What are you playing?

[TexasDice]

I actually dropped money on Neko-nin exheart, because of how much the production value impressed me. 

Nothing world breaking story or character wise, since it's just another one of those short, fluffy kinetic novels, like Nekopara, KaraKara or strictly speaking even the Sakura titles. Other than to those lazy Sakura Xs however, it feels like all the money for Neko-nin Exheart was on the screen: Great UI, lots of flashy overlay effects, excellent audio in all areas (background moans, spriteless characters with actual voices, etc), little animations in the static sprites and really high quality art (even the SDs look great). Also, top-notch decensoring which always wins me over.

This actually beats a lot of longer VNs I've read in terms of raw technicalities (which isn't fair, since Neko-nin was made 2 months ago). I would say Nekopara is still ahead due to the animation quality and how beastly Sayori draws everything, but I was still thoroughly impressed from a technical standpoint. 

 

I would actually recommend this to everyone who likes this genre of short-vns without much substance. Which, since we're on Elitistnovel.net shouldn't be that many people, but hey. 

[Jun Inoue]

Started The Silver Case (Silver Jinken) and... I'm not too impressed, for now. The game itself kind of stops or avoids all the tension and seriousness that I'm guessing we're meant to feel in these scenes and cases of murders, terror and mystery.

[Dreamysyu]

I finished the Aqua's route in Himawari, and, let me say it straight, I didn't like it. At all.

The truth is however, that I can't pinpoint what exactly I didn't like. There are still things like unrealistic characters and completely nonsensical setting, but, let's be honest, almost every VN has both, and we still like them. This time however... I saw exactly which emotion every scene supposed to bring, but they just didn't work. The reason, most likely, is that I failed to connect to any of the characters in the Common route, and it worked in that way. Though I have a feeling that maybe I should've stalled this VN before I had more time to spend on it and read the route in one go instead of stretching it to several weeks.

I don't know if I'm going to continue this VN right now. Actually, this VN made me seriously consider dropping the VN medium altogether. My next VN needs to be a complete masterpiece, or I might actually do it, you know.

[akaritan]

2 hours ago, Dreamysyu said:

I finished the Aqua's route in Himawari, and, let me say it straight, I didn't like it. At all.

The truth is however, that I can't pinpoint what exactly I didn't like. There are still things like unrealistic characters and completely nonsensical setting, but, let's be honest, almost every VN has both, and we still like them. This time however... I saw exactly which emotion every scene supposed to bring, but they just didn't work. The reason, most likely, is that I failed to connect to any of the characters in the Common route, and it worked in that way. Though I have a feeling that maybe I should've stalled this VN before I had more time to spend on it and read the route in one go instead of stretching it to several weeks.

I don't know if I'm going to continue this VN right now. Actually, this VN made me seriously consider dropping the VN medium altogether. My next VN needs to be a complete masterpiece, or I might actually do it, you know.

I've had this experience several times before (thanks, Da Capo), and I really do think that you should just take a break, and probably drop Himawari too. If you dislike it to the extent that it's pushing you away from VNs as a whole, then reading more will be a huge waste of your time. Frankly, I don't think dropping VNs as a whole is a great idea, as you're probably just burnt out and I truly do think that there are still good experiences that the medium can offer you. However, that is your choice to make. What I would do is drop Himawari, and then do something else for however long until another VN piques your interest (be it weeks or months).

[littleshogun]

19 hours ago, Dreamysyu said:

I don't know if I'm going to continue this VN right now. Actually, this VN made me seriously consider dropping the VN medium altogether. My next VN needs to be a complete masterpiece, or I might actually do it, you know.

I knew that Himawari was going to be either very good or overrated ie not good there. Although if I may say something, it's definitely scretching too much if you want dropping VN medium altogether. As for your solution, I think you better drop Himawari and take a rest for a while just like Akaritan suggested. And if you recover, I think you could try to read both of Higanbana and Rose Guns Days if you still interested in VN (Or haven't read those yet). In the end, it's your decision.

Edited April 30, 2017 by littleshogun

[Funyarinpa]

21 hours ago, Dreamysyu said:

 

I don't know if I'm going to continue this VN right now. Actually, this VN made me seriously consider dropping the VN medium altogether. My next VN needs to be a complete masterpiece, or I might actually do it, you know.

You probably just need a break. We've all been there. After trying to get through Muv Luv for some seven months, I ended up not reading practically anything for six months or so. I also felt like maybe the medium wasn't for me after all. Then I happened to pick up the first chapter of Higurashi and that got me out of that slump.

If you're looking for a masterpiece, The House In Fata Morgana is sublime.

[Darklord Rooke]

23 hours ago, Dreamysyu said:

Actually, this VN made me seriously consider dropping the VN medium altogether. My next VN needs to be a complete masterpiece, or I might actually do it, you know.

2 hours ago, Funyarinpa said:

If you're looking for a masterpiece, The House In Fata Morgana is sublime.

So long Dreamysyu, it was nice having you around *waves*.

[Decay]

I'll cut you, rooke

[Vorathiel]

11 minutes ago, Darklord Rooke said:

So long Dreamysyu, it was nice having you around *waves*.

Did you wrote anything longer about your look on FataMorgana? Would be intersting to read something negative about it.

[Dreamysyu]

To be honest, I wrote this point just several minutes after I finished that route, and maybe I overreacted a bit there. Anyway, it's not like it was entirely Himawari's point that I started to think about dropping VNs. It's more like, finding good VNs to read became a bit too difficult recently, and I'm not sure at what point it becomes just not worth it anymore. Like when I just started, I could just take a random high-rated VN often mentioned in reviews, and I was almost guarantied to like it, at least to some extend. For some reason, I managed to like VNs for that is good in them and almost completely overlook their flaws. There still were some VNs I didn't really like (mostly, less popular ones), but I always could just drop them at the very beginning and move to something else.

Then, at some point, about a year and a half ago, it just stopped. Suddenly, for almost every VN I played I could say "There were some great moments in it, but ... completely ruins it", or "I liked it overall, but there were some aspects that lowered my overall enjoyment quite a bit". For example, I liked very much how Ever 17 handled mystery, and I had very good time trying to add all things together. On the other hand, I couldn't care less for it's characters, and the final revelation turned out to be so little thought-out, that it dropped my overall mark by 2 points. It all got a bit tiring, and the thought that maybe my time with VNs is coming to its end started to appear in my mind from time to time.

Then for a few months I just didn't have enough free time to read VNs anymore. When I came back, I tried Fata Morgana, and suddenly I was engaged again. And though it wasn't perfect, I managed to overlook it's flaws and get the full enjoyment of the things it does right. The same thing with Pygmalion, though it's actually even more flawed than Fata Morgana (like, 20 times so). Then I tried Himawari, and suddenly I'm where I started. Overall, I can't say I hate it, or this is a bad VN. There are some things it does quite well, and the overall idea is quite good. Just, I cannot connect to the most characters, especially to the protagonist, and the number of plotholes makes it almost impossible to enjoy it to fullest extend. The worst part of it, though, is that I start to compare Himawari to some VNs I read earlier... and I don't see how they are better. It's not a very healthy thought, because it makes me wonder whether those VNs were actually as good as I remember, and maybe my tastes are just changing with time.

Maybe you're right @akaritan and I just need to stay away from VNs for some time. I'll probably try to get through some works in other media that I wanted to try. Anyway, thanks for your advice!

I'm stalling Himawari for an indefinite amount of time. I'm not dropping it, however. I still want to give it a second try, at some point of time. I had a single precedent when I suddenly started to like a VN long time after finishing it, even though I fully hated it the first time. I am still going to at least finish it, but I won't touch it at least before the middle of this summer.

And I'm sticking to VNs with good protagonists from now on.

@littleshogun

Yeah, thanks, but I tried both, though I haven't finished them. Actually, I'm a big fan of Higurashi and Umineko. Though, in case of Higanbana, I just couldn't make myself care about it, and dropped it on the third chapter. As for RGD... I played first two seasons when they the only ones available in English, but never got in the mood to finish it later.

@Funyarinpa

Thanks, but I already finished it.

@Vorathiel

I'm pretty sure Moogy wrote something somewhere... Though I don't have a link, sorry.

Edited April 30, 2017 by Dreamysyu
typo

[Zenophilious]

9 hours ago, Dreamysyu said:

I'm pretty sure Moogy wrote something somewhere... Though I don't have a link, sorry.

Spoilers

https://pastebin.com/DVdwjAqM

[Funyarinpa]

5 hours ago, Zenophilious said:

Spoilers

https://pastebin.com/DVdwjAqM

Welp.

,_,

I can see where some of its points come from.

Be warned y'all that there are spoilers for the whole game in there.

[Darklord Rooke]

5 hours ago, Zenophilious said:

Spoilers

https://pastebin.com/DVdwjAqM

That's a pretty compelling argument by Moogy :3

... just sayin'

[Zenophilious]

1 hour ago, Funyarinpa said:

Be warned y'all that there are spoilers for the whole game in there.

Sorry   I was going to add that in after I found the link and deleted all the non-relevant text from the post I was quoting, but I was on my phone and my break had just ended.  Added spoiler warnings to my post and all the quotes of my post.

[Funyarinpa]

12 minutes ago, Zenophilious said:

Sorry   I was going to add that in after I found the link and deleted all the non-relevant text from the post I was quoting, but I was on my phone and my break had just ended.  Added spoiler warnings to my post and all the quotes of my post.

Where is the full post? 

[Zenophilious]

4 minutes ago, Funyarinpa said:

Where is the full post? 

That is moogy's full post.  I was talking about @Dreamysyu's post that I was quoting before.

I'm kinda half-awake right now, sorry if I'm being stupid  :-/

[Funyarinpa]

Just now, Zenophilious said:

That is moogy's full post.  I was talking about @Dreamysyu's post that I was quoting before.

I'm kinda half-awake right now, sorry if I'm being stupid  :-/

Oooh OK thanks

[kooolm]

Currently playing Little Busters Converted Edition on my PSP. Perhaps, it's finally the time to learn baseball rules...

[Fred the Barber]

5 hours ago, kooolm said:

Currently playing Little Busters Converted Edition on my PSP. Perhaps, it's finally the time to learn baseball rules...

No, you really don't need to know how baseball works to play Little Busters!. If anything, it'll just make things more confusing...

[Dreamysyu]

6 hours ago, Fred the Barber said:

No, you really don't need to know how baseball works to play Little Busters!. If anything, it'll just make things more confusing...

Lol. I remember I actually managed to win in it a few times when I was playing. I still don't understand how it happened.

[PapaRabbi]

Just started Kara no Shoujo, considering playing The House in Fata Morgana next.

[littleshogun]

Finishing Rimu's route at Deardrops (Will comment on it later), and about to start Kanade's route.

[granit]

On 2017. 05. 01. at 0:04 AM, Dreamysyu said:

To be honest, I wrote this point just several minutes after I finished that route, and maybe I overreacted a bit there. Anyway, it's not like it was entirely Himawari's point that I started to think about dropping VNs. It's more like, finding good VNs to read became a bit too difficult recently, and I'm not sure at what point it becomes just not worth it anymore. Like when I just started, I could just take a random high-rated VN often mentioned in reviews, and I was almost guarantied to like it, at least to some extend. For some reason, I managed to like VNs for that is good in them and almost completely overlook their flaws. There still were some VNs I didn't really like (mostly, less popular ones), but I always could just drop them at the very beginning and move to something else.

Then, at some point, about a year and a half ago, it just stopped. Suddenly, for almost every VN I played I could say "There were some great moments in it, but ... completely ruins it", or "I liked it overall, but there were some aspects that lowered my overall enjoyment quite a bit". For example, I liked very much how Ever 17 handled mystery, and I had very good time trying to add all things together. On the other hand, I couldn't care less for it's characters, and the final revelation turned out to be so little thought-out, that it dropped my overall mark by 2 points. It all got a bit tiring, and the thought that maybe my time with VNs is coming to its end started to appear in my mind from time to time.

Then for a few months I just didn't have enough free time to read VNs anymore. When I came back, I tried Fata Morgana, and suddenly I was engaged again. And though it wasn't perfect, I managed to overlook it's flaws and get the full enjoyment of the things it does right. The same thing with Pygmalion, though it's actually even more flawed than Fata Morgana (like, 20 times so). Then I tried Himawari, and suddenly I'm where I started. Overall, I can't say I hate it, or this is a bad VN. There are some things it does quite well, and the overall idea is quite good. Just, I cannot connect to the most characters, especially to the protagonist, and the number of plotholes makes it almost impossible to enjoy it to fullest extend. The worst part of it, though, is that I start to compare Himawari to some VNs I read earlier... and I don't see how they are better. It's not a very healthy thought, because it makes me wonder whether those VNs were actually as good as I remember, and maybe my tastes are just changing with time.

Maybe you're right @akaritan and I just need to stay away from VNs for some time. I'll probably try to get through some works in other media that I wanted to try. Anyway, thanks for your advice!

I'm stalling Himawari for an indefinite amount of time. I'm not dropping it, however. I still want to give it a second try, at some point of time. I had a single precedent when I suddenly started to like a VN long time after finishing it, even though I fully hated it the first time. I am still going to at least finish it, but I won't touch it at least before the middle of this summer.

And I'm sticking to VNs with good protagonists from now on.

Throw all expectations you have out the window, and you won't be so easily disappointed. When you first started it was exciting because you had no expectations and it was all new. (Taking a break helps too. )

Oh, and try to not score VNs. Scoring each of my VNs has made me almost always consciously aware of the good and bad points of a VN as I'm reading it, which means I can't just take it as I see it. Rather, I'm basically analyzing it as I'm reading it, which for me really can ruin the experience. 

[Funyarinpa]

Reading Higurashi's fifth Chapter, six chapters in and I love it so far.

edit: this is the mightiest "fuuuuck no" scenes probably in the whole series so far.

Spoiler

the fingernail removal... FUCK

 

Edited May 5, 2017 by Funyarinpa

[Vorathiel]

Reading Root Double.
I'm near the end of the second, B, route.
Jesus fucking christ, it's such a boring drag. I haven't felt so much repulsion when I start reading VN, since I read Girsaia 1, a year ago.
It's horribly written. Interesting ideas, nice first route, but other than that... horrible pacing, very boring and bland characters, and a lot of shitty, juvenile to the power of X plot progressions. Moe art only adds to that and not helps me get immersed in story at all.
SS system is terrible, and imposible to read without walkthrough. Abundance of boring flashbacks is a really bad story structure. Sometimes bland, and sometimes awfull ost is offputing as well.

Sigh. Still half of this VN before me. And everybody says that C/D routes are even more boring. ... argh. I don't want. But I must. I won't drop this title. Lord, have mercy.