What are you playing?

[Thyndd]

I'm done with Lucia's route. Moving onto Chihaya now 

Spoiler

So dumb. So much so that the only explanation I could find is that even if Lucia's poison doesn't kill you it will still leave you with serious brain damage, and not even Lucia herself is immune to that. Why did this route turn into such clown fiesta? 

I don't even know what to say anymore. I'm outta here.

 

[Dreamysyu]

1 hour ago, Thyndd said:

I'm done with Lucia's route. Moving onto Chihaya now 

  Hide contents

So dumb. So much so that the only explanation I could find is that even if Lucia's poison doesn't kill you it will still leave you with serious brain damage, and not even Lucia herself is immune to that. Why did this route turn into such clown fiesta? 

I don't even know what to say anymore. I'm outta here.

 

 

If you are talking about the ending, then yeah, it's pretty dumb. To be honest, I often notice that pretty much all Ryukishi's works tend to have a bit of childish nativity in them. I feel that it actually adds to experience in both Higurashi and Umineko, but it's also the reason why I didn't really enjoy his later works as much.

But, still, I personally liked Lucia's route. It was the first Ryukishi's work I read, and it made me interested in him enough that I decided to check out Higurashi anime, and later Umineko visual novel, which became my most favorite VN ever. [/spoiler]

Btw, my personal route ranking for this VN is something like that:

Terra = Moon > Akane > Lucia > Kotori >> Chihaya >> Shizuru.

Well, it was my first VN ever, and my tastes definitely changed since then, so I'll probably change the ranking after I eventually replay it.

Edited August 28, 2018 by Dreamysyu

[alpacaman]

I've reached the last route or "Saga" (as the VN calls is) of Cho Dengeki Stryker. As long as the writers don't mess that one up horribly the VN is a pretty fun read.

It's really good at mocking many of the tropes you would expect from a superhero vs. evil empire story aimed at children like the villains and protagonist living next door without recognizing each other in their civilian outfits. But it still manages to always take its characters serious enough to keep the reader engaged. The story gets darker than I expected (the whole Mirror thing is pretty messed up) which really helps the VN imo because this way it feels like there really is something at stake and it shakes up the black/white morals you often get in these kinds of stories. The only real weakness imo was Haruna's character because she is too one-dimensional and stereotypical for her importance to the overall plot, which weakens the impact of some of the more emotional scenes.

Spoiler

On a spoilery side note, the sex scene in her route is just placed sooo stupidly and I really don't know if it's a really clever meta joke or just lazy writing. After learning that they only have eight hours to save their own lifes and the ones of nearly everyone they know, everyone else present at the time conveniently leaves the room so she and and the protagonist can bang. And guess what happens: Many people die because of Yamato saving the day just before the time limit runs out, including of course Haruna! Only the power of Deus ex Machina brings her back.

Additionally there is another route that builds on hers, only without the sex scene (because you pursued a different girl) and here the protagonist makes it in time to at least save Haruna. I mean, this has to be by design, hasn't it?

 

[Thyndd]

1 hour ago, Dreamysyu said:

  Hide contents

If you are talking about the ending, then yeah, it's pretty dumb. To be honest, I often notice that pretty much all Ryukishi's works tend to have a bit of childish nativity in them. I feel that it actually adds to experience in both Higurashi and Umineko, but it's also the reason why I didn't really enjoy his later works as much.

But, still, I personally liked Lucia's route. It was the first Ryukishi's work I read, and it made me interested in him enough that I decided to check out Higurashi anime, and later Umineko visual novel, which became my most favorite VN ever. [/spoiler]

Btw, my personal route ranking for this VN is something like that:

Terra = Moon > Akane > Lucia > Kotori >> Chihaya >> Shizuru.

Well, it was my first VN ever, and my tastes definitely changed since then, so I'll probably change the ranking after I eventually replay it.

 

Yeah, I'm talking about the "ending", which would be everything that transpires after the date. It's not only dumb, but also so out of character... While reading I was thinking "has everyone gone suddenly nuts?". You know you are acting like a retard when it's freaking Chihaya who calls it out btw 

The thing is, I was really enjoying this route, even with the little inconvenients that I mentioned in previous posts. That's why I flipped a table. For me this is equivalent to simply end the route abruptly without an ending at all. Give me back my characters and make a proper ending please!! 

 

[Ranzo]

3 hours ago, Thyndd said:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Yeah, I'm talking about the "ending", which would be everything that transpires after the date. It's not only dumb, but also so out of character... While reading I was thinking "has everyone gone suddenly nuts?". You know you are acting like a retard when it's freaking Chihaya who calls it out btw 

The thing is, I was really enjoying this route, even with the little inconvenients that I mentioned in previous posts. That's why I flipped a table. For me this is equivalent to simply end the route abruptly without an ending at all. Give me back my characters and make a proper ending please!! 

 

Spoiler

Yeahhh, that ending was always a bit shit for me it just seemed to drag on and on. The whole mall fight was excruciating and Kotarou kept acting like a dumbass till the end. Still she is definitely one of my favorite characters and her route had some of the best moments in vns that I've played.

 

Edited August 28, 2018 by Ranzo

[littleshogun]

If this could help, the Lucus's route was written by Ryukishi07 in which it's obviously make the tone different from the rest. As for Koutarou at Lucia's route, I would like to guess that it's probably Ryukishi's style to have him written like that.

[Ranzo]

Moved back to playing Hatsukoi again for some reason, I guess cuz I like Maya and Kyou a lot and want to finish their routes. Let the loud shit talking of the pussy ass, bitch ass, herb busta protag recommence.

Edited September 1, 2018 by Ranzo

[adamstan]

I think we may need some way to more clearly distinguish this VN (Hatsukoi 1/1) as there is another game named JUST "Hatsukoi", which is totally different. But I have no idea how... maybe adding vndb link under the title whenever it's mentioned? Of course "1/1" is much more famous, so maybe there's no big risk of confusion?

[littleshogun]

5 hours ago, adamstan said:

I think we may need some way to more clearly distinguish this VN (Hatsukoi 1/1) as there is another game named JUST "Hatsukoi", which is totally different. But I have no idea how... maybe adding vndb link under the title whenever it's mentioned? Of course "1/1" is much more famous, so maybe there's no big risk of confusion?

Add VNDB link is always the viable option, but as for how I distinguish it I'd call Hatsukoi 1/1 as HatsuKoi there - note that I'd use capital 'K'. Oh and Hatsukoi there is definitely less popular one lol.

Edited September 1, 2018 by littleshogun

[snowbell55]

I've been reading The Fruit of Grisaia and enjoying it thus far. I find that it looks (on the surface) similar to a lot of stuff I've read, but yet it keeps subverting my expectations, so I'm very interested to see how it winds up in the end. I like the background art, though, and the music isn't bad either. I also can't help but notice that I'm not exactly the biggest fan of Yuuji, but it's admittedly refreshing for him to be the way he is rather than the more generic "I've done loads of part time jobs" "superman" that Masaya and Takumi were from Princess Evangile and Noble Works respectively. So far though, the standout has to be Michiru who is, frankly, hilarious. They chose a GREAT VA for her, and whenever she starts whining, there's this kind of high pitched twing in her voice that makes her sound really frustrated. It's hilarious :D. And the things that Michiru does (and doesn't do) just wind up being so ridiculous and funny. I usually try and save my favorite heroine for last, and I'm having a hard time deciding whether or not I want that to be Michiru or Amane. It's strange - usually I wind up binging a VN (even ones I'm not super enthused for), and that hasn't happened here, but I'm still enjoying it a bunch. We'll see how it goes.

[Acrylic7]

Just play Fate/Hollow Ataraxia until last chapter. But cannot finish it since I cannot trigger event to advance the plot. Anyway, I already watch the rest via youtube. Really like the ending. Make me want to play Fate Stay Night even though I already watch the anime years ago. 

[r0xm2n]

What I'm Playing?

Currently that's ordering parts for my new PC, and getting my Dad to build it. I started actually ordering parts just now.

My return to reading VN's is imminent (now on an awesome 27inch monitor).

 

21 hours ago, snowbell55 said:

I've been reading The Fruit of Grisaia and enjoying it thus far. I find that it looks (on the surface) similar to a lot of stuff I've read, but yet it keeps subverting my expectations, so I'm very interested to see how it winds up in the end. I like the background art, though, and the music isn't bad either. I also can't help but notice that I'm not exactly the biggest fan of Yuuji, but it's admittedly refreshing for him to be the way he is rather than the more generic "I've done loads of part time jobs" "superman" that Masaya and Takumi were from Princess Evangile and Noble Works respectively. So far though, the standout has to be Michiru who is, frankly, hilarious. They chose a GREAT VA for her, and whenever she starts whining, there's this kind of high pitched twing in her voice that makes her sound really frustrated. It's hilarious :D. And the things that Michiru does (and doesn't do) just wind up being so ridiculous and funny. I usually try and save my favorite heroine for last, and I'm having a hard time deciding whether or not I want that to be Michiru or Amane. It's strange - usually I wind up binging a VN (even ones I'm not super enthused for), and that hasn't happened here, but I'm still enjoying it a bunch. We'll see how it goes.

Nice to see a new person reading Grisaia.

What I love about Yuuji is his hilarious inner monologues. Guy has an interesting way of looking at the world....

You like "ChiruChiru"s voice now? Wait till you read her route (especially her goofy, and downright CUTE laughs). Honestly, she's still my favorite VN girl ever

Amane's route is ...... pretty special too ...... for entirely different reasons ....

[Thyndd]

I've read Chihaya's and Shizuru's route from Rewrite. Now I only have Akane left and then I'll move onto Moon and Terra, which I assume are like the true routes of the game (?).

Welp, I'll share my opinion on these two routes.

Chihaya:

Spoiler

It was a pretty dull route tbh, but I can't say it was too boring either. It's just nothing special. The characters were bland (Chihaya had more development during Lucia's route than in her own, which is just sad) and the situations felt uncompelling and a lot of times rushed. It also tried to follow the "law of the coolest", which says something like "everything is allowed in a shounen as long as it's cool enough", but failed miserably at it producing some very absurd scenes. As much as I trashed it, it's still decent enough "filler" and it introduces some handy concepts for Shizuru's route, so it's not just a waste of time.

Shizuru:

Spoiler

I feel very conflicted about this route. The writing was pretty bad, the building and tension the story needed were nowhere to be found, and everything felt disconnected. On the other hand, I really liked the content of this route. And Shizuru, she's so precious . It's also the first time I got to see Guardian failing and humanity being wiped out. I'd really want some more info about how that shelter is able to protect people from a supernatural cataclism, but oh well, I guess it's not that hard to accept something like that may exist in that setting. Plus it was seemingly built by a more advanced civilization, so that'd explain why Guardian couldn't create an evacuation plan in case they didn't make it. 

The ending makes sense as I understand it. If Kotarou didn't cut off his connection to Shizuru they both would've died eventually, so it was really the only option. Yeah ok, it's pretty dumb that it all came to that due to a totally meaningless forest trip, and even though real life is in most cases meaningless, we expect meaning in fiction at least, so I can see why someone may see this as disappointing. In any case, having Sakuya's precedent, Kotarou's transforming into a tree didn't quite come out of the blue and I think it has a kinda beautiful poetic, symbolic meaning to it.

This could've been such a great route if only the writing was better though... As is, it's just good.

My current rating on the routes, without considering my personal fondness for the heroines, goes like this: Kotori > Lucia=Shizuru >> Chihaya. 

Spoiler

Now it's time to join Al-Qaeda for good and help end this miserable world 

 

Edited September 3, 2018 by Thyndd

[alpacaman]

On 28.8.2018 at 8:53 PM, alpacaman said:

I've reached the last route or "Saga" (as the VN calls is) of Cho Dengeki Stryker. As long as the writers don't mess that one up horribly the VN is a pretty fun read.

It's really good at mocking many of the tropes you would expect from a superhero vs. evil empire story aimed at children like the villains and protagonist living next door without recognizing each other in their civilian outfits. But it still manages to always take its characters serious enough to keep the reader engaged. The story gets darker than I expected (the whole Mirror thing is pretty messed up) which really helps the VN imo because this way it feels like there really is something at stake and it shakes up the black/white morals you often get in these kinds of stories. The only real weakness imo was Haruna's character because she is too one-dimensional and stereotypical for her importance to the overall plot, which weakens the impact of some of the more emotional scenes.

  Reveal hidden contents

On a spoilery side note, the sex scene in her route is just placed sooo stupidly and I really don't know if it's a really clever meta joke or just lazy writing. After learning that they only have eight hours to save their own lifes and the ones of nearly everyone they know, everyone else present at the time conveniently leaves the room so she and and the protagonist can bang. And guess what happens: Many people die because of Yamato saving the day just before the time limit runs out, including of course Haruna! Only the power of Deus ex Machina brings her back.

Additionally there is another route that builds on hers, only without the sex scene (because you pursued a different girl) and here the protagonist makes it in time to at least save Haruna. I mean, this has to be by design, hasn't it?

 

The last route was an appropriate finale for the VN. I thought it could have done something more interesting with its setup but went for the "even bigger final boss". Still It wrapped everything up nicely and its message never seemed too forced.

 

Since then I have picked up Root Double and finished the first 1 1/4 routes. The comparisons to the Zero Escape series are pretty obvious with the story starting out in a deserted but inescapable facility and the story using similar supernatural/sci-fi concepts. But it does enough things differently to not just seem like a clone, e.g. the plot has no real branches except for bad endings but it's still told in a non-linear fashion which so far is done well.

The only thing that's really annoying me so far is the choice system. Instead of just presenting you with multiple choices there is a mechanic where you pick a value from 0-8 for every character affected by your next action with a higher number meaning you having "higher senses" for them. While sounding interesting in theory it's never quite clear beforehand if having higher senses for someone means trusting them more, caring more for them, having confidence in them or whatever and depending on the situation this can lead to the protagonist doing the opposite of what you wanted him to do. And there are nearly no decisions where you need other values than 1, 4 or 8 to progress, so having such a nuanced system seems like a waste.

[Dreamysyu]

Rewrite spoilers

Spoiler

3 hours ago, Thyndd said:

This could've been such a great route if only the writing was better though... As is, it's just good.

Yeah, I agree. I personally really liked everything that happened after that happened after that bike chase scene, and the ending was literally my favorite in the whole VN. On the other hand, overall I felt that this route was simply very boring to read. Chihaya's route was overall pretty entertaining and introduced some interesting concepts, but overall it's just way to dumb to be taken seriously and has a ton of plot holes. Tonokawa really did a much better job writing the routes for Little Busters than for Rewrite. I don't know, maybe he just can't write more action-oriented stories.

Well, the remaining three routes are written by the same guy who wrote Kotori, and I expect you to like them.

 

Edited September 3, 2018 by Dreamysyu

[Dreamysyu]

Well, as for me, excluding the time when I was on a vacation or too busy with irl problems, I was mostly trying to finish Grisaia trilogy. It took me a while to finish Meikyuu (I started it last winter, but stalled it a few times and only finished it recently) but my overall impression over it is still very positive. The after-stories were nice and funny overall, even though they lacked any kind of actual plot, and I kind of enjoyed reading all of them excluding Yumiko's. In case of Sachi, strangely enough, I somehow enjoyed her after-story a lot more than her actual route. As for the Grand route, I can't describe it as anything other than fantastic.

On the other hand, I'm currently about 30 per cent into Rakuen, and so far it's very unsatisfying comparing it to the earlier parts of the trilogy. The 3rd person narrative here simply reads like bad writing, and the lack of Yuuji's inner monologues is also quite hurting the enjoyment. The comedy mostly consists of the constant bullying of Michiru, and it isn't even funny anymore, especially if you consider her backstory. And the story feels like a complete mess, with some weird new story points introduced and the lack of clear continuety with Kajitsu. Overall, yeah, I hope it gets better later, but my initial impression is already ruined.

[Thyndd]

1 hour ago, Dreamysyu said:

Well, as for me, excluding the time when I was on a vacation or too busy with irl problems, I was mostly trying to finish Grisaia trilogy. It took me a while to finish Meikyuu (I started it last winter, but stalled it a few times and only finished it recently) but my overall impression over it is still very positive. The after-stories were nice and funny overall, even though they lacked any kind of actual plot, and I kind of enjoyed reading all of them excluding Yumiko's. In case of Sachi, strangely enough, I somehow enjoyed her after-story a lot more than her actual route. As for the Grand route, I can't describe it as anything other than fantastic.

Hmm now I'm interested. Even though I loved Grisaia, I couldn't be bothered to read the sequels because I considered that there couldn't be much more that is actually worth to tell, now that everyone's past was revealed and the problems "solved". I was still considering reading Meikyuu after Rewrite though, as it's been a while since Kajitsu for me and I'm beginning to miss the characters 

Also I hope Rakuen takes a turn for the better!

[onorub]

3 hours ago, Dreamysyu said:

On the other hand, I'm currently about 30 per cent into Rakuen, and so far it's very unsatisfying comparing it to the earlier parts of the trilogy. The 3rd person narrative here simply reads like bad writing, and the lack of Yuuji's inner monologues is also quite hurting the enjoyment. The comedy mostly consists of the constant bullying of Michiru, and it isn't even funny anymore, especially if you consider her backstory. And the story feels like a complete mess, with some weird new story points introduced and the lack of clear continuety with Kajitsu. Overall, yeah, I hope it gets better later, but my initial impression is already ruined.

If you get sick of it, at least play Prologue of Grisaia before dropping it completely, because i actually liked it better than the main story.

[Inorin]

2 hours ago, onorub said:

If you get sick of it, at least play Prologue of Grisaia before dropping it completely, because i actually liked it better than the main story.

@Dreamysyu You still gotta finish the main story to unlock the prologue though

[Okarin]

Playing Chaos;Head...

I'm right after the "imouto-saving quest" scene at the building's roof (the second meeting with Shogun)... the "sono me, dare no me" chanting in the square below was amazing. This game is chuuni and strange af.

[littleshogun]

Right now I'm already at level 4 love for Misakichi back at Fureraba, so normally I should continue with that. However, right now I finally get Your Diary with Crispy patch lol, so perhaps I'll try to see of how bad the translations were. I might not be able to understand it from the text alone, but I believe that my experienced from read both of Flyable Hearts and Soukoku no Arterial will help here lol.

PS - As for Rakuen, well I treated that as one of the FD seeing that the heroines story were already over in Kajitsu, and Meikyuu did a good job to give Yuuji some background. For the plot here, I would say that you better expect Hollywood movie plot in regard of Rakuen there.

Edited September 4, 2018 by littleshogun

[adamstan]

I finished YU-NO. It was totally amazing.

The plot was great. Mind you, it's first "multiple route mystery" game that I've played, but I really enjoyed the story. I was going in order suggested in walkthrough (Mitsuki & Eriko -> Ayumi -> Mio -> Kaori -> Kanna) - which is actually the only one possible without horrendous amount of backtracking. It's awesome how the small pieces of information slowly form big picture. But then, it still all gets turned upside down in epilogue, with its many twists Also, the idea of integrating the route system itself into the story was brilliant.

From main game, I think my favourite routes were Mio and Kanna, followed by Mitsuki/Eriko route. Then there's epilogue. Actually, calling it epilogue is understatement - it is longer than some routes. Maybe "True route" would be better word choice. It presents new settings, new characters, and - at least for me - it was great. I don't know if it was the source, or if writers had same inspirations, but first part of True Route, that is

Spoiler

Takuya's new family life

had very Clannad'ish vibe to me.

Whole game also reminded me story-wise of some great western point&click adventures like Gabriel Knight, Beneath A Steel Sky or Broken Sword series.

Now onto the presentation. I absolutely loved the looks of this game. I'm fan of art style used here (and in some other old VNs, like "Season of Sakura" or "Nocturnal Illusion" - basically, mid '90s anime style drawing), and it looks great - especially considering, that it was made using 16 color pallette. Both sprites and backgrounds are incredibly detailed, characters have blinking animations, they are nicely shaded - simply beautiful. I'd dare to say that it's one of the best looking VNs I played.

Music is brilliant - unless you absolutely cannot stand FM synthesizer sounds. But I love it. I think that it gets even better in epilogue, which sports some of the best tunes in game.

And then - voice acting. Brilliant too - and that shouldn't surprise, as there are some great actors at work here. Included among that cast are my two favourite voice actresses - Aya Hisakawa (probably best known as Sailor Mercury, or - for VN players - Haruko from AIR) and Kikuko Inoue (Belldandy from Oh! My Goddess anime and Sanae from Clannad). It's a pity that remake by 5pb doesn't have those voices - the cast is entirely new.

English edition by TLWiki does great job. It's like "definitive edition" of the game, with added voice acting and additional (after-h) scenes from Sega Saturn port and HQ music from original PC-98 version. And it worked like a charm on my Win 7 laptop Translation itself is also very good - it rivals many good commercial releases. It reads very smoothly, and there were some pretty good attempts at translating some word-play jokes. I spotted only one obvious mistranslation - at one point, Takuya has to meet with one of the characters, and they agree on 22:00 (10PM), which for some reason got translated as "22 hours". Other than that - great job, it was really good to read.

The game has one serious flaw - it's literally littered with blatant fanservice. Almost every CG features pantyshot, exquisite cleavage or both - even in most serious situations - sometimes it creates unwanted mood dissonance. On the other hand, h-scenes themselves aren't bad. There is one scene per heroine, they're rather short, and writers cared enough to give them some in-story justification Also, the after-scenes (AFAIK taken from console version, where they served as h-scenes replacements) are very good, with some nice dialogues showing connection and affection between characters - even though this isn't romance game.

Point'n'click gameplay can sometimes get little tedious, but it's not a dealbreaker - especially with walkthrough .

So final score - 8.5/10, totally recommended. (if aforementioned fanservice-induced-mood-dissonance doesn't bother you, you can even raise it to 9 )

PS Kaori was a bitch Kanna best girl  (from main part, as epilogue turns everything on its head )

That CG from Kanna's bonus happy end (unlocked after beating true route) is soooo sweet

Spoiler

 

[Fred the Barber]

Dear all you people talking about Grisaia and complaining about it getting stale: seriously, give Phantom Trigger a try. Same solid humor, way better pacing.

[Dreamysyu]

21 hours ago, adamstan said:

I finished YU-NO. It was totally amazing.

I feel really ashamed that I still haven't played YU-NO myself. From what people say about it, it feels like exactly my type of VN, but I always have something that I want to play a bit more.

[BlackCatPrincess]

7 minutes ago, Dreamysyu said:

I feel really ashamed that I still haven't played YU-NO myself. From what people say about it, it feels like exactly my type of VN, but I always have something that I want to play a bit more.

Yeah me 2 especially after checking out the screens on vndb. That is the old school anime style I remember from Yatterman when I was just too young to understand anything else than Doronjo getting naked in the middle of every episode. That influenced me