What are you playing?

[Yuuko]

Thanks to certain events I started Amaekata wa Kanojo Nari ni even though I wanted to play Nora to Oujo to Noraneko Heart. Played Noratoto's trial and it felt like Majikoi with magic  Also played Mamiya-kunchi no Itsutsugo Jijou trial but it seemed kinda meh.

Going to probably play Amanari > World Election/Noratoto ( > Mamiya-kunchi ) depending on how much time I have this and next month.

[BookwormOtaku]

Gotten to chapter 5 in PE and it's starting to get somewhat more entertaining' Konomi isn't as annoying as I thought she'd be. She's like the poster child for the saying "Bless your heart" . Though I have to say at times I'm finding myself almost missing Harukoi Otome...which I never thought possible

[Fred the Barber]

31 minutes ago, BookwormOtaku said:

Gotten to chapter 5 in PE and it's starting to get somewhat more entertaining' Konomi isn't as annoying as I thought she'd be. She's like the poster child for the saying "Bless your heart" . Though I have to say at times I'm finding myself almost missing Harukoi Otome...which I never thought possible

Ruriko and Konomi are the main reasons to play PE, but while Ruriko is immediately obvious, Konomi kind of sneaks up on you. Naturally, neither of them has a route.

[VirginSmasher]

5 minutes ago, Fred the Barber said:

Ruriko and Konomi are the main reasons to play PE, but while Ruriko is immediately obvious, Konomi kind of sneaks up on you. Naturally, neither of them has a route.

You basically just named my two favorite girls and the reason why I think the fan disc will be better than the original...hopefully.

[BookwormOtaku]

14 hours ago, Fred the Barber said:

Ruriko and Konomi are the main reasons to play PE, but while Ruriko is immediately obvious, Konomi kind of sneaks up on you. Naturally, neither of them has a route.

 

Okay, cleared chapter 5 of PE and I can say this is a chapter I wholly enjoyed reading. The jokes were finally consistently funny and it finally feels like the game's taking advantage of having a large cast by giving us some good character interactions.

[havoc]

I finally managed to ''finish'' rewrite, it only took me a year.

For some reason i just could not get into the story which was why i originally shelved it was starting to bore me.
Even after i restarted it i just could not get into it and ended up pretty much skipping through the whole thing.

It bothers me because this is generally considered a good VN, and the overall story is something i usually enjoy.
So i cant really find a good reason to dislike the VN, the only one i can think of is that i never really enjoyed the character of the male lead.
 

[Eclipsed]

^Rewrite just didn't click for you, it happens, dw 'bout it.

go die, Kotarou is awesome 

[MrBanballow]

I'm...

... where am I in Evangile now... ? The midpoint of Chapter 18, I think.

Spoiler

Ritsuko's mom just kicked us all out of her room... jerkface.

Common route... *Waves goodbye*

[Fred the Barber]

I've put in a few hours with the Grisaia no Kajitsu common route now, enough to have formed some initial thoughts:

- Production values are really impressive across the board. Great art, great music, some nice little touches like sometimes changing sprites in the middle of a line. The only VN I can think of which was quite this good in this way is probably KonoSora.

- For complex reasons, purely on the grounds of appearance, I'm really taken with Michiru. Her character design and her poses make her dynamic, physical, vibrant. She's nearly popping out of the screen, with that foreshortened finger pointing directly at me while she spouts some stock tsundere line (sometimes knowingly, sometimes unknowingly). I don't think any character has ever grabbed my attention this way - maybe F/SN's Rin and KonoSora's Ageha are in the same ballpark, but they've got nothing on that pointing finger and outraged face combo.

- Characters. How I've missed reading about actually interesting characters. Amane, Makina, and Sachi are all really interesting already, and I can see the shadows lurking around the corner for them for when things start to get heavy. With Michiru, I'm inclined to agree with Yuuji's assessment that she's simply kind of dumb, but I don't mind having that around as a foil for the others, especially given, as I mentioned above, how drawn I am to the way she looks. Yumiko... meh. The box cutter obsession is a little alarming, but right now I'm honestly finding her pretty boring. Probably I'm due for her to get a lot more screen time in the common route, since it seems to kind of be rotating amongst heroines to focus on right now, trying to do that initial build-up of familiarity and affection, and I don't think she's gotten much focus yet. At any rate, it's working: familiarity and affection are definitely on the rise.

- Am I crazy, or is there no Backlog feature? I couldn't find it anywhere in the UI, and hard though it is to believe, I'm wondering if maybe this game doesn't have one.

It's been a while since I've read such a straightforward, school life-centric common route - this is going to sound really weird, but it's actually a nice change of pace, after recently playing a lot of more out-there VNs like Demonbane and Gahkthun, or even the twisted version of school life in G-Senjou. Apparently there's a part of me that craves this trite setting every now then. Given how easy that craving is to satisfy, I guess I should be happy about that.

[Eclipsed]

Wait what, you haven't read Grisaia no Kajitsu, that's like me not having read Kawata Chojo 

@ no backlog, ye, there's no button on the UI to access backlog, have to mousewheel up/tab/pageup, get off your tablet(?) 

[Fred the Barber]

22 minutes ago, Eclipsed said:

Wait what, you haven't read Grisaia no Kajitsu, that's like me not having read Kawata Chojo 

I mean, I've read ~20 VNs at this point. There's a lot of classics I'm behind on. For instance, I haven't read Steins;Gate, or Ever17, or Umineko, etc. The "you haven't read ____?!" list is probably longer than the list of stuff I've read.

25 minutes ago, Eclipsed said:

@ no backlog, ye, there's no button on the UI to access backlog, have to mousewheel up/tab/pageup, get off your tablet(?) 

Blargh. No. Definitely going to keep using the tablet, screw the backlog, I'll just fix my habits so I don't accidentally skip any text ever again, and if I do, I'll figure it out somehow.

16 minutes ago, Zenophilious said:

I hope you're ready for a long common route, because damn, is it long.  Longest one I've read, actually.  It drags on a little bit, but it is still pretty enjoyable, if you like slice-of-life school comedy.  Sachi, Michiru and Makina all kinda hog the spotlight until you get into a route.

About Michiru...her route is, well, garbage, in my opinion.  Don't get your hopes up too much; you may not think as harshly about it as I do, but I doubt you'll love it.

Long common route sounds good to me right now, at least - I've apparently been jonesing for some school slice-of-life stuff, since I'm really enjoying it. If I start to get too bored, maybe I'll double up with something completely different like Sharnoth.

As for Michiru's route, I appreciate the warning. I'm not actually crazy about her as a character, so I'm not too upset about that possibility. It's really just the way she's drawn that I'm fascinated by.

[Decay]

The Grisaia common route is legitimately the best part of the entire VN. Not saying the other routes aren't good, but that common route is just the absolute best school slice of life comedy you'll see anywhere, ever, and I loved it.

[BookwormOtaku]

Cleared chapter 6 of PE, and I'm surprised to see it was better than the last one. Some genuinely funny scene and good character moments and interactions. I especially that quieter scene of Masaya, Ritsuko and Ayaka going back to the school. I'm starting to be cautiously optimistic about the next chapter.

 

On a side note, anyone else besides me jokingly wonder if Masaya's related to this guy every time you hear his surname (it's even written the same way )?:

https://vndb.org/c3864

[HotTrax]

Finished Snow Sakura, pretty simple plot wise but totally enjoyable nonetheless. 
H20 Footprints in the sand. Went in having seen the anime, which I thought was pretty bad, and kind of really liked it. Routes were not interwoven together so certain characters got much better endings than in anime. I liked. 
Tsumi no Hikari Rendezvous – It’s a minori game. Amazing visuals and fantastic bgm. Finished Fuka’s route so far, definitely figured out her role early on but I wouldn’t really say it detracted from plot enjoyment. It is mostly them dealing with this issue. Although the catalyst that forced out their secret was a pretty “what” moment though. Overall I enjoyed it, ending gave nice closure. I liked Fuka and her mannerisms, as well as her seiyuu’s performance. Best role from her minori work.  Now onto other 2.  

Celica is great. 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

[NickFreja]

Playing Tou no Shita no Exercitus ATM. Recommended if you like Zero no Tsukaima/Fate/Log Horizon. Still recommended even if you don't like them (in my case I dislike ZnT lol)

[ChaosRaven]

8 hours ago, Decay said:

The Grisaia common route Angelic Howl is legitimately the best part of the entire VN.

Fixed! 

IMHO the comedy got old pretty fast and was far too reliant on presenting the heroines as retarded with Sachi permanently undressing, Yumikos ridiculous knife attacks, Michiru's idiocy etc.

[XReaper]

forcing myself through akeiro kaikitan´s trial... this better be not like their past titles ended up for me, or i´ll cry buckets for halting any of my other current reads for giving it a fair chance.

edit: ...please no endless circle of oni-sex please no endless circle of oni-sex please no endless circle of oni-sex please no endless circle of oni-sex please no endless circle of oni-sex please no endless circle of oni-sex ...

[Arcadeotic]

I started yet another Steampun adventure: Sekien no Inganock

1 hour in and I'm loving it already, the world building is much better than in Gahkthun

Well, at least at the beginning

[Kawasumi]

12 hours ago, Decay said:

The Grisaia common route is legitimately the best part of the entire VN. Not saying the other routes aren't good, but that common route is just the absolute best school slice of life comedy you'll see anywhere, ever, and I loved it.

no its not (personal opinion ofc)

[Dergonu]

Still sick, so I haven't gotten much reading done the past few days.

I'm in chapter 3 in G-senjou at the moment, and its really freaking good.

Spoiler

The moment when Haru first met Kyousuke's father and froze up made me laugh my ass off

Then when she meets him again it turns out she was just faking to gain inforamtion... This chick is so badass. Cant wait to get further into chapter 3.

Also playing XX of the dead, got a little further into it now, (still not too far, since I read very slowly in Japanese. I am noticing improvement in my reading speed though, which is a big confidence boost.)

Spoiler

Our adorable little sister just got eaten by a big tentacle monster... RIP.

Considering what is happening at the moment though, I'm sure she will come back as a tentacle zombie and fuck shit up

Just as a general zombie game, this is actually very cool. It hints to what made people get infected really early on, and makes each zombie mutate differently, kind of like in resident evil. The zombies even talk and feel stuff which is really interesting.

(Not expecting a super deep novel, because lets face it, its all about the tentacle rape But, its still cool to see these small details in it.

 

[Turnip Sensei]

I decided to read Hanachirasu in order to get back into a VN reading mood. (other than slowly working my way through Hikari no Valusia) 

Hanachirasu being a short VN meant I could finish it in day and be left craving for more,  and so now I can start reading whatever I decide with fresh state of mind. Not to mention I've been interested in reading it for a while, but never got around doing it.

And Hanachirasu was pretty great. It was sufficiently dark, but also surprisingly amusing with it's somewhat absurd sense of humor.

And damn the battle scenes... I really liked the meticulous explanations and all the info about sword techniques, no matter how accurate they might or might not be. I've always been more fan of battles that are over in one decisive moment than fights that devolve into a contest of endurance, so I'm glad Hanachirasu delivered on that front. There's just much more feeling in it when every move is lethal.   

[HotTrax]

Tsumi no Hikari Rendezvous Tsubura Finish - Surprisingly very light on drama, arranged marriage route.

 

Spoiler

 

 

I thought her father would put up more of a fight but once he saw they were serious about their plan and the village he accepted and solved the whole arranged marriage problem. Her love for pork buns is real! Also poor Celica…. 
Final route awaits. 

edit: 
Ai route finished – Ehh, I dunno.  
Overall 1. Fuka 2. Tsubara 3. Ai. 
 

[Vorathiel]

I started and finished Phenomeno. In around 45 minutes, lol.
https://vndb.org/v10526

But it was PHENOMENAL. Short, but extremally eerie, scary, moody, climatic and tense little story. Taking fully advantage of VNs nature. Fuck, I want more, I want horrors! Never been scared like that before (exception - movie The Conjuring) after I celebrated my 13th birthday. Even the crepiest and scariest parts of Saya no Uta were no match for this gem.

[Hayashi]

この大空FD

小鳥ちゃんすごいよ

[Dionysus42]

I've still going through the post-game content of Kindred Spirits before moving on to something else. I was planning for that something to be Flowers, but given recent events...

Anyway, I also played through Danganronpa, with the new Steam release. It's quite good.