What are you playing?

[Rain Spectre]

Eh, I'm not infused by characters who act way younger than they should, and Coco's entire character ended up being just that, no twist or backstory to really improve her in the slightest. Not  to mention 

Spoiler

her declaring herself you/Blick Winkel's girlfriend kinda creepy at best, and incredibly cringe-inducing at worst. 

BTW, what the hell was up with Kubaraki? It honestly felt like his character was left unfinished.  

 

[LemiusK]

40 minutes ago, Rain Spectre said:

Not  to mention 

  Hide contents

her declaring herself you/Blick Winkel's girlfriend kinda creepy at best, and incredibly cringe-inducing at worst. 

 

That's actually something I noticed towards the end, that 

Spoiler

everyone needed to have someone attached, except Sora because it would be cheating (and Sara because incest), but even Sora was implied to have felt romantic interest towards Takeshi. Naturally, the only one left without a romantic interest of some form was Blick Winkel and Coco... and well, you get the math. Everyone needs to at least fall in love with someone. It's so contrived and a very dated way of storytelling.

 

40 minutes ago, Rain Spectre said:

  Hide contents

BTW, what the hell was up with Kubaraki? It honestly felt like his character was left unfinished.  

 

Agreed. By having 

Spoiler

Blick Winkel as a plot-device, they've pretty much ensured that Kubaraki's character would be a different character from Hokuto, therefore Kubaraki will have none of the character development/character arc as Hokuto. In other words, he's an abandoned character.

It's sad that the plot-device destroyed the story.

Edited December 1, 2018 by LemiusK

[alpacaman]

I finished Symphonic Rain a few days ago. It has its flaws but I still enjoyed it overall. The tone of the twists and endings of the side heroine routes didn't really match the rest of the VN, I found Phorni more annoying than likeable and Chris was waaay too accepting when learning about the twist in Al Fine imo, but other than that it was a nice experience. The gameplay sections really helped deepening your connection with the heroines as the songs suit them really well. Despite it not jumping to the top of my list of favourite VNs, I can still recommend Symphonic Rain to anyone who doesn't mind a romance VN with some darker themes.

 

Since then I started reading Little Busters and I have to say I just love the comedy and characters in anything from Key I read/watched so far (Kanon anime, Clannad VN+anime, Angel Beats anime and Charlotte). They just really know how to write over-the-top yet likeable characters and how to just let them play off each other until they create the unavoidable baseball subplot.

Also I kind of want to start referencing muscles in each of my sentences from now on.

[cykaki]

Hah! Can one even play only one ? *jealous*

If I counted the games on my backlog I would continue counting for the next few years. 

Just kidding, I meant forever. 

If I ignore the other games for a second, I think I play more of Lake of Voices at the moment. It's amazing, and the dev made it free for everyone as well. Give it a try if you like mystery and surprises. ;D 

[Plk_Lesiak]

Finally got to play the remastered edition of Highway Blossoms, probably being around the 1/3 of the game. It's really quite a charming experience so far - I especially like how naturally the romance is developing, with only subtle cues on the protagonist's preference and growing attraction to Marina. The production values are really nice two and the full voice acting is pleasantly consistent - maybe not amazing by any means, but it stays on this very solid level where I can quite reliably say it's adding to the experience.

I cannot force myself to download the h-patch and spoil the cuteness though (I might check them out after finishing the story, but somehow just as much as yuri romance is my thing, yuri porn isn't). If anyone has any insights on the sex scenes in this VN (the quality, number, length etc.) and would be willing to share them, they would make a major contribution towards my upcoming review and earn my eternal gratitude.

Edited December 2, 2018 by Plk_Lesiak

[LemiusK]

Got the Normal End of Migiwa in Aoishiro. Unlike the previous Normal End I reached where the story ended abruptly, this was far more like a conclusion. Of course, being the Normal End, it's also quite abrupt in itself.

It's been quite a while since I started playing this. There have been frustrating moments with the translation, and even though the Japanese/Buddhist folklore still don't really interest me much, the good moments made it a decent read. The branching of the story is something that's particularly impressive, or at the very least, fascinating. Unlike your traditional moege, the multiple routes of Aoishiro feel like an actual adventure game rather than just "pick the girl you like," especially since it's implied that there are multiple ways to "win" a happy ending and beat the bad guy. I've only just started my first route, so I don't want to get ahead of myself and make assumptions before I see the complete flow chart, but if the branching is anything like I imagined, playing out the main story itself in multiple ways (as opposed to your traditional "common route splitting into separate side stories unrelated to each other" structure), then this is a structure that's a favorite of mine. G-Senjou no Maou has something like this, where there's also multiple ways to end the story, but it's still a more linear kind of bottleneck design:

where the common route splits into different girl-routes on its way to the true end (think of the green box in the image above as G-senjou's true end). This is also Root Double's structure, where instead of side stories, the branches are bad ends instead. Same with The Fruit of Grisaia, where the green box this time is Sakaki's route.

Aoishiro, on the other hand, from what I could figure so far, looks more like this:

where one of those endings is the true end. So it's definitely a structure I prefer over your traditional VN structure. It's definitely way more difficult to design and write, because of the massive branching it can lead to, but it also leads to more variety in the story and feels more like a video game than just a novel with side stories.

But again, this is all just speculation on my part. I've only just started, so I could be completely wrong for all I know, and its structure might be more linear than I thought, and everything I said might just be wishful thinking. Again, need to see the flow chart once I complete the game first.

On the story side of things, particularly the romance, the yuri aspect is cute. Naturally, I picked Migiwa immediately because of my tomboy fetish.  But other than that... the story itself isn't really anything to write home about. Kinda like how Ever17's main appeal is its mystery aspect rather than its story and characters, Aoishiro's main appeal is its branching structure. The story, chalk full of folklore galore, might appeal to those studying buddhist culture, but outside of its folklore, it's a pretty straightforward good vs. evil story... from what I could tell so far.

Edited December 2, 2018 by LemiusK

[TexasDice]

After a 3 year long break between routes (oof), I finished Edelweiss. Somebody once told me the teacher route is the best route. I disagree (Natsume was the best) but Mei takes second place. By the way, the H-scene balance in Edelweiss is kind of hilarious: Haruka and Natsume only have 1 scene each, Mizuki and Mei get to have two and Ran has four. I smell writer bias. 

[Rain Spectre]

2 hours ago, Plk_Lesiak said:

Finally got to play the remastered edition of Highway Blossoms, probably being around the 1/3 of the game. It's really quite a charming experience so far - I especially like how naturally the romance is developing, with only subtle cues on the protagonist's preference and growing attraction to Marina. The production values are really nice two and the full voice acting is pleasantly consistent - maybe not amazing by any means, but it stays on this very solid level where I can quite reliably say it's adding to the experience.

I cannot force myself to download the h-patch and spoil the cuteness though (I might check them out after finishing the story, but somehow just as much as yuri romance is my thing, yuri porn isn't). If anyone has any insights on the sex scenes in this VN (the quality, number, length etc.) and would be willing to share them, they would make a major contribution towards my upcoming review and earn my eternal gratitude.

From what I've read, they're meant for character, not fanservice. One of them is deliberately meant to be not sexy and more just really awkward. 

[LemiusK]

So, even a serious story like Swan Song has gratuitous sex scenes. Can't say I'm surprised, since sex sells, especially in Japan. But I am a tad disappointed. I pretty much skipped all of it out of boredom. None of it interested me and felt like a waste of time. Could have easily summed up their romance with a two minute scene like a normal story would.

Furthermore, here comes the part of the story where everyone needs to be attached to somebody. It's such an old and dated cliche of VNs that I'm honestly sick of it.

Wonder if 

Spoiler

the autistic girl is going to have an h-scene?

I mean, it might sound disturbing, but since you're going out of your way to feature h-scenes, might as well include her.

Edited December 3, 2018 by LemiusK

[Alcorin]

Finally got started with Clannad. Too bad that I can only read it when I'm home alone, since I keep screaming at the screen... Yeah, I don't take second-hand embarrassment too well, and Sunohara is the goshdarned master of it. I mean, I like him - he's like that small dumb puppy that thinks it's a wolf and keeps getting chased by the neighbor's bulldog... But damn, are some of the scenes where he gets in trouble hard to read (for me, at least). Also, both him and Tomoya are arseholes. Likable arseholes, but still arseholes. I don't really have an opinion on the girls yet, since I've only met 4 so far, and just for a little while each (Tomoyo and the dorm mom whose name I don't remember yet seem pretty cool, tho). I wonder what's the deal with the dead world, too. It seems so out of place... We'll see, we'll see.

Ah, as a side note - I've finished Kokonoe Kokoro the other day. Man, was it painfully generic. I don't think that the script was even written with having a monster girl heroine in mind, it was just the plainest, most boring high school romance I've ever read. The fact that Kokoro is a giant fuckin' grasshopper didn't come up even once! I know that it'll sound pathetic, but I'm disappointed. Like yeah, I know, what the heck did I expect, but if Hatoful Boyfriend could do it, then Kokonoe Kokoro could too. Shame.

[LemiusK]

25 minutes ago, Alcorin said:

Also, both him and Tomoya are arseholes. Likable arseholes, but still arseholes

Yeah, I did feel like he (and especially Sunohara) were acting like dicks... but in a way, that's also why I felt myself relating to them when I was a kid, because they have such a flawed and selfish personality, almost antisocial, not caring about others. That kind of bitter resentment towards everyone reflected my own, so it felt comforting in a way.

Tomoya even admitted that he knew he was acting like an antisocial arsehole, indifferent to society and everyone. They were pretty much delinquents, especially Sunohara. I don't think you're even supposed to treat them as a better human being than that, especially Sunohara (in spite of his role as comic relief).

Edited December 3, 2018 by LemiusK

[Larxe1]

Played Sakura Sakura (Translated) and it's fandisc which was incredibly hard to find. The fandisc is still untranslated but it doesn't really continue from any of the paths. 

Loved Nanako-sensei character, perfect fit for my tastes in heroines also a calming voice that fits her well. I didn't play Naoki's route since I was impatient to play the afterstory for Nanako. Finished it in one day and and made me love Nanako more.

The fandisk is based around Tooru with his indecisiveness multiplied by a hundred. There are a lot of joke choices that shows how indecisive he is. Nanako and Sakura are sick of his indecisiveness and go full attack mode on Tooru so it's so heart-achingly sweet. When they finally get together, there's an h scene. And then another H-scene. And then a short epilogue. End. 

Aside from me wanting to see more than that, It was a satisfying fandisk

Overall good game

[Alcorin]

Meanwhile in Clannad...

Spoiler

... I...

 

This game broke me already and it didn't even start for real yet ;v; This is gonna be a doozy, isn't it...?

Bonus:

Spoiler

I can't dab hard enough at his bullshit, holy hell...

 

I still love him tho X'3

[adamstan]

Clannad surely is a ride. Good luck

[r0xm2n]

7 hours ago, Alcorin said:

Meanwhile in Clannad...

  Reveal hidden contents

... I...

 

This game broke me already and it didn't even start for real yet ;v; This is gonna be a doozy, isn't it...?

Bonus:

  Reveal hidden contents

I can't dab hard enough at his bullshit, holy hell...

 

I still love him tho X'3

Sounds like this game has already got you crying (crying in laughter).....

[r0xm2n]

Doing Rise's route on Princess Evangile....

Spoiler

"SHUT UP!!!!!!!"

*goon gets punched flying across the room*

I got so into the scene I literally shouted at same time. Pretty sure everyone in my apartment heard it....

You don't bully my waifus

[adamstan]

During my reread to check all-ages versions, I finished Rise's route yesterday (and afterstory from WH), and now I'm reading Chiho's.

Even though obviously some surprises/twists were no longer surprising, I'm still having great fun with it.

[Rain Spectre]

FataMoru Chapter 3. 

Spoiler

 

[Larxe1]

Playing ChuSinGura and surprised at Yasube's voice being Kiritani Hana. Loved Kiritani Hana and I usually recognize her voice as it's very apparent something like moe-ish but her rough voice as Yasube was totally different and cool

[Rain Spectre]

Is the version of the CSG you're reading the "localization"?

[Larxe1]

23 minutes ago, Rain Spectre said:

Is the version of the CSG you're reading the "localization"?

Ah nope, Heard extremely bad things about it. Either way even if it was good, I would probably play the original for accuracy.

[Rain Spectre]

15 minutes ago, Larxe1 said:

Ah nope, Heard extremely bad things about it. Either way even if it was good, I would probably play the original for accuracy.

What's CSG like then?

[Larxe1]

Just now, Rain Spectre said:

What's CSG like then?

There are 5 chapters in CSG, still in the 1st chapter but so far it's good. The MC goes back to the CSG Time period and isn't suddenly strong and beats everyone. He is just a normal student and really acts like one (Particularly in bad ways). Heard that in further chapters he becomes more developed and I'm excited to see that kind of character development.

Particularly in the art, I have mixed feelings about it. As you can see from the poster, their boobs are a bit too emphasized that it becomes distracting (I still don't understand japan's obsession with REALLY big boobs.) Their boobs would remove you from the immersion from the dramatic scenes but you'll get used to it anyway. 

I have nothing to say too much as I haven't even finished the first chapter yet but I can see why it gets high acclaim by a lot of people.

[Rain Spectre]

So the protag isn't an overpowered Gary Stu? Huh...

[Dergonu]

2 hours ago, Larxe1 said:

There are 5 chapters in CSG, still in the 1st chapter but so far it's good. The MC goes back to the CSG Time period and isn't suddenly strong and beats everyone. He is just a normal student and really acts like one (Particularly in bad ways). Heard that in further chapters he becomes more developed and I'm excited to see that kind of character development.

Particularly in the art, I have mixed feelings about it. As you can see from the poster, their boobs are a bit too emphasized that it becomes distracting (I still don't understand japan's obsession with REALLY big boobs.) Their boobs would remove you from the immersion from the dramatic scenes but you'll get used to it anyway. 

I have nothing to say too much as I haven't even finished the first chapter yet but I can see why it gets high acclaim by a lot of people.

You're in for a wild ride, enjoy! CSG is the best VN I have ever played. It's quite an amazing journey. (You get used to the fanservice and skimpy outfits rather fast. If anything, I feel like it has a nice place in between the story elements, considering how long the game is, and how intense the plot gets.)

I wouldn't say Suguha is just a normal student when he arrives. He was fairly good at kendo in the past, and so he has some decent sword skills down when he arrives. Though he is not very experienced in using them yet, compared to the samurai in the edo period who have trained their whole lives, as their lives literally depended on it. He certainly has much to learn when he arrives in chapter 1.

1 hour ago, Rain Spectre said:

So the protag isn't an overpowered Gary Stu? Huh...

Not at all, no. If you want to know some details, (spoilery details,) here you go:

Larxe1, do NOT open this spoiler! (Big ChuSinGura spoilers below!)

Spoiler

CSG is all about the journey you take with Suguha, as he grows both mentally and physically through the chapters. (Each one taking years of time.) He starts of decently strong, and trains with the incredibly skilled Kuranosuke in ch.1, Yasubee in ch2., the mad Shinpachirou in ch.3, and arguably the strongest character in the game, Asaemon in ch.5. (Ch.4 is actually not focused on him, but on a different character, Kasumi.)

Overall, by the end he is probably among the most powerful characters in the whole game, and that is the case from ch. 3 onwards, I'd say. He gets stronger with each chapter, though he is by no means a Gary Stu. He has some trauma from having wounded a girl in his kendo class, and struggles even gripping a sword at the start. It takes a long time for him to get used to having to actually fight people for real, and he never gets to a point where he is 100% comfortable with the idea. His strength comes from a long period of hard training. He never pulls any deus x machina wins etc, and rarely has the ability to solve any situation solely by himself; in fact, a big part of the game is focused on his frustration over not being able to fix anything by himself as everyone around him suffers, and he with them. He gets stronger and stronger, yet never has the ability to just fix things, which actually causes him to just lose his mind completely in chapter 3, and the big, epic finale brings essentially every single character together in order to defeat the "enemy." (Just in case Larxe should be mad enough to open this, I won't say anything more about what that "enemy" is, heh.)