What are you playing?

[fuyopon]

[Musicus!]

Act II

(I'm typing this as I'm playing it, and I had to turn off Kaneda's voice because I just couldn't stand it, ugh. He got even more annoying real fast.)

Okay, I finished it. It's official, I'm dropping this. This act was... fine. 

Spoiler

Okay, but seriously, it was real boring. I couldn't stand Kaneda, as I mentioned before, and even Mika got to my nerves. Tazaki, the only sensible person in the band, wants to leave the band? That's it, no more.

Act I was fun and all, but after that it was just painful to keep reading - it's a shame, I was expecting so much more :(((

----

After this, I'll finally be able to make progress with Maggot Baits, so at least I'm excited for that! 

[Stormwolf]

12 hours ago, Seraphim said:

I was a bit confused by that as well, but since I hadn't made any choices yet, I figured it was just an introduction of sorts. In any case, the VN seems promising. I find the protagonist a bit annoying and immature at times, like when he said this to a waitress he just met, but at least he doesn't seem quite as hyper as the guy from Fureraba. I like all the heroines and the animated art is really nice, so I expect this will be a good read.

He's a bit immature for sure, but that's fine. Anything but the non descript generic-kun we usually get. This is a breath of fresh air. VN is still pretty good. Only big complaint i have which seems to be present is the heroine route is mixed in between common route chapters. Meaning you get some heroine niceties and affection gains in her parts...... Problem is that when you're back to the common route they're back to 0. They've effectively made a VN where heroine routes seem non canon and just spice throughout the common route. Funny thing that.

[TexasDice]

3 hours ago, Stormwolf said:

Only big complaint i have which seems to be present is the heroine route is mixed in between common route chapters. Meaning you get some heroine niceties and affection gains in her parts...... Problem is that when you're back to the common route they're back to 0. They've effectively made a VN where heroine routes seem non canon and just spice throughout the common route. Funny thing that.

When you get onto the actual route, it's starts counting from 1 up again. No idea why they called it "route 01" in common, when it's just a heroine specific scene.

Oh, also it isn't ignored; The events of the character scenes and your job selection is brought up later during common.

Edited May 2, 2021 by TexasDice

[Stormwolf]

1 hour ago, TexasDice said:

When you get onto the actual route, it's starts counting from 1 up again. No idea why they called it "route 01" in common, when it's just a heroine specific scene.

Oh, also it isn't ignored; The events of the character scenes and your job selection is brought up later during common.

I chose Mao and entertainment. Maybe it was a bad combo for a first go due to her personality too. She's not bad by any means though.

[TexasDice]

1 hour ago, Stormwolf said:

I chose Mao and entertainment. Maybe it was a bad combo for a first go due to her personality too. She's not bad by any means though.

Mao/Security here. I remember Security scenes and Mao scenes being referenced at later during common (although Ichika has the most Security scenes).

The thing I assume you meant was probably

Spoiler

how immediately after the first date, a seemingly completely unrelated job and common scene starts before we go back to Mao.

 

[Stormwolf]

6 hours ago, TexasDice said:

Mao/Security here. I remember Security scenes and Mao scenes being referenced at later during common (although Ichika has the most Security scenes).

The thing I assume you meant was probably

  Hide contents

how immediately after the first date, a seemingly completely unrelated job and common scene starts before we go back to Mao.

 

It was before the first date actually. She was suddenly modest and nice and it changed to common route again and we're back to mc being treated like dirt again. I figured this was due to the structure of the VN, but maybe i was wrong. I'll soon find out i believe

[OdaNova]

I've finished A, B and C routes for Root Double as of this evening. Onto the D route at the moment.

 

I really enjoy the mystery elements of A route, and the slice of life of B route - though, the exposition dumps became an absolute snooze fest for me, I quite frankly switched off with the lectures on parapsychology and all the gibberish words they were spewing. (The blind spot test was a treat though.)

 

I wonder if anyone feels the same way I do about the translation? It really grates on me at the moment, there are two horrific Americanisms in the translation which are getting on my nerves;

 

Infrequent use of the term 'off of'. I hate the usage of that term because it feels clumsy, and rarely does better than simply saying 'off the' or 'off x' so, "I took it off him" or "I took it off the table" is a lot better to me than "I took it off of him" and "I took it off of the table"

 

Very frequent use of the word "gotten" - this one is winding me up because it is used in place of better words, such as 'received' "I had received the information from them" is a lot better than "I had gotten the information from them" or "I became involved with this" rather than "I had gotten involved" and so on, it seems every other conversation this pops up and it drives me potty.

 

Who were the translators, so I may slap them for these issues? :P 

I'm looking forward to concluding Route D's multiple endings, there seems to be eight normal, good and true endings,  on top of all the bad endings. Seriously, so many bad endings in route A, it was mad.

I'm not convinced the SSS mechanic is better than conventional dialogue or A/B choices though, even glancing at guides it seems to be a complex way of just picking min/max/neutral if that makes sense?

[Larxe1]

Back to my usual with reading random vn's which lead me to dropping VN's at a fast pace which kinda burns me out.

Yume to Iro de Dekiteiru - Same author of Hoshizora no Memoria and I guess co-writer on astral air. Made by feng and surprisingly a full length game. There are supernatural elements to this like same level of supernatural you can find in Hoshizora no memoria. I used to be okay with stuff like that in the past I dont know what changed but seeing random supernatural elements in a high-school setting now turns me off real bad. I changed into wanting grounded and real stories. Rupekari had supernatural elements that I did not like but it was just so good to overshadow whatever misgivings I have. 

Yumeiro constantly changes with its approach of mystery and suspense with detective-like thinking of the protag, and its supernatural elements, those two tropes rarely go well unless you are a reallly good author. I like the cast and all, its passable but the magic elements are really turning me off with mikos actually being legitimate wizard-like powers and mikos hunting poltergeists that were actually *gasp* one of the characters dead cat that wasnt able to pass on. I really don't like tropes like that even more if its barely explained, I guess if I read more I will understand but i'm stalling it or reading at a snail's pace. I was able to enjoy Hoshizora no Memoria when I was younger but now my tastes have changed and I don't think I'll be able to enjoy it at the same level I do now but its still enjoyable because IIRC it did execute its tropes well.

Yubisaki Connection- New game by Hooksoft capitalizing on the unexpected popularity of Making Lovers adult heroines, tried playing it and what did I expect lol. I dropped it immediately, I don't like this kind of games where everyone is constantly upbeat, max energy, ost goes full-blown happy daily life ost with a high af BPM. Its kinda draining to read something like that I prefer grounded stories where its not constant max energy happy. What made Making Lovers stand out for me is the characters where kinda normal (except the mc though but he is funny), the characters in there felt more grounded to me and they act crazy sometimes because of the crazy situations the mc brings them into. Dropped.

Probably gonna read Tsuriotsu, Sen no Hatou, or Muramasa depending on my mood

[Eclipsed]

I'm enjoying Island a lot more than I thought it would. I think that's the particular VN formula I enjoy the most- charamoeges with beautiful scenery that more importantly ultimately builds up to a greater plot. Probably why Rewrite is one of my top VNs.

Island really keeps you guessing though. Is all the scientific hypothesis jargon really true, or is it all just some grand delusions from a bunch of wishful islander kids?

 

The heroines are all great. Going off of my 5yearold Grisaia memories, Frontwing was always good at making heroines with top-notch-common-route-bantering-prowess-but-with-fundamentally-flawed-personal-issues-that-will-be-explored-in-their-routes:

 

Karen, who longs to leave the island and its outdated traditions.

 

Sara, who longs to uphold tradition and save the island.

Rinne, who believes she and Setsuna are the same Rinne and Setsuna of legend.
 

Btw, devs were generous enough to give her a whopping 1 CG without her hat:

I CANT HELP IT! YOU LOOK SO GOOD WITHOUT THE HAT!

Rinne is obviously my best gal, and so I bawled absolutely hard at her ending. Now, I would've been fine if things ended the way they did, but hoh boy, Island gains massive bonus points for:

Spoiler

KEEPING THE RIDE GOING!!! HELL YEAH

 

 

 

[Eclipsed]

....I finished Island.

Goddamn, I haven't been this emotionally attached to a cast of characters in a looong time. Specifically the love tale between Setsuna and Rinne. It's just so fabulously romantic, everlasting love that transcends the boundaries of time... Sorry Sara and Karen, these two heroines get absolutely shafted in the grand scheme of things, but it worked in my favor anyways cuz I just ADORE Rinne.

Unfortunately can't say much without instantly getting into SPOILERS, but yeah, once I got into winter I was hooked until the end.

Random highlight reel (ULTIMATE SPOILERS) cuz I gotta rant about this stuff to get it out of my system or I'll get a real nasty case of post-VN completion withdrawal depression LOL:

Spoiler

Need some proper bgm playing for the following CG:

 

 

I, uh, didn't know Rinne could make such a face o_o

Ah, the brilliant climax of Rinne's route. Here we have Rinne, inner conflict struggling with whether the protagonist Setsuna is the same Setsuna that she fell in love with 5 years ago before they had their little 'spirited away' accident, and due to Sara's time travel delusions the group mistakenly believes that Setsuna IS that same Setsuna and that he time traveled into the past to kill his past self in order to ensure Rinne's survival. She's not too happy that that resulted in her Setsuna dying, and so she demands protag Setsuna to name the one person he loves most of all so she can kill that person and make Setsuna feel the same exact despair that she's feeling now. To which of course, Setsuna replies "Rinne"- resulting in that CG above. Now at first you'd think that means she'll commit suicide- but this is where the whole "is this time travel thing really true, or is it all a bunch of islander kid delusions" comes into play- Rinne opts to go to the island where she was spirited away to time travel into the past and kill her past self to ensure her Setsuna's survival- just as Setsuna supposedly did to kill his past self to ensure Rinne's survival.

Rinne's descent into madness was well done. Kinda hot. LOL. Felt utter chills as she was taunting Setsuna.

The confrontation was fierce:

But ultimately, when the pair stumbles upon the real Setsuna's bones during their quarrel, they realize that they didn't actually travel to the past- in fact there was never any time travel all. No protag Setsuna going into the past multiple times to figure out a way to have both of them survive the desert island- no protag Setsuna killing his past self to ensure Rinne's survival. There was just real Setsuna finding the cold sleep machine and placing Rinne in it, allowing her to be found 5 years later while he perished. It was all a massive red herring misconception bonanza that the writers were able to conjure up pretty well to keep the reader guessing and it definitely entertained me. 

YO WTF RINNE YOU MADE SUCH AN EVIL FACE, ALL OVER A MISCONCEPTION DELUSION????? JEEBUS WTF LADY!!!

....Now that I've finished reading the whole VN, the next part is actually kind of stupid. How the heck did current Setsuna and Rinne make it to the deserted island through a fawkin' storm, but couldn't make it back home? Or why couldn't they just wait for help? Kuon knew where this island was- that's how she found Rinne in the first place. But nope, the two try to return to the island the next day on the only-one-person-can-fit-in-the-boat, Setsuna runs out of stamina and tells Rinne to live on Titanic style, but then she fulfills the Setsuna x Rinne legend and decides to off herself to let Setsuna live instead in the hopes of meeting him again when she is reborn:

I cried many manly tears at this though. I'm such a sap for romantic tragedies sighhh ;-;;;

~~

NEVER ISLAND

Spoiler

 

And then queue the most hype thing ever with the VN transitioning from ISLAND to the NEVER ISLAND title screen:

Setsuna failed the Rinne of this era. But thanks to our little plot device called the Cold Sleep machine, he resolves to use it to wait for a time when a time machine would be invented, so he could then use it in order to travel back to the past and save Rinne. Winter route has got to be one of my favorite late game VN narrative shifts ever. There's obviously some hardcore bias going on here, because my fondness for "Rinne" and the concepts surrounding her are off the charts, but yeah I literally read the VN starting from here straight until the end. Absolutely hooked.

Welcome to Winter~

I really like how the writers were able to weave this back and forth 'there is time travel going on' / 'nope its all a bunch of delusions' narrative to keep you on your toes. Well, Setsuna actually made it- he went from 1999 to 22016- a whopping 20,000 years into the future in an ice age world where humanity is forced underground in a structure called ISLAND due to an uninhabitable surface. Unfortunately, an unavoidable side effect of the Cold Sleep machine is amnesia, so he spends the entirety of Winter route with only key fragmented memories. I would've liked for him to have his full memories and be able to banter with this iteration of Sarah, Karin, and especially RinnE, but sadly that wish will have to go unfulfilled.

I'm gonna gloss over ISLAND's conflicts- the whole Sarah being the cardinals daughter of the Church that rules over the island limiting births and rationing food supplies during these apocalyptic times, and Karin leading a revolutionary squad of kids Neo-Avalon to defy the church. And then we have the innocent RinnE who naturally finds the amnesiac protagonist, again grants him the name of Setsuna (which happens to be the name of her late brother), and lets him in on a little secret: she's going to build a machine to save the world:

"IT'S NOT A MASSAH - CHEYA! IT'S iLANDER" - the device that will save the world.

LOLI RINNE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

This incarnation of RinnE was such a cute little gem. Every scene with her was always something to look forward to with how brimming with energy, curiosity, and positivity she was even during these tough times (unlike her shut-in afraid of the sun lazy princess 1999 self). The writers go to great lengths to even make it so that you're left with a certain dilemma by the end of it once shit hits the fan: I know I came into the future so I could get a time machine to return to the past to save Rinne... but what about this RinnE? What about her..?

SHE'S SO CUTE!!! BTW I'M NOT A LOLICON I SWEAR LOL!

Setsuna at first tries to distance himself from RinnE, because she isn't Rinne. But by the end of Winter when he feels guilt about having meddled with ISLAND's affairs which led to the deaths of Karin, Sarah, and basically ending the way of life on ISLAND itself, he then gets delivered the finishing blow via RinnE's love confession, and so he resolves to use the completed time machine iLander to try to protect this RinnE by making it so that he never meets her nor gets involved with this world:

Btw, I am SO glad that the writers didn't make RinnE die. I was a bit worried what with Karin and Sarah dying that they would do that. That would've absolutely broken me. Anyways-

...But RinnE's too nice; she catches on to Setsuna's intentions, and instead opts to sacrifice her own happiness so that Setsuna can fulfill his original goal to save Rinne:

OMG THIS STUFF IS SO TRAGICALLY BEAUTIFUL EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. DON'T MAKE ME CHOOSE BETWEEN Rinne and RinnE GAME!!! IT'S TOO HARD!!!!

~~
MIDSUMMER

Spoiler

And so, Setsuna makes it back to the present. Time to save Rinne with all the knowledge we obtained throughout the millennia, Muv-Luv Alternate style!

Setsuna is able to talk-no-jutsu through all of the heroines worries and issues within like a day, and hook up with Rinne faster than ever before. Perks of being a time traveler.
He receives Kuon's blessings, and marries Rinne.

We got it boys n' girls! After traveling through 20000 years, TWICE, through all the hardships, through all the tears, we finally EARNED our happy end!!! HUZZAH!

...

...

...

Spoiler

Now, Island totally could've ended right then and there and I would've been 100% fine with it, but hey, we gotta toss in some last minute twists!

The writers slap on a "The day before the wedding" chapter where Rinne feels doubtful about whether she deserves such a happy end- that these strings of good fortunes are just too good to be true:

It honestly kind of felt... off for her to have such worries this late into the game, considering everything we've seen Setsuna go through all for her sake.

But then comes... Kuon...and... the pieces... finally start... coming together...

Kuon is...

KUON IS-...!!!

Kuon is RinnE!!!!!!! OMFGSDALKFJSDLFKSJF@!#!

And let's toss in some more last minute plot twists, because why not?! Setsuna decides he wants to use the cold sleep machine again to wait for the day a true time machine is invented so that he could one day ultimately return to the original Adam and Eve: the ORIGINAL Setsuna x Rinne so he could undo every single tragedy that ever occurred between the pair, because as it turns out, the cold sleep machine is a one way trip to the future: THERE WAS NEVER ANY TRAVELING TO THE PAST.

That insane Rinne that I opened this post with? She's gone. Forever. By the time Setsuna 'came back to the present' he was actually 40,000 years into the future, it just so coincidentally happened that the world state and everyone reincarnated to be exactly the same as it was when he 'came back', as far-fetched as that may be. I blame Chronoquakes. Countless Setsunas and Rinnes used the cold sleep machine in their pursuit of happiness. It's such an utterly fascinating thing to ponder about the endless cycle of love and tragedy between the two:

Kuon/RinnE vows to complete a real time machine however, and Setsuna vows that once he awakens in a future where a time machine exists, that once he has saved all the Setsunas and Rinnes, then he would come back for RinnE.

Now I was totally expecting another chapter to open up, maybe Fall or Spring to cover the details of this LOL but I'm 100% totally fine with them leaving it up to the readers' imagination. We need an Island 0 like Steins;Gate 0

And it looks like they do eventually succeed and truly earn their happy end:

 
...And there we have it. I have no words, man. Just overall a very touching and romantic tale between two lovers that transcends time itself. So friggen' beautiful..

 

 

 

 

[Seraphim]

First off, let me just say that I love reading your posts. They actually serve as a great recap for me, as a person who tends to forget a lot of details from VNs I haven't read in a while.
As for Island, I enjoyed it a lot back when I read it, and I'm glad to see it getting some more appreciation. The only thing I wasn't entirely satisfied with was how

Spoiler

Setsuna left at the end. I get why he did it and that it's probably the right thing to do in the grand scheme of things, but if anything goes wrong, it would just mean him leaving Rinné behind once more with no way of ever seeing her again. I'm a sucker for romance, so I kinda wish he'd just stayed with her after they were finally able to reunite.

 

[Mr Poltroon]

Well, from what I'm hearing I guess Island should be on my list.

I guess I skipped over it in my "I bet the romance sucks, not going to play it" phase.

[OdaNova]

On 5/5/2021 at 10:29 PM, OdaNova said:

Onto the D route at the moment.

Finished it tonight, all endings, all CG's, all music, all everything except TIPS and the Xtend scenes.

I tried some of the Xtend scenes and some of them rehash old information, but it doesn't register as already read for the skip function... I cba going through all of these. 

 

What a fun novel though, translation issues aside my only complaints were B route's parapsychology techno-babble being very boring and D route taking forever and a day for the main cast to realise  N's identity, even though it is so obvious from ten thousand chapters prior... So that part dragged painfully, but they got there in the end I guess. 

I like the nod to the player with the allusion to the spirit though, nice touch. 

 

Think I'll look for a fairly basic, vanilla novel for my next read! 

[Stormwolf]

16 hours ago, Mr Poltroon said:

Well, from what I'm hearing I guess Island should be on my list.

I guess I skipped over it in my "I bet the romance sucks, not going to play it" phase.

I was thinking the same because of the

Spoiler

Rinne having been together with someone before. Something i don't mind with adults, but when it's teens it gets a bit.. Well, it makes me completely uninterested

 

Edited May 12, 2021 by Stormwolf

[Eclipsed]

Just don't fall for the 'got overhyped, then was left disappointed' trap  I TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY

But yeah I totally went into Island with 0 expectations and am still in the post-VN feelsies after phase. Prob will last until I pick up another VN but I'll take my time

On 5/9/2021 at 12:37 AM, Seraphim said:

 The only thing I wasn't entirely satisfied with was how

  Reveal hidden contents

Setsuna left at the end. I get why he did it and that it's probably the right thing to do in the grand scheme of things, but if anything goes wrong, it would just mean him leaving Rinné behind once more with no way of ever seeing her again. I'm a sucker for romance, so I kinda wish he'd just stayed with her after they were finally able to reunite.

 

Yeah I getchu.

I just blitzed the anime version, and for all the rushed ultracondensed yo Ne.-I.-is-literally-shoehorned-into-just-2-episodes-LOL it's still a 10/10 anime for me cuz:

1. You get to see Rinne without a hat more often.

On a serious note it did end more in line with what you wanted, and now that I think about it yeah the VN didn't really do the 'final' confrontation much justice.

 

~~

Speaking of my next potential VN(s), I'm feeling pro-Frontwing atm for obvious reasons, so

[Stormwolf]

I am rereading Tsujidou san junai road and am again reminded what a terrible girlfriend Ai is. She's got potential to be amazing. She kinda is. But she mostly only got her cuteness going for her, and her devotion. Since the start she's been saying that she's bored of fighting and wants to stop. She gets together with Hiroshi and says she's no longer a delinquent, but his girlfriend. Yet, she betrays that and seeks out fights while lying about it and even leaves him hanging when they're going on a date. These are very much grounds for breakup right there. I dont remember much which is why i reread it, but i do hope that Hiroshi ends it and let's Tsujidou figure out what's important to her. 

The message that Hiroshi knew what he signed on for isn't entirely correct. He signed up for a delinquent girl who was proper and didn't fight for no reason, yet at this drama stage that is exactly what she has become. But this can easily be reversed. A relationship is a two way street, Tsujidou also knew what she signed up for when she got together with a normal person.

I never liked drama which warps characters for a while and just warps them right back once its over.

[Mehnot]

I've been slowly making my way through Baldr Sky. I'm currently finishing up Chinatsu's route, which should be the last route from Dive1.

I've been enjoying the ride quite a bit so far, though this last route is giving me mixed feelings. I was kinda ready for that though, having been warned beforehand that this was a polarizing route, and a polarizing heroine. And sure enough, I find it really hard to like Chinatsu, but at the same time, I chalk it up to what I consider bad writing over the character itself. I think she's plenty likable outside of this route.

Anyway, I've heard that it's in Dive2 when shit gets insane, so I'm looking forward to that. I believe I might have a reasonably solid idea of what's going on, but it's precisely cause I'm used to these kinds of stories that I know they tend to really pull the wool over your eyes, which I definitely welcome any day of the week 

Edited May 14, 2021 by Mehnot

[Dreamysyu]

Honestly, unless I decide to revisit Himawari one day and realize that I somehow completely misunderstood it and it's actually the best thing ever, Island is on my hard skip list.

PS. After many months I suddenly decided to pick up another random VN, and, well, it's trash made for people with a yandere fetish. Well, the art is somewhat good (though the sprites look like zombies), and it's very short (though I didn't get all the endings), but that's everything that's even remotely good about that game.

[Seraphim]

1 hour ago, Dreamysyu said:

Honestly, unless I decide to revisit Himawari one day and realize that I somehow completely misunderstood it and it's actually the best thing ever, Island is on my hard skip list.

Just FYI, I thought Himawari was kinda so-so and liked Island a whole lot more.

[Manaka]

I currently play this: https://vndb.org/v89 using textextractor. I saw the anime adaptation years ago and I want to see how is the vn o.o/

[LAsuka]

Hot take, but I literally can't stand Dies Irae.

I'm halfway through Rea's route and I can't take any more pretentious dialogue (that portends to be 'grandiose' and 'insightful') and random Nazi bullshit.

Also, Rea and Ren has no chemistry.

 

Gekkou no Carneval is SOOO BORING.

 

Probably gonna wait until something more worth playing comes up. Until then, there's a huge backlog of games to start on.

[ChaosRaven]

Finished some VN's so I guess it's time to write a few words about them.

9-nine-:Episode 4 was the grand finale of the 9-nine- series. This part felt significantly darker than the previous entries. It's impressive how some characters that might appear all nice and friendly on the outside, can reveal a pitch black darkness inside of them. Even the protagonist himself could get pretty scary when driven into a corner. The writer could without any doubt also write a pure horror VN.

Spoiler

Honestly, Yoichi and Kakeru sending each other into a death loop to mentally break the other one was really creepy. Probably only topped by Iris revealing Yoichi in his last moments that he wasn't more than a convenient tool for her.

That said, the romance part with Noa was probably the weakest of the four and also felt a bit forced, considering Kakeru kept his memories that time. I think it would have been better, to move the final clash into a fifth episode. There also wasn't that much mystery this time, since the fronts where mostly clear and there was a bit too much branch hopping for my taste. Nevertheless, the physical and psychological duel was pretty intense. Overall, it was a pretty cool finale, but I wouldn't rate it quite as high as others.

Overall rating: 7.5/10

I also finished Kami no Rhapsody. This was one is a bit hard to rate. Plot-wise it was certainly the weakest Eushully title I've played so far. Technically the whole story consists of doing trials to prove that you're the most worthy candidate to become the successor of the 'Divine Enforcer'. Naturally, there are also competitors who also want to claim that position and whom you have fight on certain occasions. Overall, not a bad story setup, if it would be just for the prologue until the real story starts. However, the 'prologue' is about... 9 from 10 chapters and then the game is over after some final boss fights. A whole crowd of characters join your party pretty soon, which didn't really make sense. So this felt more like a game with light VN elements comparable to Huniepop, but with much higher production values. It did have a lot of character events though, even if most of them were just slice of life and H-scenes. Characters and mood were also rather fluffy and nice with a clear emphasis on moe.

So, while the story certainly was nothing to write home about, the gameplay was actually pretty decent. I REALLY appreciate that they pretty much got rid of grinding in this game. Each map had just a limited amount of skill medals and ability runes you could get from it. That means that it usually didn't make sense to play a map several times. In addition to that, the maps were usually not too big and could be finished in a reasonable time of ~10 - 20 minutes. There were still a lot of maps, so gameplay still took up a considerable amount of time. but there was a better feeling of 'progress'. The gameplay itself was fairly addictive. Your characters fight on a small hex map against enemy units with 2 - 5 tiles of movement speed depending on the character. Units also have a zone of control and flank and rear attacks do more damage. Mana can be used for spells or to deploy more allied characters. This made spell casters usually a bit weaker in comparison, since mana was often too valuable for spells.

Overall, the title felt a bit like they ran out of development time and had to release it while the writers just got finished with the character events and didn't have much time for the main story yet. Its saving grace is the decent gameplay, high production values and some likable characters. I could recommend it for the gameplay, but not for the story.

Heroine ranking: Mistoria > Forzasleyn > Elgamisera > Lavirie = Nekol = Noelia = Patra > Others

Overall rating: 6.5/10

The last one is Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk - an otome VN. The predecessor Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly had an interesting story premise, nice visuals and music, but unfortunately the writing was pretty poor. However, since I bought them in a bundle, I wanted to at least give the successor a try. A gothic romance in a medieval setting - what could go wrong?

Well, it could be written by that writer again, to name one. Granted, it was 'slightly' improved and there weren't that much filler episodes to finish this time around in order to progress the story. However, the writer still has a 'special talent' to take an interesting story premise and write it in the most boring way possible. Music and visuals also felt like a step down. The protagonist 'girl' was also cross-dressing and looked like a guy which make the whole thing feel a bit like Shonen-Ai. It wasn't particular romantic anyway, but still felt a bit awkward.

I actually wanted to get on the route of Hugh since he was kind of mysterious, but somehow ended up in a route of two others mass murdering half of the town. No clue how I got there and it was probably a bad end, but after hours of dreadful boredom, it felt like the perfect ending to me.

Overall rating: 5/10

Edited May 16, 2021 by ChaosRaven

[Stormwolf]

Just finished Nanairo Reincarnation.

I must say it was a bit of a mixed bag for me. The game itself was marvelous, but it kind of felt rushed. . Not to mention it's a pretty short VN. 

Spoiler

 

The story was interesting, but i could have done without the sex demon thing. It wasn't offensive, but i felt it wasn't utilized properly. They were horny demons, but Makoto kinda rejected it so it was kinda pointless outside the scenes where he was almost forced into having sex with them. Im thinking maybe the vita version is better unless they replace the sex with something sillier. The cases were interesting, but waaaaaay too few of them. 

General cast: All good except for Aoi. She annoyed me greatly. 

Music was really good imo. It doesn't have a grand amount of tracks it feels like, but the ost we have really fits the atmosphere

 

I skipped Yumi's route like a boss. I mean, i wanted to read it but i already know it turns into some bisexual experience and that is quite the turn off. And what a shame that is. I mean they both have feelings for each other and you can really feel it when they interact, so why ruin it with pushing Kotori in the middle of it and making this some lesbian/bisexual fapfest? I don't really like 3p scenes, but i tolerate them unless they're very tactless. But this went further. This created love between all parts and that ruins it for me as i am a monogamist. Hard skip.

Azusa i skipped because reasons under

Iyo: i initally planned on skipping most routes but figured i'd just give it a shot, and what a spectacular waste of time. It's just like Kotori's with some meaningless development where he suddenly loves Iyo out of nowhere at the end and Kotori passes on after watching them have sex, and that it. At least for this couple it was a good ending in the short epilogue, but wasn't a good ending for Kotori for sure, but it wasn't her route either.

Kotori.. Yeah... So i was shocked when i got to the twists of her being a ghost. I mean, i had my suspicions, but i the writers were clever in hiding it. Kotori is really cute and i just love how they progressed their relationship in a more natural way. But the thing is.... Both her endings were kinda shit and i wonder if she got her best ending as a bisexual girl with Yumi and Makoto. Way to trash the main heroine

Ending 1: She lives on as a ghost and it was hinted that while she's happy now, she'll likely be miserable later when Makoto grows while she stays the same, and she won't be able to either marry him or have a child with him. And i mean, should Makoto end this ghost psychic bloodline now? that sounds wrong also. He'd have to get an heir and follow traditions, so Kotori won't ever realistically get a good future with him. So it was bittersweet which was admittedly more on the sweet side of things than the bitter. 

Ending 2: Kotori passes on and the writer just disregards Makoto completely. Why did we play this game exactly? They just fuck it and skip ahead to when they're reincarnated together and marry. But what about the Makoto and his harem of demons we have been following for the entire game? Jesus christ. I don't know if it's a tragic or happy ending. What we see in the ending is two different people with no real connections to the story. If you just follow the flow it looks very nice and romantic, but if you think about it, it really isn't. Kotori and Makoto are gone and the ending didn't even give a small hint about them having any memories, just showing us that it's the same souls. I'll take ending 1 thank you very much, or an ending with another heroine. Central heroines have a tendency to get overcomplicated to the point where you don't know if it's a good or bad route.

Before the route split Makoto was looking for some journals and didn't find one of the books, so i kinda hoped he'd find it and could do some asspull due to his grandfathers experience, but everything about his grandfathers study was disregarded. Utterly pointless. 

So in conclusion i liked the story, the characters, but not the routes. It was too heavily relying on the last route which for me was not very satisfying.

For anyone who's read the sequel. Which of these two endings is the canon one if you take their other game in this setting into consideration? I am guessing the first ending. 

 

 

Edited May 19, 2021 by Stormwolf

[adamstan]

2 hours ago, Stormwolf said:

but i could have done without the sex demon thing. [...] Im thinking maybe the vita version is better

Yes, come to the dark side of all-ages versions (We have cookies expanded wholesome stories and sometimes even additional routes.)

Edited May 19, 2021 by adamstan

[adamstan]

Yesterday I got back to Konneko after month-long break. It's interesting case - this is one of those stories that (for me) are easy to put aside, but also very easy to jump back in, and when I read it, I enjoy it very much It's mostly SoL cuteness, but the kind that I like I think I'm currently near the beginning of Touka's route.

This VN seems to get some ideas/influence from first ToHeart - sometimes I think the mood is a bit similar.

Edited May 24, 2021 by adamstan