What are you playing?

[Inorin]

2 hours ago, GXOALMD said:

So anyways I finished Unlimited.  While I enjoyed it more than Extra, overall it still had basically all of the same issues Extra had.  Additionally, at first I liked how it ended but then

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no matter how many endings I completed the cutscene that plays before the credits roll never became skippable.  Also, the endings were enjoyable about twice each, but from the third character onward I was kinda sick of them.

 

All endings are pretty much the same in Unlimited, with the exception of maybe Yuuko (with only a slight difference). That's why I only played Meiya's route.

2 hours ago, GXOALMD said:

I've largely lost interest in most of the mysteries it feels like I'm supposed to care about, so I guess at this point what I really want out of Alternative is

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a meaningful in universe explanation for why Takeru is occasionally voice acted, but usually not.

That's just how it is in some VNs.

Spoiler

That is, they are voiced in some segments of the game. Like,  Tennouji Kotarou from Rewrite, for instance. In the case of Takeru, he's only voiced in the

Spoiler

flashback segments of the game.

 

 

Edited December 31, 2019 by wei123

[Seraphim]

Would be nice to see a fully voiced Takeru, but it's probably too late to hope for that at this point. Being fully voiced would suit him very well, since he's pretty far from your average self-insertion protagonist.

[littleshogun]

Trying Venus Blood Frontier a lot, and let's just said that it's been interesting to me (And thus my target to finish Maitetsu before 2020 failed). For my short comment here, I like that there's an option to skip the battle and the scenes which surely would improve if the VN such as Baldr Sky would apply the former (Of course it mean that I was wrong when I said that you can skip the battle in Baldr Sky).

[adamstan]

Wow, Snow Presents is really short FD - I just finished it

It wasn't outstanding, but nonetheless nice. I'd say it's your typical Fan Disc. There were some truly sweet moments, and while h-scenes weren't exactly to my taste (too long! I'd cut the moaning and onomatopeia in half ), I enjoyed whole package. 7/10 , and definitely recommended for all Kotori's fans. Animated sprites were nice touch.

So that concludes my adventures with Konosora

[adamstan]

I wanted something lighthearted and translated, so I started Lamunation. But I'm not sure if I'll stick with it. So far I completed prologue, but it feels totally flat, didn't grab me. I snicker at some of the jokes or references, but that's all. I don't feel anything for characters so far. Maybe parody games are not for me? I mean, I don't mind 4th wall breaking or some references, or even memes, if it happens from time to time, but it seems that in case of Lamunation there's nothing more.

Also, engine feels really clunky, response to clicks is rather sluggish.

Well, I guess I'll try one route, and then see if I want to continue or drop it.

[GXOALMD]

12 hours ago, wei123 said:

That's just how it is in some VNs.

I should have made a bet with someone. (RIP the era of inb4)

But the thing is that

Spoiler

while he's only ever voiced in flashbacks in Extra, in Unlimited there are multiple scenes where he is voiced that aren't flashbacks.  Also the scenes where he is voiced in Unlimited feel so arbitrarily chosen that they either were chosen arbitrarily or there's some plot twist about it later on.

 

5 hours ago, Seraphim88 said:

Would be nice to see a fully voiced Takeru, but it's probably too late to hope for that at this point. Being fully voiced would suit him very well, since he's pretty far from your average self-insertion protagonist.

If it's too late for Yuuji, then it's too late for Takeru.  Well, maybe he'll be fully voiced in Integrate... actually changing my hope, maybe she'll be fully voiced in Integrate!

[Inorin]

21 minutes ago, GXOALMD said:

I should have made a bet with someone. (RIP the era of inb4)

But the thing is that

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while he's only ever voiced in flashbacks in Extra, in Unlimited there are multiple scenes where he is voiced that aren't flashbacks.  Also the scenes where he is voiced in Unlimited feel so arbitrarily chosen that they either were chosen arbitrarily or there's some plot twist about it later on.

 

Takeru was actually voiced in Unlimited? Lol I couldn't remember that.

 

21 minutes ago, GXOALMD said:

Well, maybe he'll be fully voiced in Integrate... actually changing my hope, maybe she'll be fully voiced in Integrate!

Well....

Spoiler

Open this spoiler only after you finish Alternative.

Spoiler

Takeru isn't going to appear in Integrate for obvious reasons, so I guess we won't be hearing him yelling as he goes around butchering the BETA any time soon (at least until the MLA anime comes out).

 

 

Edited December 31, 2019 by wei123

[Dreamysyu]

1 hour ago, wei123 said:

Takeru was actually voiced in Unlimited? Lol I couldn't remember that.

Apparently, they added a lot more voiced scenes in the official release. Actually, wasn't he already fully voiced in Japanese console versions?

[Inorin]

It's been a while since I last played Unlimited, so I've probably forgotten some things. Upon looking up a couple of Unlimited videos on Youtube, I suppose he really was voiced in some segments in Unlimited lol

[GXOALMD]

Spoiler

I really like how even though the first bunch of Alternative is reliving the events of Unlimited, that segment is still more different from Unlimited than Unlimited was from Extra.

 

[Dreamysyu]

20 minutes ago, GXOALMD said:

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I really like how even though the first bunch of Alternative is reliving the events of Unlimited, that segment is still more different from Unlimited than Unlimited was from Extra.

 

Yep, that's true. When I started reading it, it felt like it was written by different authors or something like that.

It will be interesting to see what you will think about Unlimited after finishing Alternative. I'd love to talk about why Unlimited is written the way it is written, but that would be a bit spolery right now.

[GXOALMD]

1 hour ago, Dreamysyu said:

Yep, that's true. When I started reading it, it felt like it was written by different authors or something like that.

It will be interesting to see what you will think about Unlimited after finishing Alternative. I'd love to talk about why Unlimited is written the way it is written, but that would be a bit spolery right now.

Without spoiling anything, is it intentional that the jokes get progressively less obnoxious?  Like in Extra they bordered on physically painful to read, but now that I'm in Alternative there are a small handful of jokes that are actually vaguely funny.

[Dreamysyu]

43 minutes ago, GXOALMD said:

Without spoiling anything, is it intentional that the jokes get progressively less obnoxious?  Like in Extra they bordered on physically painful to read, but now that I'm in Alternative there are a small handful of jokes that are actually vaguely funny.

Well, surprisingly, it kind of is intentional in some way? I mean, I doubt that they intentionally made the jokes in Unlimited more obnoxious, but these types of jokes are pretty standard for a generic shounen, and that is probably intentional.

[Seraphim]

Anyone got any input to share on Chrono Clock? I'm currently reading Hapymaher and think it's one of the more entertaining VNs I've read lately, so I figured I'd look into something else from the same studio. I dunno if I had Chrono Clock confused with some other title or something, because I've been under the impression that it's mediocre at best, but it turns out it actually has the same rating as Hapymaher on VNDb. The story seems pretty interesting based on the description there.

[alpacaman]

38 minutes ago, Dreamysyu said:

Well, surprisingly, it kind of is intentional in some way? I mean, I doubt that they intentionally made the jokes in Unlimited more obnoxious, but these types of jokes are pretty standard for a generic shounen, and that is probably intentional.

I think so as well. Extra's cliches and humour were terrible to a degree where the game bordered on being a parody of the rom-com genre. Unlimited is all about Takeru maturing out of that world so it makes sense that the humour would do the same. I'm not a fan of Unlimited either as it still employs some of the same storytelling tropes as Extra. Going this route still makes a lot of sense if you look at Takeru's character arc over the trilogy, so the creators probably knew very well what they were doing.

[adamstan]

37 minutes ago, Seraphim88 said:

Anyone got any input to share on Chrono Clock? I'm currently reading Hapymaher and think it's one of the more entertaining VNs I've read lately, so I figured I'd look into something else from the same studio. I dunno if I had Chrono Clock confused with some other title or something, because I've been under the impression that it's mediocre at best, but it turns out it actually has the same rating as Hapymaher on VNDb. The story seems pretty interesting based on the description there.

Well, I enjoyed Chrono Clock very much, however, after reading some posts about Hapymaher decided to pass on it. CC seems to be much more lighthearted than Hapymaher, although still has its emotional moments.

While both games are from the same studio, they have completely different writers, so I wouldn't expect too much similarities between them.

Edited January 1, 2020 by adamstan

[Seraphim]

Yeah, there are plenty of funny and weird things happening in Hapymaher, but the underlying story is pretty serious so things can get kinda depressing at times. I'm still only near the end (I think) of the first heroine route, though.
In any case, I think it's probably just a good thing if Chrono Clock is a bit more lighthearted, as a contrast to all the sad and/or intense VNs I've read lately.

Edited January 1, 2020 by Seraphim88

[Seraphim]

I don't think I'll ever get why some developers feel the need to add weird upskirt shots in scenes where it's completely uncalled for. I just saw a godawful example in Hapymaher. If anyone's interested, this is the one:
(note that it can be considered a spoiler, but I don't think it says much for someone who isn't reading the VN)

Spoiler

It's one of the most serious moments in the VN so far, but this CG really ruins the atmosphere and the impact that the scene is supposed to have.

Edited January 1, 2020 by Seraphim88

[adamstan]

1 minute ago, Seraphim88 said:

weird upskirt shots in scenes where it's completely uncalled for.

YU-NO was notorious for that, it actually made me lower its score a bit. Some of those pantyshots were truly ruining the mood.

[Seraphim]

Agreed. It stood out for me in YU-NO as well. Any idea if the remake has seen any improvement in that regard? I know it's an all ages release, but I'm not sure if they've done anything about the pantyshots while they were at it.

[adamstan]

I haven't played the remake yet - the price put me off, especially since I'm not a fan of new character designs. Maybe will get it at summer sale. Since the art is completely redone from scratch, it wouldn't be surprising if they changed that.

[ArgentstR]

Definetely one of my gripes with Hapymaher, if you want to have panty shots keep them out of scenes where they are blatantly contrasting the mood in the scene.

[Seraphim]

There's even a CG with a panty shot of two of the girls when they were like 8 years old. I mean, seriously...
I'm honestly not that surprised that this didn't make it to Steam.

[Dreamysyu]

@Seraphim88 By the way, when you finish the first route in Hapymaher, if you restart the game from the very beginning, there will be a new choice close to the beginning of the common route. One of the options, For some reason, I saw a blue sky,  is needed to reach the true ending. I highly recommend choosing a different option before you actually aim to reach the true ending, or the very next scene will most likely spoil a certain plot point that's you probably shouldn't spoil at this point. That happened to me while I was playing it.

Edited January 1, 2020 by Dreamysyu

[Ruberick]

4 hours ago, Seraphim88 said:

Anyone got any input to share on Chrono Clock? I'm currently reading Hapymaher and think it's one of the more entertaining VNs I've read lately, so I figured I'd look into something else from the same studio. I dunno if I had Chrono Clock confused with some other title or something, because I've been under the impression that it's mediocre at best, but it turns out it actually has the same rating as Hapymaher on VNDb. The story seems pretty interesting based on the description there.

Gave Chrono Clock a 8.5/10 recently, I liked it a lot, it had some unique spins to common tropes/heroine types and a cast of very lively and likeable heroines, definitely more of an easy-going, lighthearted VN with a pick me up atmosphere most of the time, but still touching upon some meaningful topics in an accessible way. A lot of "witty banter" going on, for lack of better words.