What are you playing?

[Larxe1]

9 hours ago, Larxe1 said:

https://vndb.org/v23205  After flip-flopping from a lot of different VN's I finally settled on Swallowtail.  I didn't expect to be immersed in the story considering it felt very rough, both in writing and system but it was unique enough to stand out for me to gain my interest. There is actually is established relationships between the protag and the heroines, which is interesting, the story starts with you already going out with one of the childhood friends Rie, and shows flashbacks from the past also focused on Yuuna, which I think is the true heroine.

Yuuna was originally Shou's (The main character) girlfriend but she randomly disappeared in the festival which is the main focal point of the mystery of the game I guess. The prologue was hella long though I think I was in 5-10 hours before I saw the opening. Saeko is also one of the Ex's of Shou so you could expect that the MC isn't a donkan or hetare, but he's actually a competent and fairly popular guy, albeit a bit bland himself but it made him stand out in the sea of eroge protagonists who sometimes act like idiots or losers. Shou is actually a charismatic guy which made me like him.

The game alternates 50/50 between the past and the present, which is fairly unique but sometimes presented in the interface badly. This is the kind of game I like which seems down to earth with characters not acting like caricatures. I'll make a review when I'm done with this

Just finished my 2nd route in the game. Its a ladder type of story which I admittedly dislike because sometimes it feels like it cheapens the route, like when you diverge from the ladder by choosing a route early on, you miss out on the true story, and that respective heroine's end is not the proper path to play on, but Swallowtail tries to solve this problem by making viewing each part of the ladder by making the routes themselves have their own contribution to the story.

I am writing this yet again while sleepy since I basically read this novel the whole night and finished Yuka's route which was amazing for me. Yuka's route hits all the buttons for a heroine for me by being something like a coodere like Kazusa from WA2 but also being highly aggressive of what she wants and being upfront while also being very shy. 

What truly makes this route amazing for me is it is important to give the context for the story and the route which is as I referred to earlier, Yuna is Shou's ex which suddenly disappeared and she shares the same looks and a lot of same personality traits with Yuka but they both have very obvious differences once you get to know them better. The route is obviously also centered around this shared commonality, as Yuna is a trauma and an obsession for Shou, and Yuka is something like  a living reminder of his past that he wants to forget that still continues to haunt him even up to today. The story of the route actually progressed very neatly and felt very adult-ish. I mean that in the way that Highschool romances that dominate the vn genre right now feel very immature and sometimes in a fairytale kind of way but the romance progression in this game felt very real and something that may actually happen IRL except the vanishing part. I don't want to spoil too much about it but the route is very fulfilling. 

Also what I hate about this ladder style of route is that sometimes the ladder is structured around rejecting the girls and If you really get in to the story it is kinda hard to do it. I skipped the 1st route which was Saeko, Shou's ex and IMO they wrote her well with her being still in love with Shou and regretting her decision to break up with him. It wasn't explained why they broke up so you have to play her route but I didn't like her well enough to play her route but that is simply because she is not the kind of heroine I like. Rejecting Yuka which I really really liked was kind of hard but it wasn't much of a rejection of a confession per se, but rather rejecting the crucial step that will start their eventual relationship.

Yuka on the other hand, which is the 2nd route, has you also going through the same problem as Shou. It is easy to sympathize  with him because most of the drama is centered around him still not fully getting over Yuna, and as he falls in love with Yuka, he begins to doubt his own feelings about Yuna and it is interesting since the player too will probably be confused about the two but eventually get over the problem the same way as Shou as you also begin to notice how different they are. 

 

[Larxe1]

19 hours ago, Larxe1 said:

Just finished my 2nd route in the game. Its a ladder type of story which I admittedly dislike because sometimes it feels like it cheapens the route, like when you diverge from the ladder by choosing a route early on, you miss out on the true story, and that respective heroine's end is not the proper path to play on, but Swallowtail tries to solve this problem by making viewing each part of the ladder by making the routes themselves have their own contribution to the story.

I am writing this yet again while sleepy since I basically read this novel the whole night and finished Yuka's route which was amazing for me. Yuka's route hits all the buttons for a heroine for me by being something like a coodere like Kazusa from WA2 but also being highly aggressive of what she wants and being upfront while also being very shy. 

What truly makes this route amazing for me is it is important to give the context for the story and the route which is as I referred to earlier, Yuna is Shou's ex which suddenly disappeared and she shares the same looks and a lot of same personality traits with Yuka but they both have very obvious differences once you get to know them better. The route is obviously also centered around this shared commonality, as Yuna is a trauma and an obsession for Shou, and Yuka is something like  a living reminder of his past that he wants to forget that still continues to haunt him even up to today. The story of the route actually progressed very neatly and felt very adult-ish. I mean that in the way that Highschool romances that dominate the vn genre right now feel very immature and sometimes in a fairytale kind of way but the romance progression in this game felt very real and something that may actually happen IRL except the vanishing part. I don't want to spoil too much about it but the route is very fulfilling. 

Also what I hate about this ladder style of route is that sometimes the ladder is structured around rejecting the girls and If you really get in to the story it is kinda hard to do it. I skipped the 1st route which was Saeko, Shou's ex and IMO they wrote her well with her being still in love with Shou and regretting her decision to break up with him. It wasn't explained why they broke up so you have to play her route but I didn't like her well enough to play her route but that is simply because she is not the kind of heroine I like. Rejecting Yuka which I really really liked was kind of hard but it wasn't much of a rejection of a confession per se, but rather rejecting the crucial step that will start their eventual relationship.

Yuka on the other hand, which is the 2nd route, has you also going through the same problem as Shou. It is easy to sympathize  with him because most of the drama is centered around him still not fully getting over Yuna, and as he falls in love with Yuka, he begins to doubt his own feelings about Yuna and it is interesting since the player too will probably be confused about the two but eventually get over the problem the same way as Shou as you also begin to notice how different they are. 

 

Just finished the third route, Imozawa Erina. I rarely read alot of routes in a VN due to me quickly losing interest due to the atmosphere of the game and such. Unexpectedly I really loved this game's story and all the routes, I don't think I had a moment where I was bored because  I really loved the atmosphere of it being very adult-like, or something like the atmosphere of a college life with problems being encountered by young adults and not the teenagers normally in stories.

Imozawa Erina is the genki girl that I usually am not interested in but there is a very interesting contrast to be had with Erina. Erina is the closest friend of Yuna, Shou's original girlfriend who randomly disappeared. Erina lost Yuna, and then she also lost her mother, she grieved and in contrast to her natural genki and friendly character, she became thorny and pushed people away. What's interesting to me about it is that normally, in stories the thorny side becomes the main personality, but in Erina, her thorny side was simply a facade because she was grieving and pushed everything away because she blamed herself for everything, it was easy to break through her thorny side because she was always seeking help and Shou gave that to her. Her route is really interesting in that the progress of their relationship felt natural without like a big moment that dragged them into a relationship but something very natural like they just naturally had fun together and helped each other in their weakness, naturally this ended with them asking each other out.

The ending was good but unsatisfying because I did want to read more, I felt like there should have been more, but in the end their route indeed solved most of their character problems by supporting each other, I just wanted to see more casual romantic stuff because I really liked their pairing. This is one of the rare VN's where i feel bummed out when I finish a game because I wanted more of their character and dialogue but alas, its not a pretty long game.

Going to my next route now, and the mystery of Yuna's disappearance isn't given much clues to in the first three routes but it seems like there will be something in the next route of Kasumi.

[Larxe1]

21 hours ago, Larxe1 said:

Just finished the third route, Imozawa Erina. I rarely read alot of routes in a VN due to me quickly losing interest due to the atmosphere of the game and such. Unexpectedly I really loved this game's story and all the routes, I don't think I had a moment where I was bored because  I really loved the atmosphere of it being very adult-like, or something like the atmosphere of a college life with problems being encountered by young adults and not the teenagers normally in stories.

Imozawa Erina is the genki girl that I usually am not interested in but there is a very interesting contrast to be had with Erina. Erina is the closest friend of Yuna, Shou's original girlfriend who randomly disappeared. Erina lost Yuna, and then she also lost her mother, she grieved and in contrast to her natural genki and friendly character, she became thorny and pushed people away. What's interesting to me about it is that normally, in stories the thorny side becomes the main personality, but in Erina, her thorny side was simply a facade because she was grieving and pushed everything away because she blamed herself for everything, it was easy to break through her thorny side because she was always seeking help and Shou gave that to her. Her route is really interesting in that the progress of their relationship felt natural without like a big moment that dragged them into a relationship but something very natural like they just naturally had fun together and helped each other in their weakness, naturally this ended with them asking each other out.

The ending was good but unsatisfying because I did want to read more, I felt like there should have been more, but in the end their route indeed solved most of their character problems by supporting each other, I just wanted to see more casual romantic stuff because I really liked their pairing. This is one of the rare VN's where i feel bummed out when I finish a game because I wanted more of their character and dialogue but alas, its not a pretty long game.

Going to my next route now, and the mystery of Yuna's disappearance isn't given much clues to in the first three routes but it seems like there will be something in the next route of Kasumi.

Okay finally finished, I now know why some people say the ending is vague. While this maybe a spoiler, if people are gonna read this it would be important to know that this down-to-earth story has a sci-fi element to it that felt tacked on which was essential to the ending.

Its hard to say much without spoiling others too but, the 80% of the game was amazing with extremely good character interactions and atmosphere for me but the last 20% may be polarizing for some people since it went into sci-fi territory. 80% of the game was about moving on from the past (which was Yuna's sudden disappearance). Each route helped Shou grow to be a better person to face his traumas but the last 20% vexed me in that I did like it but it was a big downgrade from the amazing experience I had. Some people would probably like that aspect but personally I would have preferred if it remained down to earth and realistic about moving on from the past instead of engaging in sci-fi stuff, the sci-fi stuff felt tacked on and worked something like KEY magic if you read clannad.

Spoiler thoughts:

Spoiler

What the fuck was that ending, so randomly on a relatively realistic game setting, in the ending they created two divergent timelines with two separate happy endings. This is a time leap story, and it was used hella randomly and stupidly. Future yuna stayed in the past to help guide past yuna and Shou to be together but it leaves a very disturbing implication for me in that there is now a future yuna stuck in the past, alone, and hiding her identity, without anyone much to help her. What the hell everyone got a good ending aside from her

if anyone is curious for a review, I have on up in the vndb page later

Edited October 5, 2021 by Larxe1

[Seraphim]

Currently reading Harem Kingdom, where I was met with this:



I couldn't help but be reminded of a certain scene from this old gem:



Anyway, I rarely read harem or isekai titles, but I have to say that Harem Kingdom is one of the more entertaining reads for me lately. It can be pretty hilarious how each of the girls try to one-up each other in order to get the protagonist's attention!

[alexfang452]

Currently reading Miniature Garden. I really like the beginning. This VN keeps giving me more questions about different things such as characters, events, etc. as I read further. 

[fuyopon]

20 hours ago, alexfang452 said:

Currently reading Miniature Garden. I really like the beginning. This VN keeps giving me more questions about different things such as characters, events, etc. as I read further. 

I plan on reading that soon, nice

[Larxe1]

Wow lol, I tried to read 9-nine in one go, I actually played the original one with Miyako but got bored of it right after the plot twist, I then just skipped to Sora's and well I read the whole saga in a week and its really good.

9-Nine as a series is good in the sense that it doesn't have some insane character depth or central plot element, it's just that it does every standard trope really well and sometimes does it spectacularly. Most of the characters are the usual character stereotypes, without much depth to them, but I liked reading their dialogues and stories anyway since they're well executed. To be more specific, the characters felt very unreal, they didn't have any sense of realness to them in the sense that their traits don't feel real, it rather feels instead that they had specific traits in mind to appeal to each otaku fetish, and made a character around them. While this may be a harsh thing to say, it was still enjoyable in its own way.

9-nine's last game around Noa was probably one of the best last games in episodic stories like this, where every information in the past games are used and everything led to that moment but its hard to say much about it without being spoiler-ish.

I'm not gonna make a review about this since there has been a ton of reviews about 9-nine already, I only make reviews on games without reviews. 

Spoilerish thoughts:

Spoiler

Yukiiro was probably one of the best usages of the VN medium I have read. While not exactly deep, it did use the format of the VN extremely well, with the flowchart and everything, where the player itself was also a character in the story. It felt very cool lol, although just don't think about it too deeply like, who the hell is nine and where did he get his powers. Just take some things here at face value since the game is not exactly Fate/stay night or something.

I actually want to read more about this universe but it seems like it is at an end, or probably they're gonna make another story in this setting. They're probably gonna milk the series or create another series, episodic did work well for the company, but kinda annoying as a player. If the whole game was in one complete package, with the flowchart actually being usable to reread the routes would be one hell of a work.

Heroine Ranking

Sora = Haruka > Noa = Miyako

Sora is just fun as hell to be with, IMO her true ending shouldn't have had an incest route, it felt kinda cheap. The whole point of the bad ending was that MC just couldn't see Sora as a love interest or even as a sexual interest, the whole h scene they had in the bad ending was just so sad and felt real because Kakeru was just horrified. That whole point felt kinda cheapened when they just had sex in the true route. IMO should just have been them like still becoming close and losing all their awkwardness, but that would have outraged some Sora fans. 

Haruka is just cute, I like my socially awkward girls lol, her dual personality is also very cute. Good thing they reduced her stuttering in her route, I swear they reduced her stuttering compared to Episode 2 where I felt like one sentence of her took a whole minute. Haruka is just my type of a person when I read VN's

Noa is hella cute, she was not my type but the game really did endear me well to her but I just don't like chuuni characters. Miyako could have been better though she just felt so perfect and without flaws but it feels like it was more of a flaw of episode 1 rather than the character itself.

Episode ranking

4> 2=3 > 1

Yukiiro was just an amazing finale. Episode 2 was a lot better than 1 due to skipping a lot of the exposition and carried by Sora. Haruka's episode 3 was stronger in most aspects but Sora just hard carried episode 2 to make it equal to 3. 1 is bad in the sense that it didn't feel complete by itself, its always the bane of episodic VN's which is making a compelling first episode.

 

Edited October 12, 2021 by Larxe1

[adamstan]

9 hours ago, Larxe1 said:

To be more specific, the characters felt very unreal, they didn't have any sense of realness to them in the sense that their traits don't feel real, it rather feels instead that they had specific traits in mind to appeal to each otaku fetish, and made a character around them. While this may be a harsh thing to say, it was still enjoyable in its own way.

While most of the characters were rather tropey - which seemed to work perhaps thanks to fantasy elements in the setting? - there's one exception, and that's banter between Kakeru and Sora, which, at least to me, felt surprisingly natural. And maybe that's what makes Sora the best character  

As for your complaints towards Sora's route - that's where all-ages version shows its superiority

Spoiler

Since they're not fucking, of course the relationship doesn't turn into full-blown incest, and I prefer it this way

Unfortunately, I cannot recommend Steam editions without adult patches, since there are parts where they are overly censored (especially the Haruka's chapter). The only "proper" all-ages version is Complete Edition, (available in two physical versions and on DLSite) which unfortunately is untranslated. But if one wants to read -Nine- in Japanese, it's great (and it's in 1080p ) Besides, the epilogue is all-ages only anyway

**********************

As for Damekoi,

Few days ago I finished Kaya's route. I liked it, although it shows that she's just a "side heroine" I have stopped for a moment, because last few days I've been too tired to read, but maybe I'll return to it today.

BTW I again did a quick comparison between the All-ages edition that I'm playing and +18 MangaGamer's version (so far only for Kaya's route). And once again I lean heavily towards all-ages version, even if sometimes it felt a bit too tame (but then, it has +15 rating). I found the replacement scenes added in the PSP version to be much nicer than too-many badly-animated H-scenes from MG's edition. Really, some of those animations looked so bad it's not even funny   I was very disappointed to find out that scenes like

Spoiler

The fun with fireworks in the park or very amusing date in the game center

were just the replacement scenes, and were completely absent from adult version - they fit the route so well. Also, all-ages edition added very nice post-credits epilogue for Kaya (and I assume for other "side" heroines as well, but will know for sure after finishing them)

It's a pity that all-ages version is available only on low-res PSP though I wish there was PC or PS3 port...

Edited October 13, 2021 by adamstan

[Larxe1]

13 hours ago, adamstan said:

While most of the characters were rather tropey - which seemed to work perhaps thanks to fantasy elements in the setting? - there's one exception, and that's banter between Kakeru and Sora, which, at least to me, felt surprisingly natural. And maybe that's what makes Sora the best character  

 

Yeah it seemed to work because it was rather self-aware in what it's trying to be. Sora and Kakeru's banter felt real and also extremely funny to me lol, Tanezaki Atsumi's voice elevates their banter to another level or maybe it's just because I'm biased as hell because Tanezaki Atsumi is my favorite voice actor.

Spoiler

You're right on the all-ages part though, while I like my h-scenes because SOMETIMES(I strongly sometimes emphasize because mostly it is just used for porn) it kind of makes the relationship feel real, Sora's h scene in the true end was just out of place and was there for the porn. 

Also IMO one of the best examples of the tropey characters was Takamine where he was completely defined by his undying loyalty to Yoichi that wasn't even explained and also his chuuni side that I found incredibly funny, his character doesn't go beyond that, or explore the depth of Takamine's character. He's just there for random fights and humor.

Who's your favorite heroine and episode? Although I feel like your favorite heroine is already Sora though lol

[adamstan]

12 minutes ago, Larxe1 said:

Who's your favorite heroine and episode? Although I feel like your favorite heroine is already Sora though lol

That's a tough question. Sora is for me definitely the best character, as she shines throughout the whole series, and brings light into every episode But when coming to the "choose your best waifu" problem, that's another dimension To put it simply, I loved them all. And each episode was better than the previous one. In first episode I thought that Miyako was very sweet girl, and I wouldn't mind a girlfriend like her. But then came Sora's route, and I found it to be very good too. Haruka was also lovely, and I really liked how she developed as a character. And then there was Noa. I didn't care too much about her throughout the first three episodes - especially since she was always staying on the side. But her episode turned this all upside down and made me fall for her head over heels.

Spoiler

And her death in the bad ending hit me as hard as the hardest KEY's tearjerkers

So, however contradictory it might seem - Sora is my best character, Episode 4 is my best episode, and I'm unable to choose my favorite heroine.

Edited October 13, 2021 by adamstan

[adamstan]

I just found nice easter egg / reference in DameKoi.

Do you remember a game they played in chapter 7 during the

Spoiler

Himeo's welcome party?

Buntarou says that he remembers this game being a VN, while Yoshinori says that he grabbed the assets of said VN and remade it.

Actually, all the locations they mention and the music that is playing is from first Hermit's VN - Folklore Jam (also written by Maruto).

Edited October 15, 2021 by adamstan

[fuyopon]

[Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward]

I missed this gameplay, although it can be hell sometimes. The 3D art is a little weird, but it is what is is; I'm sure I'll get used to it. So far, I'm really enjoying this one as much as the first (well, I did enjoy the first a bit more). 

Due to spoilers from the first game, I'll just say this is for the first recommended ending on the steam guide:

Spoiler

Okay, this was a pretty interesting one, although kinda short. I liked seeing how the old cast plays in this game! I wanted to see Junpei tho [sobs] I'm still not sure about Alice, it's still a tad confusing for me, idk.

So, about that ending... Who killed them? It wasn't Quark as he was still in the pod; it could have been Phi (since she looked infected) or Sigma himself, since he had a similar behavior to Quark (wanting to kill himself), hmmmmm... maybe it'll be explained in other endings!

Oh yeah, another thing: I find Luna quite suspicious. She looks a bit like Akane (she could've dyed her hair) and Clover said her powers could be absorbed if there was a stronger user near, and, well, I'm pretty sure Akane's powers are stronger than Clover's. Luna definitely knows more than what she is letting us know. 

Next week I will be talking about Tenmyoji's ending! 

[Seraphim]

As an avid horror fan, I figured I'd give the recently released Abaddon a go, so that's what I did today.
I love the retro look and music, and the ambience is surprisingly great in spite of the simple graphics, but man does the combat suck ass from a straw, to quote AVGN. It's completely ruining the experience for me, to the point where I've run out of patience to even continue playing. I wish there was some way to simply turn battles off, but since that isn't an option, I guess I'll have to keep my fingers crossed for someone to eventually release a trainer that'll make it possible to breeze through them.

[alexfang452]

Currently reading through Love Duction. Also, not only did I finish Miniature Garden, but I started AND finished both Livestream: Escape from Hotel Izanami and Prison Princess.

Miniature Garden: Overall, a fine VN. My only problems with it are that some parts to the story are unanswered and there are a few things I can't suspend my disbelief for. To name a few:

Spoiler

1. Sumika's existence. I know I watched Gravity Falls and had no problem with the weird things going on, but Sumika is too weird for this VN. She is a girl that died from a Miniature Festival years ago that shares a body with the living soul of Ayana's old doll. I can't accept the idea of living dolls. It just seems to be accepted by the characters despite how crazy it sounds.  Why does she have powers? Why was she there? We never get an answer to any of those questions. 

2. If Ayana was actually in the infirmary when Yasunari woke up, how was he seeing her in the classroom? He swore he heard the sound of her hair accessory. 

3. How Yasunari's and Ayana's parents were involved. While they do talk about this, we are never given a clear answer (even though with what was said, you can make your own conclusions). Only Yasunari's father is name dropped, so how is his mom involved in all of this?

4. An organization was able to buy out the government.
...
I decided to just accept that.
 

Livestream...Hotel Izanami: As someone who gets scared easily, I was terrified while playing this from start to finish. However, the mascot chasing me quickly went from terrifying to annoying with how frequent it can show up. I thought this VN was enjoyable and fun to read through. The endings are what really scared me, with one that WOULD give me nightmares from the visuals if I decided to sleep after seeing it. The only thing I can complain about is that in one instance, the mascot showed up RIGHT BEHIND ME, giving me very little time to escape and it killed me. 

Prison Princess: Another good VN. I like the two princesses and there were one or two unexpected moments in this VN. I prefer Aria slightly over Zena. While Zena does know martial arts and swordplay, Aria knows magic and is a massive bookworm. The fanservice moments during puzzles are interesting and I like how they are implemented in the game. However, some parts did leave me lost for a long period of time. I would play more games like this to get more used to them. 

Edited October 26, 2021 by alexfang452
Revised some parts in the spoiler section.

[TexasDice]

Moege reports:

Koikari is incredibly entertaining.

That's it. It's not high art and it's not deep, nor world changing. But regardless, I cannot stop reading through at breakneck speed. Oh and the nonstop meme-barrage from the other localized ASaproject title, Suki to Suki is not in this one, which I personally appreciate.

 

Primals Hearts 2 is even better than the first game. And as weird as it seems to see sequels in the medium, what is even weirder is that 2 directly references the events of 1. Like a real sequel. Very raunchy, but also pretty funny.

 

Study § Steady is still a broken piece of shit. Don't buy it if you own an AMD card, the VN will not work and crash every 10 or so lines. Shame, because the Art is the most fantastic thing I have ever seen.

Edited October 27, 2021 by TexasDice

[Silvz]

Today I finished World End Syndrome. It was fantastic, I loved it and it got me hooked through the whole story. I just wish the routes were longer - it felt that when the routes were finally starting to get interesting, they ended.

 

Now I'm still reading Angel Beats and plan to finally restart SeaBed. This is one that I've read for some time and didn't enjoy because it was too slow-paced. But now I got it on the Switch and am actually pretty excited to try it again.

[adamstan]

8 hours ago, Silvz said:

Today I finished World End Syndrome. It was fantastic, I loved it and it got me hooked through the whole story.

Yeah, I loved it too despite some flaws (that map movement system...) Now, Toybox, where's the damn sequel? You think you can get away with teasing us like that?

Edited October 31, 2021 by adamstan

[Kajahara]

I've started with Cresendo and ChuSingura46+1 S and I am being both so far also currently trying to stop myself from buying more vn's with all of the sales going around.

[fuyopon]

[Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward]

Huuum so many questions... It's been two days and I have forgotten most of them already, darn it.  
This time, I played Tenmyoji's Ending!

Spoiler

I don't believe that guy who showed up was really Zero - they wouldn't show them so soon! It just doesn't make sense to show them out of nowhere; and now, a bomb?? It's called "Bomb one", so it implies there's AT LEAST a second one, oof- where did these bombs even come from?? Also, I guess that old man is Junpei? I don't see another reason for him to have a picture of Akane; besides, he did say he was looking for her and what did Alice say back in Clover's ending? Yep, that Junpei was looking for Akane. It all makes sense. There are still a lot of things I haven't written here and that I'm still confused about, but I'll get there, I hope.

Next will be Dio's ending! 

[fuyopon]

[Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward]

I don't know if it's because of my busy and tiring schedule or what, but I have been so not into theories for this game... My brain has been lazy.
Aaaaanyway! This time I did Dio's ending!

Spoiler

Dio is a clone and member of that one terrorist organization? Ooookay... That was unexpected. I did enjoy the passwords gathering method haha it's fun!

It seems Phi really does know about the timelines as well. That's why us both know each other's names right as the game starts - the start of the game for us players must not be the actual first time they meet. Man, this is getting exciting!

P.S.: Where did Quark go? I'm afraid he got killed... I hope not...

Next stop: K!

[OdaNova]

I finished two this week;

 

Euphoria 

Spoiler

I'm split on this, it's just an 'extreme' nukige, so whoop de doo with some god awful writing, and atrocious eroge scenes 'ourghe!!! DICK MILK AND BABY BATTAH!" is just pure cringe. And then, it launches that really good mind-screw of a plot if you get into the bad/true routes, like wow, the whole concept was superb. And the other half of this VN just drags it down. I kind of wish they scrapped the god awful nukige and put 100% of the effort into that storyline, because it has so much potential IMO. So I finished with mixed feelings and a lot of empathy for Nemu. ;_;

 

Synergia

Spoiler

One of the most dull written sci-fi VN's I've had the displeasure of reading, I could only get halfway through before I had to quit to be honest. The writing is mediocre, but it's also dumping too much text in one text box at a time, so you get complete mood-whiplash as subjects change in the same text box. It feels like it needs another editing pass. Also, there's dry subject matter and there's Synergia dry - the writing was sending me to sleep with how tedious it was.

 

Not sure what I'll read next tbh. Hopefully something that clicks and gets me some happy fuzzy feelings.

[Larxe1]

https://vndb.org/v31262

Reading Monkeys! 

It's a very lighthearted story, I'm still in the first few hours of the game and the presentation does kinda stand out from other vn's, There is early on a large amount of cg's but it is mostly in the form of a manga, so basically its like reading a voiced manga sometimes while coming back to the VN format again. 

It has both a trap protagonist and an outrageous setting. Usually I dislike trap games, because well, I'm not really into traps but more on that I dislike the common trope of trap protagonists being a mixture of extremely kind, and girlish. Like trap protagonists are usually the same just like how self insert protagonists in random moeges are the same. The trap protagonist here Saruyoshi is kinda a fresh take on it since I don't think I have read a trap VN before where the protagonist was a delinquent, but yeah idk I don't read trap vn's a lot.

The setting is outrageous in the sense that it is fun but just dont think about it too deeply lol, I was able to notice a lot of weird holes in the setting but I think that I nor future readers should take this setting a bit too seriously just suspend your disbelief.

I'm still early on so I can't say if its good but it did pass the test of me not dropping it within the first hour, I drop a lot of VN's in the first hour if it doesn't hold my attention but Monkeys is a standard lighthearted vn so far with good execution and a unique presentation for me. Also Karasu's VA is new but her voice is very nice, looking forward to her career in the future

[alexfang452]

https://vndb.org/v16858

Currently reading through Master Magistrate. Despite the story being serious, the balance of comedic moments keeps it from being serious. The CGs I have seen so far look great. I like the use of the CGs in black and white during actions scenes. It is almost like I am reading a comic book. Since I haven't played any Ace Attorney game yet, getting evidence and the trials are new to me. While the one for the first chapter was easy to figure out, Chapter 2's trial did stump me a few times. 

I am currently on Chapter 3. I am excited to see what happens next.

Also, I finished Love Duction. While Yoshia's route was good, Annie's route disappointed me. To explain why,

Spoiler

 Despite the lack of many comedic moments in the routes to focus on the romance, Annie's route still failed. Since the routes are short, there is little time to make the development from friends to lovers feel convincing. However, there was no focus on the romance. The first and second chapter seemed to be setting up something, but then the third chapter shows up. Instead of focusing on Kanata and Annie developing feelings for one another, they decide to focus on another wacky situation where Kanata is dead. Near the end, they decide to throw the two together and FAIL to convince me when Annie says that Kanata is an important part to her. They didn't have any meaningful interaction with each other, so I wasn't convinced at that line.

Despite my thoughts on Annie's route, I still thought that this VN was still decent. You will enjoy more if it can make you laugh. Unfortunately, I didn't even laugh once. 

Edited November 11, 2021 by alexfang452
deleted some sentences

[fuyopon]

[Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward]

Woah, a lot happened, huh? I gotta say tho, I don't like how dragged everything feels in this second game... it kind of bores me. *sigh* Oh well...

Dio's ending:

Spoiler

I guess we did kinda figure out where we are or at least what the building is or was — the house and research facility of K's dad. I'm pretty sure the "mother" for K was actually Akane, it just makes sense that way. Also, what's the deal with K having the same face as sigma?? Or is it the other way around?? Is it the same deal as with Dio? I'm confusion.
I also wonder how the hell Sigma was able to just reach the conclusion K was the one killing Dio lololol I know K is very sus, but still- In the end, we weren't able to find the old man and Clover...

Next is the ending of someone starting with the letter A!

[alpacaman]

A few days ago I finally finished Muramasa. My feelings towards it are complicated. It seems like Nitroplus applied their own law of balance where for each brilliant idea in the game they had to put in a bad one as well. To name one example, one of the core ideas Muramasa poses is how using violence / killing someone evil for the sake of good actually makes you evil as well, making the case that those one considers evil have different ideals for which they deem using violence justified, like you do for yours, putting you on the same level morally. While I personally don't agree with the conclusions the Muramasa draws from this seeming contradiction, I admit it makes its case well and in a nuanced fashion, at least for the most part. It would be easier to accept these ideas though if the "villains" our "heroes" are supposed to be morally equal to weren't either

Spoiler

ridiculously racist, genocidal, kidnapped children to extract their life essence or raped women for fun / as a punishment for trying to mediate between oppressors and oppressed. Telling me one of these guys also rescued two war orphans (who he orders to perform sexual acts for allies btw.) isn't going to convince me killing them in battle isn't justified when there is no other way to get rid of them.

There are a lot of really interesting concepts like how the individual mecha (which are sentient btw) and their powers are basically the manifestation of the violent form of the ideals of their masters. I know it's not exactly revolutionary to have a character's personality match their fighting style but imo Muramasa handles this aspect especially well, turning fights into battles of ideas with stakes that go beyond "will the protagonist survive". To balance this out, a few of these mechas

Spoiler

can turn into sexy elf girls. One of which gets two H-scenes with her wearing a maid costume in one of them, even though the game takes place in 1940s Japan.

Speaking of H-content, I'd even say most of these scenes involving the protagonist are handled relatively well. There's pretty dubious consent in most of them and I totally get if they cross the line for anyone but at least for me they kind of work in their thematic context. Then again there are numerous rape scenes that just exist to show you how evil a certain character is.

There is a lot more stuff (good and bad) I could write about. But overall I'd say Muramasa is worth checking out, at least if you can stomach a few rape scenes, an extremely gloomy protagonist (don't get me wrong, I think he's well-written and his overly literal and honest character makes for a few very funny scenes, I just wish he wouldn't take himself so seriously sometimes) and some pacing issues in the first half. I would say Muramasa has too many flaws too be called a masterpiece, but it's definitely one of the most ambitious "mainstream" VNs out there, and when it gets good, it gets reeaally good. It actually has some depth to its themes, the fight scenes can be extremely suspenseful and it has a strong main cast. I gave it an 8/10 on vndb. Without all the bad stuff I might have landed on a 9 or even 9.5, but even so the bad stuff can get quite annoying at times but at least to me not distracting enough to award Muramasa anything close to a low rating. But I totally get how it could ruin the experience for someone else.