G-Senjou no Maou

[Reckoner]

While I like Haru and all, this game wouldn't even be half as good without how good its male characters are.

[Seitsuki]

You mean "good" as in (potentially) "utter goddamn #$^&ing assholes"?

All I can say is, this is one of those few series where nearing the finish I was thinking "alright you can stop trying to be clever and pulling out random twists and melodrama and whatnot, just give me an honest straight cliche good end dammit!" Which it kinda did. Eventually. Ah, so moving. Sob.

What I'm kinda unhappy about though is the utter lack of merchandise. I've ordered the VFB but apart from that and some obligatory wall covers/dakimakura there's basically nothing else. Ahh, why do all the good titles miss out while stuff like Bible Black gets so much crap pumped out. It's vexing. Ahh, how annoying. Urgh.

[dgaaz]

Yeah, maybe the lack of merchandise is due to the game not being popular in Japan? Quite sad as this is one of the best if not the best VN I have read so far...

Spoiler for ending:

Though I'm quite peeved about the ending. Kyousuke got 8 years for killing Maou? Come on he's an international terrorist who killed like 5k+ people in Japan from the incident alone. Its like getting sent to jail for killing Osama bin Laden

[Tyabann]

Originally Posted by dgaaz

Its like getting sent to jail for killing Osama bin Laden

Pretty sure you WOULD be sent to jail for killing Osama bin Laden.

[Seitsuki]

I think a plausible sort of explanation is something like this:

Spoiler for spoiler tagged in case:

Kyousuke doesn't want the stigma of a killer (no matter how possibly justified) of being attached to Haru, which is why he tried so hard to paint himself as the villain and throw the police off track. The result however is that he does come off as some heartless manipulative bastard, and taking this into account the judges don't lock him up just because he killed the Maou but because he did it for dubious reasons and is dangerous. Pretty stupid anyway imo but yeah.

On the other hand, I think it's really sweet how there's no way to mess up your relationship with Haru. It's like you can be enough of an asshole to screw over every heroine in the series except one, the one you truly love. Ahhh, how romantic. It's fate I tell you. *dies happy*

[Hooves]

Originally Posted by Seitsuki

I think a plausible sort of explanation is something like this:

Spoiler for spoiler tagged in case:

Kyousuke doesn't want the stigma of a killer (no matter how possibly justified) of being attached to Haru, which is why he tried so hard to paint himself as the villain and throw the police off track. The result however is that he does come off as some heartless manipulative bastard, and taking this into account the judges don't lock him up just because he killed the Maou but because he did it for dubious reasons and is dangerous. Pretty stupid anyway imo but yeah.

On the other hand, I think it's really sweet how there's no way to mess up your relationship with Haru. It's like you can be enough of an asshole to screw over every heroine in the series except one, the one you truly love. Ahhh, how romantic. It's fate I tell you. *dies happy*

I was actually surprised at that part on how Kyousuke handled the situation without getting Haru involved in the last moments of revenge. Especially what he kept saying afterwords, I kept my face like this ()

[larethian]

Woah, just saw this thread! Sure is nostalgic! Tsk tsk tsk, not capturing the heroines in order is really a big mistake. I disagree with the opinion that it's not a loss, because it really sweetens the last chapter, especially how the other individual routes just reinforce the possibility, in one's mind, of

Spoiler:

Kyousuke being 魔王

, with some foreshadowing trolling and stuff IIRC.

I guess now that the translation is done, more people would be playing this VN? So to anyone who hasn't played this yet, I strongly recommend clearing the route (using a walkthrough) in this order: Tsubaki (ch2) -> Kanon (ch3) -> Mizuha (ch4) -> Haru (ch5)

well, for those who actually ignored Kanon's route due to the comments, just take a closer look that they are really merely complaints about the disjointness with the Maou plotline, which I agree completely. Initially, I found Kanon so annoying that if not for advice from 2ch to clear this in order, I would have completely ignored her. But in the end I thought

Spoiler:

her final reconciliation with her mom and the event in her last skate, her emotions and the rigging in the end, and her apology was pretty heart-warming (of course not as good as the epilogue though). Heh even Eiichi was moved to tears.

Tsubaki was a good warm-up, the one which elicit the least emotions from me. Mizuha is pure moe with her social ineptness. And of course, there's no need to say more for the main course, Haru.

Originally Posted by dgaaz

Yeah, maybe the lack of merchandise is due to the game not being popular in Japan? Quite sad as this is one of the best if not the best VN I have read so far...

Spoiler for ending:

Though I'm quite peeved about the ending. Kyousuke got 8 years for killing Maou? Come on he's an international terrorist who killed like 5k+ people in Japan from the incident alone. Its like getting sent to jail for killing Osama bin Laden

well actually, this game was pretty popular. it had good sales rankings and won first place in an award (can't remember which one though) IIRC.

[Reckoner]

Agreed. Part of the reason the final scenes of the game were able to strike so much emotion in me was because I played each route as I went and was able to understand each girl.

[larethian]

Originally Posted by Seitsuki

You mean "good" as in (potentially) "utter goddamn #$^&ing assholes"?

All I can say is, this is one of those few series where nearing the finish I was thinking "alright you can stop trying to be clever and pulling out random twists and melodrama and whatnot, just give me an honest straight cliche good end dammit!" Which it kinda did. Eventually. Ah, so moving. Sob.

What I'm kinda unhappy about though is the utter lack of merchandise. I've ordered the VFB but apart from that and some obligatory wall covers/dakimakura there's basically nothing else. Ahh, why do all the good titles miss out while stuff like Bible Black gets so much crap pumped out. It's vexing. Ahh, how annoying. Urgh.

what is VFB? I assume you didn't get the 初回超重量特典版. If it makes you feel any better, I didn't get it as well.

Originally Posted by Reckoner

Agreed. Part of the reason the final scenes of the game were able to strike so much emotion in me was because I played each route as I went and was able to understand each girl.

even though part of Mizuha's character development was in chapter 5



EDIT: I looked through the scripts from tlwiki, seems to be pretty high quality albeit vulgar. think I'm going to try playing this VN again with the patch ^^. this is a pretty impressionable VN and as I was reminiscing, I just recalled some weird gags from Haru that really cracked me up. who carries a garbage bag along with them, and tries getting into it if they fall off a high building??

[Seitsuki]

It's part of her charm! Y'know, the whole "cloud cuckoolandish obfuscating stupidity" thing. Sure she can be a bit of a crackpot at times but she's really smart and serious when it counts. Not to mention she drops most of that by the end. Sure Mizuha has her moments, like the "well it's hard, you've no redeeming qualities whatsoever!" when trying to compliment Kyousuke but seriously how could you beat the awesome main heroine <33

Oh and by VFB I was referring to the visual fan book. Quite a few still in stock, unlike the YnS one. Sphere needs to publish more ._.

edit: I see no influx, only me and Reckoner atm :P

[Jubedube]

Originally Posted by dgaaz

Spoiler for ending:

Though I'm quite peeved about the ending. Kyousuke got 8 years for killing Maou?

Spoiler:

Considering most people get 25-life sentences for killing someone 8 years is incredibly generous.

[larethian]

Spoiler:

he could have called the police, if only he had realized that the gun was empty. but then again, Haru's demons might not be erased in that case.

[Hooves]

Originally Posted by larethian

Spoiler:

he could have called the police, if only he had realized that the gun was empty. but then again, Haru's demons might not be erased in that case.

Spoiler for :

Haru's inner-desire to kill Maou would not have gone away, and she might have gone to the limits of physically beating Maou to death with her own hands just to finish things off and finally satisfy herself.

[Gibber]

I just pretty much no-lifed this VN and damn, I need to go replay it again.

Skimming some of the posts though, I happened to like all of the other heroine's paths along with Haru's. Mizuha's route did feel less interesting but god, she was so freakin adorable that it doesn't matter.

[larethian]

Originally Posted by Gibber

I just pretty much no-lifed this VN and damn, I need to go replay it again.

Skimming some of the posts though, I happened to like all of the other heroine's paths along with Haru's. Mizuha's route did feel less interesting but god, she was so freakin adorable that it doesn't matter.

what you meant was moe-ness, right?

[hoarfrost]

I just played and frankly don't understand at all why people say that Kanon's route was boring and Shiratori's wasn't. Aside from some nice humour involving Yuki, Shiratori's route was mostly uneventful and seemed artificial with so many flashbacks and time skips.

In fact, I'd go as far as to say that Shiratori seemed to me to be a pretty extraneous and unprovocative character. The only relevant plot in her route is related to something that you mostly don't learn about unless you continue on with the main(Haru) route rather than getting involved with her, which leaves it pretty weak as a standalone route.

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by Kaisos Erranon

Pretty sure you WOULD be sent to jail for killing Osama bin Laden.

Nah you wont. If you somehow managed to kill Osama you'd get a 50 mil reward

Spoiler for next:

What Im kinda wondering about is what happened to Gonzous group after he died? who succeeded him?

Id like to know what that visual book looks like but I cant find any images online...

[Seitsuki]

It wasn't exactly expensive (link in case you're interested). Basically it's got a storyline overview with the CGs, a load of original illustrations (which were sweeet <333 ) and staff/seiyuu interviews (walls of text).

In fact, I'd go as far as to say that Shiratori seemed to me to be a pretty extraneous and unprovocative character. The only relevant plot in her route is related to something that you mostly don't learn about unless you continue on with the main(Haru) route rather than getting involved with her, which leaves it pretty weak as a standalone route.

Well to be perfectly honest you could say the same for every other route other than the canon route. Against all logic Maou randomly decides to give up his plan and leave you alone, Haru who has loved you for so long just gives up too (you BASTARD) and it's like the entire world was told to screw itself so you could have your storyline with whoever. There's suspension of disbelief, and then there's this ==

[Reckoner]

Well thing is, the other girl's routes only don't make sense in hindsight. They're almost like an alternate dimension.

[Seitsuki]

Which wouldn't *normally* be a problem, but the thing is they have such a great emphasis on Maou and Haru (their chase scene at the start, the constant reference to their rivalry, and him constantly popping up) that for them both to just up and leave with no explaination whatsoever (apart from once "I've got better things to do"... really? Better than your life's ambition?) was really jarring for me. Then again I played thorugh the Haru scenario first so I guess I don't know quite what it woulda been like if you played a side route first.