General Eroge Impressions & Discussion

[Skyfall]

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

Finished it last night (though I really shouldn't have stayed up that late ).

Spoiler for Dracu-Riot; Miu's Route Ending:

First of all, I see what you're saying about the plot seeming to come out of nowhere. But at the same time, I actually think it was a bit more connected than it seems at first. The key point is that Aqua Eden is basically a trap, and all the stuff that happened with the drug was a pretense to cause a disturbance that would cause that para-government group responsible for managing the "Vampire Problem" to execute their contingency plan to destroy the island (and the vampires). I sort of understand why the game delivered the plot the way it did, because they didn't want us to have too much of a clue about just how deep the rabbit hole went until the time came. Then, you're inundated with information, sort of the way Yuuto, Miu, and all the rest are. Of course, there are certainly some plot conveniences -- like the fact they conveniently had a missle launcher on their boat -- but it was set-up more than I expected. Of course, it's still cheesy as heck with a "Power Of Love" ending (they even said it! ), but I've sort of come to expect that from Yuzusoft.

Spoiler for Miu's route ending:

My main issue with all of this is basically how what had essentially been background information took the center stage, with the ante upped up to eleven. They could have built up / showed us the gradual increase of discontent when the blood packs were pulled from production, similarly how the government "shadow council" and their stance (and the extremes of it) could have been woven in to the plot earlier, with a bit more than a passing mention once or twice of their existence without much specifics.

It simply didn't feel all that connected to what had been going on up to now, with some background details taking the form of a world-ending crisis without sufficient connection. One moment we are done catching the criminals behind L and easing Yuuto's pain from the aftereffects of it's usage (By having him have copious amounts of sex with Miu as a medically subscribed solution ... I both laughed and faceplamed at this part, fit the overall mood of the story very well ).

And then suddenly there is a vampire riot on the street, bridges exploding, spec ops demolishing the city, missiles flying and evil government cliques rubbing their hands in the background, all introduced and brought forth in a span of 5 minutes! It's like the game skipped a week's worth of exposition; instead of properly bringing forth these background elements through buildup, it felt like they slammed the table with a hammer and flipped it over in an instant.

The cheesy resolution fits quite well with the overall tone of the story though, so I was fine with that. Score one for the Power of Love^TM

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

The thing I liked most about the ending, though, was that they had a very good epilogue that actually wrapped up all the loose ends. I find this is so often neglected in eroge; they'll have a big climax, run the credits, and then do a brief "sometime later" scene and that's it. But here they tried to close all the open threads, and that left me with a good feeling about the story, despite some of the crazy over-the-top elements.

Aye, I agree that this is a part that Dracu Riot manages fairly well. As someone who also tends to lament the frequent lack of a proper (> 15 sentences) epilogue, the more lengthy exposition of how things continue after the dust has settled is certainly welcome. Even if it's more of the same thing we are used to, it's still nice to actually see that fact.

Looks like I'm playing in the same order as everyone else; Erina is next.

I see you also don't believe in saving the best for the last Heroine preferences aside though, I do believe this is the "best" way to play the routes in - or at the very least, Miu and Erina before Rio and Azusa, due to how specific common plot points are handled in these specific routes. Though I won't comment on this more deeply for now, too many spoilers

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by Skyfall

Spoiler for Miu's route ending:

My main issue with all of this is basically how what had essentially been background information took the center stage, with the ante upped up to eleven. They could have built up / showed us the gradual increase of discontent when the blood packs were pulled from production, similarly how the government "shadow council" and their stance (and the extremes of it) could have been woven in to the plot earlier, with a bit more than a passing mention once or twice of their existence without much specifics.

It simply didn't feel all that connected to what had been going on up to now, with some background details taking the form of a world-ending crisis without sufficient connection. One moment we are done catching the criminals behind L and easing Yuuto's pain from the aftereffects of it's usage (By having him have copious amounts of sex with Miu as a medically subscribed solution ... I both laughed and faceplamed at this part, fit the overall mood of the story very well ).

And then suddenly there is a vampire riot on the street, bridges exploding, spec ops demolishing the city, missiles flying and evil government cliques rubbing their hands in the background, all introduced and brought forth in a span of 5 minutes! It's like the game skipped a week's worth of exposition; instead of properly bringing forth these background elements through buildup, it felt like they slammed the table with a hammer and flipped it over in an instant.

Spoiler for Dracu-Riot; Miu's Route:

Yes, I understand your objection. I actually think the big problem is that, as soon as the trigger hit, then they started doing the perspective shifts to explain what was going on behind the scenes. The reason I say that is because the story could have justified the sudden turn of events by focusing entirely on Miu and Yuuto's perspective. I mean, they were on a lovey-dovey date and the whole issue of the drug and everything else was as far from their minds as possible. Even if unrest was growing, they could be blissfully unaware of it. I can see why the writers didn't necessarily want the larger plot to be hanging over our heads while they were on their date (they were luring using into a false sense of security), but then yeah: as soon as it happened, suddenly it was perspective shifts and exposition.

In fact, if anything, that was my biggest problem with that whole part of the story: far too much exposition that broke the sense of tension. This was almost all because of the perspective changes. I get that the writers wanted us to understand what was going on, and to understand the symbolic significance of what was happening, but I think the whole thing would have been more effectively portrayed if they just followed our protagonists throughout the whole thing. Or at least if the perspective shifts had been a lot more brief. Particularly egregious to me was when Miu and everyone else are fighting to save Yuuto and the little girl from the collapsed building, Sayo and the head protester go into this long speech about not trusting humans. I think "actions speak louder than words" here, so we really didn't need this whole speech. It seemed to drag on forever, and I'm thinking "you know, there's someone that needs saving here!". Perhaps they could have fixed it by having the speech be delivered while they show the rest of the cast working to save them, sort of like a narration to bridge the two. But here it was like: "I'm going to go save Yuuto and not even you can stop me!" ...wait for our endless speech to be over where we discuss he merits of this choice... and then "well, I guess we can't stop them anyway"... and then they get saved. What if they had died in the meantime?

The one perspective shift that I actually did like, though, was the phone call the committee had with the Dr. had after the fact. This was good because it happened after the action had concluded and answered some of the remaining questions about what had happened and who was responsible, and it did it in such a way that didn't break the flow of the plot. If they had done more of the exposition like this -- either long beforehand through foreshadowing, or afterwards through well-timed conversations, I think the whole section would have had a better flow.

So anyway, I think the problem is that they were withholding some information to keep up the sense of mystery and not give away "the twist", but then as soon as the twist happens they just start dumping everything on you and sort of making up for the lack of foreshadowing with a lot of exposition. It makes it seems as if the elements come all of a sudden, and you just have to assume that they were actually there all along but they just didn't tell you about it before. But because they still use perspective shifts, it's like we're at a halfway point from having a "god-view" of the story, and being constrained to our protagonists. So yeah... it feels a bit cheap, and makes that section feel a bit more tacked-on than it really should have. I think the events actually are deeply connected, but they just didn't bridge them tightly enough to make that clear, even though they easily could have done so.

Well, like I said, in the end, it was still fun, and the strong epilogue helped soothe over the sudden transition to me. I still feel like I can kind of see what they were going for, but yeah... I'll concede that it's not as effective as it could have been. But the one part that was conveyed well through all this was the deep connection between Yuuto and Miu, and that was really what I was here for anyway.

[Mahou]

So after much back and forth guessing, I decided to give Grisaia no Kajitsu a shot. I was already made aware of its genres in advance and spoiled myself with reviews .
I just completed Amane's route, and jeez it had to be just another exaggerated drama available. It's premise understandable; the development? too extreme/over-the-top for my taste. Maybe such an incident is actually not that farfetched in RL, but still it felt heavyily like "stacking all worst-case scenarios to incrase the drama value".
I also admit that I didn't like Yuuji in the beginning phase. His sense of humor/antics were mostly hit or miss for me and I disliked how he at times had a rude manner towards the girls (I'm aware he's like this due to his job, background or whatever). But, once he has started to become more "normal", it also started to become more agreeable.
Next is either Yumiko or Michiru.

[relentlessflame]

So now, having finished Erina's route, it puts the rest of what you guys were saying about Miu's route into context.

Spoiler for Dracu-Riot; Erina's route:

The flow in this story is definitely much better. They set everything up more gradually (very methodically), the transition to action was sudden but not unexpected, and they kept the flow of tension very high, only pausing briefly to setup a few more things, and in a way that made sense. All in all, I'd even say that the approach here was almost cinematic. The "twist" near the end was pretty obvious, but still well-done, and made sense in context. I kept expecting Sonia to double-cross them as one last twist, but it didn't happen, and that was fine. And here too, the epilogue wrapped things up nicely (even tied things back to the very beginning for a nice touch). So yeah, if this does indeed end up being the best route in the game, I can see why; it made good use of the settings, the characters, the overall "style" they were going for, and was pretty good both on the romance and plot fronts. Hard to ask for more than that.

The only thing I have to say... going to the "ero" part of this eroge for just a second... how is it that Erina is so full of dirty jokes and seemingly unafraid of her sexuality most of the time (heck, she first met Yuuto wearing a bath towel to test him), but as soon she's actually naked in "those scenes" she goes 150% shy and embarrassed? I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but...

Anyway, don't have much more to say about it I guess. Very satisfying route from start to end. Now, on to Rio...

[Skyfall]

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

So now, having finished Erina's route, it puts the rest of what you guys were saying about Miu's route into context.

Spoiler for Dracu-Riot; Erina's route:

The flow in this story is definitely much better. They set everything up more gradually (very methodically), the transition to action was sudden but not unexpected, and they kept the flow of tension very high, only pausing briefly to setup a few more things, and in a way that made sense. All in all, I'd even say that the approach here was almost cinematic. The "twist" near the end was pretty obvious, but still well-done, and made sense in context. I kept expecting Sonia to double-cross them as one last twist, but it didn't happen, and that was fine. And here too, the epilogue wrapped things up nicely (even tied things back to the very beginning for a nice touch). So yeah, if this does indeed end up being the best route in the game, I can see why; it made good use of the settings, the characters, the overall "style" they were going for, and was pretty good both on the romance and plot fronts. Hard to ask for more than that.

The only thing I have to say... going to the "ero" part of this eroge for just a second... how is it that Erina is so full of dirty jokes and seemingly unafraid of her sexuality most of the time (heck, she first met Yuuto wearing a bath towel to test him), but as soon she's actually naked in "those scenes" she goes 150% shy and embarrassed? I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but...

Anyway, don't have much more to say about it I guess. Very satisfying route from start to end. Now, on to Rio...

Spoiler for Erina's route:

Glad to hear you also enjoyed Erina's route ... indeed, it seems to be the general favorite, and for good reasons I'd say. Like you noted, the story is well structured, well paced, it expands upon its own themes nicely and stays true to the initial premise. A consistently satisfying package all around.

If we are to compare it with Miu's route, I'd say Erina's felt more emotionally involving and heartfelt. Which makes sense considering the respective focus of each route, I guess. Miu's route focused on the city as a whole (in the end), and early parts were mostly spent chasing down the new drug. Not bad by any means, but also not that emotionally involving all things considered.

On the other hand, Erina's route felt quite "personal" and very much focused on her, Yuuto and their relationship. And while wrapped in generally bright colors, true to the tone of Dracu Riot, Erina's past and their mutual situations as "outcasts" among vampires added a nice touch of somber feeling to it. All in all, I felt more for Erina and their circumstances than I did on Miu's route.

And yeah, I totally expected Sonia to turn traitor at some point. Perhaps the biggest surprise of the route was that she didn't - I guess "too good to be true" doesn't apply here, and she indeed had Erina's best interests in mind all along. In the end I brandished my tinfoil hat for nothing

One of my favorite moments happened on the comedy front though - near the end, where Yuuto's friend begged them to leave his house ... or he would leave himself! Poor guy, not only did he fail in his initial quest, but was also forced to endure Erina's and Yuuto's antics for weeks on end, as if fate was rubbing it in his face. His desperate tone during said "request" ... priceless

[Mahou]

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

So now, having finished Erina's route, it puts the rest of what you guys were saying about Miu's route into context.

Spoiler for Dracu-Riot; Erina's route:

The flow in this story is definitely much better. They set everything up more gradually (very methodically), the transition to action was sudden but not unexpected, and they kept the flow of tension very high, only pausing briefly to setup a few more things, and in a way that made sense. All in all, I'd even say that the approach here was almost cinematic. The "twist" near the end was pretty obvious, but still well-done, and made sense in context. I kept expecting Sonia to double-cross them as one last twist, but it didn't happen, and that was fine. And here too, the epilogue wrapped things up nicely (even tied things back to the very beginning for a nice touch). So yeah, if this does indeed end up being the best route in the game, I can see why; it made good use of the settings, the characters, the overall "style" they were going for, and was pretty good both on the romance and plot fronts. Hard to ask for more than that.

The only thing I have to say... going to the "ero" part of this eroge for just a second... how is it that Erina is so full of dirty jokes and seemingly unafraid of her sexuality most of the time (heck, she first met Yuuto wearing a bath towel to test him), but as soon she's actually naked in "those scenes" she goes 150% shy and embarrassed? I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but...

Anyway, don't have much more to say about it I guess. Very satisfying route from start to end. Now, on to Rio...

Seems like Miu -> Erina -> Rio -> Azusa (-> Reverse-Trap) has become the "normed" play order . Although for me, I finished Erina's route first, after reaching ecchi 1 on all routes first to get a romance comparion.

Spoiler for Miu <-> Erina:

I pretty much agree and commented earlier on that Miu's route had a more general or "global" sense of danger. I also inititally assumed Miu's route would be more about the Lycantrop theme or the police job in general, but the former topic gets more focus elsewhere.
What did I enjoy about Erina: Her ecchi-jokes and talks are a given and her rolling around in her bed while hugging the pillow was extremely cute. She got *that* happy simply by the fact that Mr. Dense accepted her "burden" without a word and that she's fun around him. What is there NOT to like .
Secondly, her very direct suggestion to have sex to turn the school rumours true when both of them were being kept at home temporarily .
Thirdly, the whole theme of friendship felt better developed than during Azusa and Miu's route. How both of them feared to tell the truth to their friends towards "Two against the "city" until the near-finale when Miu and co. met them in the warehouse area and they revealed their secret(s).
And at last, like Skyfall how they drove Yuuto's friend up to desperation due to their icha-icha at his home

About Sonia: My main reason why I also suspected her as the Russian villain was about how the first meeting on the street occured. You had Yuuto's inital suspections and Ogi's. But, it was funny how the false alarm was dissipated when Erina went "Sonia? Yay, I want to meet her. She was my best friend at the research facility."

[Dhomochevsky]

I am ready to start MonsterGirlQuest 2.
Is there any way to import something from part 1, or do you just jump into it?

[Balzac]

Spoiler for Dracu-Riot, Erina:

Though, did anyone else not get convinced that Sayo was really gunning for them for the sake of the city in the end? I guess I was just too used to the twist of "please fall down the waterfall, and then disappear" for me to be invested in that scene so much.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by Skyfall

Spoiler for Erina's route:

One of my favorite moments happened on the comedy front though - near the end, where Yuuto's friend begged them to leave his house ... or he would leave himself! Poor guy, not only did he fail in his initial quest, but was also forced to endure Erina's and Yuuto's antics for weeks on end, as if fate was rubbing it in his face. His desperate tone during said "request" ... priceless

Spoiler for Dracu-Riot; Erina's Epilogue:

Hahaha -- yes, indeed. This got a really good laugh out of me as well (and Mahou too I see). The fact that they called on him in the first place was well-played (because it ties back to the earlier parts of the plot that were otherwise sort of left behind), but then to rub it in his face like this was really well done, and brings the plot full-circle in a lot of ways. It really felt like the writers had thought carefully about how to get everyone involved in the story, even down to this little detail. So yeah, agreed -- really good route all around.

Originally Posted by Balzac

Spoiler for Dracu-Riot, Erina:

Though, did anyone else not get convinced that Sayo was really gunning for them for the sake of the city in the end? I guess I was just too used to the twist of "please fall down the waterfall, and then disappear" for me to be invested in that scene so much.

Spoiler for see context...:

Well, I must admit that the thought that she might be serious did cross my mind briefly at the time. They played this pretty well so that you might not see through the whole game at first, since they deliberately didn't show any scene where Sayo and Yuuto (et al) planned it out. Also, Yuuto's narration at the time didn't leave any major hints (unlike the earlier times when he was like "all according to plan", plus the acting of the other players was fake enough to give it away to us anyway). At first, I thought Sayo was serious-ish but there'd be some other way out and she was never planning to shoot (that it was a sort of negotiation tactic, since Yuuto wouldn't do the Russians any good if he was dead). (It was obvious that Yuuto had never planned to really kill the agent, so her showing up in the first place was obvious.) But I think it was when Sayo made the comment that was sort of asking if Erina wanted to suck Yuuto's blood, and she said she was fine, and then I thought "aha, it's all part of the plan; they're going to put on a show". So by the time she actually shot, I knew he didn't die. But I thought the twist was quite well done; it was just believable enough that it at least caused me to do a brief double-take, even if I figured it out not too long thereafter. I don't think it was supposed to so believable that you fell for it for very long, though.

[hyl]

It seems that people are still playing dracu-riot. Like other people who have read Dracu-Riot my favorite route was also Erina, eventhough I personally like Miu as a character slightly (just slightly) better.

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

So now, having finished Erina's route, it puts the rest of what you guys were saying about Miu's route into context.

Spoiler for Dracu-Riot; Erina's route:

The only thing I have to say... going to the "ero" part of this eroge for just a second... how is it that Erina is so full of dirty jokes and seemingly unafraid of her sexuality most of the time (heck, she first met Yuuto wearing a bath towel to test him), but as soon she's actually naked in "those scenes" she goes 150% shy and embarrassed? I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but...

It's like Renai 0 km.

Spoiler for Nokia:

Nokia is very much like Erina when it comes to teasing and dirty jokes, but she also becomes quite shy in her ero-scenes. Too bad Nokia's personality changed a little too drastically in her own route.
Also Nokia has the same seiyuu as Erina.

Back to Natsuyume Nagisa after slacking so much that I have only finished Hitsuji's route. I was impressed how good that route turned out to be and the best part is that it had a good and satisfying end unlike most routes in HatsuSaku.
If the other stories are just as good as this route, then i am surprised how Sagaplanets messed up Kisaragi Goldstar so much.

[Soviet]

Originally Posted by Mahou

It's premise understandable; the development? too extreme/over-the-top for my taste. Maybe such an incident is actually not that farfetched in RL, but still it felt heavyily like "stacking all worst-case scenarios to incrase the drama value".

It was actually pretty tame compared to other stories which deal with similar events. Angelic Howl was one of my favorite parts of Grisaia because it's a very well done depiction of such a tragic scenario. Things turn very ugly very fast when people begin to realize that no help is coming.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by hyl

It seems that people are still playing dracu-riot. Like other people who have read Dracu-Riot my favorite route was also Erina, eventhough I personally like Miu as a character slightly (just slightly) better.

I swear, there is very little advantage to buying eroge if not a) to support the creators, b) to get the bonus items. Waiting until you receive the package to play is probably not worth it if you want to be part of the discussion, since everyone else has already pirated it on day of release. It's either that or you just have to be way late to the game, and then it's like nostalgia for people who played it a long time back. Being "just a bit late" is annoying. But anyway... </rant>

I do appreciate people still taking the time to discuss it with me, even if it's old news to them.

Originally Posted by hyl

Back to Natsuyume Nagisa after slacking so much that I have only finished Hitsuji's route. I was impressed how good that route turned out to be and the best part is that it had a good and satisfying end unlike most routes in HatsuSaku.
If the other stories are just as good as this route, then i am surprised how Sagaplanets messed up Kisaragi Goldstar so much.

For what it's worth, I actually quite like Kisaragi Goldstar, and I always have. But, I think it's a very different kind of game compared to Hatsuyuki Sakura and Natsuyume Nagisa. In the simplest terms, Kisaragi Goldstar is more of a "moege" ("chara-ge"?), whereas the other two are more "nakige". I still think, for example, that Tsubasa Haotone is one of the best characters in the entire series of games, even if her plot (or that game) wasn't as touching or dramatic as the other two games you're comparing it to.

Well, as they say, opinions... the fact they returned to this style of game probably indicates that this is what most of their fans prefer. I guess we'll see what they do next now that the "seasons" series is ostensibly over.

[Balzac]

Originally Posted by hyl

Back to Natsuyume Nagisa after slacking so much that I have only finished Hitsuji's route. I was impressed how good that route turned out to be and the best part is that it had a good and satisfying end unlike most routes in HatsuSaku.
If the other stories are just as good as this route, then i am surprised how Sagaplanets messed up Kisaragi Goldstar so much.

Well, I hope your optimism remains when you reach endgame.

Also, is everything really not free from being pirated these days? I thought Japanese companies would have tighter measures to prevent that but I guess the powers of the internet hackers really are impressive.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by Balzac

Also, is everything really not free from being pirated these days? I thought Japanese companies would have tighter measures to prevent that but I guess the powers of the internet hackers really are impressive.

Well, without wanting to get really into it, I don't think they bother spending all that much time or money on the problem. Rather, they just try to entice people to want to buy with special limited edition pre-order goods. Given that anything they do tech-wise will probably be hacked anyway, this is probably a wiser investment. (Well, and besides, it doesn't help us much anyway; people overseas are not supposed to be buying eroge anyway -- it says right on the box and on pretty much every splash screen. )

[hyl]

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

I swear, there is very little advantage to buying eroge if not a) to support the creators, b) to get the bonus items. Waiting until you receive the package to play is probably not worth it if you want to be part of the discussion, since everyone else has already pirated it on day of release. It's either that or you just have to be way late to the game, and then it's like nostalgia for people who played it a long time back. Being "just a bit late" is annoying. But anyway... </rant>

I got my copy of Dracu_riot on the 3rd of april , because it was shipped by EMS
As for the bonusses, most of the time it's not that worth it, but i am just buying some games for also supporting the creators. But i only buy eroge that i realy liked or sometimes i preorder the highly anticipated ones. (like da capo 3 at this moment)
As for Dracu-Riot's bonusses, the Draculart booklet was ok as a lineartbook, but contentwise i didn't think it was that impressive. I liked the "Amazing Book" from HatsuSaku better, because it had more unique art (not being just the sketches from the scenes of the game) and it was more like a regular artbook combined with lots of line art and some comments.
The bonus CD from Dracu-Riot was uhm.. different from what i would expected from a bonus disc.
In short, owning a physical copy of eroge is overrated XD

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

For what it's worth, I actually quite like Kisaragi Goldstar, and I always have. But, I think it's a very different kind of game compared to Hatsuyuki Sakura and Natsuyume Nagisa. In the simplest terms, Kisaragi Goldstar is more of a "moege" ("chara-ge"?), whereas the other two are more "nakige". I still think, for example, that Tsubasa Haotone is one of the best characters in the entire series of games, even if her plot (or that game) wasn't as touching or dramatic as the other two games you're comparing it to.

The problem for me was that Kiragi goldstar felt like an average moege , while Sagaplanets have proven themselves that they can make a good Nakige with NatsuYume (well it impressed me so far)
I think Sagaplanets wanted to try something different for every title in the seasons serie, but I think that plan backfired for Kisargi Goldstar after the disappointment for many people wanting something similar like NatsuNagi.

Originally Posted by Balzac

Also, is everything really not free from being pirated these days? I thought Japanese companies would have tighter measures to prevent that but I guess the powers of the internet hackers really are impressive.

HatsuSaku was slightly better protected than most eroge (well if we exclude eroge from Minori),seeing that i couldn't play it even with the original disc due to stricter region lock. But that was undone after a few days by the people on the internet....

Tighter security measurements only seem to work for a short moment, but it does costs lots of money. So it's pointless waste of money if people crack it in a matter of weeks. Just look at the nintendo ds and sony's psp.
Another recent example that i know would be the psp port of Amatsu Misora ni (I have no idea why they ported such an average eroge to the psp). It had a new way of preventing people with a custom firmware to play (it used 2 discs and you needed to install data from the first disc on your memory stick to play with the 2nd disc. Also the data could not be normally installed on a custom firmware ) But after 1,5 months, people managed to bypass that.

After i finish NatsuNagi, i might want try out the psp port of Princess Evangile to see what is different (besides being all ages).

[Mahou]

Originally Posted by Soviet

It was actually pretty tame compared to other stories which deal with similar events. Angelic Howl was one of my favorite parts of Grisaia because it's a very well done depiction of such a tragic scenario. Things turn very ugly very fast when people begin to realize that no help is coming.

Then let's say I'm well-off to not know other stories similar to her life-shocking incident.
Yes, I was pretty happy that they didn't went into deep details on the grotesque parts of the flashback. I guess for me it's a common "it make's perfectly sense in-game, but just not my total preference"-scenario. I didn't hate the flashback per say because I liked the friendship between Amane and Kazuki and how they sticked together until the bitter end. To be honest, when I first read a rough summary of Amane's route I expected an even more grotesque scenario.

Spoiler for Amane:

Somehow, I thought that Amane herself would commit to cannibalism and thus explaining why she refuses to eat meat in present time. Very glad that it turned not out like this
@accident itself: I found it a bit questionable that nobody from the school or family did any attempt to look for the club members (or I overread it for some strange reason). I understood that the area where the bus had crashed was very hard to spot due to the height difference and trees, etc., but still there was only one helicopter described that was afterwards depicted as unrelated to the rescue team.

Anyway, decided to play Yumiko's route afterwards (still on-going) and even though it seemed to have a somewhat slow start I have been liking it so far. Her past drama was very sad and makes you hate her father (even more). Though, one or two of her CGs look strange in contrast to some of her character sprites during dialogues.

[Soviet]

Originally Posted by Mahou

Spoiler:

@accident itself: I found it a bit questionable that nobody from the school or family did any attempt to look for the club members (or I overread it for some strange reason). I understood that the area where the bus had crashed was very hard to spot due to the height difference and trees, etc., but still there was only one helicopter described that was afterwards depicted as unrelated to the rescue team.

Spoiler:

They were looking for them, only in the wrong places. The teacher took a shortcut which was some road in the middle of nowhere only he knew about.

Anyway, decided to play Yumiko's route afterwards (still on-going) and even though it seemed to have a somewhat slow start I have been liking it so far. Her past drama was very sad and makes you hate her father (even more). Though, one or two of her CGs look strange in contrast to some of her character sprites during dialogues.

Yumiko's route is nice, though it's probably the weakest route in the game. It's like a less interesting version of Makina's route.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by hyl

The problem for me was that Kiragi goldstar felt like an average moege , while Sagaplanets have proven themselves that they can make a good Nakige with NatsuYume (well it impressed me so far)
I think Sagaplanets wanted to try something different for every title in the seasons serie, but I think that plan backfired for Kisargi Goldstar after the disappointment for many people wanting something similar like NatsuNagi.

I would say that Kisaragi Goldstar was better than an average moege (or at least my definition of "average" is lower...)... but of course it's subjective. Part of it is that I don't necessarily consider nakige to be superior to moege, or at least I'm not always in the mood to play a nakige. I find them a bit draining; after playing one, I usually want nothing but happy games for a while. So that's why the change in styles worked for me. I guess I can see people being disappointed if they expect one thing and get something else, but I was just as glad with the way it turned out. But again, opinions....

Edit:

Originally Posted by hyl

As for the bonusses, most of the time it's not that worth it, but i am just buying some games for also supporting the creators.

I think it's really when you start getting into the store-specific bonuses that it gets interesting, though of course it means you have to go through a re-shipper. I started buying almost everything from Sofmap a while ago, and they regularly come with all sorts of additional bonuses beyond the normal Pre-Order/LE stuff, like bed sheets, tapestries, pillow covers, and so on. Shopping around for the best pre-order bonus items is almost a game in and of itself. But of course, going through the reshipping process is also why it takes longer for my stuff to arrive, and it also adds a fair bit of cost. But what can I say... I love collecting stuff.

[Key Board]

You know, I've been wondering

Do eroge companies have to pay a cut to the Yakuza?

I know that some AV companies do
I know that a lot of pachinko parlors do
I know that a big time legit mail delivery service once did, to make sure its business went on uninterrupted

what about ero anime and ero game companies?

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by Key Board

You know, I've been wondering

Do eroge companies have to pay a cut to the Yakuza?

I know that some AV companies do
I know that a lot of pachinko parlors do
I know that a big time legit mail delivery service once did, to make sure its business went on uninterrupted

what about ero anime and ero game companies?

Well, I've got to think that this industry is too niche and small-scale to really be a major target of the underworld, but of course it's not something they're going to readily advertise even if it is the case. With the way some of the brands are organized (with lots of sub-brands all somehow associated with some giant mega-company that no one really ever hears of, and turns out actually controls a significant percentage of the industry), you sometimes wonder... but yeah. I suppose it's a hard question.