VN Reading Club - October 2015 (Symphonic Rain)

[Turnip Sensei]

All done! Despite the slightly bothersome first three routes, Symphonic Rain turned out to be quite a pleasant experience.

Phorni's Route was easily the best. There was hardly any cumbersome padding anymore, the focus was only on the really endearing dynamic between Chris and Phorni, and it worked really well. It was basically my ideal love story; doomed to fail, yet still works. I would have happy no matter how it ended, but Arietta waking up was good, upbeat way of ending the game. It was truly simple and truly beautiful.

Looking back at Symphonic Rain now feels little weird. I almost gave up during Torta's route, and I'm really glad I managed to force myself to read it through. I still feel like the first three routes aren't that good, apart from the endings and even they have problems. But at the same time, these routes set up stage for the final two routes which not far from excellent.

Looking at the grand scale, Lise's route was mostly useless and Fal's wasn't that necessary either. I wonder how the game would work if you only read Torta's, Al Fine and Phorni?  

[Nimbus]

Finally finished my first route. Went for Fal because I've heard her song before. Trying to shotgun the rest so I can finish in time.

 

 

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Despite sitting on it, I still am not happy with Fal

 

Hidden Content

You put the words right into my mouth.

I just finished Torta's route

meh. It was ok. The idea of Ari having a more direct rle in the route was interesting but like the other routes the drama felt a little forced. I spent the whole time thinking that if the characters had just sat down and talked to each other rather than jump to conclusion it wouldn't all go up Shit Creek. As everyone said the whole route left a lot to be desired. The Al Fine and Phorni routes better be fantastic otherwise this may go down as the most overrated vn I've ever read.

[Turnip Sensei]

I just finished Torta's route

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This was literally what I felt after reading the first three routes. Luckily Al Fine and Phorni's route turned out to be pretty great.  

[Nimbus]

Al Fine spoiler...

well shit. It started off really damn good, enough to make me reconsider my earlier opinion of this vn but it's starting to drag on a little too much. I get it; Torta is torn between her obligations, get to the important stuff already! Don't make me start hating you after such a strong opening.

 

[Yotek]

Shotgunned Lise and Torta. Something must me be wrong with me, favourite route was Torta bad end so far. Hopefully Al Fine and Phorni will be good.

Also, just an odd question, what's the deal with the bar at the bottom of the screen. Seems to decrease as a practice. Is that suppose to be some kind of indicator? 

[Zakamutt]

There actually is a meaning to it...

 

It measures how much it's raining.

[Yotek]

There actually is a meaning to it...

 

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Thank you. That was bugging me. Now that I'm going down the  Al Fine route it makes sense. At first I thought it was related to skill level but noticed that my score was not impacted by that. I also thought was that it would impact the ending but that didn't seem to be in the case.  Lastly, I thought it might be related to his mental state after it spiked when Fal dropped that bomb.  So in the end my intuition was right, it is his mental state or rather the rain that he perceives.

VN is finally starting to get pretty interesting.

[Fred the Barber]

FYI, the word next to the bar is "piova", which is not only the name of the city, but also Italian for "rain". So, yeah, what Zaka said, except there's no need to spoiler it, since it really isn't meant to be a secret...

That the rain reflects Chris's mental state is something I also only realized late in Fal's route, though I didn't make the final connection to it being a delusion until the reveal in Al Fine.

[Nimbus]

Finished both Al Fine routes last night.

These were surprisingly good. From more or less the first scene I found myself constantly saying "well played Symphonic Rain, well played indeed". Seeing Torta's route through her eyes was the prefect way to tie off all the loose ends without feeling too forced. I did feel that the middle of the routes dragged on for a little bit and despite what others have hinted at; this route didn't make me sympathize with Fal, she's still a bitch. Not helping this was the fact that I had just finished Torta's route the Al Fine routes did feel a little dull and repetitive.

Al Fine 2 was the stronger of the two in my opinion. Torta "testing" Chris in the first one was nothing short of a dick move. Although the second route had the better ending I felt that Ari's death would've been more emotional if we didn't already find out about it in the first route, especially given how it just seemed to be a trivial matter in the first one.

Were these routes enough to elevate the vn? Kinda. They were really damn good but that has actually left me looking back on Fal's and Lise's route and asking "why were these even here?" I guess I'll have to finish Phorni's route t decide if the vn is overrated or not.

 

[Yotek]

Just finished Phornis route. Final thoughts soon™

On a comical note, started watching Humanity has Declined. The main heroine is the same voice actress as Torta and Ari. It's making for quite the comical juxtaposition.

[Snowtsuku]

Al Fine spoiler...

 

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I don't think the last route will change much of your view about the VN.

[Yotek]

Took a day to collect my thoughts and try to soften my review of this VN but it only got worse. Please don't lynch me too hard.

 

 

Before I get deep into the story there are plenty of technical aspects of this game that deserve to be noted. While I did not truly care for the rain or the blinking eyes, I will give them credit for putting that in. It did help make the game seem more real. For its age, that seems to be ahead of its time. However, I noticed that some of the voices would max out from time to time. Also, there may have been some issues with the English patch on a Japanese locale machine. On occasion, all text would stop displaying. When going to save, no saves would be shown (It was pretty scary the first time). Saving was actually a bit annoying, you had to wait until all the text was displayed and the book appeared in the bottom right. While an old game, it was still annoying that full screen would just lower your resolution to 800x600. The rhythm aspect of the game was initially a nice feature but it grew tedious by the end. Some songs were excellent to play, like Fal and Phorni, while others boring like Lise.
 

The game was pretty good about attention to detail. In the Al Fine routes, you could actually hear the flicking sound Chris was making when hitting Phorni. Though, they could have fixed the clock in Cordells room seeing as how you always had a lesson at the same time.
 

For a game that focuses on music, their repertoire was very lackluster. Each character got their own song and that was about it. Characters got an arranged version of the song that you played with them. Originally, I had heard Fals song a long time ago and loved it. Since the music is never switched up, after finishing Fals route, I no longer want to hear it again. The other issue with this is that the music didn't always reflect the mood. To me, the blend of music, text, and images is what helps build the emotional attachment. In a game based on music, to fail to do that, really took away from it.
 

The concept of the story drew me in. I had actually intended to play this game awhile back. As a musician, I thought this would be pretty interesting. However, Fal's route dragged in a lot of places. The ending to her route did make me pretty angry. My reflections on her route alone are posted prior. Lise's route was honestly boring and partially predictable. While I was pretty upset about the domestic abuse, it was really the only thing I got from that route. Torta's route I have mixed feelings for. There were a lot of things that just didn't make sense throughout the VN which they intend to surprise you with later. However, the tiny cast takes away from the surprises because they become painfully easy to solve. When "Ari" showed up the first time, I figured it was Torta. When the letters showed up, I thought she was the one writing them (though to be fair, I thought she just placed it in his mailbox). Watching her bad end was more fun because I knew she was going to get crushed.
 

Moving on to Al Fine and Phorni, I was initially pleasantly surprised. Al Fine really took a dark turn. Torta was becoming borderline yandere and that's always fun to watch play out. However, after she made it obvious that she was "Ari" and spilled her thoughts, it grew a little stale. I don't think going through the entire route again from her perspective was needed. Only bits and pieces. I think holding back and letting the reader figure everything out is more impactful. Phorni I originally thought was either Ari herself (or a sprite that could talk to both Ari and Chris). I gave up on those thoughts near the end of Lise's route but they came back as soon as I went through Torta. There are just too few cast members all in a confined space. Drawing conclusions like these are too easy.
 

Overall, I really did not enjoy Symphonic Rain. While they did add in aspects to help enhance the game like blinking eyes, moving rain, and map selection, it has way too many shortfalls. The clear issue with pacing makes it hard to stay engaged with the VN. When they drop surprises, it was already obvious they were going to happen. The characters themselves aren't very personable or likable(except for Fals facade). As time went on, the music becomes more annoying than engaging despite being a music based VN. If you manage to make it through all of that, the technical problems related to audio levels and text disappearing will make sure you are always detached. Maybe my expectations were too high, maybe I've played too many amazing VNs, maybe this was a gem for its time but lost its shine with age. Whatever the case may be, there were a few smiles and laughs throughout the trip but I was mostly bored and would say this VN is a bit overrated. 

 

[Turnip Sensei]

Took a day to collect my thoughts and try to soften my review of this VN but it only got worse. Please don't lynch me too hard.

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I actually liked the repetition in the minigame. Playing the same song over and over again gave a real sense of practice, like Chris was actually preparing for the graduation recital. At least for me, since I'm awful at rhythm games it really felt like a training to me, both in reality and inside the story. All of the songs were really good as well, so it never felt annoying to play some piece.

Like previously mentioned many times now, Symphonic Rain foreshadows pretty much everything. They give hints towards every "revelation" in the game, which was actually pretty good way of doing things. Without it many of the revelations would have came really out of left field and partly out of place. Now it was you as the reader and Chris that didn't notice the underlying problems that surround Chris and other characters he was involved with. 

I agree that the first three routes were pretty bothersome, as I almost gave up myself. The first one was nice because everything was new, but the subsequent playthroughs were more and more annoying because of the repeated events. Looking back now, these routes did some important world building, but I was too annoyed to think about that when reading them. But Al Fine used the familiar scenes as it's strength showing how things really were. Without reading the previous routes, it wouldn't have felt the same. And it's not like the previous routes were all trash. The endings were generally pretty intriguing and the routes had good parts as well, it's just that they kinda drown under the same repeated scenes. For me Symphonic Rain is the kind of story where ending, or in this case the Al Fine and Phorni's route, are so good that I can forgive the not so good parts easily. While I didn't like the earlier routes that much while reading them, I can appreciate them in retrospect.      

[Eclipsed]

Yep, in the end I'd label Symphonic Rain as a VN that's a bit too long/draggy so it gets -5points but Al Fine route was kinda cool so +7points Grave is the most meh villain -3 but kyaaa Lise +4 and Arietta's theme is the best so +4

7/10

E: wtf apparently i rated it 8.5/10, prob cuz i was high off of Phorni's end(?), w/e idk

Edited November 4, 2015 by Eclipsed

[Fred the Barber]

Took a day to collect my thoughts and try to soften my review of this VN but it only got worse. Please don't lynch me too hard.

 

 

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Your technical issue about voices maxing out - very good call. I had forgotten about it, but wow it bugged the crap out of me when it happened. Same thing with the magical disappearing text. I actually usually had to reboot my computer when it got into that state...

On the more game-ish areas: I also agree that the game has pacing issues, in almost all routes. For most of the rest, well, different strokes for different folks, I suppose 

[Nimbus]

Finished Phorni's route the other night.

This was the route I'd been waiting for. From the moment I learned that Chris had a girlfriend I wanted a route where he stays with her, especially given how when I look back on the earlier route I felt like they could've worked just as well, if not better if Chris had been trying to develop non-romantic relationships with the characters. Unlike the previous routes I had no pacing issues with this route and the ending was perfect in my mind. I honestly can't think of any criticisms for this route.It was that good

Now for my thoughts on Symphonic Rain as a whole.

Very disappointing this was. I'll start with what I liked.

The art design was very good and has aged very well. The character sprites took a little adjusting to (they all look like 12 year-olds) but I eventually grew to like it. They eyes in particular I found very well done, I though that the eyes conveyed all the emotions on that character very well which was good given that at time the mouths seems to change very little (especially with Fal).
The music was pretty good as well. I can understand why some people would find it repetitive but I got through it alright.
I really enjoyed the Al Fine and Phonri routes. definitely a step up from the earlier three but not enough to really elevate the whole vn.

Now for the stuff I didn't like; everything else.

The pacing in Symphonic rain is pretty bad, in all but one of the routes (including the common route) there were severe pacing issues that made the vn drag on longer than it should've.
The characters aren't that memorable and Fal is still a bitch.
The three initial route range from forgettable to infuriating and given that these make up the bulk of my time spent with the vn, that leaves a lot to be desired.
Lise's route I initially liked but since the later routes have lost most of that appeal, everything about that route just seems unnecessary (though I still enjoyed the development of Lise's character).
Torta's route was lack-luster I found. Sure, it was improved by the Al Fine routes but taken by itself, nothing really happens and I honestly can't remember much of what happened.
And Fal's a bitch.

Given how everybody praised it before, I'm really surprised it's as loved as it is. Sure the final routes are pretty good but the rest isn't.

Oh, and did I forget to mention that Fal's a bitch?