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Posted

Does anyone know what the characters are saying at the end of the credits in Ef: The First Tale? I just finished it, but I'm having this reccurring issue of the credit screen being completely black, so I can't see anything. I would really like to know what they were talking about, so I'd be very grateful if someone could give me an answer. (And even more grateful if someone could help me solve the black screen issue itself, which I created a topic about here just now.)

I tried searching for a video of the ending and accidentally ended up spoiling myself because someone wrote this in a title:

Spoiler

"Yuuko's death."

 

Posted

Reading Kira*Kira...........

........................

Spoiler

WTF game!?

Are you serious!?

WHY DO THE MOST TRAGIC THINGS ALWAYS SEEM TO HAPPEN TO THE HAPPIEST LOOKING CHARACTERS!?

 

....... it's not like she died for The Mission (like say in Muv-Luv Alternative).

...... and it's not like I'm reading a KEY VN (which at least gives you a golden true end, where you can save her, and live happily).

........ and I didn't even trigger a Bad End Flag (game just goes on to chapter 4 like nothing happened)!

 

NOPE! She's dead, seemingly for no good reason.

Seemingly because the universe hated her....

:(

Posted

....... I'm still somewhat shaken over what happened.

Last time I was kept up at night like that was.....

(Clannad spoilers)

Spoiler

Nagisa's death scene

...... the two scenes were somewhat similar too....

Posted (edited)

I finished Eden* last week, and man was that a trip. Despite the length, the time spent with Sion felt genuine and precious. What stood out to me was how expressive everyone was. Even if it was basic, just having animation for the characters saying their lines made them feel more alive. I remember specifically Elica and Sion having scenes where it would show them from different perspectives, not something I've seen that often.

Spoiler

eden*.full.76424.jpgeden*.full.76065.jpgImage result for eden visual novel elica

I swear it's the music that makes these kind of games get to you. I enjoyed the soundtrack, and would get misty eyed with a couple songs in particular. This track in particular hit hard. Sion's theme fit so well, and felt bittersweet in so many ways. It's a shame that the ost was a bit hard to find, considering the quality.

I enjoyed it overall, and recommend it to anyone interested in reading a short yet high quality end of the world love story. Just be careful with those feels though.

 

 

On another note, I've been rereading The Fruit of Grisaia from the very beginning for the second time since MangaGamer released the unrated version not too long ago.

I forgot most of what happened in the common route, and have been enjoying it my second time through. I know it's the MangaGamer version for sure since there's some scenes that caught me off guard when I read them, thinking "wait there's no way this was in the steam version lol". It's interesting to read again having completed most of the routes. Plenty of foreshadowing, and an altogether different perspective. There's been a couple times where I've turned off the in-game music, and can see that scene in a completely different light. It's all so good. I'm taking it pretty slow to let it all seep in naturally instead of rushing through it all at once like I did when I first read it.

Funny enough, I'm planning to follow the same route format I did the first time around
Yumiko > Michiru > Sachi > Amane > Makina

My reason for reading it again:

Spoiler

0YJLwSy.png

 

Edited by dwaif
Posted (edited)

Just finished Utewarerumono mask of truth 

Spoiler

 

Ohh boy was this a giant mixed bag of feelings. The character design, the way the story was told it was all top notch. It made me engrossed in the experience, but i enjoyed the gameplay as well, the little we got of it. But the story it told was just not as good. Up until the war was over it was amazing, yes, but i never liked this protagonist being someone else trope. Anyway, after the war ended it slowly devolved into a typical cliche anime storyline with the over the top villain who is evil for no reason, and somehow that gets solved as well, but he does evil things anyway! Need that final god'ish fight to be a proper jrpg! Well, that's what makes jrpg's bad, at least during their endings if you ask me. And to top it all we have the kamikaze protagonist again who's more or less looking for a reason to sacrifice his own life for the cause. At some point he stops looking for ways which will include him surviving and just taking the easy way, which ends his life. Again, sick stuff which is seemingly "romantic" in japan, for who knows what reason.

All in all, it was not worth the 60 hours i spent on it. It would have been better if it ended at the halfway point or if they sliced away the, i'll be brutally honest, fucking stupid ending sequence. Not to mention ending a trilogy on a open ended note. That's terrible in it's own right.

 

 

Edited by Stormwolf
Posted
13 hours ago, Stormwolf said:

Just finished Utewarerumono mask of truth 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Ohh boy was this a giant mixed bag of feelings. The character design, the way the story was told it was all top notch. It made me engrossed in the experience, but i enjoyed the gameplay as well, the little we got of it. But the story it told was just not as good. Up until the war was over it was amazing, yes, but i never liked this protagonist being someone else trope. Anyway, after the war ended it slowly devolved into a typical cliche anime storyline with the over the top villain who is evil for no reason, and somehow that gets solved as well, but he does evil things anyway! Need that final god'ish fight to be a proper jrpg! Well, that's what makes jrpg's bad, at least during their endings if you ask me. And to top it all we have the kamikaze protagonist again who's more or less looking for a reason to sacrifice his own life for the cause. At some point he stops looking for ways which will include him surviving and just taking the easy way, which ends his life. Again, sick stuff which is seemingly "romantic" in japan, for who knows what reason.

All in all, it was not worth the 60 hours i spent on it. It would have been better if it ended at the halfway point or if they sliced away the, i'll be brutally honest, fucking stupid ending sequence. Not to mention ending a trilogy on a open ended note. That's terrible in it's own right.

 

 

Mostly agree.

Spoiler

I also hated how the game forced that entire last segment; it feels like you've "won", but the antagonist pulls some crap out of his ass because the game wants some epic final showdown of the heroes against impossible odds. And, of course, it uses the romanticised heroic sacrifice of the MC suiciding to defend his friends. I hate kamikaze endings every bit as much as you.

However, I disagree on the final notion. I didn't like how they did the ending, but the game wasn't ruined for me. I still loved it a lot and it's been an amazing saga to play. It's a bittersweet feeling due to a bad ending scene, but it hardly negates the many hours of great game, for me.

 

Posted
5 hours ago, Jun Inoue said:

Mostly agree.

  Hide contents

I also hated how the game forced that entire last segment; it feels like you've "won", but the antagonist pulls some crap out of his ass because the game wants some epic final showdown of the heroes against impossible odds. And, of course, it uses the romanticised heroic sacrifice of the MC suiciding to defend his friends. I hate kamikaze endings every bit as much as you.

However, I disagree on the final notion. I didn't like how they did the ending, but the game wasn't ruined for me. I still loved it a lot and it's been an amazing saga to play. It's a bittersweet feeling due to a bad ending scene, but it hardly negates the many hours of great game, for me.

 

Spoiler

 

But the ending was so incomplete and straight up silly. Haku was pushed back from "heaven" and still wasn't really there, then why? Kuon kept looking for him, and finally seemed to find him, but as what? Something intangible or with physical form?

Why didn't they give at least some of those girls a guy, now they're all looking for Haku as some harem member... WHY? Atuy at least should have been matched with that prince, and similarly with others so that Kuon ended up as the true heroine without a shadow of a doubt, even though she is, which makes everything just weird and straight up unnecessary.

There is much to like about this game, but there is much senselessness as well. Let's say i'd never end a saga on such a vague, albeit mostly happy note.

 

 

Posted (edited)

32703.jpg

So, I finally finished Midori no Umi after having it stalled for a while. The wannabe translation taken aside, this was still a rather bizarre experience. The VN somehow tries to be a simple moege while bombarding you with bad endings non-stop. It did manage to keep things interesting for a while though, the whole idea of the lost mansion in the woods certainly had potential. Unfortunately the execution was quite lacking.

Plot based VN's take a certain responsibility to handle characters and events at least with a minimum of maturity and credibility, or the story will fall flat on its face. But at times I was just flabbergasted about the lack of common sense characters were showing. Let's take Sara for example, even if she was probably my favorite character, when thinking things through, she might even be one of the worst.

Spoiler

In contrast to the other characters, she had pretty much all possibilities to change things. Not even considering that she was almost a mixture of James Bond, Ethan Hunt and Bruce Lee with tremendous physical capabilities, the simple reason that she always had a connection to the outside made me question why the heck she just didn't call the fu**ing police?! They'd have a field party to get an organization busted that literally specializes in child murder and captivity. As much as I liked her, she was certainly not the brightest light. :amane:

And the way how people go crazy at this place (including yourself) was just out of this world. Considering that they had literally everything they need for a comfortable living, including nice and helpful people around them, it was just bizarre.

Spoiler

I actually thought for a good while, that the place was actually located in a meta or dream world. And I wish it would. The whole killings would have made more sense if you have to 'die' to wake up or get back. It was even hard to blame Michiru, considering that she was manipulated by that adult woman (i've forgotten her name) and the people there actually DID go crazy at a ridiculous pace. Though I'm pretty sure that Tsumugi just wanted to get rid of everyone she found annoying - speaking of 'return of the killer loli's'. :P

Overall, I think this VN would have been better if they just made it a simple moege in a unique setting. The VN has very high production values, with good visuals and some very captivating sound tracks. It's a real pity that they were wasted for such a poorly written story.

Heroine ranking: Sara > Chisha > Haina > Michiru > Tsumugi > Rikuno = Sorane

Overall rating: 5.5/10 (I would have given a 6, but I've substracted half a grade for the translation)

Edited by ChaosRaven
Posted
2 hours ago, ChaosRaven said:

32703.jpg

So, I finally finished Midori no Umi after having it stalled for a while. The wannabe translation taken aside, this was still a rather bizarre experience. The VN somehow tries to be a simple moege while bombarding you with bad endings non-stop. It did manage to keep things interesting for a while though, the whole idea of the lost mansion in the woods certainly had potential. Unfortunately the execution was quite lacking.

Plot based VN's take a certain responsibility to handle characters and events at least with a minimum of maturity and credibility, or the story will fall flat on its face. But at times I was just flabbergasted about the lack of common sense characters were showing. Let's take Sara for example, even if she was probably my favorite character, when thinking things through, she might even be one of the worst.

  Hide contents

In contrast to the other characters, she had pretty much all possibilities to change things. Not even considering that she was almost a mixture of James Bond, Ethan Hunt and Bruce Lee with tremendous physical capabilities, the simple reason that she always had a connection to the outside made me question why the heck she just didn't call the fu**ing police?! They'd have a field party to get an organization busted that literally specializes in child murder and captivity. As much as I liked her, she was certainly not the brightest light. :amane:

And the way how people go crazy at this place (including yourself) was just out of this world. Considering that they had literally everything they need for a comfortable living, including nice and helpful people around them, it was just bizarre.

  Hide contents

I actually thought for a good while, that the place was actually located in a meta or dream world. And I wish it would. The whole killings would have made more sense if you have to 'die' to wake up or get back. It was even hard to blame Michiru, considering that she was manipulated by that adult woman (i've forgotten her name) and the people there actually DID go crazy at a ridiculous pace. Though I'm pretty sure that Tsumugi just wanted to get rid of everyone she found annoying - speaking of 'return of the killer loli's'. :P

Overall, I think this VN would have been better if they just made it a simple moege in a unique setting. The VN has very high production values, with good visuals and some very captivating sound tracks. It's a real pity that they were wasted for such a poorly written story.

Heroine ranking: Sara > Chisha > Haina > Michiru > Tsumugi > Rikuno = Sorane

Overall rating: 5.5/10 (I would have given a 6, but I've substracted half a grade for the translation)

Spoiler

And i just wanted Michuru to be arrested after getting out. Some things are beyond forgiveness, and what she's been doing is. It was a trash vn, even though it was entertaining while everything was still a mystery.

 

Posted

Can anyone here clarify a bit what's changed in Rewrite+ compared to the original? I know it includes Harvest Festa, new CG's, more voiced dialogue and whatnot, but the part about "direction and scenario improvements by Tanaka Romeo" doesn't really tell me much. Are there any actual changes or additions to the plot, or is this just a matter of refining the dialogue?
I'm trying to decide if it's worth rereading the entire VN when it's eventually released, or if I should just read Harvest Festa and be done with it.

Posted
2 hours ago, Seraphim88 said:

Can anyone here clarify a bit what's changed in Rewrite+ compared to the original? I know it includes Harvest Festa, new CG's, more voiced dialogue and whatnot, but the part about "direction and scenario improvements by Tanaka Romeo" doesn't really tell me much. Are there any actual changes or additions to the plot, or is this just a matter of refining the dialogue?
I'm trying to decide if it's worth rereading the entire VN when it's eventually released, or if I should just read Harvest Festa and be done with it.

Spoiler

I think its a ending cg which gives a good ending like the anime. Original ending was a bit depressing.

 

Posted

Most of the characters were either impossible to symphathize with or just flat out boring, but other than that, the ending was probably the biggest disappointment. It felt pretty hollow and unrewarding after going through so much.

Posted
6 minutes ago, Seraphim88 said:

Most of the characters were either impossible to symphathize with or just flat out boring, but other than that, the ending was probably the biggest disappointment. It felt pretty hollow and unrewarding after going through so much.

Yep, felt the same about the ending. After 50+ hours i don't want to be rewarded with a crap ending. It was crap in more ways than one, but the other reason won't be fixed. Ill use age as a hint.

Posted

Yeah, agreed. It also gave me flashbacks to the intolerable, pseudo-deep nonsense that littered the Moon route, which is quite possibly the worst route I have ever read in any VN. It was like they told the writer "Hey, here's a bunch of drugs. Try 'em all and make sure to write down anything that comes to mind."

Posted (edited)

Yesterday I finished To Heart PSE

It was nice, but uneven. I've written my impressions from first seven routes in earlier posts.

So at first let's look at remaining three routes.

6013.jpg
Kotone's route was nice. Not anything spectacular, or especially romantic - for most of the time it was another of "friendship" routes - but it had some good scenes near the ending, and all in all was good and felt pretty satisfying.

6019.jpg
Rio's route was much better than I expected from reading reviews. First impression wasn't great, but she grew up on me (much like she did on MC). Also, it was interesting because here whole setup was reversed - she suddenly confesses to MC right at the beginning, while he's all "Eh? But I don't know a single thing about you! Let's start as friends and get to know each other" - and so they start to slowly build their relationship. Nice

6015.jpg
And the last one - Serika's younger sister, Ayaka. Her mini-route is exclusive to PSE version. I'd say she's definitely one of the best girls in the game, but her route didn't live up to her character. It was nice, but something was lacking - the ending felt too rushed. Still, not bad, and I absolutely loved 膝枕(lap-pillow) scenes ;)

So, to sum it up, if I had to rank routes, it would end up something like this (I will rate them in groups):

First place - Multi, Tomoko and Lemmy
Second place - Serika, Akari and Shiho
Third place - Kotone, Rio and Ayaka
Fourth place - Aoi - the only route that felt utterly disappointing for me. I liked Aoi as a character when I met her in Akari's route, but her own route bored me to death.

Art and music were nice, as well as voice acting.

All in all - nice old high-school moege. Took me pretty long time to finish (I read it in Japanese, so it was much slower), but I don't regret it.

7.5/10

Now I'm reading Yukizakura fan-disc - Saki no LoveLove Honeymoon - and after that I think I'll try Hitotsuba.

Edited by adamstan
Posted (edited)
On 23.03.2019 at 11:09 PM, namiultedjapanXD said:

Hey friend, I was curious to see if you finished this VN. Have you been able to find the time to finish it? I feel like its one of those VNs barely anyone has ever read. I liked the nice little it provided. If you did finish it, what did you think?

And so, today I finished Saki no Love Love Honeymoon. It was great. This fandisc for Yukizakura is exactly what it says on the tin - Yuuji's and Saki's summer trip to one southern island - in kind of "pre-honeymoon", as it is set between their engagement and Saki's route ending.

Pretty short, but sweet. Somehow, it has put me into extraordinarily good mood. It reminded me how great heroine Saki was (there were many moments where I just wanted to hug her), and her relationship with Yuuji is amazing as well. I loved how often they were totally in phase, understanding each other. Their conversations about future were nice too. Whole game is filled with love - including 2 h-scenes. 

Most of the game is narrated from Saki's point of view - interesting change. Also, it's kind of "crossover episode", as side characters (Yoshioka family) and setting (Matsukawa Island) come from another D.O. VN - Uminomichi. (which I added to my backlog ;))

I think I could rate this small side story even a bit higher than main game, and give it 8/10.

Also, I have to say that, for what it's worth, I found it much easier to read than ToHeart.

Like I said in my previous post, for my next VN I'm going to go back to the translated world, and read Hitotsuba, I think.

Edited by adamstan
Posted

Finally completed Ef. While the continuously shifting perspectives made it rather difficult for me to root for a specific relationship, I quite liked the relationship between Amamiya Yuuko and Himura Yuu. I was spoiled by 

Spoiler

Yuuko's past and her subsequent death

but that didn't stop me from enjoying the story of Yuuko and Yuu. Well, that's as far as what I liked about Ef though, because I felt that the other relationships were kind of lacking as compared to Yuuko and Yuu. Overall, I'm gonna give it a 7.

Posted (edited)

I started Hitotsu Yane no, Tsubasa no Shita de - Under one wing.

First impressions - I like the characters, but their design... ugh... the artist went totally overboard with those boobs. Kyonyuu high-school girls definitely aren't my thing. Well, Hikari seems to look normal. Kazusa - it depends on the pose, in CGs she's normal, but sprites also are somewhat off. But Nohoko and Saiko - come on, gimme a break! Those balloons sticked to their chests aren't sexy, they're ridiculous, as they seem just tacked on - proportions seem to be completely off. If they toned it down from current E+++ to something like D it would have been much better.

And then, at the opposite end is flat Mimarin ;)

Let's see how it turns out.

Edited by adamstan
Posted
On 4/22/2019 at 4:22 PM, Seraphim88 said:

but the part about "direction and scenario improvements by Tanaka Romeo" doesn't really tell me much.

Sorry for the late reply.

From what I heard, they just added an extra hour of new content in the Terra route to explain

Spoiler

how exactly MC and Kagari fell in love in that route.

If I'm not mistaken, the rest of the story is the same.

As for the CGs, I looked through the CG pack for Rewrite+ and was pretty disappointed. There are several new CGs for Terra, and some CGs in the previous routes were edited to look more "fanservicey", but that's it.

And the anime is very bad. Literally one of the worst I ever watched. The type that makes the original work seem worse than it's actually is. If you didn't even liked the original game, I don't see much point in you watching it.

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