General Eroge Impressions & Discussion

[Mahou]

Stricktly ero-games: Fortune Arterial. It's sooo much superior than the lame anime version. It's a shame, really. Erika's path was awesome and cute. The true path + true end was quite conclusive even though it had for me as romance fan one huge flaw (which I won't say due to spoiler reasons).

Sharin no Kuni + Fandisk: The fandisk was quite epic. And Natsumi in SnK (1) is sooo adorable

Shuffle! Essence+: If only for the abosolute non-drama route of Kareha-senpai.
Majikoi: Kazuko >= Chris > Miyako = Yukie > Momoya, simply put. From the very little I've understood, I enjoyed it. Can't wait until the full translation patch will be out.

@Muv-Luv: The school life-comedy Muv-Luv was average. It was a shame that 90 % of Sumika and Meiya's routes were basically the same except for the choice selections. I don't care for the gloomier Muv-Luvs because I don't enjoy those settings.

[kanataX3]

hey can someone help me find a walkthrough for this visual novel??

Lump of sugar : Hello;goodbye

serious need thanks ....

[Hooves]

At the moment? This list is changable when the July eroges are released.

1. Twinkle Crusaders: The gameplay feature itself is very addicting, while the heroines are lovable in their own way. Just have to give a hand to tsundere Nanaka But Ria is close to #1 along with Azel

2. Haruka ni Aogi, Uruwashi no: The art is just beautiful in this visual novel. The characters were surprisingly done well (especially one specific character that just loves to give you the finger )

3. Diamic Days (Trial): Yes!! Another Lump of Sugar game Waiting patiently for the full version to be released soon, this has already gotten my interests just by the trial alone.

4. Sono Hanabira ni Kuchizuke o: Itoshisa no Photograph: Just got its English version released yesterday so I decided to give a try. Since I'm a fan of the Sono Hanabira games, I can safely assume this will be my favorite

5. To Heart 2: Waiting patiently for the English translation to get finished before playing after the trial. But being the Leaf fan that I am. I instantly placed this as one of my expected favorites.

[Vexx]

Picked up the English adaptation of "Deus Machina Demonbane" with some extra credit I had at J-list.com. The idea of mixing Cthulhu mythos, japanese mecha, magical girl wotnot, and eroge just sounded too amusing to pass up.

So far the writing isn't too bad. As usual, I'd like to smack the protagonist in the head as he has opinions and behaviors I really don't relate to much.

Complaints:
1) Why in the hell do I have to hit the return key after every god damned sentence when there's no decision to be made? This is a complaint I have about almost every "visual novel" game's default settings. It'd be different if there were animation or image changes with each sentences but there are entire pages of text that could be displayed in one action.
2) In two hours of play, I've had maybe... 3 decision points. Not exactly a "choose your adventure" rate of interactiveness.

Anyway, other than that, its been kind of amusing (though personally I'd have been a lot farther along in "winning a girl" than the idiot protagonist :P).

[PhoenixG]

Originally Posted by kanataX3

hey can someone help me find a walkthrough for this visual novel??

Lump of sugar : Hello;goodbye

serious need thanks ....

here is one, although it's in japanese http://g-seeker.net/game/h/hellogoodbye.html

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by Vexx

Picked up the English adaptation of "Deus Machina Demonbane" with some extra credit I had at J-list.com. The idea of mixing Cthulhu mythos, japanese mecha, magical girl wotnot, and eroge just sounded too amusing to pass up.

So far the writing isn't too bad. As usual, I'd like to smack the protagonist in the head as he has opinions and behaviors I really don't relate to much.

Complaints:
1) Why in the hell do I have to hit the return key after every god damned sentence when there's no decision to be made? This is a complaint I have about almost every "visual novel" game's default settings. It'd be different if there were animation or image changes with each sentences but there are entire pages of text that could be displayed in one action.
2) In two hours of play, I've had maybe... 3 decision points. Not exactly a "choose your adventure" rate of interactiveness.

Anyway, other than that, its been kind of amusing (though personally I'd have been a lot farther along in "winning a girl" than the idiot protagonist :P).

Follow up: most of the way through the main storyline now .... there's not a *lot* of decision points but it has gotten better. The storyline is actually fairly entertaining (e.g. the beach trip to Innsmouth Resort is classic Call of Cthulhu adventure) so my only story complaint is that the evil team's "comedy relief" is pretty crappy "Team Rocket" stupid. A certain princess is bullheaded to the point of incompetence but so it goes. There are a couple of seriously nasty bad guys on Team Evil though and the storyline doesn't hold back (e.g. one of the bad demon-sorceror chiefs gleefully takes a mission to rape one of the main female characters to death, does he succeed?).

Anyway.. if you've never played a visual novel game before - this isn't a terribly expensive way to test the waters ($39.95 rather than the usual ~$90-$120 wanted for many of the Japanese games). I'll recommend it.

[larethian]

I'm not overly fond of Demonbane because of the overly many H-scenes which I feel are unnecessary. Actually, I'm kind of turned off by most of them. But to be fair, the story is great, and the bgm is fantastic.

[hoarfrost]

Not ever having seen what it's about, I was kind of planning on getting it but it seemed pretty lighthearted and not appealing to me. Oh well. Hope all goes well and they bring over some other Nitro+ stuff.

[Mahou]

Originally Posted by larethian

I'm not overly fond of Demonbane because of the overly many H-scenes which I feel are unnecessary. Actually, I'm kind of turned off by most of them. But to be fair, the story is great, and the bgm is fantastic.

Most Ero-scenes in VNs are more or less unnecessary, but the ones in Demonbane are just plain ugly.

Spoiler for Spoiler just in case:

I mean what's the deal to depict the protagonist's genital in such an overproportional way?

@Topic: Currently, I'm enjoying Natsu no Ame and Kourin no Machi ~ Lavender no Shoujo. The former has really beautiful CGs and to my surprise even a few furiganas over the usual kanji overload. Not that it would help me, but nontheless a surprise.
I can't say much about Kourin no Machi, but one of the possible "heroines" claims to be able to communicate with animals (no spoiler because it's on most character descriptions) . Quite cute how she insists on it.
And I'm replaying Ef ~ a fairytale of the two. Still as awesome as my first playthrough!

[Crimrui]

Originally Posted by Mahou

Most Ero-scenes in VNs are more or less unnecessary, but the ones in Demonbane are just plain ugly.

Spoiler for Spoiler just in case:

I mean what's the deal to depict the protagonist's genital in such an overproportional way?

Agreed with the ugly part. The VN is called Demonbane so it's obvious that they have demonic... khm.. you know...

Anyway, still playing Little Busters but on pause for now. Recently finished Princess Waltz so now I'm on Da Capo II and G-Senjou no Maou.

Man, that Kamidori Alchemy Meister looks nice, especially the gameplay. And besides, that blonde elf looks my kind of waifu (since I love pointy ears and blondes in anime...) so no translation for it yet kinda hurts me...

[Cosmic Eagle]

Originally Posted by Vexx

Follow up: most of the way through the main storyline now .... there's not a *lot* of decision points but it has gotten better. The storyline is actually fairly entertaining (e.g. the beach trip to Innsmouth Resort is classic Call of Cthulhu adventure) so my only story complaint is that the evil team's "comedy relief" is pretty crappy "Team Rocket" stupid. A certain princess is bullheaded to the point of incompetence but so it goes. There are a couple of seriously nasty bad guys on Team Evil though and the storyline doesn't hold back (e.g. one of the bad demon-sorceror chiefs gleefully takes a mission to rape one of the main female characters to death, does he succeed?).

Anyway.. if you've never played a visual novel game before - this isn't a terribly expensive way to test the waters ($39.95 rather than the usual ~$90-$120 wanted for many of the Japanese games). I'll recommend it.

Go play Kishin Hishou (AKA the second Demonbane game)....it's far superior to Zanma Taisei IMO....only drawback (subjective) to me is that it's non-H...since it's art is also superior to the first game.

It's storyline is far more serious, like the final arc of Zanma Taisei against Therion and Nyarlathotep. Being able to control the Deus Machina is a plus obviously. Since unleashing Hyperborea Zero Drive and Grandcross is damned pleasing.

[Cosmic Eagle]

Currently playing Sora no Iro, Mizu no Iro.....it's a beautiful piece.

[GDB]

Originally Posted by Cosmic Eagle

Currently playing Sora no Iro, Mizu no Iro.....it's a beautiful piece.

I'm guessing there wouldn't happen to be an English patch for that, huh?

[Soviet]

Reading Vermillion: Bind of Blood after having finished Muramasa (so gooood).
Vampires are always a nice theme and I like the protag and his hot partner. Soundtrack seems to be full of great tracks too.

Originally Posted by hoarfrost

Not ever having seen what it's about, I was kind of planning on getting it but it seemed pretty lighthearted and not appealing to me. Oh well. Hope all goes well and they bring over some other Nitro+ stuff.

Yeah I wouldn't bother with Demonbane, it's pretty bad. Wait for Hanachirasu and Sumaga instead, both are confirmed for an english release I think. The translation of Muramasa might be finished next year, keep an eye on that too because it's pretty much the best thing ever.

Originally Posted by Crimson Cloud

Man, that Kamidori Alchemy Meister looks nice, especially the gameplay. And besides, that blonde elf looks my kind of waifu (since I love pointy ears and blondes in anime...) so no translation for it yet kinda hurts me...

Kamidori is great, even though the characters and story are complete ass. Very addicting gameplay. Its "prequel" Himegari Dungeon Meister was a better game, in my opinion.

[Cosmic Eagle]

Originally Posted by GDB

I'm guessing there wouldn't happen to be an English patch for that, huh?

Nope....97% of VNs I'd wager, are untranslated

[Mahou]

Originally Posted by Crimson Cloud

Agreed with the ugly part. The VN is called Demonbane so it's obvious that they have demonic... khm.. you know...

Anyway, still playing Little Busters but on pause for now. Recently finished Princess Waltz so now I'm on Da Capo II and G-Senjou no Maou.

@Da Capo II: If you enjoyed Da Capo 1, you will likely enjoy II as well even though I think DC1 main lead was better. Yukiyoshi is imho one of the worse prota's in the VNs I've played. Tell me once you are done with it, then I can copy & past my reply from OMF here .

Originally Posted by GDB

I'm guessing there wouldn't happen to be an English patch for that, huh?

Sadly, no. VNDB has no information on it and google didn't show any results of an english patch either (only the 2-parts-hentai movie-OVA)

[GDB]

Originally Posted by Cosmic Eagle

Nope....97% of VNs I'd wager, are untranslated

I'd say probably more than that, but I still had hope that maybe it had just finished or something. Thanks for the info, though.

[larethian]

Ermmm, actually Demonbane is not a bad read. The story line, especially 2nd half is pretty fast paced and interesting. Well unless you are not into mecha at all, or anti-Lovecraft. I also like the true ends for both Al and Ruri. Raika's story is a little stand-alone, so I don't find it particularly appealing. And some of the BGMs for the fights are really cool, even if repetitive. The only thing I dislike greatly are the non-heroine H, and how they weave a plot to make them necessary and I can't click through them completely.

GDB: it's faster to learn Japanese for a few years.

[Cosmic Eagle]

Originally Posted by larethian

Ermmm, actually Demonbane is not a bad read. The story line, especially 2nd half is pretty fast paced and interesting. Well unless you are not into mecha at all, or anti-Lovecraft. I also like the true ends for both Al and Ruri. Raika's story is a little stand-alone, so I don't find it particularly appealing. And some of the BGMs for the fights are really cool, even if repetitive. The only thing I dislike greatly are the non-heroine H, and how they weave a plot to make them necessary and I can't click through them completely.

GDB: it's faster to learn Japanese for a few years.

Never said Zanma Taisei was bad...just that Kishin Hishou is much much superior. Of course if you have PS2 you can just play the SFW version of Zanma Taisei.

[Vexx]

I mostly bought Demonbane for the Lovecraftian aspects... the mecha parts actually bore me. The second half of D.E.M. Demonbane does read better (though the extended fight scenes can get tedious when they're just trading punches and yelling without advancing the storyline). As for the general story aspects, the character designs are pretty archetypal without much complexity (as well as the storyline if you strip off the Lovecraft layer). As for the non-heroine H... well, sex magic is just an intrinsic part of Lovecraft mythos (especially the gruesome bits).

The art complaints.... well yeah, I've seen better art but I took the "size of his manhood" to be subjective impressionism (*feels* huge to him and *looks* scary to his partner). Again, for $40 the game is a relatively cheap investment to legally check the VN scene out. I'd place the overall quality of art and story somewhere in the middle of the spectrum.

And my main complaint about VNs continue... not enough decision points, something I've found true in almost every Japanese VN I've played. As the Bioware story flowcharts show (or any good D&D module), you can make the viewer *feel* like they are getting lots of input into the story even when they're being herded down relatively small plot conduits.

Just for context, I liked Utawarerumono (though the ending just pissed me off) and AIR. Shuffle! was passable. I've got a few more in the to-do queue