What are you playing?

[alpacaman]

More like Iwaihi-meh! (I'm sorry)

Anyway, the VN sadly doesn't get any better the longer it goes. 

[Mr Poltroon]

20 hours ago, Stormwolf said:

Well, the length of the vn and convoluted way that "truth" has been explained makes for no solvable mystery for regular people. I'm sure there are crazies who have fine combed the story over and over to craft a theory. But unless stated outright, it's just a theory. Maybe i'll check into the manga for the last chapter.

Okay, so, Umineko is interesting in how it wants the players to solve the things (Not only that, but I'll focus purely on the episode murder mysteries).

Spoiler

It's by no means impossible to figure some things out by yourself whilst you play, like by noticing that magic only happens when Battler cannot see it up until the end: Something Episode 5 goes out of it's way to destroy and confuse the player. At the same time, it's here they explain Knox's rules and how the stories probably follow them, and expect the player to associate only the detective sees the truth with the new girl showing up and calling herself the detective.

But let's get away from the details. These things can possibly be figured out, but quite frankly I understand your feelings very well. I myself thought for a very long time on how everything was clearly impossible for regular people.
However, once I replayed the game, I found it way way way easier, simply because of the bits of knowledge I now knew. If I know only the detective sees the truth, that Kanon and Shannon are the same person, and that Kinzo is already dead, suddenly most mysteries are way easier to tackle.
The things Will says near the end of the novel, in which he "solves" every case, he is actually explaining all the solutions (to crimes). "Illusions to illusions" usually means they just lied. The vast majority of the things we deal with for the first 4 episodes are just people in cahoots and lying.

But yeah, I'm fairly certain the author knows the solutions, he just chose to give players the tools to come up with them instead of spelling them out. I think that's really cool! But Umineko is so long I doubt many people who didn't already love it would come back to find the same experience I did.

 

[Silvz]

2 hours ago, Mr Poltroon said:

Okay, so, Umineko is interesting in how it wants the players to solve the things (Not only that, but I'll focus purely on the episode murder mysteries).

  Hide contents

It's by no means impossible to figure some things out by yourself whilst you play, like by noticing that magic only happens when Battler cannot see it up until the end: Something Episode 5 goes out of it's way to destroy and confuse the player. At the same time, it's here they explain Knox's rules and how the stories probably follow them, and expect the player to associate only the detective sees the truth with the new girl showing up and calling herself the detective.

But let's get away from the details. These things can possibly be figured out, but quite frankly I understand your feelings very well. I myself thought for a very long time on how everything was clearly impossible for regular people.
However, once I replayed the game, I found it way way way easier, simply because of the bits of knowledge I now knew. If I know only the detective sees the truth, that Kanon and Shannon are the same person, and that Kinzo is already dead, suddenly most mysteries are way easier to tackle.
The things Will says near the end of the novel, in which he "solves" every case, he is actually explaining all the solutions (to crimes). "Illusions to illusions" usually means they just lied. The vast majority of the things we deal with for the first 4 episodes are just people in cahoots and lying.

But yeah, I'm fairly certain the author knows the solutions, he just chose to give players the tools to come up with them instead of spelling them out. I think that's really cool! But Umineko is so long I doubt many people who didn't already love it would come back to find the same experience I did.

 

I did reread it and can agree 100% with you. The second time is way more interesting, because knowing the culprit you can pay attention to all the hints and tricks used in the story. Umineko is a great novel to read more than once if you want the whole experience.

[Stormwolf]

It was certainly good, but there is exactly -zero- chance i'm going through all that again xD 

 

Edited January 14, 2021 by Stormwolf

[adamstan]

Yesterday I finished main Ai's route in Sorairo.

It was shorter than I expected, but OTOH that's understandable since each route has three versions, so if each of those was full length, it would probably get too big for rather standard high-school moege

The route itself was nice - nothing outstanding nor groundbreaking, but also not boring - it was quite pleasant read, and two final CGs were very romantic

Spoiler

Kiss and holding hands on the island beach during sunrise

If I had to complain about something - I'd like to see more interactions with other characters/group also during heroine's route, and not only in common route - I prefer that approach over the "isolated" routes focused almost solely on MC and chosen heroine.

Well - it was just 1 out of at least 9 routes, so let's see how others turn out.

Edited January 15, 2021 by adamstan

[Stormwolf]

On 1/13/2021 at 9:07 PM, Mr Poltroon said:

Okay, so, Umineko is interesting in how it wants the players to solve the things (Not only that, but I'll focus purely on the episode murder mysteries).

  Reveal hidden contents

It's by no means impossible to figure some things out by yourself whilst you play, like by noticing that magic only happens when Battler cannot see it up until the end: Something Episode 5 goes out of it's way to destroy and confuse the player. At the same time, it's here they explain Knox's rules and how the stories probably follow them, and expect the player to associate only the detective sees the truth with the new girl showing up and calling herself the detective.

But let's get away from the details. These things can possibly be figured out, but quite frankly I understand your feelings very well. I myself thought for a very long time on how everything was clearly impossible for regular people.
However, once I replayed the game, I found it way way way easier, simply because of the bits of knowledge I now knew. If I know only the detective sees the truth, that Kanon and Shannon are the same person, and that Kinzo is already dead, suddenly most mysteries are way easier to tackle.
The things Will says near the end of the novel, in which he "solves" every case, he is actually explaining all the solutions (to crimes). "Illusions to illusions" usually means they just lied. The vast majority of the things we deal with for the first 4 episodes are just people in cahoots and lying.

But yeah, I'm fairly certain the author knows the solutions, he just chose to give players the tools to come up with them instead of spelling them out. I think that's really cool! But Umineko is so long I doubt many people who didn't already love it would come back to find the same experience I did.

 

This is interesting as the confession text before starting says the author did want to keep it secret. After all that in the confession i can hands down tell that no one figured this out with unineko vn alone. Most of this isnt even in it and at best you can make wild guesses

[Mr Poltroon]

2 hours ago, Stormwolf said:

Most of this isnt even in it and at best you can make wild guesses

What do you mean by "most of this"?

I've never read the manga chapters or anything else other than the main Umineko VN itself, but I firmly believe that playing it twice means you can come up with most solutions yourself. It's just that people are unlikely to play it twice for obvious reasons

[Stormwolf]

6 hours ago, Mr Poltroon said:

What do you mean by "most of this"?

I've never read the manga chapters or anything else other than the main Umineko VN itself, but I firmly believe that playing it twice means you can come up with most solutions yourself. It's just that people are unlikely to play it twice for obvious reasons

Spoiler

I mean the major mysteries. Like Sayo and the fact that it turns fantasy at some point. You can guess stuff like shannon and kanon being the same person, but you won't have any clue as to why, and i think that goes for two time readers also. 

 

Edited January 15, 2021 by Stormwolf

[Dreamysyu]

@Stormwolf You're seriously posting this without spoiler tags? Is fuwa actually turning into Youtube comments or something?

[Stormwolf]

sorry about that. Spoilered now. Everywhere is youtube comments now

[fuyopon]

Hiya, you guys! Guess who's back~ 

I spent last week reading through the entire common route of Majikoi and boy, did I enjoy it haha

First impressions

Positives

• strong and dominant female cast
• unique and diverse characters
• good comedy
• fast-paced without much info drop
• the end skit hehe

Negatives

• the art and BGM are very average imo
• I'm still not sure what to say here abt the vn itself; I had some issues with some characters, but I will dwell on that later

Characters

Miyako: She was fun at first, but the jokes got tiring and repetitive with time...

Wanko: I L O V E H E R ! ! ! I don't want to have to lewd her in her route uuuuugh... Ravioli, ravioli, don't lewd the doggo loli. A pal of mine described her as the mix of Kud and Masato (from Little Busters!) and it couldn't be any less true.

Chris: Hmm... I don't think she's a bad character, per se... but she is indeed the least interesting one, I'd say. She's kinda preachy and annoying - kind of a jerk, a lot of times lol

Mayu: Not gonna lie, I disliked her at fitst (I only liked "Matsukaze"), but she did grow on me, especially after both fights with Chris haha

Momoyo: Even though her actions are questionable - with the harassement and rape jokes and all, I am still a sucker for strong girls  sigh...

Shouichi (Capt.): I want to see my little boy...! Here he comes! I want to see my little boy...! Personally, I see him the same way as Wanko: just an innocent child running around hehe

Gakutou: I was expecting that first bad end to be with Gakutou ngl; it was disturbing, oof... Well, I love muscle idiots, he very much reminds me of Masato, except Masato doesn't think with his dick lol

Moro: I like him, he's the sane member of the group lmao He doesn't stand out though, not that I mind it.

Minamoto Tadakatsu (Gen-san):  Man, I just love this guy! He's the first tsundere I actually stand and like, woah He's such a sweetheart hehe

• I couldn't bear Ikurou... He was too much; Oogushi was alright, I guess;
• Man, I loved Azumi, even though she barely showed up lol
• Aoi Touma... what a bi icon, I love him, heh; he wasn't a trash character and was clearly bi, so that's nice (yes, the bar is low)
• Love for children aside, Jun is cool! That cool and smooth voice totally suits him lmao
• Finally, for Yamato: he's a good balance between generic and OP (to the point of it being too much). I have to admit that amongst such a diverse and powerful cast, he is a bit underwhelming, but I like it. He doesn't need to be too excentring, since he is usually "watching" the story unroll (as the protagonist).

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

Well, then. I will read Chris' route tomorrow. I'm a little uncertain on how to feel about her, but at least now I know better than to actually read h-scenes lmao well, except this one is apparently needed for the plot

[NowItsAngeTime]

13 hours ago, Leonor said:

 

Minamoto Tadakatsu (Gen-san):  Man, I just love this guy! He's the first tsundere I actually stand and like, woah He's such a sweetheart hehe

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

Well, then. I will read Chris' route tomorrow. I'm a little uncertain on how to feel about her, but at least now I know better than to actually read h-scenes lmao well, except this one is apparently needed for the plot

 

Gen-san is the best male tsundere ever, glad he showed you the light.

I don't recommend Chris as a first route since it's the most controversial by far and may give you a bad impression of the rest of the VN.

[NowItsAngeTime]

I have finished Miazora Interstellar Focus in Japanese.

I ended up really really liking it. One of the best (the best?) fandiscs I've read.

The 3some true route was pretty much what I wanted: Pure comfy, just enough drama, made both girls happy, and kinda explored the difficulties.

It was also nice to see a bit of the other characters get epilogues and screen time even though it wasn't their route. It was nice to see characters like Hinami and Yoshioka get some nice scenes.

And the bonus Quiz thing was a really fun way to incorporate that in the plot. I especially liked the one with Take and Narue since it's the only case where you can just have 1 on 1 time with em and even have Narue's thoughts on Take.

I don't think this fandisc really changed my opinion much on the characters, but it did give many of them to shine again which is great. It did help get me more hilarious and sweet Hinami moments which I always appreciate.

Honestly after reading this, Miazora might be my 2nd favorite VN series (after MajiKoi) even if any of them individually aren't in my top 3. Each of the 3 Miazora VNs were just all really consistently enjoyable and my type of slice of life: comfy, heartwarming, nice romance, a decent amount of character development, a fun way to incorporate a theme (stargazing), nice music, and just fun to read in just about every route.

[Stormwolf]

Ohh so this franchise shat on itself just like my girlfriends the president? "3P true route" Jesus christ, why would anyone want that in a more or less serious story about teenage romance?

[fuyopon]

On 1/16/2021 at 9:56 AM, NowItsAngeTime said:

I don't recommend Chris as a first route since it's the most controversial by far and may give you a bad impression of the rest of the VN.

I can understand why, oof... Too late, though, I'm almost finished. I mean, yeah, Yamato and his dick move unsettled me for sure but I was warned beforehand; besides, I tendo to only judge a vn after I finished it  I'll talk more abt it after I do finish the route tho!

[ChaosRaven]

Finally finished some titles...

It took a while, but Senren * Banka was very sweet. Probably my favorite Yuzusoft title so far (just played Noble Works and Dracu Riot before though) and ended up playing all routes except Koharu's. It still had the typical Yuzusoft problem that they come up with a decent plot (for a moege) in the common route, but then more or less drop it in the character routes. Only Lena's route somewhat built up on it. I think they could learn a lesson or two from 9-nine how to successfully keep things interesting with reasonable effort.

Nevertheless, as a moege it certainly succeeds. In that area, it's hard to argue that Yuzusoft know their trade. The characters were very likable and had a good chemistry with each other. You really got family vibes from them. Like usual in a Yuzusoft the sprite dynamics were most excellent and made the characters feel more lively than ever. It also had a competent and caring protagonist. I really liked his dedication to his sword fight training. It's a pity it couldn't be used more. It would have been great to see some *Chusingura action* with him.

Heroine ranking: Lena >= Yoshino = Mako = Murasame = Roka > Koharu

I really have a hard time picking favorites here, since I liked most heroines almost equally. Though I think I liked Lena a tiny bit more than the others.

Overall rating 7/10 (Could have been higher if they would have put more emphasis on story)

Also finished Kyonyuu Fantasy Gaiden 2, the second fan disc for Kyonyuu Fantasy. I don't think this can be called a nukige anymore. In the first two hours you don't even see a girl, and the first H-scene happens after eight hours or so. They literally *plundered* all their previous Kyonyuu Fantasy games, including KF2 to get the sprite and image resources necessary to realize a full cross-pseudo-European conflict involving Spain (Iberia), France (Fronce), England (Hillsland), the Holy Roman Empire (Edellandt) and probably Denmark (Nordland). It's actually pretty impressive that they managed to pull that off, full with intrigues and wars.

On the other hand, it's still rather 'cheaply' made, so it's essentially just more of the same. It also suffers from Lute's harem being too big with only Shamsiel, Gladys and Aphrodia having useful roles from the old cast. Lute's antics also slowly get old, especially in the later parts when every problem is solved by him just walking in range. It's a lot more interesting when he actually comes up with a crazy idea or turns an enemy into an ally.

Heroine ranking: Gladys > Aphrodia > Shamsiel > Emeralia > Rosalyn > Estoria > ... (too much effort to list them all)

Overall rating: 6.5/10 (I originally wanted to give a 7, but Lute's *demi-god* problem solutions were just lame)

Well, Iwaihime was an odd one. I read a few chapters and then had a look at VNDB again if this was really written by Ryuukishi07. While the structure of VN resembles his previous works, the writing itself... does now. I'm not the biggest fan of Ryu, but my usual problems with his writing is that he doesn't find an end and just goes on and on until he suddenly comes up with a troll twist I hate. But on the other hand, he can also come up with some really powerful writing.

In Iwaihime however, you get an almost lightning fast pacing. Considering I usually like fast-paced VN's, this should have been perfect for me. However, this wasn't simply fast-paced, there were just essential parts missing. No proper character introductions, scene build-ups to create tension pretty much didn't exist. The chapters show-casing the different heroine problems felt like copy & paste with slightly different scenarios. Overall, it felt like the VN was written by a complete amateur, since not a single thing was decently done - it was more like a rough draft of how the VN should be structured than the full thing. Ryu must have really hated working on this, probably because it was contract work and not his own. It was obvious that he just wanted to get it over with, so he could work on his own stuff again.

Heroine ranking: Meh

Overall rating: 2/10 (Seriously, this was just bad and not me being grumpy for a change...)

Next on my list are Kami no Rhapsody and Gekkou no Carnevale. Though Gekkou is so unstable under Windows 10 that you can only use hotkeys, because accessing the game menu via right-click freezes the game. Story sounds interesting, but I'm not sure if it's worth going through those hassles.

[Dreamysyu]

20 minutes ago, ChaosRaven said:

Ryu must have really hated working on this, probably because it was contract work and not his own. It was obvious that he just wanted to get it over with, so he could work on his own stuff again.

To me it feels like somebody wanted to have him work on this since he was known for writing horror, but they didn't realize what made his previous works good and gave him too many constraints for the actual writing. It's funny how this VN completely contradicts what Ryukishi himself believes about writing good horror.

By the way, I'm currently at chapter 5, and it made my impression even worse than I wrote in my previous post. It just went in the most cliche direction possible. Honestly, I'll probably try reading it a bit more, but I'm very close to following @Silvz's advice and just dropping it completely.

[adamstan]

2 hours ago, Stormwolf said:

Ohh so this franchise shat on itself just like my girlfriends the president? "3P true route" Jesus christ, why would anyone want that in a more or less serious story about teenage romance?

That's why it was relegated to fandisc But yeah, it almost kills my interest for that FD.

What I'm really waiting for is Miazora's equivalent of Cruise Sign - all ages JP version of main VN plus stories from fandiscs - so I wouldn't have to deal with awkward h-scenes or Pulltop's random translation quality Win-win situation. I'd buy such release in a heartbeat, but I'm afraid they won't do it... It really puzzles me - Steam edition of Miazora is obviously translated from unreleased console version - so why not release it then?

 

@ChaosRaven - you make me more and more interested in Senren Banka

Edited January 17, 2021 by adamstan

[ChaosRaven]

24 minutes ago, adamstan said:

@ChaosRaven - you make me more and more interested in Senren Banka

Did you read a Yuzusoft title before? For moe you usually can't go wrong with them. On VNDB at least, the most popular Yuzusoft title seems to be Sanoba Witch, but it probably depends a lot on what people have already read and Senren * Banka is newer. The just recently released Riddle Joker seems to be rather strong in the plot department though, so that will probably my next Yuzusoft title (after a reasonable break).

[alpacaman]

44 minutes ago, Dreamysyu said:

By the way, I'm currently at chapter 5, and it made my impression even worse than I wrote in my previous post. It just went in the most cliche direction possible. Honestly, I'll probably try reading it a bit more, but I'm very close to following @Silvz's advice and just dropping it completely.

If you've come this far I'd recommend finishing it if only for the epilogue, which has one of the weirdest genre shifts 80% into a piece of fiction I've had the pleasure (?) to witness.

Edited January 17, 2021 by alpacaman

[adamstan]

15 minutes ago, ChaosRaven said:

Did you read a Yuzusoft title before? For moe you usually can't go wrong with them. On VNDB at least, the most popular Yuzusoft title seems to be Sanoba Witch, but it probably depends a lot on what people have already read and Senren * Banka is newer. The just recently released Riddle Joker seems to be rather strong in the plot department though, so that will probably my next Yuzusoft title (after a reasonable break).

Yes, I read Noble Works, Sanoba Witch and Natsuzora Kanata - and liked them all. I intentionally skipped Dracu Riot because vampire setting puts me off. But Senren Banka and Riddle Joker seem interesting.

(I also have BraBan and Tenshin Ranman on my "to read" list)

Edited January 17, 2021 by adamstan

[NowItsAngeTime]

8 hours ago, Leonor said:

I can understand why, oof... Too late, though, I'm almost finished. I mean, yeah, Yamato and his dick move unsettled me for sure but I was warned beforehand; besides, I tendo to only judge a vn after I finished it  I'll talk more abt it after I do finish the route tho!

Well as long as you haven't ragequit the VN because of it, that's good at least.

[Plk_Lesiak]

So, as actually reading stuff is apparently beyond my mental capacities lately, I'm slowly watching through two long playthroughs.

The first one is Danganronpa and while there are things I definitely like about it, I kind of find most of its interactivity a bit obnoxious. While the limited game mechanics of Ace Attorney were more like tools to get you involved in the story, setting it much closer to visual novel territories, the Danganronpa trials, repetition involved and puzzles... I never felt they added to the experience. Also, the levels of dumb in characters' behaviour somehow got on my nerves a bit. I heard that the translation of the first game is generally considered poor, but I'm not how much that could break outside of some cultural appropriation that I was able to decipher and which didn't really change that much. It's stylish, well-produced and occasionally quite funny, but rarely genuinely smart or surprising. Shaping into something like a 7/10 rather than a real classic. And I'm kind of surprised by this impression, because I hold Ace Attorney in much higher regard and through it would be able to capture that charm in slightly more-mature format. Maybe the sequel will grip me a bit more? Now part of me just wants to replay euphoria for some genuine death game action.

VA-11 HALL-A on the other hand do not disappoint me in the slightest. Non-intrusive game mechanics, massive focus on dialogue and atmosphere... It's gloomy with its cyberpunk setting, but at the same time massively a feel-good game that let's you immerse yourself in its world and slowly get to know its characters, building towards more meaningful developments with subtle hints and seemingly trivial conversations. I don't think there's a single character introduced so far that I didn't enjoy on some level and it's interesting to see the deeper stories developing from this mostly-detached perspective of a bartender. It's hard for me to find anything to complain about here – not sure whether the concept itself was done before by any notable game, but its execution is just so good here... I'll be surprised if I don't feel like giving it at least 9/10 by the end.

Oh, and by the way, VA-11 HALL-A in now available on game pass for PC. If you want to cheese it, the first month of subscription literally costs $1, so you can read VA-11 HALL-A and probably finish a few other games virtually for free if you cancel before 30 days.

[fuyopon]

2 hours ago, Plk_Lesiak said:

the Danganronpa trials, repetition involved and puzzles... I never felt they added to the experience.

Oh wow, that is a surprise! Personally, I feel like Danganronpa isn't Danganronpa WITHOUT the trials haha the puzzles could easily go away, almost nobody likes them (I do like the comic format conclusion) but yeah, I find the trials pretty entertaining. Maybe it isn't the most fun to watch, just because it's more interactive to the actual player, but oh well! I'd rec JohneAwesome if you want a fun gameplayer to watch DR 

[fuyopon]

Annnnnnd I've read Chris' route! Man, this was a 6/10... I hope the others are better than this, I was so hyped for this VN lol

Spoiler

 

Sigh... I did finally start to enjoy Chris as a character but that rape scene...! That scene made me cringe a lot, ugh. What's wrong with you, dude? Couldn't you, oh I don't know, try to talk?? I know she's tsundere and all, but you could try to be sweet and do something romantic to her, not tie her up and rape her. After that, I couldn't stand the route, it was just so fucking weird. Usually, I'm neutral to h-scenes and I even read them just for the sake of reading everything, but this time (and I'm adopting this from now on, unless I need them for the plot) I skipped them all.

That "house arc" made me think of Clannad lol

Miyako made me sad throughout this entire route and I'm preeeetty sure the other ones are going to be similar (except Miyako's) since I'm not choosing her.

Oh yeah, those "fight scenes", oof. I was expecting way more, booooo~ I don't like how they shoehorned Momoyo's route in there as well, with that last scene between Momoyo and that Japanese fighter dude.

 

Next this week is Wanko's... I dun wannaaaa  I wish Wanko's was just a friendship route, sigh...