General Eroge Impressions & Discussion

[nani]

Originally Posted by velocity7

Regarding Clannad, I never understood だんご大家族. Besides knowing what it looks like, what does it translate to, and where does the origin of the だんご and 大家族 come from?

団子大家族 is a set of fictional characters within Clannad. It was supposed to be very popular a few years before the current timeline of Clannad, but its popularity had dwindled ever since. In the game, it is mentioned that most of the shops do not sell 団子大家族-related goods anymore.

Spoiler for My Interpretation:

Every member of 団子大家族 belongs to the same family and they always love/care for each others. In a way, they represent the main theme of Clannad (family members should be closely-tied and supportive of each other).

Their decline in popularity can be interpreted as the decline of family values (as witnessed in most character’s story) in the recent years. This decline of family values has a profound effect on the 幻想世界(fantasy world).

IMO, the real world inspiration for 団子大家族 is probably 団子三兄弟, which is mentioned in Sushi-Y’s Wiki link above.

[Sushi-Y]

Originally Posted by nani

団子大家族

うわなんか違和感が-

Dango was deliberately written in hiragana for that children's mascot feel, it feels kinda odd if you write them in kanji.

As for your interpretation of the dango family's meaning, I'd say you got it spot on.

Spoiler:

In the end of Nagisa's route, it was mentioned that the dango family represented all the people living inside the town (and in a sense, their values)

It's the perfect explanation for Nagisa's affection towards the dangos.

Interesting tidbit: there's a file called "dango.wav" in the game's wav folder. The melody is the same as the opening of "Nagisa". Some say it might be the melody for that infamous dango song in the game.

While we're on the topic, it looks like they're planning to release some CLANNAD drama CDs this year:
http://shop.frontierworks.jp/sakuhin...&feature_cls=3

[Flame-X]

Utawarerumono - The thing i love about this game is the RPG battles, its the only h-game i never cared about the h-scenes.

School Days - This is is the most extreme h-game i've played by far. There are ton of different endings from love story to murder. I like how everything is all animated instead of stills. Some endings are really twisted that its sickening..

[kct]

Of course, the twisted endings is WHAT made School Days famous.

[nani]

Originally Posted by Sushi-Y

うわなんか違和感が-

Dango was deliberately written in hiragana for that children's mascot feel, it feels kinda odd if you write them in kanji.

[embarrassed] My Japanese reading skill is still very rudimentary, hence I am playing the game with the Chinese patch and do not notice dango is written in hiragana .... [/embarrassed]

Originally Posted by Sushi-Y

While we're on the topic, it looks like they're planning to release some CLANNAD drama CDs this year:
http://shop.frontierworks.jp/sakuhin...&feature_cls=3

Drama CD for Clannad, together with original materials?!! If they are going to cover the whole story, I think there will be 20+ CDs in total.....

If this is true, can I begin to expect a Clannad TV series anytime soon?

[Steelia]

My favorite... would have to be Nocturnal Illusion. I found the plot very addictive (if you can get past the running around and clicking until the next scene shows up parts, which I think really bring more into the game... as it makes you feel "trapped" and it somehow gets you closer to the characters, as you begin to grow on them because of your "out-of-sync" part in the game). Strangely enough, I also found the game moving... Ah, what a world it is. The torment of it all.
I'm not a big fan of the H-scenes, though. Never really was. It was the characters I loved, not the scenes. They just dampened their personalities... Just wasn't their character.

I'm still hooked on it, actually. Never really played it for a long time, but I've managed to respark my old spirit with... a supposed sequel to the game with much better CG graphics, "orchestrated music", and the like... Not that I'm interested in the scenes, I just want to see how it was remodeled (if at all).

Just my rant on this... Probably my favorite H-game, as I have no interest in any others. It was my first -- and my last.

[luckyovermind]

Wow, a 1995 game, it's nice to hear praise on an old game though

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Just to make this post less pointless - Tomo Kataoka mentioned on the stage-nana bbs that a new character is possible and some sort of movie is under construction. When will narci2 be done? No one really knows

[MeganeShounen]

Hmm... I was browsing a certain imageboard and came across a certain wallpaper that seems to be from Leaf/Aquaplus. Oddly enough, I don't know which game it came from, since it doesn't look like any of Leaf's past games (but it does have the copyrights on the bottom).

Spoiler for for the said wallpaper:

I can't even read the title on the top left.. >.<

Help, anyone?

[endofuniverse]

Originally Posted by MeganeShounen

Help, anyone?

http://www.insertcredit.com/archives/001354.html

[Sushi-Y]

Originally Posted by MeganeShounen

Hmm... I was browsing a certain imageboard and came across a certain wallpaper that seems to be from Leaf/Aquaplus. Oddly enough, I don't know which game it came from, since it doesn't look like any of Leaf's past games (but it does have the copyrights on the bottom).

I made a mention of it like a billion pages ago.

The wallpaper is from a set that was included in Tech Gian's December DVD.
It's quite rare to see so many artists working on the same game (especially with all of them being character illustrators), because it's usually difficult for the artists to accomodate each other's art styles.

In this case though, I think they gave up trying to do that a long time ago. Unlike the To Heart series, each of Leaf's illustrators really showed off their personal styles here.

Buddy's illustrator is Kawata Hisashi, by the way.

[luckyovermind]

I remember in C71, 鈴平ひろ or 西又葵 did a telephone card featuring her... or something.

[MeganeShounen]

Originally Posted by Sushi-Y

I made a mention of it like a billion pages ago.

Aha... got pwned by Sushi-Y again...

I really need to pay more attention.
(And I was also off the loop on Leaf's latter games, since I was thinking that FullAni and ~Another Days~ were the latest ones.)

That reminds me... Fate/stay night [Realta Nua]'s been bothering me for a bit on the plot (change) details, and Koihime Musou (yet another attempt on fusing oooodles of fanservice with ancient Chinese history, See: Ikkitousen) seems to be coming along nicely. It might not be as indepth as... say, Sengoku Rance, but the art alone seems enough.

[u43368]

So I've recently gotten interested in visual novels, but I don't speak japanese (yet). I've had Ever17 and Planetarian reccommended, although I've been hearing E17 is overhyped. I'm a bit... no VERY picky about games, so I'd like to stick to the story heavy stuff rather than straight pornfests. Anyone have some suggestions? I'd like to see if anything can beat V for Vendetta for best visual based novel thing. :3

[ayyo]

Well, if you think that the term 'straight pornfest' is associated with the term 'visual novel', I think you're too early to try one. Two years too early in fact. がき.

[Benoit]

Easy. Here's the story-centered ones:

Kana - Little Sister
Crescendo
Figures of Happiness
Hourglass of Summer
Ever17

[Varion]

Originally Posted by Kroni

So I've recently gotten interested in visual novels, but I don't speak japanese (yet). I've had Ever17 and Planetarian reccommended, although I've been hearing E17 is overhyped. I'm a bit... no VERY picky about games, so I'd like to stick to the story heavy stuff rather than straight pornfests. Anyone have some suggestions? I'd like to see if anything can beat V for Vendetta for best visual based novel thing. :3

Ever17 is good, though not quite as good as some would say, yeah. I'd definitely recommend reading it though, just don't go into it thinking it's going to be the best thing ever.

As for my favourite VN in English, that would be Tsukihime, if you can get hold of it. It's in Japanese, but there's a patch to translate the whole thing into English on Mirror Moon's site, and it's more than worth it. I've heard good things about Phantom of Inferno, too - there's a review of that here that Mentar wrote a while back. I still have to find time to read that. But judging from a couple of your posts about liking action and dark stuff, these two're probably your best bets.

[u43368]

Thanks for the suggestions. Mentar's review of Phantom of Inferno got me interested and Kana is also great from what I've heard. I'll look up the other games too.

[Cloudnine]

Seems like the dust has settled since Friday. Lot's of new titles out, but sadly only Yukichi-san can get two titles now. Consider the fact that there are more than 8 titles I've been anticipating since December and two more weeks till my next check... ;_; (確実に絶望ピンチ!)

To buy some time, I got these two during the weekend~


F&C・FC01 - Akai Canvas Series Nadeshiko ~Spiral Red~
(赤いCanvasシリーズ なでしこ ~朱色のらせん~)

Another shoot-off of the Canvas series. At least this one has more promise than the Canvas DVD edition. (Let's just forget that even existed... すまん!ともこちゃん!)

The story takes place half a year before the events in Canvas2 with new main character. Unlike Hiroki, the hero is set in wealth, fame, and social standing. This simple setting creates promise for a dramatically different and darker storyline, especially since the running theme in the game has the main character throwing everything away to obtain happiness. Still playing through the common route and am fairly happy with it so far~ ^^


Imari~~~! メイド <3



Lump of Sugar - Itsuka, Todoku, Ano sora ni.
いつか、届く、あの空に。

I don't think this needs much of a introduction *reads previous posts* ^^;

[Varion]

Bah, this is so typical...

Has anyone here managed to get Muvluv working properly with AGTH? As in so it doesn't dump off half the line, sometimes in completely random places? Heck it's even taking from the next line at some points here. Any help would be very much appreciated seen as my paper dictionary kanji lookup speed is... not even worth talking about, really.

Edit: And yeah, I have the /H code. It doesn't work though, with that in the command line Muvluv itself refuses to load.

[Kaioshin Sama]

Whew.... Hmmmmm let's see. I'm working on the Rance series (All of them). Tayu Uta, Meisoyoku No Reiki, Genrin No Hime, Kuutei Senki, and Alicesoft's sidescrolling strategy sim series of Mamatoto, Kurenen Panyon, 20th Century Alicesoft, but not Mamanyonyo because I can't find it.