'm only 5-10 hours in (idk I dont count), I hope the quality stays the same Its disappointing as hell to see that Ameri doesnt have a route though as she was clearly into the protag and personally was one of the most interesting characters in the game

The art is kinda good too compared to their other games where it just felt a bit too cartoon-ish?? idk how to describe it but it just felt off but hamidashi retains the same style but looks really better.

Edited October 14, 2020 by Larxe1