"Is it worth playing?" (?) Project

[Rose]

First of all, there is a (?) on the title because I have no fucking idea of what to call this, I used that name but it doesn't actually suit the project at all.

 

When recommended a novel, people usually look for it's synopsis, screenshots and maybe some reviews, that's where some problems arise. Reviews at best 8/10 contain spoilers usually without warning and in the middle of the text, some might not mind but there are those who don't enjoy being heavily spoiled. This project seeks something different, it's not a review, I'd say it's closer to being an analysis of the general game, I honestly don't know how to exactly put it into words. The basic idea is to get a VN and give an unbiased "analysis" of it, not saying if it's good or not, leaving that for the reader to decide if it'll be worth a shot.

 

I'll leave here the one I did as an example, I guess it'll be easier to understand the objective of this after reading it. Keep in mind that the images might get out of place since it'll be in a spoiler to avoid using too much space.

 

Introduction

 

 

Game: Grisaia no Kajitsu

Publisher: Front wing (PC) & Prototype (PSP/PSVita)

Length: ~50 hours

Sequels: Grisaia no Meikyuu & Grisaia no Rakuen

 

 

 

Story and choices

 

The history takes place in the Mihama Academy, a school created for children who - for some reason - can not enter a regular school. You will play as Kazami Yuuji, a young boy with a mysterious job and a mysterious past arriving at Mihama as the first male student. He’s pragmatic, proactive, stoic and seemingly has a military attitude. The story goes on as Yuuji begins to attend to classes and live in the school dormitories along with the other female students. While most days are filled with comic situations and casual problems, some scenes will serve the purpose of showing a different aspect of each character. As the story progresses the player gets to know each one of them better. After a few choices you will be set on one of the five possible routes, leaving only one last choice to be made which will either lead to a bad or a good end.

 

 

 

Characters and routes

 

       

 

As the school background suggests, each girl had her own share of problems in the past; difficulties that had an imperishable impact and shaped them into what they are today. Once you enter in a route, the game will focus on a certain girl's trauma, revealing her past and developing the relationship between her and Yuuji. The spoiler bellow will contain a really light description of each character's experience. If you don't mind minor spoilers this may help the game pique your interest.

 

Kazami Yuuji - A boy who lived a proxy life.

 

Suou Amane - A girl who struggled to survive.

 

Irisu Makina - A girl hostage to her fate.

 

Sakaki Yumiko - A girl valuable only as a tool.

 

Matsushima Michiru - A misfortune girl who's not herself.

 

 

 

Voice Acting

 

The voice acting was professional and the cast matched well the personalities of each character.

 

 

 

H-Scenes

 

Grisaia's H-Scenes have a good quality and can to some extent be considered relevant to the plot and/or as an extension of the relationship. Some of them insert comic dialogues and sometimes they might be a little too lengthy

 

 

 

Art

 

 

 

 

OST

 

I’ll leave here two of them to demonstrate:

 

For dramatic scenes – Want to Smile…

 

For retarded scenes – Colorful Seeds

 

 

 

Game system

 

The game system is pretty good and is open to customization in possibly every needed part. The saves are limited but there is a reasonable amount of slots so it’s hard to believe they won't be enough, either way once you finish the first route you’ll gain access to the Scene Gallery so you can overwrite older files if needed. Since the game is really long it's interesting to mention that the game offers a scene skip/skip to next choice option.

 

The analysis would be all in the same thread since having one for each would be unnecessary. I'd appreciate everyone's thoughts about this, things like ways you believe it could be improved or reasons why you disapprove of it.

[Yukiru]

I'm supposed to be working on a video version of this. From what I know members are free to start these kind of projects freely, so I take it this thread is just for feedback on the idea?

[zoom909]

 

 

The basic idea is to get a VN and give an unbiased "analysis" of it, not saying if it's good or not, leaving that for the reader to decide if it'll be worth a shot.

 

The voice acting was professional and the cast matched well the personalities of each character.

 

Grisaia's H-Scenes have a good quality and can to some extent be considered relevant to the plot and/or as an extension of the relationship. Some of them insert comic dialogues and sometimes they might be a little too lengthy

 

For retarded scenes

 

The game system is pretty good

Everything I quoted in red is biased.  So, looks like just an ordinary review to me...?

[Rose]

I'm supposed to be working on a video version of this. From what I know members are free to start these kind of projects freely, so I take it this thread is just for feedback on the idea?

 

Yeah, mostly.

 

Everything I quoted in red is biased.  So, looks like just an ordinary review to me...?

 

I'm still not sure about what to do about the voice acting part, there is not really much to be said aside from that, might end up just removing it.

 

Aside from the length part, I don't think it was biased, most of them were really relevant to the plot in one way or another.

 

Yeah, I think "funny" would be better, it's just a problem I have with the word "retarded", I use it for whatever I find funny usually, will change.

 

But Grisaia system is indeed pretty good, allows you to config pretty much everything you need and gives you access to lots of in-game stuff that other novels usually don't. (Scene replay, they even have a separated one for the H-Scenes)

[Tay]

So this is kind of like an extended introduction to a particular VN to see whether or not it'll appeal to you, sort of thing?

[babiker]

Well, I personally have no problem with reviews, but that is coming from a fact I believe in :" Most VNs can't be spoiled". VNs are just way too long and huge that if you want to talk about one and bring any good points, you have to bring a few spoilers.

 

Take ashadow's review of rewrite for example. It has quite a few spoilers, but even though I watched it, I still enjoyed the hell out of that VN, and to this day I consider it to be the best VN of all time

 

 

ps: I honestly can't see the difference between your thingie and a review. I think you need to point out the differences more clearly. posting a review next to it for comparison would do

[Zakamutt]

I'd rather post representative art samples, script excepts and genres. Of course, this is mostly handled by other websites already.

 

Now what we need is LOLIS. Too bad it's dead

[Zalor]

There seems to be such a stigma on reviews in this site (I got in trouble over a year ago for posting a link to a review). Anyway, every good reviewer does what your goal is, to objectively deconstruct the technicalities and substance of a product. I fully support what you want to do (we need some reviewers on this site), I just slightly object to your claims that what you're doing is radically different from what a reviewer does. Also two of the most accessible VN reviewers  (PhantomZwei who is on Youtube and NeutralDrow on the Escapist Forums both avoid spoilers). The moment you use spoilers by my definition it is no longer a review, but a commentary/ analysis. Well good luck, I like this idea. 

[Mephisto]

I don't know about this long ass review thing, when I saw your title I was imagining a small like "comment" section users can leave their opinion of the game, and maybe a star rating. 

 

Grisaia no Kajitsu

 

0/5 game sucks no kazuki route 

 

Grisaia no Meikyuu

 

5/5 kazuki

bad touches you

 

 

ect.

[Rose]

So this is kind of like an extended introduction to a particular VN to see whether or not it'll appeal to you, sort of thing?

 

Hm, It's pretty much this, it sounds so simple, why the hell couldn't I say it this way? Thanks.

Either way, it's not complete yet so I know it still needs some changes.

 

Well, I personally have no problem with reviews, but that is coming from a fact I believe in :" Most VNs can't be spoiled". VNs are just way too long and huge that if you want to talk about one and bring any good points, you have to bring a few spoilers.

 

Take ashadow's review of rewrite for example. It has quite a few spoilers, but even though I watched it, I still enjoyed the hell out of that VN, and to this day I consider it to be the best VN of all time

 

 

ps: I honestly can't see the difference between your thingie and a review. I think you need to point out the differences more clearly. posting a review next to it for comparison would do

 

I agree to some extent, I don't think spoilers are always needed but small ones usually help me get more interested, however I prefer not to be spoiled at all. I explained a bit about it bellow.

 

I'd rather post representative art samples, script excepts and genres. Of course, this is mostly handled by other websites already.

 

Now what we need is LOLIS. Too bad it's dead

 

I think I'll always fail to understand how come always everyone here loves lolis so much. 

 

There seems to be such a stigma on reviews in this site (I got in trouble over a year ago for posting a link to a review). Anyway, every good reviewer does what your goal is, to objectively deconstruct the technicalities and substance of a product. I fully support what you want to do (we need some reviewers on this site), I just slightly object to your claims that what you're doing is radically different from what a reviewer does. Also two of the most accessible VN reviewers  (PhantomZwei who is on Youtube and NeutralDrow on the Escapist Forums both avoid spoilers). The moment you use spoilers by my definition it is no longer a review, but a commentary/ analysis. Well good luck, I like this idea. 

 

Reviewers are always nice to have, and I'll agree that there ain't many here. Tay definition was better than my shitty ass description at the start, it explains better the idea.

 

Reviews tend to go deeper into the history, sometimes explaining stuff or showing parts of it. I've seen some that try to explain or at least tell the reader about things like the meaning some actions had, how they could/should be interpreted and/or seen. I think it goes without saying that for a review, this would be not only pretty small but also really week in almost every possible aspect, simply because it doesn't aim to be one. Basically, I'm not trying to say if it's good or bad nor show the positive or negative aspects of it, I'm trying to make an extended introduction so people can have a better base to decide whether or not to read a novel.

 

I don't know about this long ass review thing, when I saw your title I was imagining a small like "comment" section users can leave their opinion of the game, and maybe a star rating. 

 

Grisaia no Kajitsu

 

0/5 game sucks no kazuki route 

 

Grisaia no Meikyuu

 

5/5 kazuki

bad touches you

 

 

ect.

 

"0/5 not enough lolis" Well, would be fun to see that I think.

[Zakamutt]

LOLIS is a reference to an old, old project that never got off the ground because of lack of coders. 'Twas called the LInked Library Interconnect System or something (it should not surprise you that this name was thought up by Steve.) Tl;dr it was somewhat of a similarity system like MAL's "if you liked this, you might enjoy..."

[Mephisto]

https://forums.fuwanovel.net/index.php?/topic/2211-lolis-linked-organized-library-interconnection-system/