With the release of Tokyo Babel, what makes a good Chuuni?

[Black Sands Entertainment]

I wonder what you guys feel about the Genre and what makes a Chuuni stand out among the rest?

Common things I see in Chuuni is 

• Named and Announced special attacks!
• Unrealistic fighting BUT reasonable in the world lore.
• much more unique individual characters

There are others but that is what this discussion is for.

For those who wonder if I have an alternative motive... Yes I do. Black Sands will be moving toward Chuuni and I want to make sure we are doing it right. 

Gunz Blazin, lets go!

[Dergonu]

H-scenes

 

16 minutes ago, Black Sands Entertainment said:

• Named and Announced special attacks!
• Unrealistic fighting BUT reasonable in the world lore.
• much more unique individual characters

 

 

For me, nr 1 and 2 are really important.

Especially nr.1 if it's some kind of chant etc. (Some generic names for "normal" attacks can get a little cheesy, but chants always sound badass if they are pulled of right.)

Tiny Tokyo Babel spoiler. (Literally from the first half hour of reading )

Spoiler

Like the sword in Tokyo Babel summoning the seven deadly sinns in the form of badass monsters after a special chant.

That kind of stuff just makes me go "hell yes!"

 

The unrealistic fighting within the lore's reason is also epic. For me, the bigger scale the better. So like, if you have two people literally destroying planets in a fight, that is some serious badassness right there

 

For the characters though: characters that appear fairly normal and laid back, but then turn out to be absolute monsters in a fight is a really cool thing that never gets old in my opinion. Characters like that always seem so much more badass, because they are fucking stronk and they know it. They have no reason to flaunt their strength around to appear tough.

[Yuuko]

*Links translated Dies Irae video here*

 

 

[VirginSmasher]

Just ask Kaguya and Clephas. They'll know a lot more about what makes a good chuunige then a lot of us. 

[Arcadeotic]

I think your points are important

I however value prose, poetryness and thriving characters above all.

These points can blend with the points you mentioned, as seen in Tokyo Babel, for example

[Black Sands Entertainment]

@Dergonu so something like "Third Eye: Unending Strikes!"

[Dergonu]

1 minute ago, Black Sands Entertainment said:

@Dergonu so something like "Third Eye: Unending Strikes!"

Well it depends; some end up being pretty badass on their own. 

But generally a chant of sorts will be superior to just saying somehting then punching a dude. 

 

I feel that the attack seems more powerful if it takes a few seconds of concentration and a chant to summon it.  

Some exceptions would be the "normal" attacks that Setsuna uses in Tokoy Babel. Though a tad bit cringeworthy at times, they are overall pretty badass. 

1 minute ago, Asonn said:

for named and announced special attacks, these should make sense, if you are just shouting something completely random, it will look stupid like a chuunibyou (could actually be good if well executed).

This pretty much. It has to make sense. It shouldnt just be because you wanted your punch to sound cool  

[Black Sands Entertainment]

1 hour ago, Asonn said:

indeed.

for named and announced special attacks, these should make sense, if you are just shouting something completely random, it will look stupid like a chuunibyou (could actually be good if well executed).

That is why a lot of chuuni VNs(e.g; Fortissimo) are talking about the Norse mythology to make an connection that flows with the overall scenes and characters. for example you could do this with the ancient Egypt folklore, making references the gods and monster they believed in. 

Well you know we gonna have culture tie ins.  Magic has a lot to do with chanting in our world. Focus is more physical attacks.

 

What about Bad ends?

acceptable in Chuuni? No?

[Arcadeotic]

2 hours ago, Black Sands Entertainment said:

What about Bad ends?

acceptable in Chuuni? No?

Of course they are

They bring different shades out of the characters and the world around them

They can show how different characters can be in certain circumstances

It can show how powerful a certain adversary can be

And of course more decious fight scenes and poetry

[Black Sands Entertainment]

1 minute ago, Asonn said:

yes, bad ends can be really good, however don't force them to get the good end. but this has to do with personal preferences. 

In Black Sands, fighting "Bosses" is truly a lengthy and complicated matter. depending on your research and preperation, you might "automatically" know how to handle a situation or have to "take a chance" and that might end up VERY BAD if you make the wrong choice...

Investigation is critical in the sands. You gotta know what you are up against because the enemies are not just strong, but obscenely overpowered in some ways.

[Black Sands Entertainment]

57 minutes ago, Asonn said:

yes, if you make bad/stupid choices you will get the bad end, but what I meant is that you first have to get the bad end before you can even unlock the good end. 

ah. so an alternative path aye

 

What other unique features in Chuuni you love to see guys? Is comedy something desired? I loved Needless for the comedy. Wish it had a VN made for it.

[Dark_blade64]

27 minutes ago, Black Sands Entertainment said:

What other unique features in Chuuni you love to see guys? Is comedy something desired? I loved Needless for the comedy. Wish it had a VN made for it.

Comedy scenes can be out of place if the story has a serious tone though all the game. Basically a character who is leading to a more serious personality would make it seem it pretty weird if the character starts cracking randomly an out of character joke. I'm not saying you can't have sense of humor in a game with serious plot, but it would be wise to maintain the joke close to how the character behave rather than making the scene look awkward.

Also unless it is a comedy I would say avoid making the character doing weird jokes during a life to death situationm when lifes are at stake because not many would make jokes when facing death. Well it depends all of how the structure of the world and theme of the story looks like, and what you want to archieve, but like I said doing things who wouldn't make sense with how everything is build up would be awkward.

(Finally take everything with a grain of . I'm just giving some feedback which might or not help at all anyway.)

[Yuuko]

Usually there are some SoL scenes where comedy is possible.

[Rose]

Summoning @Kaguya and @Clephas to help you out.

[Clephas]

A good chuunige?  The basic requirement of a good chuunige is to not be embarrassed/to not hesitate to do anything for the drama and to make the characters more interesting.  This also applies to every aspect of the game... a good chuunige protag will be something of a hedge philosopher and have a slightly (or greatly) twisted perspective or one that is just out of sync with the rest of humanity.  'Normal people' make bad chuunige heroines and protagonists.  There are no exceptions to this rule. 

[Suzu Fanatic]

5 hours ago, Dark_blade64 said:

Comedy scenes can be out of place if the story has a serious tone though all the game. Basically a character who is leading to a more serious personality would make it seem it pretty weird if the character starts cracking randomly an out of character joke. I'm not saying you can't have sense of humor in a game with serious plot, but it would be wise to maintain the joke close to how the character behave rather than making the scene look awkward.

Also unless it is a comedy I would say avoid making the character doing weird jokes during a life to death situationm when lifes are at stake because not many would make jokes when facing death. Well it depends all of how the structure of the world and theme of the story looks like, and what you want to archieve, but like I said doing things who wouldn't make sense with how everything is build up would be awkward.

(Finally take everything with a grain of . I'm just giving some feedback which might or not help at all anyway.)

A good example of humor done right in a Chuunige, is Tokyo Babel (obviously I'm swayed, I'm still in the middle of it :P)

 

It knows when/how to create funny banter and setups.

[Zalor]

3 hours ago, Clephas said:

A good chuunige?  The basic requirement of a good chuunige is to not be embarrassed/to not hesitate to do anything for the drama and to make the characters more interesting.  This also applies to every aspect of the game... a good chuunige protag will be something of a hedge philosopher and have a slightly (or greatly) twisted perspective or one that is just out of sync with the rest of humanity.  'Normal people' make bad chuunige heroines and protagonists.  There are no exceptions to this rule. 

So make them edgy as fuck.

Additionally, I feel like what you said applies just as much to Chuuni antagonists as well. I've only seen a few scenes from Dies Irae, but holy shit is Reinhard cool and twisted (and his voice actor does a bloody good job portraying him). 

[Fred the Barber]

I'm a fan of the humor in Demonbane, which is as chuuni as it gets. Humor isn't a necessity for every story, of course, and it may not be appropriate for yours if that's how you feel about it; but it's definitely not out of bounds for a chuunige.

I really like Clephas's characterization of the chuuni protagonist as a hedge philosopher, and I think Zalor is right about it applying to the antagonist as well. To put t another way, in general, the main players usually have a very obvious and central motive for what they do, the motive is very ideological, and it's usually at least a little bit crazy:

I want to destroy the world because people are irredeemable

I want to save people even though I don't really get along with anybody, because doing otherwise would leave a bad taste in my mouth

Something along these lines.

[ChaosRaven]

Although I haven't played the title yet, I have a comment concerning the dresses of the characters.

For good chuuni fighting scenes, the characters also should have cool looking dresses that somehow reflect who they are. And overall I think the good old F/SN did a better job here with the dresses for both, the male and female characters and especially the servants.

In Tokyo Babel, we have Astaroth as the sole highlight, but the rest are just dressed in plain school uniforms and a... maid dress?! Aren't they supposed to be (warrior) angels and demons?! But while the school uniforms of the male characters in Tokyo Babel look still kind of okay with their elegant simplicity, I can't exactly say the same for the female ones. Especially Samael - does she want to fight or clean the kitchen?! And the rest of the girls also look more like ready for pillow fight than anything else. Compared to Rider's cool dress in F/SN that's just a joke.