Nakige Discussion

[Vorathiel]

I loved MuvLuv alt, among other things, because it was really linear plot with delicate branches. Perfect game structure for me.

[VirginSmasher]

1 minute ago, john 'mr. customer' smith said:

confession: i actually hate choices in all vns so far except for saya no uta

You do realize that a lot of people play VNs because they have an influence on the plot with the choices. If there were no choices, we wouldn't be able to be with the heroine we want to be with.

[john 'mr. customer' smith]

On 1/27/2016 at 11:29 AM, Vorathiel said:

So far I have only read Planetarian. Pretty little story. Not too long, not too short. Great world they build and I would LOVE to see some 50+ hours long cinetic novel based in that world.
Nakige element was really easily predicted and get me bored instead of saddened (especially with a typical 'foreshadowing' of bad events, I hate that), but sad ending was so long, that it 'broke' me on one point
 

  Reveal hidden contents

'why did everything break' part

and I finally burst into tears.  I loved it.
And Yume's 'Kokyak-sama' is deeply carved into my brain. ;p

yeah, that bit was amazing

also, that's kind of what i based my name on

 

On 1/27/2016 at 11:35 AM, VirginSmasher said:

You do realize that a lot of people play VNs because they have an influence on the plot with the choices. If there were no choices, we wouldn't be able to be with the heroine we want to be with.

not me, i play them because i see them as better books

i'm ok with choices that are just there to enable different routes with different endings, but i prefer it if there's just one per ending. a lot of choices just confuse me and feel like a pointless attempt to make you feel involved.

i always use walkthroughs

but yes, i do know that's why a lot of people read them and that's fine by me

[VirginSmasher]

Just now, john 'mr. customer' smith said:

not me, i play them because i see them as better books

i'm ok with choices that are just there to enable different routes with different endings, but i prefer it if there's just one per ending. a lot of choices just confuse me and feel like a pointless attempt to make you feel involved.

i always use walkthroughs

Same here. I use walkthroughs all the time because I hate getting bad endings. I mainly started playing VNs becaue of the freedom of choice to do whatever you want to do. It sounded really fun to me and now I play them because I love them so much, just not enough to get through 50 hours of a kinetic novel.

[Vorathiel]

2 minutes ago, VirginSmasher said:

Same here. I use walkthroughs all the time because I hate getting bad endings. I mainly started playing VNs becaue of the freedom of choice to do whatever you want to do. It sounded really fun to me and now I play them because I love them so much, just not enough to get through 50 hours of a kinetic novel.

Isn't it a little contradicting?
You love the freedom of choice, and yet you're chained to walkthroughs.

[john 'mr. customer' smith]

4 minutes ago, VirginSmasher said:

Same here. I use walkthroughs all the time because I hate getting bad endings. I mainly started playing VNs becaue of the freedom of choice to do whatever you want to do. It sounded really fun to me and now I play them because I love them so much, just not enough to get through 50 hours of a kinetic novel.

i never feel like i can just do whatever i want in a vn. i play skyrim for that

 

[VirginSmasher]

2 minutes ago, Vorathiel said:

Isn't it a little contradicting?
You love the freedom of choice, and yet you're chained to walkthroughs.

First playthrough, I learned that if I gave myself too much freedom, I'd get a lot of bad endings 

[john 'mr. customer' smith]

but back on topic for a moment, what do you think makes the difference between a nakige and just a sad story? what is the thing that makes them able to cross that line where you burst into tears? i've never been sure

[Zidan209]

I love to get rekt by feelings and emotions too. I usualy am so depressed in the time when i finish such ending. And i am just terribly sad for some following days/weeks. When it s gone it becomes even worse. Because i often find out that i miss that sad feeling and the time when i was under the influence. And so it goes...

Not only dramas are like that, an incredibly good and very happy endings tend to have even bigger effect.

[john 'mr. customer' smith]

1 minute ago, Zidan209 said:

I love to get rekt by feelings and emotions too. I usualy am so depressed in the time when i finish such ending. And i am just terribly sad for some following days/weeks. When it s gone it becomes even worse. Because i often find out that i miss that sad feeling and the time when i was under the influence. And so it goes...

Not only dramas are like that, an incredibly good and very happy endings tend to have even bigger effect.

same with me

i wouldn't call the feeling afterwards sadness though, more like emptiness. like you've just been drained of all emotion, which you kind of have been

[VirginSmasher]

9 minutes ago, john 'mr. customer' smith said:

but back on topic for a moment, what do you think makes the difference between a nakige and just a sad story? what is the thing that makes them able to cross that line where you burst into tears? i've never been sure

A nakige is where there is a comedic/slice of life beginning, a tragic problem that the heroine has and you and her have to get through tragic problem, and it usually results in a happy ending for both parties

Spoiler

The only exceptions I can think of are Misuzu and Makoto, where they just die and the route finishes from there.

Edit: Completely forgot about Planterian. That is another exception.

[john 'mr. customer' smith]

1 minute ago, VirginSmasher said:

A nakige is where there is a comedic/slice of life beginning, a tragic problem that the heroine has and you and her have to get through tragic problem, and it usually results in a happy ending for both parties

  Reveal hidden contents

The only exceptions I can think of are Misuzu and Makoto, where they just die and the route finishes from there.

 

what about planetarian then? that doesn't really fit into that formula

[Dergonu]

4 minutes ago, VirginSmasher said:

A nakige is where there is a comedic/slice of life beginning, a tragic problem that the heroine has and you and her have to get through tragic problem, and it usually results in a happy ending for both parties

  Reveal hidden contents

The only exceptions I can think of are Misuzu and Makoto, where they just die and the route finishes from there.

 

Why do I open random spoiler tags...

RIP.

[VirginSmasher]

Just now, Dergonu said:

Why do I open random spoiler tags...

RIP.

That's what spoiler tags are for Derg. You should know this by now.

[Dergonu]

3 minutes ago, VirginSmasher said:

That's what spoiler tags are for Derg. You should know this by now.

But they are so nice and shiny! And some of them hide lewd pictures!

I ... Must ... Click them!!!

[Fred the Barber]

I'm a nakige fan, particularly Key. The main reason I turned into an otaku was getting absolutely wrecked by the anime adaptation of Clannad After Story, and when I finally played the VN, that section delivered the feels once again. But my favorite is still probably Little Busters!, which was also my first VN.

One non-Key nakige that I don't see mentioned here at all is Symphonic Rain - the last couple routes of that are fantastic feels material, and the VN has a very different vibe (in both good and bad ways) vs. a Key VN. If you're a nakige enthusiast, I highly recommend it. Not all of the 3 initial heroine routes appeal to everybody (lots of people aren't fans of Fal, though I am; and lots of people, myself included, think Lise's route is overall just kind of weak), but the last two routes get nearly universal approval.

[VirginSmasher]

22 minutes ago, Fred the Barber said:

I'm a nakige fan, particularly Key. The main reason I turned into an otaku was getting absolutely wrecked by the anime adaptation of Clannad After Story, and when I finally played the VN, that section delivered the feels once again. But my favorite is still probably Little Busters!, which was also my first VN.

One non-Key nakige that I don't see mentioned here at all is Symphonic Rain - the last couple routes of that are fantastic feels material, and the VN has a very different vibe (in both good and bad ways) vs. a Key VN. If you're a nakige enthusiast, I highly recommend it. Not all of the 3 initial heroine routes appeal to everybody (lots of people aren't fans of Fal, though I am; and lots of people, myself included, think Lise's route is overally just kind of weak), but the last two routes get nearly universal approval.

You basically summed up my opinions of Symphonic Rain right there. I don't like Fal's ending, but Fal was a good character after the last 3 routes. Lise's route was the standard battle again the heroines father/mother/family fare that I've seen before done better, and the last 3 routes were great as a package. It started off weak, but then got a lot better later on.

[ChaosRaven]

I'm not the biggest fan of pure nakiges since their dramas offer suffer from being to artificial and constructed. This is especially problematic if the writer tries to create a 'unique' drama for each of the heroines instead of relying on an overarching main plot. In the worst case it can look like that:

Route 1: "Your little puppy died?! Oh I'm so sorry for you."

Route 2: "Your little hamster died? That's... tragic indeed."

Route 3: "Your budgie died? Reeeeallly? I'm sooooo sorry."

Route 4: "Your goldfish died? You don't say! *yawn*"

Route 5: "Your cat died? Ah, I guess that hit my car."

Actually, I think the best 'nakiges' I've read aren't even tagged as nakiges. They are mostly good story VN's with drama parts like Sharin no Kuni, G-Senjou, F/SN, Edelweiss, Kira Kira, etc. The best pure nakige I've seen is probably still the Kanon anime. There aren't that many pure nakige VN's I consider good. I guess it's mostly Hoshimem, Clannad, Suika and Da Capo 2.

I like drama if it comes in combination with a good, believable story. But drama just for drama's sake isn't really my thing. Though light drama works rather well with moeges.

[pyoky]

_

Edited December 27, 2017 by pyoky

[gijimu]

I would like to play nakige if there's no cliched drama where characters are exaggerating. So far Key's nakiges are good for me though I have never played other nakige yet. What makes me like nakige because of the situation that makes you feel empathy with the person. Some of nakige are without sexual contents but I'm fine with them. 

[VirginSmasher]

17 minutes ago, gijimu said:

I would like to play nakige if there's no cliched drama where characters are exaggerating. So far Key's nakiges are good for me though I have never played other nakige yet. What makes me like nakige because of the situation that makes you feel empathy with the person. Some of nakige are without sexual contents but I'm fine with them. 

Cliched drama isn't my thing either. It's forced and contrived and it really adds nothing but anger from me. Key does nakiges well by making you like the heroines and the drama is done well enough.

[Vorathiel]

Not-cliched drama can sometimes be so over the top strange, that it is even worse than cliched. Looking at you Hoshimemo
 

Spoiler

'I moved away from Australia, so I will everyday sneak upon a school roof to look through completly broken telescope'
or
'I was looking at stars and have accident, and now I have damaged ears, one is deaf, and second has very narrow field of hear, so I can't be with my boyfriend, I argued with my dad, and my dad stopped being an astronom'

But, it's just a silly light drama, not nakige.

[VirginSmasher]

7 hours ago, Vorathiel said:

Not-cliched drama can sometimes be so over the top strange, that it is even worse than cliched. Looking at you Hoshimemo
 

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'I moved away from Australia, so I will everyday sneak upon a school roof to look through completly broken telescope'
or
'I was looking at stars and have accident, and now I have damaged ears, one is deaf, and second has very narrow field of hear, so I can't be with my boyfriend, I argued with my dad, and my dad stopped being an astronom'

But, it's just a silly light drama, not nakige.

I was looking forward to reading Hoshimemo as well 

Oh well, I'll have to form my own opinion of it.

[Stormwolf]

Planetarian vn is pretty much utsuge though, brought back into nakige territory only by it's drama cd's if i'm not terribly mistaken.