What are you playing?

[Seraphim]

Currently reading Little Busters, and I heard that your stats increase for every route you finish. Does it only influence the fighting minigame, or baseball as well? Is there any point in doing that/those minigame(s) during my first playthrough or should I just wait until the last one?

[adamstan]

If memory serves, stats were important for baseball too.

Edited July 9, 2019 by adamstan

[Mr Poltroon]

Stats influence baseball, of course. They need to run and catch balls and all that good stuff. Characters are good at different things precisely because of their stats.

[Dreamysyu]

10 minutes ago, Seraphim88 said:

Currently reading Little Busters, and I heard that your stats increase for every route you finish. Does it only influence the fighting minigame, or baseball as well?

Stats in the minigames and the baseball game are the same. From what I understand, it's pretty much impossible to beat the baseball game on your first playthrough, but later it becomes a lot more trivial.

11 minutes ago, Seraphim88 said:

Is there any point in doing that/those minigame(s) during my first playthrough or should I just wait until the last one?

Well, there's not really much meaning to the minigames to begin with, so just do what you want. I'd recommend not skipping them for a few times at the beginning while you're still not tired of them, and skipping them afterwards.

[Seraphim]

Oh, I had no idea the stats were shared, but I guess that makes sense since I can't remember ever getting a stat increase from the fighting game. Anyway, I'll probably skip the minigames for now then. It kinda feels like wasted effort to struggle with it now if it'll become easier later on, especially considering the randomness of the fighting.

[r0xm2n]

The Battle Rankings were what made Little Busters common route so much fun. Don't take it seriously, and just watch the waifus battle it out.

Sometimes the RNG scripts some funny results. I swear, Komari is quite strong in the battle rankings at times....

The RNG can also script some dramatic baseball matches too (in one match, on the absolute final ball, Rin won the entire game with a home run).

[adamstan]

Yeah, battle rankings were fun - especially the titles given to losers

[littleshogun]

Still playing Damekoi, and currently at Chapter 6. And yeah it play the opening at the start of each chapter, although there's no ending song at chapter ends like back at Koi Iru though. So yeah better get used to Damekoi's opening if you interested to play it (Understandable).

Edited July 13, 2019 by littleshogun

[Seraphim]

It can be kinda annoying when games and VNs do that, but you can always skip it with a click of the mouse button if you don't feel like watching it! I think I only watched the entire thing once during my playthrough.

[Kosakyun]

Started playing KoiChoco. Was initially interested in it because of how beautiful the art was, but was a bit weirded out with the combination of themes in its title. I've been reading for around three hours, so I haven't gone far enough to really get into depth with any of the story elements.

Spoiler

I admit, having absolutely no knowledge about the story of the game really helps in keeping you invested in reading. I really like it when games tease you with the different plot points they'll be using for the different routes along the common route, so the bouts of discrimination, scandal, and politics happening in the background of the SoL scenes really helps me keep going. Chisato's weird ritual with chocolates, the fact that students need to work in a factory as part of their scholarship, and the "Oosawa incident" they keep bringing up whenever things start concerning the current Student Council President are some of these teasers they keep poking at me as a reader.

I stopped at the part before they made the internal election for the club's running representative. If there's anything I feel weird about regarding that, it's that I share the same sentiments with Oojima on the matter - it feels forced to make him participate in the elections. Feels like a super underdog story where some unknown guy suddenly wins the Super Bowl because he tried. But then again, I guess that's what makes it interesting. What kind of tactics will a club about eating sweets and snacks employ to help their representative win the hearts of the masses? How will they incorporate the overall socio-political atmosphere the school has with regard to its student population and systemic organization? How can sweets and snacks possibly make people vote for them? Will they even win? Will they even run? Aaaah, pretty damn exciting!

As for the characters, I'm liking Isara the best right now. I'm such a sucker for deredere characters. But it's pretty damn obvious that there's some deep hurting happening inside of her. She smiles too much, and too much always means something. I hope whatever her route ends up being, it deals with the issue of scholarship students nicely. I'm really excited to read her route. I'll save it for last though! By the way, she just physically hurts me whenever Oojima talks to her. Goddamn, what a ball of fluff. She fell from the heavens, with "..Aha!" as her mantra. Goddamnit, aha. That smile can kill, aha!

Spoiler

 

Yaoi sticks.

Edited July 15, 2019 by Kosakyun
...Aha!

[Ranzo]

So, I finished playing When They Cry today (which is like the first four chapters, seriously the nomenclature of this whole thing is bupkis)

Anyway, it was a good old time that was fun for the whole family, until the organs started getting removed

The only part that I found a bit wearing at times was that the events kept playing out the same way in the beginning (With some obvious shakeups)

The second part typically comes through in the end but it kind of feels like I'm trying to read a story four times in a row but I end losing my place and have to start over from the beginning

 

I also finally finished the last route in Nurse Love Syndrome. It was the chieftain in case you were wondering. I forgot how much I truly loved that vn, especially the well done epilogue (So many vns seem to either skip on it or approach it half assedly, usually with a tepid sex scene)

I think I'll play The Falconers Moonlight next since that's been languishing in my wishlist for four thousand years

 

Edited July 17, 2019 by Ranzo
Aha! (Fuck not again!)

[Seraphim]

Done with Little Busters! I finished it off by winning the baseball match, which was surprisingly easy after clearing all routes. When I tried it during my first playthrough, I got my ass handed to me, but now I won without the opposing team scoring a single point.
The baseball minigame itself feels like wasted potential. It's fun at its core, but there are two things that ruin it for me:
1. The damn cats. Don't get me wrong, I find it kinda funny how they mess around on the field, but I hate how the gameplay pauses every time one of the cats are hit by a ball, because Rin has to make a comment about it. Considering how often it happens, it gets repetitive really fast and wastes a lot of time.
2. The fact that they use separate windows for the field and where your character is. It can be pretty hard to get the swing timing right, since the ball reaches you basically at the same moment it becomes visible in the character window, and you can't really use the field window as a reference when trying to hit the ball either, due to how zoomed out it is.
If they just addressed these things, it would be much more enjoyable. It could actually make for a pretty decent mobile game.

Aaanyway...
This is most definitely one of my best VN experiences so far. Despite the extensive play time, it managed to keep me entertained for the entirety of the VN, unlike Grisaia no Kajitsu, which I also consider one of my favorite VNs but still frequently lost interest in during the common route.

I'm feeling a bit ambiguous about the true ending, though.

Spoiler

On one hand, I'm a sucker for happy endings and I'm glad that everyone made it through safely, but on the other hand, I feel like the impact would have been much bigger and more memorable if it turned out that Kyousuke couldn't be saved no matter what you do. It felt a bit too convenient how every single person was saved, more or less turning a traumatic event that the entire story was revolving around into a passing thought.

 

[Mr Poltroon]

2 hours ago, Seraphim88 said:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

On one hand, I'm a sucker for happy endings and I'm glad that everyone made it through safely, but on the other hand, I feel like the impact would have been much bigger and more memorable if it turned out that Kyousuke couldn't be saved no matter what you do. It felt a bit too convenient how every single person was saved, more or less turning a traumatic event that the entire story was revolving around into a passing thought.

 

You played Little Busters! English Edition, right? If so, have you played the three routes outside the main cast?

If so,

Spoiler

Screw Saya's route! Argh!

 

[Seraphim]

1 minute ago, Mr Poltroon said:

You played Little Busters! English Edition, right? If so, have you played the three routes outside the main cast?

Yup, I've done them all! And yeah, her route was definitely the worst. I didn't find it bad it per se, but it paled in comparison to the other ones.

Spoiler

It's mainly because I didn't enjoy the minigame, but the entire route also seemed kinda pointless due to it having no connection to the rest of the game (unless you count when Kyousuke mentions darkness executives during the unknown lifeform part of the common route).
The Idiot Riki sub-route was pretty funny though, with the rambling about convenience stores and whatnot!

 

[Mr Poltroon]

49 minutes ago, Seraphim88 said:

Yup, I've done them all! And yeah, her route was definitely the worst. I didn't find it bad it per se, but it paled in comparison to the other ones.

  Hide contents

It's mainly because I didn't enjoy the minigame, but the entire route also seemed kinda pointless due to it having no connection to the rest of the game (unless you count when Kyousuke mentions darkness executives during the unknown lifeform part of the common route).
The Idiot Riki sub-route was pretty funny though, with the rambling about convenience stores and whatnot!

 

You misunderstand me.

Spoiler

It's not for being good or being bad. It's for being... so sad (see, it rhymes!).

She's dying. There's nothing to be done. The final moments she will ever experience are these. But in the end, it's not her space. (I'd call you heartless for calling it pointless, but that's the very point. You need to get attached to her or there really is no point.)

 

[Seraphim]

Spoiler

I don't mean that her personal circumstances are pointless, just that the route feels so in the grand scheme of things. She's just this random character that Riki stumbles upon by chance when he's picking up the notebook he forgot in school. She's neither seen nor mentioned anywhere else, and her only relation to anything is that she briefly befriended Riki during a stay in Japan when they were children.
I'd say they do a pretty poor job of explaining how she ended up where she did. I can't even remember her cause of death being mentioned in the VN, so I actually had to look it up to find out she died in a flood.

If not for the humor, this route would have been pretty "meh" overall.

 

[Seraphim]

I'm currently a few hours into Tsukihime. Does it by any chance share assets with Fate? Some of the backgrounds seem identical to me, like the sitting room in the mansion vs the one in Hollow Ataraxia (where Bazett and Avenger hang out). Then again, I haven't read Fate in quite a while and my memory has always been kinda wonky, so maybe they're simply similar and nothing more.

[ArgentstR]

1 hour ago, Seraphim88 said:

I'm currently a few hours into Tsukihime. Does it by any chance share assets with Fate? Some of the backgrounds seem identical to me, like the sitting room in the mansion vs the one in Hollow Ataraxia (where Bazett and Avenger hang out). Then again, I haven't read Fate in quite a while and my memory has always been kinda wonky, so maybe they're simply similar and nothing more.

I don't think so? Isn't the BGs in Tsukihime photographs with filters on?

Here's the BG you mentioned in FHA btw.

Spoiler

 

[Seraphim]

Wow, the extent to which my memory fails me in this case is equal parts baffling and scary. There really aren't many similarities at all, so I honestly have no idea where I got the feeling that "I've seen this before". It really goes to show that memories can't be fully trusted.

[ArgentstR]

Maybe you were thinking of Rin's sitting room? It probably has more similarities.

Spoiler

 

[Seraphim]

True. That's closer, but still clearly a different design. I guess it's just a matter of a whole bunch of things getting jumbled in my head to give me a flawed recollection.

Either that, or...

[Ranzo]

I've been finishing a lot of visual novels lately since I decided not to have a productive summer in any way

These are some of the vns I have recently completed

The Falconers: Moonlight

This turned out to be really interesting I especially loved the amount of world building this relatively short vn had and I liked the main character quite a bit. Having it set in New Zealand of all places during the 1800s was a interesting change of pace.

A Light in the Dark

This was another short but quite good vn, the atmosphere was really intense and the story moved along at a great place. The only problem I kind of had with it were the timed choices, I didn't feel like they helped the story any and were more of a nuisance than anything else. It was a bit preachy about its message but I thought it was a decent enough one so I let it slide.

The Expression Amrilato

I found this to be a very good yuri title and I thought the setting and the focus on language was very unique. The protag was good and the romance was sweet and satisfying.

Some of the lessons really just became a bit of a chore but thankfully you can skip out on it in the settings. I want to come back to it at some point just to read some of the text that was in that other language.

Neighbor

It was a pretty spooky ghost story and I found it to be very enjoyable

[Seraphim]

I encountered a seriously annoying bug in Tsukihime today.
There was a clock ticking in one of the scenes, and for whatever reason, it didn't stop in the next one... or the next one... or the next one. Basically, that clock just continued ticking constantly in every single scene from then on. Not only that, but it also somehow became tied to my save file, because although the sound stopped when I went back to the main menu or restarted the game, the ticking resumed as soon as I loaded the save.
To solve the issue, I had to start the game over again and skip through everything I'd already done during my previous playthrough.

[r0xm2n]

On 7/27/2019 at 6:25 AM, Seraphim88 said:

I encountered a seriously annoying bug in Tsukihime today.
There was a clock ticking in one of the scenes, and for whatever reason, it didn't stop in the next one... or the next one... or the next one. Basically, that clock just continued ticking constantly in every single scene from then on. Not only that, but it also somehow became tied to my save file, because although the sound stopped when I went back to the main menu or restarted the game, the ticking resumed as soon as I loaded the save.
To solve the issue, I had to start the game over again and skip through everything I'd already done during my previous playthrough.

I had a similar sound bug in Himawari (it was looping rain in my case). It was tied to my save too.

It happened as a result of auto skipping through a certain scene. Had to go back and play through the scene normally....

[Ranzo]

So I decided to take a detour from playing genuinely well made vns and play some trash instead

This is the trash I ended up playing

The only real entertaining part of it were the bad endings, those were some good ole wholesome fun

I rate it: Kinda toilet/10