What are you playing?

[Ranzo]

I've been giving it a go playing Eden and I'm really enjoying it so far. I think I've almost finished it and am now awaiting the assured downer of an ending. 

3 hours ago, Plk_Lesiak said:

Just going through let's plays of Time Tenshi games, while working on various stuff (including an MLP convention panel on fan porn - I'll bring photos! :3 ...Of the panel, I mean, not the porn. ) and I have to say, I have a strange kind of respect for devs that keep their ecchi VNs strictly in the fanservice territories, without going into actual porn despite how easy it is to sneak it in nowadays. There's something... Pure in the absurd trashiness of classic fanservice VNs, especially when everyone around already moved into fully-fledged eroge. For Silver Cow Studios time pretty much stopped in the era of Winged Cloud's initial releases and there's something borderline-admirable in that.

Plus, well, Time Tenshi is still like half a tier better than most Sakura games - I mean, it has an actual plot and follows it consistently, rather than forgetting about it every 10 mins to showcase random fanservice CGs. I'm positively surprised by it, even if it's still pretty much trash.

I'm always impressed at your evident willingness to consume mounds of fecal garbage, I guess that's your masochistic tendencies at work huh?

[Plk_Lesiak]

36 minutes ago, Ranzo said:

I'm always impressed at your evident willingness to consume mounds of fecal garbage, I guess that's your masochistic tendencies at work huh?

Well, admittedly, I probably wouldn't do it if I actually had to buy these games and go through them myself. Let's plays make them both more fun and more convenient to go through while doing all kinds of other stuff. I wouldn't really want to read Eden* or Planetarian while working out or taking a dump and I couldn't read them while doing any kind of work simultaneously, but I have no such problems or limitations with Time Tenshi. Plus I transform all that waste-matter-EVNs into Shovelware Adventures and those are always fun to write (+ the /eroge subreddit seems to appreciate them).

Edited September 10, 2018 by Plk_Lesiak

[Thyndd]

39 minutes ago, Ranzo said:

I've been giving it a go playing Eden and I'm really enjoying it so far. I think I've almost finished it and am now awaiting the assured downer of an ending. 

Spoiler

Eden* is quite an experience. It's arguably more "(audio)visual" than it is "novel", and I've seen a lot of discrepancy in people's opinions, but I'm glad you are enjoying it.

13 minutes ago, Plk_Lesiak said:

Well, admittedly, I probably wouldn't do it if I actually had to buy these games and go through them myself. Let's plays make them both more fun and more convenient to go through while doing all kinds of other stuff. I wouldn't really want to read Eden* or Planetarian while working out or taking a dump and I couldn't read them while doing any kind of work simultaneously, but I have no such problems or limitations with Time Tenshi. Plus I transform all that waste-matter-EVNs into Shovelware Adventures and those are always fun to write (+ the /eroge subreddit seems to appreciate them).

Really, every time I take a look at your vndb profile I stay dumbfounded for a while. I know I wouldn't be able to read that stuff even if that's the only thing I had to do during an entire month of diarrhea, so respect. Also I can't help but wonder how bad must be the lowest rated game in your list, "Legends of Talia: Arcadia". It may well go beyond the limits known by mankind 

[Plk_Lesiak]

1 hour ago, Thyndd said:

Also I can't help but wonder how bad must be the lowest rated game in your list, "Legends of Talia: Arcadia". It may well go beyond the limits known by mankind 

Maybe not that, but if someone has limited resistance to "dreadful", it could be considered a serious health hazard. ;p

[snowbell55]

1 hour ago, Thyndd said:

  Reveal hidden contents

Eden* is quite an experience. It's arguably more "(audio)visual" than it is "novel", and I've seen a lot of discrepancy in people's opinions, but I'm glad you are enjoying it.

I need to read Eden*. Going to have to bump it up on the to-read list. Is it really depressing though, or (assuming you can answer without spoilers)? Not quite up for something that's too "hit you in the feels" atm.

[Thyndd]

1 minute ago, snowbell55 said:

I need to read Eden*. Going to have to bump it up on the to-read list. Is it really depressing though, or (assuming you can answer without spoilers)? Not quite up for something that's too "hit you in the feels" atm.

Eeee... I guess it's considered an utsuge, so yes, it's "depressing", but for me it's depressing in a good way, as weird as it may sound. Depressing but satisfying and heart-warming you could say maybe. Definitely not for you to read at the moment if you are no up for a feels trip though.

[snowbell55]

34 minutes ago, Thyndd said:

Eeee... I guess it's considered an utsuge, so yes, it's "depressing", but for me it's depressing in a good way, as weird as it may sound. Depressing but satisfying and heart-warming you could say maybe. Definitely not for you to read at the moment if you are no up for a feels trip though.

Thanks a lot - I really appreciate it! Just one other thing then - is 8-10h an accurate assessment of the length or? 

[Thyndd]

Just now, snowbell55 said:

Thanks a lot - I really appreciate it! Just one other thing then - is 8-10h an accurate assessment of the length or? 

Pretty accurate I would say. I believe for me it took even less time, around 5-6 hours, finishing it in just one night. However here https://howlongtobeat.com/game.php?id=25902 it says the average is around 11h, so what do I know 

[snowbell55]

9 minutes ago, Thyndd said:

Pretty accurate I would say. I believe for me it took even less time, around 5-6 hours, finishing it in just one night. However here https://howlongtobeat.com/game.php?id=25902 it says the average is around 11h, so what do I know 

More than me, that's for sure!

Spoiler

 

Thanks again - it's much appreciated :).

[Dreamysyu]

4 hours ago, snowbell55 said:

I need to read Eden*. Going to have to bump it up on the to-read list. Is it really depressing though, or (assuming you can answer without spoilers)? Not quite up for something that's too "hit you in the feels" atm.

Just a small piece of advice: read it only when you're free enough to finish the whole game in one or two days. These utsuge VNs work much better if you keep things fresh and don't have time to think about unnecessary stuff.

I'm saying it because I did the opposite and stretched the whole experience over something like two months, because at that time I just didn't have enough free time and mental energy to read VNs. Honestly, starting any VN, especially this one, during that part of my life was the second worst vn-related decision I ever did in my life, considering that, even though I understood that it was really good, I simply didn't enjoy it in the end. The worst decision was reading Narcissu at a summer resort.

[Thyndd]

1 hour ago, Dreamysyu said:

Just a small piece of advice: read it only when you're free enough to finish the whole game in one or two days. These utsuge VNs work much better if you keep things fresh and don't have time to think about unnecessary stuff.

That's definitely some really good advice. Since that's just how I go about any VN I didn't think about it earlier, but @snowbell55 please pay heed to his wise words; if you read 5mins of it a day eden* is worthless. It's a VN that relies heavily on the atmosphere to make an emotional connection, all the plot being just a shameless excuse for that.

2 hours ago, Dreamysyu said:

The worst decision was reading Narcissu at a summer resort.

 It's funny how we both had a similar experience with Narcissu. I read it during a week of vacation while I was supposed to be enjoying myself. Not only that, but after Narcissu I didn't know better than start watching the anime Plastic Memories. By the end of it all I swear I felt physically ill.

[Testarossa]

I finished Rikka's route in Da Capo III Platinum Partner. I liked it a lot, the game worked pretty well as a sequel to the original D.C.III and gave me a satisfying conclusion since

Spoiler

the original game ended with an open ending.

Also, as I thought, I really

Spoiler

like Rikka Greenwood a lot more than Rikka Morizono. But well, Morizono is pretty good too.

I thought about reading the other routes, but since the game was longer than I expected and I was already satisfied, I decided to put it aside for now.

 

I also finished Pastel Chime -Koi no Skill Up-, the first one of the trilogy, but the last one I played lol. Nice game overall, but suffers a bit from pacing problems and I found the gameplay a bit repetitive. I liked Celles a lot more than I thought I'd like, she had the best character development in the game. Saya and Colett were pretty nice characters too, I liked their routes. Myu is kinda boring tho, her route is pretty basic too and Kaito was specially annoying here. There's this fantasy world and gameplay elements, but the game is a lot more about romance and a lot less about story, not really a problem though. In the end I'd rank it as the weakest from the trilogy.

 

 Finally I finished Under Night In-Birth. It's a really cool fighting game, I really liked the gameplay aspect a lot. There's a lot of problems with the story, though. The story is incomplete, you end with a lot of questions and few answers, it also end up with

Spoiler

an open ending. Without really making any progress. There's this big fight in this special dimension, but it goes nowhere since main antagonist have her plans stopped but stay alive and will come back in the next time the special dimension appears. There were hints of a bigger picture, a true villain and all that, but since nothing happened, nothing happened. 

But the game brings a lot of cool concepts and builds its own world pretty well. There are a lot of fun characters with lots of potential, but they're too scattered in the story so we don't have a lot of chances to see them interacting with each other, which is a shame. I'm hoping for a new game that looks a lot more complete than this one someday.

[snowbell55]

3 hours ago, Dreamysyu said:

Just a small piece of advice: read it only when you're free enough to finish the whole game in one or two days. These utsuge VNs work much better if you keep things fresh and don't have time to think about unnecessary stuff.

I'm saying it because I did the opposite and stretched the whole experience over something like two months, because at that time I just didn't have enough free time and mental energy to read VNs. Honestly, starting any VN, especially this one, during that part of my life was the second worst vn-related decision I ever did in my life, considering that, even though I understood that it was really good, I simply didn't enjoy it in the end. The worst decision was reading Narcissu at a summer resort.

Wait what happened with Narcissu? Why was reading it at a summer resort that bad?

1 hour ago, Thyndd said:

That's definitely some really good advice. Since that's just how I go about any VN I didn't think about it earlier, but @snowbell55 please pay heed to his wise words; if you read 5mins of it a day eden* is worthless. It's a VN that relies heavily on the atmosphere to make an emotional connection, all the plot being just a shameless excuse for that.

 It's funny how we both had a similar experience with Narcissu. I read it during a week of vacation while I was supposed to be enjoying myself. Not only that, but after Narcissu I didn't know better than start watching the anime Plastic Memories. By the end of it all I swear I felt physically ill.

Thank you both! I'll be sure to do so in one or two sessions then. This is really helpful since I was thinking it'd be easiest to read through it over the course of a week or so. Would like to get the most out of it though. Hopefully it'll live up to the hype :D.

[littleshogun]

Seeing that I'd almost close to enter Misakichi's route back at Fureraba, I decided to focused on that and set aside of Your Diary for a while (Yeah I admit that the translation of Your Diary itself was quite bad).

[Ranzo]

Well, I finished Eden and it was pretty wonderful as I said before though it kinda dragged towards the end. But, what an end!

Maypole
Maypole you've spun me round and knocked me off my axis mundi
Maypole
Maypole
Maypole the ties that bind you will unwind to free me one day
And everything decays

Yes, everything decays
Forest tumbles down to make the soil
Planets fall apart
Just to feed the stars and stuff their larders

And what made me think we're any better
And what made me think we'd last forever
Was I so naive?
Of course it all unweaves


Pyramids and palaces to dust
Empires crumble in
Wedding cake begins to must and molder

And what made me think we're any better
And what made me think we'd last forever
Was I so naive?
Failing to perceive

 

I think I might play Tokyo Babel next?

Edited September 11, 2018 by Ranzo

[alpacaman]

5 hours ago, snowbell55 said:

Wait what happened with Narcissu? Why was reading it at a summer resort that bad?

Because it's a story that makes you want to grief for a little bit, and summer resort really isn't the place for that? Would at least be my guess. I would say the best way to enjoy it is reading it on a rainy autumn day with some time to spare for an evening walk to collect your feelings and thoughts after you're finished.

 

I finished Root Double and, well, my feelings on it are very mixed. The overall plot is incredibly complex and the writers manage to pull it off without leaving even the tiniest plot hole open. The way some new information makes you see previous events in a completely new light is impressive. The endings are satisfying (even the numerous bad ones). When it picks up the pace it's very engaging. But there are just too many things that annoyed me to really love it.

My main critique is that the storytelling lacks focus. Instead of focusing on the bigger picture it tries to explain every tiny detail. When a bigger twist happens you have to watch most of the scenes again that were impacted by it. When you learn that character X was actually working for organization Y the story doesn't just give you the information and a reason for why the character did it but you have to watch flashbacks about what their relationship to someone important to them was like, how that brought them into the mindset to work for Y, how they made contact to organization Y, and so on. Usually I'm a big fan of "show don't tell" but in Root Double the over-expositon sometimes really breaks the flow of the story imo. Especially since it's often implemented quite mechanically. A major part of chapter 4 is structured like this: Find person X -> short action scene -> flashback -> repeat for next person. At the point you go into the flashback you usually already know too much about the character to really be surprised by what happens. Additionally the story often shows you scenes several times, only from different perspectives that often don't add that much that it couldn't have been handled with less repetition.

All that being said, it's still pretty good (I rated it at 8/10 on vndb). I'm just frustrated because Root Double wasted too much of its potential to be really amazing.

[Dreamysyu]

8 hours ago, snowbell55 said:

Wait what happened with Narcissu? Why was reading it at a summer resort that bad?

I mean, you're supposed to feel happy and relaxed at the places like that, and the story of Narcissu is just outright depressing. And the problems it raises are a lot more down-to-earth than in most similar VNs, and the story requires some serious thoughts to be understood, so I really just wasn't in the mood for something like that.

9 hours ago, Thyndd said:

 It's funny how we both had a similar experience with Narcissu. I read it during a week of vacation while I was supposed to be enjoying myself. Not only that, but after Narcissu I didn't know better than start watching the anime Plastic Memories. By the end of it all I swear I felt physically ill.

In my case, my brain just decided to cancel out all the sudden negative experience in favor of all the interesting things I saw in Greece, because I honestly feel like the whole story just went over my head. Actually, I'm not even sure 100% I really finished it back then, because I somehow really can't remember how exactly it ended. I just remember that

Spoiler

they left the hospital to go somewhere, but that's it.

I guess, I just really need to reread it at some point.

[adamstan]

I just finished Koi ni, Kanmi o Soete

It's short, nice and fluffy The very beginning feels little sluggish, but then fortunately it picks up decent pace.

I liked the heroines, so I was able to enjoy it. But a word of warning - it's filled with moege tropes, so if it's not your thing, stay away from it.

Spoiler

Childhood promise? - check
Festival date? - check
Endless talking about food? - check
cute imouto-like character? - check
Pet mascot? - check
and so on, and so on...

As far as story is concerned I have one complaint - where are the other routes? I mean, at least Chisato or Ciel not having a route is a crime. What about "First girl wins" trope, huh?

Art is good - both backgrounds and characters. Music wasn't too memorable, but wasn't annoying either

The ability to quickly switch between languages is really nice, and I'd like to see it in other VNs too. (From the ones I played, only LB! had this.)

Now about English version. Translation itself seems decent, but editing must have been done in a rush, as it is rather messy when it comes to names and honorifics. I mean, if you want to have honorifics left in TL, at least don't mix them and naming conventions up, because then it makes no sense at all

Spoiler

Example: Until the protag gets close with one of the girls, he addresses both of them using "surname-san". Yet at one point, for reasons completely unknown to me, he addresses Richer by "Richer-chan", despite original text clearly saying "Shionomiya-san" - and that's what is used eariler and later too. Him saying "Richer-chan" at that point makes no sense whatsoever.

Or when Rira calls you at the beginning of her route, and says "Niwasaka" when announcing herself, yet translation uses her first name here.

Also sometimes names in dialogues are mixed-up. Like Richer speaks about Rira, but english text has her name instead and vice versa.

So it looks like editor couldn't make up their mind or was in a hurry.

Despite some flaws, I enjoyed it. It's short, so can be used as a breather between more serious titles.

Nothing great, but enjoyable. 7/10.

PS. I played all-ages version.

Edited September 11, 2018 by adamstan

[Inorin]

Started playing 428 Shibuya Scramble a few days ago and I'm really enjoying it so far. I read it from some site that it had 87 different bad ends (Nasu’s influence, perhaps?) and in addition to the fact that there wasn’t a single English text walkthrough out there on the Internet, I was initially put off by it. However, after learning that the game actually spawned an anime adaptation, I decided to give it a try. Now that I’m playing it, I’m glad that I did not stick to my initial thoughts. While the sheer number of bad ends can be very confusing at first, it gets easier to understand how the game works as one progresses. 

One thing I didn’t like about the game though was the user interface. The fact that you can’t use a mouse, change text speed settings and the lack of a conventional skip button make things a bit unfamiliar. Thankfully, there’s a backlog function (using the up and down keys) and it can apparently also be used to skip to certain scenes forward (if the scenes have already been read) and backwards. This helps to somewhat alleviate the skipping problem, but it’s still deadass troublesome. There are also a bunch of in-game mechanics which needed time adjusting to, but thankfully the tutorial does its job just fine.

That aside, I’m still enjoying this reading experience a lot. Sure, there aren’t any animation, and sure, we ain’t got no voice acting, but it’s a good change of pace. The game’s played in 5 different perspectives, and some of the decisions each protagonist makes can have an impact on other protagonists (heck, I remember this one guy called Minorikawa caused 4 bad ends for the other protagonists because of one choice that he made). Though I wouldn’t say that it’s as intense as some of the other vns I’ve read, it’s pretty interesting and never gets boring.

I’m sure there will be more interesting stuff to be discovered and really hope that the Canaan chapter is as good as many people hype it out to be (since it was written by Type Moon and an anime adaption was made based on the chapter).
 

 

Edited September 12, 2018 by wei123

[littleshogun]

As for Shibuya Scramble, yeah I did try that and to be honest no mouse was bothering me here, so I decided to not play this lol. I guess Chunsoft didn't have enough knowledge to port the console VN to PC, or perhaps to put it nicely they rushed the PC release. Anyway, if they also did no mouse interface to their YU-NO remake release later, then I'll say that YU-NO remake release is a redundant one lol. Oh yeah Shibuya Scramble here did need quite a number of HDD space at 11 GB, although it's still not as bad as Danganronpa V3 in which it did need 26 GB HDD space.

[Artos]

started reading world end a few days ago economica and left it half way then went to majikoi and finished it then found out there was majikoi s and all that and burned out and decided to return later for later so I can read muv luv alternate chronicles ep 3 then GW2 fever took me by storm and left muv luv halfway for now... but planning to return soonish kinda feeling like returning to monster girl quest wish they had some sort of sequel on it.   hey I keep hearing of YU-NO is it worth the read?

[adamstan]

27 minutes ago, Artos said:

I keep hearing of YU-NO is it worth the read?

Yes, but it is almost impossible to complete without walkthrough - unless you are seasoned hardcore adventure game veteran But the story, art and music are great, so definitely worth some effort.

 

There is also remake being translated by Spike Chuunsoft, which reportedly has somewhat frendlier system, but it has two cons:

 - it isn't ready yet
 - the art in it is terrible

Edited September 13, 2018 by adamstan

[Artos]

Thank you adamstan!  I love challenging games, I remember how the snes versions of fire emblem were and I really miss that style, so I can expect perma death or something entirely different? 

Edited September 13, 2018 by Artos

[Ranzo]

Randomly decided to play the yuri vn Butterfly Soup and while I enjoyed it the story ended very abruptly and like just when it was getting really good.

Edited September 14, 2018 by Ranzo

[Thyndd]

So I just read the sinopsis of Newton and the apple tree. I had heard of this VN before, but I thought the title was just symbolism for something, I didn't expected it to be literally about Newton. My reaction to this: DID THEY REALLY LOLIFY FREAKING SIR ISAAC NEWTOOOOOON?  And I thought after F/SN that I'd seen everything...  

Now, as a physics student, I think I need to play this for the memes. How good is it? The rating is decent enough in vndb