What are you playing?

[BookwormOtaku]

So, I resumed playing RuiTomo, reading Atori's route, when--

Akaneko "In Soviet Russia, cats pet Akaneko!"

 

I don't even... I, uh... I really wasn't expecting to see this in a Japanese VN, of all things. 

 

This may be worth torturing my poorly Japanese literate mind to play after all...

[Decay]

I feel like today, I have completed a spiritual journey. Two months ago I put down several of the VNs I was currently reading and started Umineko, which lead into Higurashi (backwards, I know). I usually read several VNs at once due to my OCD, but I read these exclusively, for at least a few hours a day (usually more than that) every single day for the last two months. God damn are they long. But it's all over. I kinda don't know what I'm going to do with myself, now.

 

I could write many, many words about my thoughts on them, how they compare and so on. But for now I'll keep it brief. I ended up enjoying Umineko much more, but Higurashi was still entertaining. Umineko just had more... style, or flair. I also think the writing was stronger. The characters and their personal backstories and dilemmas were more grounded in a way that made them more emotionally relatable. Where even if the character was in a much less dire personal situation, you could end up feeling for them more. Umineko/Higurashi spoilers:

I'm talking about Maria vs Satoko here, two abused girls of around the same age, but while Maria's situation was much less extreme, it got much more of an emotional response from me. Perhaps because Teppei was such a stereotypical evil womanizer type who can garner no sympathy, it was pretty hard to take that situation as seriously as Ryukishi wanted us to. Rosa felt much more like a real person. And also perhaps because Maria's responses and defense mechanisms seemed more realistic and sad.

Oh, and we can't forget the music. Obviously +many points to Umineko for the incredible soundtrack. Higurashi Kai's soundtrack had some good tunes and had plenty of good piano music, but it just can't even come close to Umineko's.

 

 

Anyways, now I have to figure out what to read next. I should probably pick up where I left off but I have several unfinished VNs I could go back to. The Yoake Mae yori Ruri Iro na partial, the other routes in Yumina, I was actually thinking of finishing Osadai, which I've left unfinished. There's also Harukoi Otome which I was wasting some time with but eh..... I'm not sure about that one. I also have yet to read the Kagome route in Comyu and the Suzu route in Ayakashibito. Where to start...

[Kosakyun]

Anyways, now I have to figure out what to read next. I should probably pick up where I left off but I have several unfinished VNs I could go back to. The Yoake Mae yori Ruri Iro na partial, the other routes in Yumina, I was actually thinking of finishing Osadai, which I've left unfinished. There's also Harukoi Otome which I was wasting some time with but eh..... I'm not sure about that one. I also have yet to read the Kagome route in Comyu and the Suzu route in Ayakashibito. Where to start...

[hydro]

Anyways, now I have to figure out what to read next. I should probably pick up where I left off but I have several unfinished VNs I could go back to. The Yoake Mae yori Ruri Iro na partial, the other routes in Yumina, I was actually thinking of finishing Osadai, which I've left unfinished. There's also Harukoi Otome which I was wasting some time with but eh..... I'm not sure about that one. I also have yet to read the Kagome route in Comyu and the Suzu route in Ayakashibito. Where to start...

[Kurisu-Chan]

Yoake Mae yori Ruri Iro na is good if you feel like a straight romance. At least as far as what's translated goes, the synopsis may be a little misleading. It's all romance and very little else. I enjoyed it much more than Osadai (which I haven't finished either, lost my save at some point and cbf going back).

 

 

Just, something that bothers me a lot.

 

Why do your avatar remnds me of Yaoi Eren?

[hydro]

Just, something that bothers me a lot.

 

Why do your avatar remnds me of Yaoi Eren?

 

Let's just say there's a reason I cropped it off at the crotch.

[Mr Poltroon]

I've now finished the first route in Air, Misuzu's. At least for now.

 

It was wonderful. The common route messing around and the comedy was marvelous.

The route itself didn't have much romance... It had lots of cute but nothing romantic until right at the end.

And right then, he did something stupid to boot.

[Rilarion]

I've finished Tsukihime's Arcueid route, I'll play the other routes later. In that brake I've started Shuffle but I haven't decided which route to play first. Any ideas?

[Vokoca]

Well, finished Atori's route in RuiTomo. Due to the forced order, both of the routes felt quite incomplete, though if I had to pick between the two, then... Rui's was better, I guess? Atori's had a pretty interesting plot line, but man do I hate that ending cliche. I didn't mind it that much before, but the more I come across it, the more I dislike it. It's just so damn cheap.

Rant alert, and possibly vague spoilers

Seriously, if you are going to use epilogue senes just to back out from the 'bad' ending and degrade it into a poor shock ending with no value instead, don't use an after-credits scene at all. It seems like those scenes serve no other purpose but to retcon the last twist every single time. This is not just RuiTomo's problem, but plenty of VNs do this. Ugh... if you're going to go for a sad ending, commit to it. Otherwise it just comes across as incredibly half-assed and lame.

 

That said, I still like the main theme and story. It all really depends on if they will be able to explain the stuff that only looks like overly convenient plot devices so far (curse being evil only when the story needs it, yay!). Not really looking forward to Koyori's route for this reason, though I am very interested int he true one.

[Chronopolis]

Well, finished Atori's route in RuiTomo. Due to the forced order, both of the routes felt quite incomplete, though if I had to pick between the two, then... Rui's was better, I guess? Atori's had a pretty interesting plot line, but man do I hate that ending cliche. I didn't mind it that much before, but the more I come across it, the more I dislike it. It's just so damn cheap.

Rant alert, and possibly vague spoilers

Seriously, if you are going to use epilogue senes just to back out from the 'bad' ending and degrade it into a poor shock ending with no value instead, don't use an after-credits scene at all. It seems like those scenes serve no other purpose but to retcon the last twist every single time. This is not just RuiTomo's problem, but plenty of VNs do this. Ugh... if you're going to go for a sad ending, commit to it. Otherwise it just comes across as incredibly half-assed and lame.

 

That said, I still like the main theme and story. It all really depends on if they will be able to explain the stuff that only looks like overly convenient plot devices so far (curse being evil only when the story needs it, yay!). Not really looking forward to Koyori's route for this reason, though I am very interested int he true one.

 

Might take a break from RuiTomo for a moment again, maybe finish Secret Game/Killer Queen first. Or maybe I should just go with some no-bullshit utsuge, any tips?

 

Gin'iro...or Konakana ("the gentle, strengthen your faith in humanity, utsuge"), which I'm reading atm. Actually Catagra is a good timely choice here depending what you want on the side with your utsu. Based on the 1 thing I heard about tenshiwake, I wouldn't recommend it yet...

 

Like I said earlier, having finished Muramasa

愛があった！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！

　a bit ago, I'm reading Kona kana. I tried resuming asairo, but the bizareness turned me off and so I'm pushing it off one cycle or so. Also tried Catagra. For some reason, it's only now that I'm super aware of the fact that if you take away the murder mystery, Innocent Gray's games are literally just spending time with a bunch of bishoujyos. Innocent gray is good enough to make heriones that stand up to a first impression, but their characters are rarely deep.

[Vokoca]

Gin'iro...or Konakana ("the gentle, strengthen your faith in humanity, utsuge"), which I'm reading atm. Actually Catagra is a good timely choice here depending what you want on the side with your utsu. Based on the 1 thing I heard about tenshiwake, I wouldn't recommend it yet...

 

Like I said earlier, having finished Muramasa

愛があった！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！

　a bit ago, I'm reading Kona kana. I tried resuming asairo, but the bizareness turned me off and so I'm pushing it off one cycle or so.

Awesome, thanks. I'll keep those in mind.

 

About Muramasa:

That was exactly how after-credits epilogues should be done. If you're going to build upon a bad ending, don't make a magic happy one - make the ending

even worse! I appreciated that epilogue so much.

[BookwormOtaku]

Just completed Yoiko's route in Tsujidou-san no Virgin Road, good route overall even if it had a pretty slow start. Fortunately the resolution of her problem was handled in a surprisingly cool way and the epilogue was hilarious.

[FinalChaos]

Started playing Tears to Tiara, seems pretty good though the gameplay is a bit odd. It will take some time to get used to and I think I'm making many mistakes in the gaming part. The art does seem a bit coarse, won't be much of a problem after some time.

[BookwormOtaku]

Finished Miyabi's route in Prima Stella, decent route even though much like Shizuna's route the story's change of setting kind of hurt it. Moving on to Kusumi's route...

[LiquidShu]

Finished Asuho's route in Hoshizora no Memoria last night and started Komomo's route today ~ Can't wait she so cute 

[TexasDice]

Prepare for the mindkiller after seeing her CGs. 

 

--->

 

The biggest revelation in Komomo's route:

 

She is tiny! She's

SO tiny!

It's bafflingly visible in every image depicting her and You together. Komomo is barely taller than Chinami or Isuzu, which came really surprising. I always had her on head-to-eye level, because of the sprite.

[Decay]

lol, well, she's never described as tall. She's listed as 161cm in official sources. There are very few VN heroines who are as tall as the protagonist. Only one that immediately comes to mind is Kurugaya in Little Busters, who is actually taller than Riki. But Riki is unusually short. Well, that's also discounting straight shotacon nukige weirdness.

[TexasDice]

I'm just saying her sprite "feels" a bit taller than it really is. Maybe it's because Asuho is bending forward a lot, which makes everyone look bigger in comparison. Oh and Kosame is actually taller than her sister, atleast in CGs. Kosame is about half-a-head away from You, Komono a whole one.  

 

 

Lilly from KS is tall, but I can't think of others from the top of my head.

[theboxcarracer]

I just finished Kurumi's route in Never 7, and enjoyed it quite a bit. The reasoning is obvious.

 

(Very minor spoilers for Never 7 ahead, you're probably fine to read it, but it is something they only tell you on one specific route and seem to try to hide on all the others, so some people may think of it as spoiler territory.)

 

I have expressed this sentiment before, but I myself am a burn victim, so I personally can relate to characters who are struggling with severe scarring. Hanako from Katawa Shoujo is handled

worlds better than Kurumi is in that aspect, but I still appreciate the effort.

[Ezeefreak]

After I start My Girlfriend is the President, I dropped it soon after that. It is just to crazy for me at the moment . So to get back a feeling for VN's I started a second playthrough on KonoSora. And from the beginning i really feel satisfied by the whole atmosphere which is generated their. I love that VN and I didn't care about the bad translation of Ageha's route, because I had no problems their and understood everything. Sometimes you have to look on more than just the words which are written there.

 

If someone knows a VN like KonoSora feel free to tell me.

[grim_tales1]

Killer Queen Ep2 spoilers - this is certainly more tense and disturbing than the 1st episode

WOW

Everyone is being picked off - when Hazuki says "We had the wrong idea", I bet Yuuki is the killer

[fun2novel]

... but at least it's not complete and total nonsense like Remember 11 was ...

 

What are you talking about? I don't remember R11 was nonsense.

[theboxcarracer]

What are you talking about? I don't remember R11 was nonsense.

 

Really? They didn't resolve anything in the story. The good endings were both complete cliffhangers that told you nothing about the "why" of what was going on. In fact, nowhere in the game, even if you do the whole "get every bad ending and mull over every single word in the TIPS section" thing, does it explain why anything is happening. Sure, if you sit there and pick it apart, its possible to maybe infer a little bit about what was going on, but there's no solid foundation to base any of that on in the game itself. It was already a jumbled mess of complicated ideas that would have been kind of a mess even if they had executed on it properly, but they didn't do that, so it really came off as a bunch of dangling threads that didn't actually lead anywhere when you followed them all the way back.

 

Now, I don't blame the devs, they apparently ran out of money and couldn't actually finish the game, but that in no way makes anything in Remember 11 make sense.

[Decay]

Now, I don't blame the devs, they apparently ran out of money and couldn't actually finish the game, but that in no way makes anything in Remember 11 make sense.

You actually can indeed blame the devs for that . That usually happens due to poor project management. Do you know if any of the cliffhangers are resolved in 12riven?

[theboxcarracer]

You actually can indeed blame the devs for that . That usually happens due to poor project management. Do you know if any of the cliffhangers are resolved in 12riven?