Koisuru Natsu no Last Resort Discussion Thread

[Stormwolf]

No matter how you look at it, it was a NTR scenario. That he wasn't Umi's boyfriend was a fact unknown to Nagisa. So while not being NTR in the strictest sense, it was still NTR. The real shame was the characters used in this scenario. If they really wanted to write a NTR scenario, i think Konami would be a better choice, since she hates Sango in Sangos's route. But i still think NTR has no place in a VN such as this. This pretty much soured my opinion of Nagisa for the rest of the VN.

[Nimbus]

Playing through Shiori's route.

I'm starting to understand why people were calling the protagonist a drama-queen earlier.

[Nimbus]

I finally got around to finishing Shiori's route last night.

I'll admit I am a little disappointing with this route but that is simply because Shiori is my favourite of the girls and I was hoping her route would trump the others. It's by no means bad it's alright, but just that, alright. The drama of Shiori's past was solved relatively quickly especially when compared to other routes, I mean, It was solved the moment we learned the full story. not helping the pacing is that fact that after the two start going out it jumps to two weeks later and after the conflict peaks they skip another week. What the hell guys? you're supposed to let me spend time with the heroines not just jump to the drama.

Onto the bonus route then.

[Ashbell]

 

My thoughts about Umi, Nagisa, and Riho.

Umi is cute.

Nagisa is hot.

Riho is a slut.

[jeffreymgibson]

I played Umi's route, Nagisa's route and Shiori's route. I don't really have an interest in the remaining routes. Umi was really cute and had a cute personality, but overall, this is probably the most boring visual novel I've ever read. The little bit of drama that does exist was really dumb. The game is super padded with way too much conversation. I guess it means I'm not a big fan of moege. There's just no plot and even though I did enjoy the well done art and some of the music, I need more that just cuteness to get me through a visual novel.

[CeruleanGamer]

Same... I felt the dramas were indeed forced. Especially with Sango and Konami (got why is her name the same as something I absolutely fucking hate in real life?!) and Shiori's. Hate Konami's absolute pessimism and nihilism and wanted her out of the picture for the most part. Shiori brings up drama out of nowhere that she herself has no involvement with, just an unfortunate circumstance... 

[Mr Poltroon]

Because I got busy last time I attempted to play this, I never got too far into my first route, Umi's.

As it turns out, I had no idea what I was missing. This stuff is gold.
<3<3<3<3<3's everywhere. So cute. I can even read the majority of H-Scenes, more or less.

Wouldn't read it for the vast majority of dialogue, though. Can't subscribe to the "just relax, smile, have fun" theory they're trying to sell me.

 

As a minor detail, the VNs excellent editing is wasted on me. I'm too busy getting hang up on typos and tricky translation choices.

[Mr Poltroon]

I can't believe this. I had no idea the protagonist in this VN wore glasses.
Like, there's been no CGs at an angle that let's me see his face clearly. In fact, he's only been in one CG thus far. Wow.

I was literally just tipped off by someone calling him four eyes and me wondering about it. Checking the one CG with him on it, upon close inspection, there does appear to be something that could be classified as "glasses".

 

PS: There's also the chance it's been mentioned early on and I forgot about it since I'm playing this for about an hour a week.

[Fred the Barber]

4 hours ago, Mr Poltroon said:

I can't believe this. I had no idea the protagonist in this VN wore glasses.
Like, there's been no CGs at an angle that let's me see his face clearly. In fact, he's only been in one CG thus far. Wow.

I was literally just tipped off by someone calling him four eyes and me wondering about it. Checking the one CG with him on it, upon close inspection, there does appear to be something that could be classified as "glasses".

 

PS: There's also the chance it's been mentioned early on and I forgot about it since I'm playing this for about an hour a week.

This is a good example of I have so much trouble appreciating most VN protagonists... they have so little physical presence that you don't even know basics about their appearance. Without a face to go with it, they just kind of fade away, and then if you try to put them being an actual person to any use (say, by having them be the object of a mean joke like "four-eyes"), it falls flat on its face.

I was playing KoiRizo a few months ago. Got through about 1.2 routes. I was enjoying it somewhat, but then got sidetracked onto other things which I liked more anyway, and haven't really felt like going back.

[Benji Price]

8 minutes ago, Fred the Barber said:

This is a good example of I have so much trouble appreciating most VN protagonists... they have so little physical presence that you don't even know basics about their appearance. Without a face to go with it, they just kind of fade away, and then if you try to put them being an actual person to any use (say, by having them be the object of a mean joke like "four-eyes"), it falls flat on its face.

I was playing KoiRizo a few months ago. Got through about 1.2 routes. I was enjoying it somewhat, but then got sidetracked onto other things which I liked more anyway, and haven't really felt like going back.

Totally agree!

When I was playing Majikoi I felt that I didn't get to know the MC as well as you need to really enjoy a VN the way you did with Books. I only get to know him better after watching the anime series (which BTW I didn't like).

At GnK Yuuji somehow gets to be seen in several CGs and that gives you a much better perspective of the MC. And I think that Physical side of the MC is at least as important as the Psycological.

[Mr Poltroon]

22 minutes ago, Benji Price said:

Totally agree!

When I was playing Majikoi I felt that I didn't get to know the MC as well as you need to really enjoy a VN the way you did with Books. I only get to know him better after watching the anime series (which BTW I didn't like).

At GnK Yuuji somehow gets to be seen in several CGs and that gives you a much better perspective of the MC. And I think that Physical side of the MC is at least as important as the Psycological.

I'd say Majikoi's not the best example. There are many faceless protagonists out there, but Yamato ain't one of them.
Not only is his face clearly shown right during one of the initial CGs, his face appears in every non-sexual, non-kiss CG where he is present.
Sure, that amounts to about 6 of them, but it's still a very rare thing.

However, I understand what you mean with Yuuji. In his game, they did not remove his facial features in any CGs he was present (and his long-ish hair is also distinctive on its own) and had plenty of chibi's featuring him, which is quite something. Still a considerable number of purposefully concealing angles, but his face was there, for the most part.

Indeed, protagonists that are their own, with their own personality, and their own voice are typically some of the best in my opinion. Yuuji's got a strong personality and dead fish face image. Shirou from Fate/stay night has a strong personality (and voice, depending on your version) and you saw him right at the start. Rintaro Okabe has one fantastic voice, personality and distinctive labcoat (and a face, I guess). Even Takeru from Muv-Luv was given a face. Ever17 pulled some funny business on that topic. You know everyone's face and voice in Katahane (and with a face like that, I can see why Cero's voiced by a woman). The protagonists in Overdrive titles are generally given distinctive characteristics. Christ, the protagonist from Edelweiss is distinctive because he overuses tie pins -- yet we never actually see his face. Bunny Black has a pretty distinctive looking protagonist, and he ain't a good guy. Comyu's Akihito... Symphonic Rain's Chris... I still remember Tsukihime's protagonist and his oversized, distinctive glasses. Ikikoi, of all things, had a face and personality (whenever he went by un-abused long enough to show it).

The list goes on and on... But for every one of these titles, there's three or four with faceless or not present in CG's protagonists. Which reduces their presence and personality...
It's not impossible to give them some defining characteristics, of course. Edelweiss had his tie pins, Da Capo I's Jun'ichi had his apathetic "what a bother" approach to life, A Profile had ridiculously naive (or optimistic?) beliefs. Heck, Wanko to Kuraso's seemed to be some sort of superman who had any and all skills and could make any woman fall at his feet -- he wasn't even much of a good person at the start of the game.

But if you ask me about Hoshizora's... Or Yuuki from Koichoco...
Pretty much just some generic protagonist I can't recall.

Something, something about them so you can make an image to work off is extremely important. Otherwise you can't even recall them. Even when you forget their names you can still remember them then.

 

KoiRizo's is distinctly stingy and petty on some matters, but when the routes go and melt that off he just meshes into yet another generic faceless protagonist.
Goddammit, he even has glasses. Why don't they show him?!

[Fred the Barber]

9 hours ago, Zenophilious said:

Ehhh, if you're looking for a borderline nukige with slice-of-life, a lot of fluff and nice art, KoiRizo is nice.

The one full route I played, Sango's, had a fair bit of drama, too, FWIW. Too much, honestly - it had serious pacing issues in resolving it, scenes and arcs that should have been resolved much faster but dragged on. If anything, that route needed more slice-of-life and fluff.

That said, I really did enjoy it. Just not enough to be really excited and stick with it. The art and music are both lovely.