Make it stop - the infinite kusoge works is upon us

[sanahtlig]

Pfffft, I'm not shelling out good money just so I can entertain you folks

[zoom909]

Whatever these Sakura games lack in their intrinsic value, it makes up for it in entertainment value watching VN fans go ballistic whenever they release a new one

[TexasDice]

 

I kind of want to see a Rooke writing review of a Sakura series game.  I think that would be more entertaining than the game itself.

Pfffft, I'm not shelling out good money just so I can entertain you folks

I'm totally crowdfounding this.

 

Be ready, Rooke.

[sanahtlig]

The success of Sakura Spirits is frustrating because it's popular due to viral marketing.  Viral marketing subverts the marketplace by flipping our notions of what makes a game worth noticing and playing upside down.  Sakura Spirits was successful *because* it's bad and *because* it confirms the stereotype of VNs as silly harem comedies for weaboo losers.  Others unfamiliar with this stereotype see the attention Sakura Spirits is getting and assume it's among the best the genre has to offer (because why else would it be getting so much attention).  Thus the stereotype continues to self-proliferate, as stereotypes are wont to do.

[Darklord Rooke]

I'm totally crowdfounding this.

 

Be ready, Rooke.

 

This is all Bats' fault XD

[OriginalRen]

"The Sakura series is like FNAF, except with boobs instead of jumpscares. Also, FNAF is a good game."

 

This comment is perfect.

[Abyssal Monkey]

The success of Sakura Spirits is frustrating because it's popular due to viral marketing.  Viral marketing subverts the marketplace by flipping our notions of what makes a game worth noticing and playing upside down.  Sakura Spirits was successful *because* it's bad and *because* it confirms the stereotype of VNs as silly harem comedies for weaboo losers.  Others unfamiliar with this stereotype see the attention Sakura Spirits is getting and assume it's among the best the genre has to offer (because why else would it be getting so much attention).  Thus the stereotype continues to self-proliferate, as stereotypes are wont to do.

This is my ignorant opinion on how I feel about KanColle.  I refuse to educate myself further because I'm just tired of seeing it so much.  It burnt me out before I got to even try it.  I assume it's all propagated by people who went "OOOO! Ships that are cute/sexy/moe/etc females!" and not about how good the game is (sorry, but the wikipedia description of how the game is played sounds incredibly boring).  This is also coincidentally how I feel about Touhou to an extent, but Touhou seems to actually have some merit as a game in the bullet hell genre.

_{With Ren posting above me, I feel like I just fired shots. This should turn out fun.}

 

Unfortunately all we can do about the stereotype is show the people who had an interest in the first place one of the better titles the medium has to offer.  I'm of the opinion that a significant portion of the people who feed this craze never cared about it in the first place.  Anyone who was even mildly interested would probably take a look at the community and not base their assumptions on a single title.  It's effectively xenophobia, anyone who is already into Japanese products probably knows and can tell this is a ginormous lampoon of the actual thing, and everyone else was probably already averse to it anyway.

[OriginalRen]

This is my ignorant opinion on how I feel about KanColle.  I refuse to educate myself further because I'm just tired of seeing it so much.  It burnt me out before I got to even try it.  I assume it's all propagated by people who went "OOOO! Ships that are cute/sexy/moe/etc females!" and not about how good the game is (sorry, but the wikipedia description of how the game is played sounds incredibly boring).  This is also coincidentally how I feel about Touhou to an extent, but Touhou seems to actually have some merit as a game in the bullet hell genre.

_{With Ren posting above me, I feel like I just fired shots. This should turn out fun.}

 

Unfortunately all we can do about the stereotype is show the people who had an interest in the first place one of the better titles the medium has to offer.  I'm of the opinion that a significant portion of the people who feed this craze never cared about it in the first place.  Anyone who was even mildly interested would probably take a look at the community and not base their assumptions on a single title.  It's effectively xenophobia, anyone who is already into Japanese products probably knows and can tell this is a ginormous lampoon of the actual thing, and everyone else was probably already averse to it anyway.

 

Oh, don't worry. I haven't played and/or touched Kancolle once ever since I heard about it in 2013 when it was just kicking off in Japan and I was studying there. I have also never laid eyes on the anime except for clips at shops in Akiba. I love Kancolle because I like WWII naval history. I also like it because the girls are cute and some of them are awesome characters, that's all. The game is shit, and so is the anime.

[OriginalRen]

it confirms the stereotype of VNs as silly harem comedies for weaboo losers.

 

Wait...that's not what VNs are? Shit...

[Satsuki]

No. No. Just...no.

[Zodai]

Well, this one at least pretends to have a plot. Still reads like your average fan-translation though.

 

 

Pfffft, I'm not shelling out good money just so I can entertain you folks

 

What if someone gifted it to you?

[Nosebleed]

Honestly at this point i'm considering dedicating my time to growing a potato farm in my backyard over reading this.

[Clephas]

VNs are a medium, not a genre, but I doubt most people who haven't played them but know about them think that way.  Most automatically think 'dating sim', 'sex game', or 'scantily-clad cartoon girl-games' when they hear 'Visual Novel'. 

[Satsuki]

VNs are a medium, not a genre, but I doubt most people who haven't played them but know about them think that way.  Most automatically think 'dating sim', 'sex game', or 'scantily-clad cartoon girl-games' when they hear 'Visual Novel'. 

[Darklord Rooke]

What if someone gifted it to you?

[Zodai]

*Sigh* Well, if someone gifted it to me I would write an entertaining and detailed writing critique and stick it on Fuwa's incredibly useful bloggy thing. I don't see why people would be interested in torturing me like that  reading such a thing though...

 

No, on the contrary we want you to grab the bat from your garage and beat it on the head as hard as you bloody can.  Then we shall hoist its corpse up the watchtower and roast marshmallows on its skin while we dump everything we don't need into the sewers.

 

That sounds like just the sort of thing to get everybody's spirits' up, wouldn't you say?  Might as well get something out of it.  April Fools is coming up as well, so it seems like the perfect time to do something like that.  xD

[Satsuki]

*Sigh* Well, if someone gifted it to me I would write an entertaining and detailed writing critique and stick it on Fuwa's incredibly useful bloggy thing. I don't see why people would be interested in torturing me like that  reading such a thing though...

Ok, let me torture you to death gift it to you

[Darklord Rooke]

In case anybody really wants me to undertake this, here’s my steam profile. I don’t use it in case anyone was wondering.

 

If someone gifts me this and I finish the critique, Ren had better grant me a “took one for the team” award or I will riot like it’s 1999...

 

http://steamcommunity.com/id/Rookelord

[Vokoca]

I don't know why this still keeps amazing me, but there's more?!

 

To be honest, I like the art at least, and I might even skip through this if it had h-scenes... but in the state these VNs are now, it doesn't even seem worth doing that. But hey, at least we'll get a load of new amazing nonsense sentences... right?

[AlexZandria]

VNs are a medium, not a genre, but I doubt most people who haven't played them but know about them think that way. Most automatically think 'dating sim', 'sex game', or 'scantily-clad cartoon girl-games' when they hear 'Visual Novel'.

I consider VNs to the a medium for story telling and a genre of games with the classic 'genres' (such as action, romance, and horror) being their sub-genres. With the amount of visual novel you get mixed in with RPGs and at times point and clock mystery I consider it more a genre than a separate medium if we're talking games. It's only when we are talking about stories/writings I consider it a medium

[Tawm]

If nothing else, that artstyle is atrocious.

[Abyssal Monkey]

If nothing else, that artstyle is atrocious.

I find the art style better than a few amateur doujin in the medium.  

(Yes, I think 7th Expansion art is horrid. fite me)

At least in Sakura Spirit they match the aesthetic properly.  

[Kurisu-Chan]

Mmm... to be honest, I'm reluctant to just dismiss them out of hand, despite the fact that Sakura was such a compete kusoge. 

 

A few concerns.

 

1.  Monster design was too cartoonish (generally a sign of an inevitable fall into 'fantasy tacked onto a mindless VN)

2.  Protagonist being female is a good thing... but then why was there any need to make the costumes so excessively provocative?  (another sign of excessive attempts to lure moe-fans)

3.  No H, and yet they kept the excessively ecchi costumes... which is just weird (it is actually much easier to design freely if you aren't showing almost everything).

4.  No serious details on plot (another big bad sign)

 

Nonetheless, I'll probably still demo it then decide.

at least, we know that this won't be like Shikkoku no Sharnoth.

[Abyssal Monkey]

Mmm... to be honest, I'm reluctant to just dismiss them out of hand, despite the fact that Sakura was such a compete kusoge. 

 

A few concerns.

 

1.  Monster design was too cartoonish (generally a sign of an inevitable fall into 'fantasy tacked onto a mindless VN)

2.  Protagonist being female is a good thing... but then why was there any need to make the costumes so excessively provocative?  (another sign of excessive attempts to lure moe-fans)

3.  No H, and yet they kept the excessively ecchi costumes... which is just weird (it is actually much easier to design freely if you aren't showing almost everything).

4.  No serious details on plot (another big bad sign)

 

Nonetheless, I'll probably still demo it then decide.

Can someone explain to me what a kusoge actually is? Wikipedia defines it quite literally as a "shit game" or a game with bad reception.  What I'm confused about is that most -ge are used as a descriptor for a genre.  Does this mean that Sakkura Spirits was intentionally meant to fall into that genre, or is kusoge just a derogatory term meant to describe it as shit.  The way Clephas used it makes it seem like a genre.

[sanahtlig]

Kusoge is a derogatory term.  Watch the anime "The World God Only Knows" with Japanese voices.  Keima explains the term.