What are you playing?

[r0xm2n]

Still reading Little Busters.

First Baseball match.....

13-3 loss.....

Well at least I scored....

[cro-mag]

5 minutes ago, r0xm2n said:

Still reading Little Busters.

First Baseball match.....

13-3 loss.....

Well at least I scored....

You CAN win on 1st try. But it's hard... I didn't bother.

[alpacaman]

2 hours ago, cro-mag said:

You CAN win on 1st try. But it's hard... I didn't bother.

I did through sheer luck without even knowing most of the baseball terminology. Got slaughtered the second and third time though.

[Plk_Lesiak]

I've been sent My Magical Demon Lover through Steam Curator Connect, resulting in my first approach at reading a yaoi VN (and one that is a borderline nukige at that, even if all the scenes are basically softcore). And... I'm pretty ok with it so far. I've started with Soren's route, whose theme is keeping the protagonist a bit at a distance physically (the premise is that a mage has to make sexual favours for a patron demon to receive knowledge and magical power from him, but Soren's requests don't really involve sex). It's definitely on the lighthearted side of things, so even in the harsher routes, I don't really expect it to become rapey/violent in the way that contributed to me staying away from most other BL titles. It's reasonably funny and the erotic moments, while not very "hot" from my perspective, for obvious reasons, are quite amusing with the way they are written and portrayed.

Cutely gay/10

Edited December 23, 2018 by Plk_Lesiak

[adamstan]

Finished SukiSuki. Mixed feelings...
(slightly edited "review" from game's main thread):

19 hours ago, adamstan said:

Choice system with it's dating-sim approach was really tiring, I'd prefer more traditional structure, with choices at branching points. The way it was, before locking onto a route we're limited to short scenes, that have to be episodic in nature, as reader can watch them in random order. That somehow limits the possibilities of proper build-up etc. I felt that sometimes there were too sudden jumps in relationships, or in general things felt rushed.

My favorite routes and heroines were definitely Rinka, followed by Yuuki. Ayame was nice too, but drama in her route felt a bit forced - like writers were trying too hard. Chiho's route was weird and a bit confusing, but enjoyable, and as for Mahiru...

 I read through the route, but had to skip the h-scenes. They were way beyond the line for me. I mean, come on, in-story she's 13 or 14, but resembles rather 8-10. As @Harag said, she's total child. H-scenes with such character are just creepy, period. Other than that, the route was actually decent (but still my least favorite).

Like some other posters, I prefer "normal/non-confession" endings for Yuuki and Rinka, although that's close tie.

Sadly, h-scenes seriously dampened my enjoyment of this VN - just didn't align with my tastes I guess. I can see that there was lot of attention paid to them by creators (animations etc), but I didn't enjoy them - they were filled to the brim with almost all bad eroge cliches, and I didn't feel too much love there, just porn. Something was off. Also, for each heroine they were following basically the same formula/scenario. They could have been cut out just like in Steam version of Sanoba, and I think I'd enjoy this VN more that way - sometimes the way the scenes were written and main "eroge sin" - how characters changed during them - killed the mood for me

  Reveal hidden contents

Also, probably to spice things up a bit, writers decided to explore some things I'm really not into - like anal or piss drinking...

I played the routes in order suggested in walkthrough - Ayame, Chiho, Yuuki, Mahiru, Rinka.

After first two I thought I would rate it around 7, and Mahiru's h-scenes made it even lower, but I have to give some bonus points for Rinka and Yuuki - those two routes save this VN. It still isn't worth 8 IMO, as I feel it isn't as good as other titles I gave that score, but I think 7.5/10 will be fair.

Overally I enjoyed it, but still feel a bit disappointed...

Ah, about the translation - "dude" wasn't the best word choice ("bro" would've been better ), but the rest is decent. Engrish converted to other languages (Spanish, and - in one scene - German) also is featured just in a few scenes, so not really an issue.

But now, after rating SukiSuki with 7.5, I feel that I have to raise my Kazoku Keikaku rating to 7.5 too, as it was IMO much better VN - it was just dragged down by editing mess, but I'd still feel bad if it had lower score than SukiSuki.

Now I think I'll try Sakura Sakura thanks to Steam Winter sale

Edited December 23, 2018 by adamstan

[Ataraxia]

Did anyone already play this https://vndb.org/v13249#main?

I wanna try it, but the title makes me hesitate.

[Rain Spectre]

I don't think there are many NTR fans in this community. 

[Dreamysyu]

So, I'm still going through Aselia the Eternal. I'm currently at the last, fifth chapter, so, I guess, I'm almost finished with my first playthrough.

First of all, this game turned out to be surprisingly fun and engaging. Which is even more surprising considering that there are a lot of plot points that I'd normally expect to hate, but, though noticeable, they aren't really affecting my enjoyment at all. I guess, there are simply too many points that I like so that the flaws don't feel like they matter at the end.

I'm going to post a more thorough 'review' later, but I just wanted to post a few screenshots and my reaction to them. Nothing but very minor spoilers, hidden to not annoy uninterested people with lots of pictures.

Spoiler

This looks like it could be a meme.

You know, there isn't really that many of them, but the romantic scenes with Aselia turned out to be pretty satisfying.

Also, it's surprising how nice some CGs look even though the art-style definitely leaves more to be desired.

Well, I know that anime and VN protagonists generally tend to be pretty stupid, but I didn't know they also happen to be blind... and deaf... I know it's not a big point, it's just funny how changing a character's hair style makes her completely unrecognizable to everyone else.

I'm not even marking this as spoiler because the game doesn't even try to hide who that actually is.

This also looks like it could be a meme.

 

My overall reaction: it's a surprisingly very good game, but it could be made even better with a good remake with updated graphics and some rewrites to make the different parts of story a bit more connected to each other. The gameplay parts, on the other hand, are very engaging, and, even though I generally avoided playing gameplay VNs before because I wasn't really interested in them, now I'll definitely start playing a lot more of them.

Edited December 24, 2018 by Dreamysyu

[Ataraxia]

2 hours ago, Rain Spectre said:

I don't think there are many NTR fans in this community. 

Ah, sorry i just got patch and i didn't familiar either. 

Is something like White Album 2 or Kami no Rhapsody count as NTR?

 

 

Edited December 24, 2018 by Ataraxia

[Stormwolf]

4 hours ago, Rain Spectre said:

I don't think there are many NTR fans in this community. 

Isn't it just reverse ntr though? Doesn't phase me the slightest if so.

[Rain Spectre]

7 hours ago, Ataraxia said:

Ah, sorry i just got patch and i didn't familiar either. 

Is something like White Album 2 or Kami no Rhapsody count as NTR?

 

 

I quantify an "NTR game" to be something built entirely out of the fetish, so most probably no. 

[Antera]

Reading The House in Fata Morgana. Just completed chapter 2. I really wished

Spoiler

Javi and Polly ending up together. It really broke my hearth when I saw her fate ...

 

[Plk_Lesiak]

So, I've started Natsuki's route in euphoria - I'm not really planning to go through the whole thing right now, will probably do two arcs, one today and one tomorrow. Then my GF comes back from visiting her family and I guess this is one of those VNs I don't want to explain to anyone, even those really open-minded people.

And so far it's... Well, it's everything I thought it would be, but made twice as horrible by the sounds and voices. The first death scene really sets up the tone, especially with how long it is and how much the game ponders over the macabre. The opening animation is just ludicrous and more funny than anything else with how over-the-top it is, but the torture scenes proper are made super-real by the voices. Those must've been some really unique recording sessions in the clock-up offices. I hope they have thick walls...

Edit: At least game gave me a breather with Natsuki's second h-scene, which is so dumb that it's pretty much pure comedy. Especially the voices and sounds. xD

Spoiler

And then came Rika-chan's peeing crisis. No one was left unscarred by what happened that day over the bucket.

 

Edited December 25, 2018 by Plk_Lesiak

[Dergonu]

42 minutes ago, Plk_Lesiak said:

So, I've started Natsuki's route in euphoria - I'm not really planning to go through the whole thing right now, will probably do two arcs, one today and one tomorrow. Then my GF comes back from visiting her family and I guess this is one of those VNs I don't want to explain to anyone, even those really open-minded people.

And so far it's... Well, it's everything I thought it would be, but made twice as horrible by the sounds and voices. The first death scene really sets up the tone, especially with how long it is and how much the game ponders over the macabre. The opening animation is just ludicrous and more funny than anything else with how over-the-top it is, but the torture scenes proper are made super-real by the voices. Those must've been some really unique recording sessions in the clock-up offices. I hope they have thick walls...

Haha, yeah. Just wait for the voices in Maggot Baits. Euphoria’s scenes have nothing on those  

[obakekoto]

so after reading a good bit of key works  like air , kanon , rewrite , clannad and even tomoyo after I decided to dive into the infamous (little buster's). Needless to say compared to the other key works . Little busters has been really hard for me to get into. Idk , from the start the story just seems really slow and boring compared to the other key novels. The characters aren't especially likeable and just overall  doesn't draw me  into the story like all the other key novels have done in the past. I mean , does the story gets better at some point or is it just slow , boring and mundane until I reach the refrain arc? After hearing so many good things about it , I really want to get into but reading this feels like im watching paint dry.

[Dreamysyu]

14 minutes ago, obakekoto said:

so after reading a good bit of key works  like air , kanon , rewrite , clannad and even tomoyo after I decided to dive into the infamous (little buster's). Needless to say compared to the other key works . Little busters has been really hard for me to get into. Idk , from the start the story just seems really slow and boring compared to the other key novels. The characters aren't especially likeable and just overall  doesn't draw me  into the story like all the other key novels have done in the past. I mean , does the story gets better at some point or is it just slow , boring and mundane until I reach the refrain arc? After hearing so many good things about it , I really want to get into but reading this feels like im watching paint dry.

To be honest, I don't think LB is different from the earlier Key works in any major way. If you think it feels a lot worse, then it most likely just means that you burned out with Key, and their stories lost the appeal they had for you originally. I recommend stalling it for now and go read something different, and maybe return to it later, at least in a few months. You simply won't enjoy it if you continue reading it right now.

[cro-mag]

24 minutes ago, obakekoto said:

so after reading a good bit of key works  like air , kanon , rewrite , clannad and even tomoyo after I decided to dive into the infamous (little buster's). Needless to say compared to the other key works . Little busters has been really hard for me to get into. Idk , from the start the story just seems really slow and boring compared to the other key novels. The characters aren't especially likeable and just overall  doesn't draw me  into the story like all the other key novels have done in the past. I mean , does the story gets better at some point or is it just slow , boring and mundane until I reach the refrain arc? After hearing so many good things about it , I really want to get into but reading this feels like im watching paint dry.

I think i can say that all stories are like stepping stones that eventually built into what you can see in Refrain. That's where the REAL story begins. Will you like it or not - that's another thing. I can clearly see why people like this VN very much, but i don't belong to that group myself... Actually, maybe i even like first part (before Refrain) more than Refrain itself. It's just because i absolutely don't like one of MC in it. Won't spoil who it is, but that's how things are for me - story in Refrain is way more good than bad; all stepping stones, that had been built previously, lie to create rather interesting story and experience. Needless to say, this VN has one of the best parties of childhood male friends. But so unlikable character just messes badly with enjoyment that could be gotten otherwise.

Before Refrain i can at least read stories about girls i like. Although that's not the case for you it seems... Can't say i like all girls, but most of them are good. It's just so happened that MC in Refrain is the one i don't like the most so... If you like that character then that's a good possibility you can enjoy Refrain to your heart's content. If you don't... Well, maybe that doesn't matter for you and you'll still read it with pleasure. But if you don't like all characters so much, then maybe it's just not for you. Even if you will like Refrain, maybe it's not worth reading all that's need to be read to unlock it...

[r0xm2n]

Speaking of Little Busters ....... I completed Kud's route today.

I had a good cry......

 

Starting my next route ........ and I have seriously gotten addicted to the Battle Rankings.

I laughed when Kyousuke got the "Hopelessly Idiotic" title (I love his screams of agony when he gets a title too).

Meanwhile, poor, poor Riki gets the "In a Love Triangle with Kyousuke and Masato" title (since WHEN did this game turn into a Boys Love game???).

[Thyndd]

18 hours ago, Plk_Lesiak said:

And so far it's... Well, it's everything I thought it would be, but made twice as horrible by the sounds and voices. The first death scene really sets up the tone, especially with how long it is and how much the game ponders over the macabre. The opening animation is just ludicrous and more funny than anything else with how over-the-top it is, but the torture scenes proper are made super-real by the voices. Those must've been some really unique recording sessions in the clock-up offices. I hope they have thick walls...

Euphoria's opening never fails to crack me up, what with how dramatic it is  But the song is actually good! 

Have "fun" with Euphoria... once you get past the first part (the part where they are trapped, that is) it actually starts developing some plot. You'll see that it's not just nasty sex scenes.

 

[Plk_Lesiak]

So, I've reached both the Natsuki's an Rika's good endings in euphoria (also, I don't think what I'm going to say could reasonably count as spoilers, but I guess if you want to go in completely blind, don't read it?). So far, the "good" scenarios are actually less extreme than I've expected after the electric chair scene. Natsuki's route was a very good introductory arc, but the teacher-fetish pandering and ridiculousness of most of her scenes made the whole thing a bit of a self-parody and the whole scenario was not very impactful because of that. Although the VA's commentary was just awesome. She seems like a person that actually has a ton of fun with her ridiculous job.

Rika's route, on the other hand, was actually quite compelling to me. I really don't understand the hate here - she is an annoying and extremely flawed heroine, but she complements the protagonist very well, bringing both the worst and best out of him. I guess she's not a great love interest, but just because of how spoiled and annoying she started as she could grow in meaningful ways, giving both herself and the protagonist chance for redemption. When it goes to tone and satisfying conclusion, it was way more consistent and interesting than the teacher's route.

Also, it seems my gf won't be back home until tomorrow, so I think I'll go for two more routes today, obviously leaving Kanae's for last. As much as I don't care for the h-scenes (for torture ones for obvious reasons and consensual ones because of how dumb and immersion-breaking they are - would you really want to have sex just after being brutally beaten-up and still being held hostage, wtf?), "The Cube"-like scenario and seeing different character's reactions to being chosen by the protagonist are very intriguing. All obviously brought-down by the need of constant fanservice, but I still enjoy the main narrative quite a lot.

1 hour ago, Thyndd said:

Have "fun" with Euphoria... once you get past the first part (the part where they are trapped, that is) it actually starts developing some plot. You'll see that it's not just nasty sex scenes.

I know that's completely against what everyone is saying about this game, but so far, I actually find the death-game parts much more interesting than the portions outside of the facility. The interactions between the characters could be more fleshed out, but the premise of the protagonist fighting with his tendencies and every heroine both unleashing and limiting his urges in different ways is actually more intriguing to me than any conspiracy behind it all. Just like I wouldn't change the ending of The Cube, here I would be fine with no explanation at all, if the game would have expanded on protagonist's crimes and redemption, and generally the relationships between the characters during their confinement. :>

Edited December 26, 2018 by Plk_Lesiak

[Alcorin]

Hey, y’all mind if I whine about needless shock value for a bit? Thamks.

I’ve just started Deathdays End as a break from Clannad’s slow slice of life (I’ve gotten a tad bored of it, whoops), I’m only about an hour in, but I’ve got beef with one (quite spoilery, so beware) scene. So! In the first scenario, one of the main characters finds this little girl, right? She’s about 8 years old, has no family (as they all got wiped out in the mini-pocalypse that had just befallen the world) nor friends and will most probably not survive a day in the state that she’s in, so he takes her with him. I thought, cool, maybe they’re setting up a The Walking Dead-esque thing with those two, like, the guy is going to take care of and protect the girl, and there’s going to be a growing relationship between the two, maybe some drama, and we’re going to have some cool themes to explore… But nope. Half of an hour in, the girl just ups and does a Sayori. And I’m just like… what? Why? Why the fuck did that have to happen? There was no build-up, no real reason behind it, it just came out of the left fucking field… At this time, I really think that it was done purely for shock value - “ooooh look, the poor innocent little girl just hanged herself, isn’t that horrible?! Don’t you feel bad?!!”. Like… no. I mean, I do, but not for that reason. I just feel… Cheated, I guess? Or maybe disappointed would be a better word for it? It’s just such a transparent attempt to shock the reader and make them feel sad, it just makes my teeth grind. Am I too harsh? I don’t think I am. This whole mess is pretty much this scene:

(Btw, I recommend Terrible Writing Advice, it’s a great show)

Ok, I’m done with my ranting for now. I hope it gets better later on

Edited December 27, 2018 by Alcorin
Spoke too soon. It does get better XD

[Plk_Lesiak]

Speaking of grimdark and questionable shock value, I'm done with euphoria (once more, no real spoilers incoming, but vague impressions/hints that some people might still want to avoid before reading the VN)!

And well, it was... Something. I mean, I'm not sure even how to describe the post-death game part. Discount Higurashi with porn? That could work. It was all... Serviceable, but really not much beyond that. The true ending also wasn't that rewarding. There were some really cool ideas (the bait-and-switch in the final route was very cool in theory), but the way things played out in the end... I really had no clear reaction to it and considering I've spent two whole days with this game, that's pretty sad. I should feel more after following these characters and storyline for so long.

After Natsuki and Rika, I went for Rinne... It started really strong, but once more, the epilogue part was just plain weird and confusing. Even after finishing the whole game and learning additional details to her backstory and personality, it didn't make much sense to me, but even beyond that, it was pretty... Alienating? The ending had very little emotional impact IMHO. Also, by that time the various "shocking" scenes lost their novelty so much that I wasn't reacting to them at all, especially considering how little most of the characters deserved compassion. This is a general complaint - this type of game should make you feel sympathetic for the characters to be effective in its storytelling, but euphoria pretty much undermines that in every route (and, of course, with the unbelievably dumb h-scene dialogue). I guess what's left is just weird porn, which, by the midpoint, was pretty much neither disturbing nor hot (Rinne's route, BTW, probably came the closest to, at times, actually being hot, with the genuine connection between her and the protagonist - one which, of course, fell apart later and never returned).

Nemu's route was pretty much exactly what I expected it to be and made even more interesting after you know the full picture. The hints are fun and the struggle between her and the protagonist intriguing.

And the final route is... Messy and anticlimactic? I didn't buy into pretty much anything in it when it goes to character's interactions, and the main reveal was even more lukewarm than I've expected. The dynamic between the protagonist and Kanae was a bit weird, but most importantly, made completely meaningless by the later events. The premise behind the death games was just edgy nonsense.

But, well, I can't say it didn't try to do some interesting things beyond the insane variety of disturbing porn, and didn't have its genuinely captivating moments, even if those were relatively few and far between. 6,5/10

Edited December 27, 2018 by Plk_Lesiak

[Dreamysyu]

So, done with Aselia's route. I wanted to make a mini-review of the game at this point, but, to be honest, I have too many conflicting thoughts about the game right now, and I need to let them sink for a while to turn my thoughts into a reasonable form.

The last battle was a bit annoying though. It wasn't particularly difficult, but continuously moving the squads from one part of the dungeon to another kind of killed my enjoyment.

I'm not sure I'm going to read all the routes though. It feels from the story structure that the differences between routes is pretty small, and replaying all the battles for 7 times might be a bit too much. On the other hand, I just found on the fan-translators' forum that if you max out the stats of all the characters in super-hard mode and then play the game in the easy mode, and then you will apparently be able to finish all battles very quickly and without much thinking. I don't know, I'll see how it goes.

Also,

Spoiler

did they seriously call their daughter Euphoria?

I'll try going for Lesteena next, I guess.

[Fred the Barber]

On 12/26/2018 at 5:52 AM, r0xm2n said:

(since WHEN did this game turn into a Boys Love game???).

Actually, the dudes are exactly the reason Little Busters is a good game. The girls are just window dressing and a way to get you to spend some time with the characters and learn to like them all. In the end, it's all about the bromance.

[Stormwolf]

34 minutes ago, Fred the Barber said:

Actually, the dudes are exactly the reason Little Busters is a good game. The girls are just window dressing and a way to get you to spend some time with the characters and learn to like them all. In the end, it's all about the bromance.

Yep, i agree. This is about tje bro's. And rin i guess.