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Can anyone recommend me an older game? one from say 1999~ to 2002~?
I want a change of pace from playing latest releases. Looking for Romance and Drama types preferably. The oldest game I have played might be Sore wa Maichiru Sakura no Youni http://vndb.org/v1115 ...
2002... hmm not that old.
I'm so new to this.
Dhomochevsky
2012-02-15, 14:36
With games that old, you will have problems to play them on a modern system.
Those would have to be remakes, or you'd possibly need some kind of emulator.
Quick question about Tears to Tiara:
I have a lot of damaging spells, that look different, but their stats are all the same.
Same mp cost, same 'power'. Is there any reason to use one of them over the others?
I just completed Mirai Nostalgia. I'll be straight with it: From 5 routes, only 2 were nice and 1 was awesome. Despite it's touching moments, I hated it how Hina and Iori treated the main character mostly like crap. It's that kind of humour which I cannot understand at all. Logically, it wasn't better that the main remained more or less useless, either (hetare?). From the dateable cast only Nono, Uta and Anna were good. Uta's could have been much better, but it somehow lacked in impact, even if only romance-wise.
Iori similar, it had some really good moments, but her overall character trait(s) just lessened the mood. At least the last bit with Anna was bitter-sweet.
Kanata should have gotten her own route, imho.
Overall: Anna's route was the real shining grace, if I had to sum it up. Of course, you had to complete the remaining routes before ...
Too bad, since I loved Hatsukoi Sacrament and Signal Heart begins also to "shine" once the confession has been successful. Ignoring that Nagisa in Signal Hearts gets annyoing fast outside of her route.
Akira's route in Signal Heart has been really cute so far. The mid-drama felt well-played and more "pleasant" than Chisa and Nagisa's and its settlement was heart-warming imho.
Chisa's mid-drama was not bad, it had simply a more uneasy feeling behind it.
After giving up on Corona (Couldn't stand to finish it ... it's just too tedious and shallow overall, in both character and plot progression), I'm giving Damatte Watashi no Muko ni Nare! a try - mainly because I found both the name and the opening (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_WWgNLQ-P8) highly amusing. I'm not too far in to the game yet, but so far it offers pretty some pretty decent laughs as far as comedy goes.
The bad part is that I absolutely can't stand either of the two 'main' main heroines - Rin and Reona. Dear lord, what a pair of obnoxious, self-important harpies. I can totally relate to Naoki's headache when it comes to enduring the catfights of these two spoiled brats that come at his expense much of the time! I'd pay for Naoki to get a decision point where he could tell both of them to get lost, for good.
On the positive side, I actually rather like Naoki. As far as male leads go, he ain't too bad - he actually has enough of a character to be displeased with the things happening around him, and enough of a spine to voice his displeasure with both Reona and Rin depending on the situation. (Even though he obviously finds it in himself to tolerate them, somehow, in the end ... a shame :heh:).
Haruka happens to be the saving grace meanwhile, and her interactions with Naoki are pleasant to watch in comparison. She also scored a fair deal of respect points with me after the verbal smackdown she delivered upon both Rin and Reona when the later two took their catfighting too far. (Even if the situation took a turn for the ridiculous afterwards, somehow :heh:).
I'm slightly unsatisfied with how the other main heroines are being treated though - Rin, Reona and Haruka are hogging all the spotlight, and the other 3 have gotten like 10 minutes worth of "screentime" combined. Doesn't really help in deciding which route I want to go first considering I have only seen glimpses of their personalities, but have already encountered ~8 choice selection points. Ah well.
All in all the start has been pretty promising, so I'm looking towards the rest of the story, even if I can't see myself playing either Rin's or Reona's routes (I am, however, looking towards their reactions when Naoki chooses someone else :heh:). Probably going for Haruka's route first, then Yoriko or Kotori, whomever captures my attention more. Either way, anyone besides Rin and Reona looks appealing at this point, even the poor random girl who is desperately trying to confess to Naoki, but keeps being swept away by the ruckus all the time :heh:
I actually pushed myself to finish a route in WLO after my initial - rather average - impression and I revise my first post in that as far as chara development goes, Akabeesoft still manages to satsify me.
I fnished both Arisa and Aina's route.
Arisa: I totally liked her character, but her route felt somehow too much dragged out in the latter part. You had one major drama resolved (which I found well enough, though), recovery time + a handful adorable deredere moments and afterwards the second issue with her overworking risk(s). Her ending was not really romance-focused, but more about Solaris and her. Not too bad, anyways.
Aina: That's how I wished for fluffy, raburabu and ichaicha moments post-confession. A very sweet finale and an adorable "epilogue". My only complaint is that I found her pre-confession drama (aka the past between Yuuki and her) a bit lame. It was played out decent enough, but a mutual misunderstand for more than three years(?) that caused that awkward atmosphere wasn't really my preferance :heh:
And from what I've seen so far on Sarasa's route, her drama/second branching point between Arisa and her route was quite moving. The CG during it was very well done.
And a short spoiler of the awesome parts in Mirai Nostalgia
As I mentioned in my prior post, Anna's route was for me the shining grace of Mirai Nostalgia. The tense + tender moments between Yoichi and Anna were really moving like the first kiss CG and all the moments where Anna revealed her fragile side. Especially the scene at the church where she cried that she doesn't want to disappear or die, but just wants to stay with Yoichi forever even if it means to sacrifice her special power. Here I thought that such a miracle would actually happen, but the ending was provided in another manner. The wedding ceremony was another cute moment, if only because I'm simply a fan of these VN moments :D.
And I loved the future memory she showed him. The farewell scene between Anna and Kuro was sad as well as Future-Yoichi's final moment. I was kinda surprised that they made Iori the canon choice for the future even though she had already died due to her ability going berserk which also lead to Yoichi's condition. Future-Uta was quite beautiful.
Anna's ending was nice as in that the present time-Anna received the memories of Future-Anna so that they could still be together, but at the same time it felt a bit strange. At least Future Anna and Present-Yoichi had resolved that their parting would be without regrets.
Time to finish Akira's story in Signal Heart + a short peak into Kokone's.
judasmartel
2012-02-21, 01:03
Sorry to spoil your fun, but I have a couple of questions.
1. Is it possible that girls are better eroge players than boys? Aside the fact that a lot of eroges portray girls' POVs and otome games portray boys' POV, I find that boys seem to fail their desired routes a lot the first time they play without a guide handy so they tend to find an easier route just to complete the game, while girls seem to complete their desired routes the first time with little to no effort.
This is only based on my observations, but I'm not sure if it is true in general. Can somebody please enlighten me?
2. Who's the TOP FREAKING PERCENTAGE of all eroge seiyuus nowadays?
Your first question includes some points that are quite anecdotal, and in addition, irrelevant to the enjoyment of eroge. It would be difficult to prove "better" in terms of playing visual novels, as there is no difficulty that can be rightfully invoked in playing, since the medium used is similar to the portrayal of a book. Those games which have added artificial difficulty in the form of additonal gameplay are a dissimilar, but not quite different sort of boat, to which is attached the distinction of belonging to a different sub-genre. (adv, srpg, etc.)The elements which we in the niche are concerned with: plot, character, setting, themes, etc. - elements which other avid book-readers are concerned with - are consistently open for perusal without rendering themselves to any sort of "difficulty". If there is a difficulty that would be perceived in visual novel reading, it's perhaps in finding the time to slog through it all.
Admittedly, it can be quite difficult for reaching 100% completion on games that rely on the invisible flag system.
I would like to see a link or survey detailing differences between people in terms of playing rate with added factors of sex, gender, class, religion or ethnicity, but in my opinion it's again an unnecessary thing to pursue as people who appreciate eroge are united in their appreciation of the little bit of things of Japanese culture that reveal themselves to and are appreciated by the readers in the form of the games. Whether or not blitzing through and saving at every opportunity of a choice, or skipping through to desired (and obvious) scenes of "preferred" heroines, each individual's enjoyment is different, whether boy or girl, human or mutated shut-in. And in all possible cases, it would be difficult to validate said preferences and gaming ability over the internet, unless you could hold a convention for visual novel readers and take stock of the population differences.
And seriously, there's nothing wrong with consulting a walkthrough. For users of the CTRL-dozers like me though, nothing beats spoiling yourself through the useless scenes in order to get to the meat, so even without a walkthrough, one gets to the (preferred) end anyway.
The second question even points forward from my statement: inevitably there will be all-stars from every player's opinions, but there will always be that private favorite VA for each person.
And with that: Shizuka Ito.
erneiz_hyde
2012-02-21, 03:19
Just finished Majikoi S. It was a blast, as always! The crazy battles were exciting as usual, and the ero content just upped a few levels. the "bad ends" were all hilarious, and most of the time it was delivered by Miyako who threw in some meta-lines lol.
I'm not sure what character Hazakura's real identity was, I looked up a bit and found Xiang Yu, but I'm not sure if that's the one.
Oh, and btw, I seem to miss the very last events in the events section in omake, but I'm quite sure I have exhausted all the routes, how do you unlock them?
Btw, I'd like to share something. I was trying to play Kourin no Machi, but I was surprised and my heart aches as I play it. I was not mentally prepared for it, because I have a rather strong dislike for harsh social themes such as these. Not that I hate it, it's more like...苦手 rather than 嫌い. I guess it was a mental scar from the time I played Yumemiru Kusuri. In yumemiru, the heavy feeling was rewarded with just retribution at the end, so I hope this would be the case for Kourin no Machi as well, because I'd hate it if the solution was disappointing (though knowing Akabe, I doubt it would be bad). Long story short: can anyone please tell me whether this is the case? I need a confirmation to better prepare my heart before playing this lol :heh:
Btw, I'd like to share something. I was trying to play Kourin no Machi, but I was surprised and my heart aches as I play it. I was not mentally prepared for it, because I have a rather strong dislike for harsh social themes such as these. Not that I hate it, it's more like...苦手 rather than 嫌い. I guess it was a mental scar from the time I played Yumemiru Kusuri. In yumemiru, the heavy feeling was rewarded with just retribution at the end, so I hope this would be the case for Kourin no Machi as well, because I'd hate it if the solution was disappointing (though knowing Akabe, I doubt it would be bad). Long story short: can anyone please tell me whether this is the case? I need a confirmation to better prepare my heart before playing this lol :heh:
Kourin no Machi is kinda a special case. Like most Akabee's game this one is also divided in multiple chapters. The overall drama theme outside of each girl's personal experience ends in good terms in the third-last or second-last chapter or so. Whereas the drama for the MC is resolved in the remaining main chapters. Afterwards, you simply have the drama that occurs during the relationship (I tend to call it epilogue-drama).
Similar to Sharin no Kuni you have no real romance focus during the main storyline outside a confession and one h-scene. Every girl has her personal moment(s) with the main lead. You also haven't such heavy cases like Aeka's story of Yume Miru Kusuri. The game has its light-hearted moments.
KnM's issue is about starting a Kendo school club within a time limit. The problem? The homeroom teacher hates Kendo and tries with the school principal to prevent it. If the club cannot be built within that limit the main lead will be expelled from school (this part is the condition to even allow the attempt of making the club). Obviously the main girls are the required members and helping them during their first-layer drama leads to getting them to join ;).
------
Finished 4/5 routes in LovelyxCation.
Yuuki > Misasa > Aya > Yuni. Sadly, Yuni's only memorable scenes were the last two moments (the letter + school rooftop). These two alone made her deserve her happy end so very much, though.
I'll venture into Sera's route sometimes later. I enjoyed Aya's character, but her route was imho average. Misasa's was quite sweet and I was glad that there was no forced drama with the teacherxstudent problem. Yuuki's route had the most "substance", I thought. Her finale made me dislike her father. Glad that the main spoke out his thoughts.
Oh, and btw, I seem to miss the very last events in the events section in omake, but I'm quite sure I have exhausted all the routes, how do you unlock them?
As far as I remember, there is only one bonus scene involving that displaced warrior girl from er...the name escapes me at the moment, the group Momoyo belongs to of four strong women... If you've seen that, then maybe Koyuki's mega-route?
If you mean missing some stuff on the bottom page in events, you may have not watched the tutorials yet.
Edit: Kourin no Machi was too heavy even for my tastes - I mean I was sort of expecting that development in each route's climax when I got to putting the pieces together (doesn't make it any less of a dropkick in the back) .... Though after the Akiba ga nai thing it's kinda understandable for Akabesoft to return to making those types of games...
Though in terms of social themes that connects to the real world, Yumemiru got Kourin beat ("realistic" as opposed to fictional figurative).
raitouazura
2012-02-21, 07:49
still playing shin koihime musou.
is there true ending for this game??
judasmartel
2012-02-21, 09:22
Your first question includes some points that are quite anecdotal, and in addition, irrelevant to the enjoyment of eroge. It would be difficult to prove "better" in terms of playing visual novels, as there is no difficulty that can be rightfully invoked in playing, since the medium used is similar to the portrayal of a book. Those games which have added artificial difficulty in the form of additonal gameplay are a dissimilar, but not quite different sort of boat, to which is attached the distinction of belonging to a different sub-genre. (adv, srpg, etc.)The elements which we in the niche are concerned with: plot, character, setting, themes, etc. - elements which other avid book-readers are concerned with - are consistently open for perusal without rendering themselves to any sort of "difficulty". If there is a difficulty that would be perceived in visual novel reading, it's perhaps in finding the time to slog through it all.
Admittedly, it can be quite difficult for reaching 100% completion on games that rely on the invisible flag system.
I would like to see a link or survey detailing differences between people in terms of playing rate with added factors of sex, gender, class, religion or ethnicity, but in my opinion it's again an unnecessary thing to pursue as people who appreciate eroge are united in their appreciation of the little bit of things of Japanese culture that reveal themselves to and are appreciated by the readers in the form of the games. Whether or not blitzing through and saving at every opportunity of a choice, or skipping through to desired (and obvious) scenes of "preferred" heroines, each individual's enjoyment is different, whether boy or girl, human or mutated shut-in. And in all possible cases, it would be difficult to validate said preferences and gaming ability over the internet, unless you could hold a convention for visual novel readers and take stock of the population differences.
And seriously, there's nothing wrong with consulting a walkthrough. For users of the CTRL-dozers like me though, nothing beats spoiling yourself through the useless scenes in order to get to the meat, so even without a walkthrough, one gets to the (preferred) end anyway.
The second question even points forward from my statement: inevitably there will be all-stars from every player's opinions, but there will always be that private favorite VA for each person.
And with that: Shizuka Ito.
Indeed. Maybe the "girls can finish a specific route faster" story is pretty much anecdotal. Sure, consulting a walkthrough isn't really that bad (I do that myself whenever I get stuck), but completing a preferred route without a guide is just plain AWESOME.
I haven't had played much eroge (only played Come See Me Tonight 2 and planning to play Kira Kira if I get the chance) so I could say my preferred routes are always the easiest for me.
I usually prefer the "shy, silent girl" route. Bonus points if said girl actually has a darker side to her. Despite this, though, the true endings always interests me, even if it's the tsundere route like 75% of the time.
Dhomochevsky
2012-02-21, 09:26
VN type eroge are hardly something you need skill for, so I don't see how anyone can be good or bad at it.
At best, you need some discipline to really read through all the text and not just click ahead to reach the juicy CG parts faster.
But if you don't read the text, then you are playing the wrong type of game anyway.
judasmartel
2012-02-21, 11:54
Haha, I guessed so. You HAVE to read the dialogue texts when playing eroges. Failure to do so is actually playing them the wrong way. You read too fast, you may not catch the most crucial clue to complete your chosen route.
Just finished Haruka's route in DamaMuko, and it was a quite satisfying experience overall indeed. It did feel like the story could have used a longer "epilogue" and showcasing the two in a relationship, as opposed to the "contest" part hogging pretty much all of the game-time, but heh ... at least the overall excellent chemistry between Haruka and Naoki makes up for it, somewhat.
Indeed, if there is one thing that impressed me about this route, is how well Haruka clicks with Naoki, as opposed to pretty much everyone else in the story. Besides like feeling the sole voice of reason ( .... for the most part :heh:) among the female part of the cast for much of the time, she easily felt like the most natural match for Naoki. It's been a while since I have seen such a well-flowing chemistry and natural interactions between a male/female lead; a very welcome surprise that I wasn't really expecting to find in this title.
While I'm slightly disappointed they made Naoki yet another density incarnate on romance side of things, especially after his good first impression of having somewhat of a backbone, the good thing is that his relationship with Haruka (both as friends and as potential lovers) didn't really suffer because of him - she just knows and understands him that well, and can spell his thoughts out for him, even when Naoki himself is stumped for words. The joys of not really having any tedious misunderstandings because the girl both understands what makes Naoki tick, and knows better than to take offense at some of his dense-er moments. A very pleasing relationship to follow indeed.
Saying that she understands him better than the rest of the female cast combined wouldn't be an overstatement, and what really earned my respect for her was that she was the only one who ever showed real concern for Naoki's feelings and well being. While everyone else seemed too absorbed in making Naoki do what they want (Like his choice between the two "clubs"), only Haruka displayed concern over the difficulty of said choice, and tried to encourage him to follow his own feelings on the matter, not outside pressure (Even if she would have benefited from a specific choice of his). Lover or not, she was a true friend of Naoki's.
On the other hand, I wonder if going for Haruka's route first wasn't a mistake - I dread whether the following ones will be able to live up to this satisfying experience, because it feels like I have already witnessed the most natural and most satisfying outcome. Considering all the other characters range from "ok" to "aargh, get her away from my screen" (Rin / Reona ...ick), I have a feeling I might have shot myself in the foot here, not saving the best for the last. Ah well ... one way to find out I guess.
Probably going for Yoriko's route next, to experience things from the astronomy club's side.
gbatemper
2012-02-21, 19:39
Just finished both Sengoku Rance, Mashiro Iro Symphony, Majikoi S, and Muv-luv Alternative.
1 week break :D, had a lot of time. Stayed up nights.
Personally, the most addicting was Sengoku Rance, with its RPG gameplay and funny characters. Gameplay wise, it was the best. It is the best hybrid Visual Novel RPG. Some characters just stand out a lot, Especially Kenshin Chan (Uesugi Kenshin) and Rance (HAHAHAHAHAHA).
The best story was Muv-Luv Alternative. Tops everything on my list. It made me feel very emotional, especially after all that character attachment I've had from the previous games (Muv-Luv Extra, Muv-Luv Unlimited). After playing this game, I can say I've felt genuinely proud, patriotic, and very sympathetic for the protagonist. The ending however, fitting with its non escapist sci fi attitude, made me feel beyond depressed and empty.
However, as the VN's theme is "Things happen in life. Deal with it, and head forward", I managed to cope with it playing some other more "happy" visual novels that did not involve
the entire fucking cast dying, including any heroines from the previous game. Also, after dealing for 5 years of mental anguish, being forced into a soldier despite being a average highschool student, then watching all of your best friends die, then having the same thing done to you again resulting in you having the mind of steel (insane emotional strength), then losing all your memory, and your body and being forced to your original world after wanting to stay in the alternative world.
Mashiro Iro Symphony was the game I played after, which was very nice to play as medicine to Muv-Luv Alternative. It was very happy and cheery for the most part, with the exceptions of some routes having some drama, albeit not to the point of Muv-luv. The school, harem, cheery feeling makes you laugh, and the characters are well rounded and great. I'd say the characters in this game are the selling point, it's what made it sell.
Majikoi S was a game I was playing really slowly, I bought the game from amiami, it was fairly nice. I personally disliked some routes, like Margit going S@M bondage, wants Yamato's dick desperately . Kokoro's route was very hearwarming, and I'd say its in the top 3 routes in the game with Momoyo and Yukie. The 5 original heroines routes were pretty good, but a little short. The shortness of the routes are countered by the sheer number of routes though.
still playing shin koihime musou.
is there true ending for this game??
The three routes are true endings.
johnishida
2012-02-22, 09:58
Too bad you decided to drop Corona, Skyfall. As shallow as it may be I find myself enjoying the story in a more, let's say, simpler level. SLG parts are fun, the whole nakama theme is cliche yet appealing to my shounen soul, character interactions are fun (Murial's Serious Breaker was just hilarious) and there's some drama / tragedy mixed in to spice things up just a tiny bit.
Currently in Muriel's path in Corona's route and already looking forward to whatever will go wrong this time :eyespin:
Really, lots of patience is a must to play this game. :uhoh:
Got the endings for the side characters. Kaname's rather unexpected considering her personality and I can see why you like her so much. Asuka's was just ok. Kumi's was just... amazing :heh:. Akane's was one I really liked along with Anastasia's / Eri's.
. Kumi's was just... amazing :heh:
That's certainly one way to phrase it, it got me laughing a good deal for sure. It was extremely amusing to see Kumi get more than what she bargained for with her little stunt, and all her following complaints (which might even have been legitimate to some degree - and that's the funny part :heh:) being blown off by both Touka and Tokino with the open conclusion that she is probably being a tsundere, thus said reactions are "normal" ... I loved how her complaints fell on completely deaf ears and were met with a "yeah yeah :3" reaction - not being taken seriously at all! A lesson well learned :heh:
Of all these "side endings", Kaname's felt like the most "normal romance" one I'd say - the rest were more or less played for laughs (especially Kumi's :heh:)
Though as fun as the occasional moments were, I just didn't have it in me to finish it - sorry! When you are literally forcing yourself to sit down and play for 30 minutes, you know something ain't right at that point.
DamaMuko is proving to be a suitably satisfying reprieve meanwhile - and it being somewhat on the short side, serves as a good contrast to Corona's long-winded approach :)
Grisaia no Meikyuu's release draws near. Hype hype hype. Got to prepare for a couple of days of non-stop reading.
Currently enjoying Little Busters!. Since there has been a seperate thread for a long time, I won't post any "in-depth" stuff here :). 3 routes done and the Key-trademark emotional-hammer remained more or less steady up to now even though the comedy is quite marvelous before the heavy hitting parts begin on the respective routes.
A nice change of pace to read a VN in a more familar language :heh:
Seems that I need to push myself afterwards through my remaining drama-fests *coughsakurastrasses-stillonlyoneroutedonecough*. Must not get derailed again :upset:
Forsaken_Infinity
2012-02-22, 18:19
With games that old, you will have problems to play them on a modern system.
Those would have to be remakes, or you'd possibly need some kind of emulator.
Quick question about Tears to Tiara:
I have a lot of damaging spells, that look different, but their stats are all the same.
Same mp cost, same 'power'. Is there any reason to use one of them over the others?
The game is so freaking easy that there is no way you will have any issues whichever one you use. You could just as well leave everybody on auto and there won't be any issues. And if you think that's a waste of a strategy game, well, the game isn't exactly polished or anything close to good anyway. The story is a drag too. The only saving grace is the character interaction. I still don't understand why it has the reputation it does till this day :uhoh:
I would suggest virtual machines for older operating systems to play really old games btw.
Dhomochevsky
2012-02-22, 18:26
I noticed that already, started over and upped the difficulty.
It is still easy most of the time (the fact that you can just level up as much as you want on free fields is pretty dumb), but then it sometimes becomes really difficult suddenly.
Forsaken_Infinity
2012-02-22, 19:46
I noticed that already, started over and upped the difficulty.
It is still easy most of the time (the fact that you can just level up as much as you want on free fields is pretty dumb), but then it sometimes becomes really difficult suddenly.
The only time I had a remotely tough time, even with the highest difficulty, was with the very first battle and that's because it was the very first time I was toying with the battle system and menus.
For the most part, leave it on auto and only intervene if people start taking really long detours (thanks to lolpathing) or are about to die. That's more than enough ._.
Dhomochevsky
2012-02-22, 19:53
As I said, the stupid concept of unlimited leveling without any balance adjustments of storyline enemies makes it a joke to "beat" the game.
You have to hold back on leveling and just be a scrub. Then the enemies you encounter are at least sometimes higher level than you are.
For example that first ogre with all the spell spam easily wiped the floor with my team on auto fight.
Made for an interesting manual fight. Of course I could have gone into this battle with something like lvl 100 from killing off 1 million crabs, but I chose not to.
Just finished Yoriko's route in DamaMuko and all I can say is urgh ... if Haruka's route left me with a largely positive impression, then this one made me want to head-desk. Hard. And keep doing so until either the desk gives in, or my head. And I have a feeling my head would have won, if it could survive this contrived nonsense. I literally have nothing good to say about Yoriko's route. Not a single thing.
I guess the very starting point of this route should have clued me in that making sense wouldn't be on the priority list. Their rooftop conversation with Yoriko concluding that she really is useless for the astronomy club, then deciding the only good thing about her are her breasts (Which was just played for laughs 10 seconds ago), then stripping her top and asking Naoki to fondle them was already WTF worthy. None of it made any sense, came out of the complete blue, and was completely out of line with her previously established scarey-cat character. Why did she ask him to fondle her breasts (and why did she conclude she needs to do this in order to be "useful") ? Hell if I know!
What followed afterwards wasn't anything better really - rather it was completely stupid, degrading for both Yoriko's character and the writing quality of the title as a whole. As a follow up, for no good reason, Yoriko gets turned from an extremely shy and timid person to a conglomerate of lust whose daily agenda consists of finding the next place where to have sex with Naoki, and that's if she isn't busy masturbating in some school toilet while fantasizing about having sex with Naoki.
I was ready to laugh in frustration when she turned up at Naoki's place to seriously discuss their relationship at his request, with a vibrator up her ...*ahem*. She even kept it in at school! Did they really have to turn her character in to some sex depraved manic whose mind is in the gutter 110% of the time on a good day ? Just because?
If that was the only issue though, I could have still lived with it - despite how stupidly contrived and laughable of a "development" it had been up to that point. Nothing wrong with a relationship strongly rooted in the physical side of affection for a change.
What completely ruined it for me though was Yoriko's constant insistence that Naoki actually loves Rin and thus constantly trying to set them up (while remaining his sex friend on the side of course), and Naoki having all the wits of a lobotomized ape, incapable of forming two coherent sentences to refute her claim. Seriously, did they have to make him appear as a nearly brain-dead rag who gets pulled along with everything everyone else says, unable to muster a response beyond "Makabe-san ...!?" or "Errrr ?"
Coupled with the uranium levels of density he was blessed with regarding everything even remotely romance or feeling related even during the times when he could stutter out more than half a sentence (That wasn't related to how sexy Yoriko's breasts look), and he really became the live reincarnation of the stupid, dense, indecisive rag of a male lead that protagonists are notorious for. And thanks to this, we had all that beautifully forced drama with Rin that could have easily been avoided if Naoki was allowed to utilize his mouth for something besides sucking on Yoriko, like ... stutter out his thoughts in coherent manner and straighten things out sometime last week instead of stringing Rin around for no other reason besides contrived drama!
And then we have the awesome "cliffhanger" of Yoriko being stabbed in the end by that raving lunatic nameless classmate witch a kitchen knife because he couldn't stand the sight of his precious goddess having eyes for someone else. Wait, how did he manage that considering they just apprehended him 10 minutes ago in an earlier attempt ? Oh, right - there was an announcement that the "Bride Contest" voting has started, so the students who were hauling him away released him in their rush to cast a vote, allowing this maniac to make a second run!
But all is good, because Yoriko was saved a ketchup bottle she had stuffed between her breasts previously and had forgotten to take it out! What. The. BLEEP! But hey, at least Yoriko won the vote and thus was allowed to go out with Naoki, because if they hadn't gotten the 'permission' of the student body in terms of this popularity vote, ohohoho, that would have been the end of them! What a tense moment indeed! /sarcasm
So ... yeah, this route was through and through stupid. And I mean pants-on-head levels of stupid. I am having serious second thoughts whether I want to try any of the remaining routes ... if this is the level of writing I can expect, and if Naoki is indeed such a density incarnate, only made tolerable in Haruka's route because of how well she understands him and thus preventing his lack of comprehension getting in the way, I'm not sure I want to. The only plus side is that these routes appear to be quite short indeed.
Other than that, my feelings on Yoriko's route can be promptly summed up in one word(?) : aAaaAARrrGgHhHhh!
johnishida
2012-02-23, 18:16
wow, Skyfall. I applaud you for being able to go through all that without giving up mid-way. :heh:
Kameruka
2012-02-23, 21:05
I really hate to ask this but do some eroge have problems with Windows 7? Recently I have installed Crescendo in my laptop which had Windows 7 and there's an error. Its music cannot be played and if I try to, it crashed the game itself. I dunno if the files were corrupted(I used virtual CD files to install and play it, similar to AlcoholSoft for example). Crescendo is not alone. Do You Like Horny Bunnies and Hitomi My Stepsister also had same problem as well.
The only eroge that have no problem with Windows 7(at least in my own laptop) is Yume Miru Kusuri, which had no errors regarding its music file. However this can be explained that unlike all eroge I mentioned above, YMK was installed from a real DVD(I got from a friend and he copied it illegally. Just don't ask me how) rather than virtual CD files.
This could be my own problem but I just don't know how to tackle it.
relentlessflame
2012-02-23, 22:53
Well, we can't offer technical support for eroge you obtained illegally, as this is in violation of our Forum Rules.
In general terms, though, I would guess that it's possible some older software may need to run in XP Mode in order to function correctly on Windows 7, which basically entails a Windows XP virtual machine. More information about XP Mode can be found here (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx). There is also a compatibility mode option that can be enabled on a program-by-program basis that may (or may not) help.
wow, Skyfall. I applaud you for being able to go through all that without giving up mid-way. :heh:
Believe me, the urge to stop midway was certainly strong on several occasions. What kept me going was the knowledge that routes in DamaMuko are quite short (so knowing that the suffering won't last for too long :heh:), and faint hope that the ending might yet prove satisfying, and thus offering at least some enjoyment for the trouble in the end. Well, didn't quite turn out like that - the ending was just as silly (in a way that makes you want to facepalm, not laugh) as the rest of her route.
Makes me wonder how they managed to make a decent, even if not special, route for Haruka, then turn around and come up with this ... thing ... for Yoriko's route :eyespin:
Strange, I just checked my Crescendo copy and it worked fine without XP mode and any errors. I'll try it on my home computer later which has also Win7.
Anyway, done with Little Busters!. I'll update my post on its thread with a few details, so I keep it short here. Rin's endings were meh. True route was generally nice, but had at least one too absurd part in order to perform a miracle.
Romance-wise in terms of sweet to "disappointing": Kud > Komari = Haruka > Mio > Kurugaya > Rin
Route-wise: Komari > Kud > Rin 2 > Haruka = Mio > Kurugaya.
Sumeragi
2012-02-24, 05:57
Just finished Yoriko's route in DamaMuko
Welcome to the club. You deserve a cookie for coming through that particular hell training.
larethian
2012-02-24, 06:03
I really hate to ask this but do some eroge have problems with Windows 7? Recently I have installed Crescendo in my laptop which had Windows 7 and there's an error. Its music cannot be played and if I try to, it crashed the game itself. I dunno if the files were corrupted(I used virtual CD files to install and play it, similar to AlcoholSoft for example). Crescendo is not alone. Do You Like Horny Bunnies and Hitomi My Stepsister also had same problem as well.
The only eroge that have no problem with Windows 7(at least in my own laptop) is Yume Miru Kusuri, which had no errors regarding its music file. However this can be explained that unlike all eroge I mentioned above, YMK was installed from a real DVD(I got from a friend and he copied it illegally. Just don't ask me how) rather than virtual CD files.
This could be my own problem but I just don't know how to tackle it.
I know that some of August-Soft's older games can't work with Win 7. I know my copy of Yoake can't. But in August's case, they have a patch which can be downloaded with an original serial no. Though I'm too lazy to try. It's unlikely I'm going to replay it on my new PC anyway.
For Mahou and Kameruka's difference, it could be Mahou is using 32-bit Win 7 and Kameruka is using 64-bit Win 7. (just guessing).
Welcome to the club. You deserve a cookie for coming through that particular hell training.
A fellow survivor! And here I thought no one else besides me made it out ... ! *sinks to his knees with tears of happiness streaming down the face*
On a more serious note, assuming you have played through the other routes as well, could you offer a little bit of insight on them ? Or more specifically, a warning if they happen to be just as bad, so I can avoid them with my sanity intact. I'd seriously prefer not to experience the level of writing presented in Yoriko's route in near future.
I was thinking of trying Kotori's route next, as she feels like the most "safe" option from the ones I have left, with everyone else being either pompous brats (Rin, Reona) or creepy (Yurie). Then again I thought one couldn't go wrong with Yoriko either, and look how that ended up, so as harmless as Kotori looks now, who knows what's liable to happen in her route :heh:
Yurie interests me from the "mystery" perspective, with the weird things surrounding her past and all, but I don't really like her personality, nor do I really condone how she has been "using" *ahem* Naoki every now and then.
Rin and Reona I still want to stay completely away from though: these two self-centered brats seem more interested in their respective ego stroking through the contest than anything else, and each time either of them does something genuinely nice is quickly overshadowed by the next obnoxious stunt they pull. Bleh. Although Reona did score some respect points with me for how she handled Haruka's and Naoki's relationship at the very end of Haruka's route, so I suppose she isn't a completely lost cause ... just mostly.
*sigh* played too many Japanese visual novels. Forgot to look on what was going to be translated :heh:
Updated News: The translation group for Yosuga no Sora (http://vndb.org/v1194) has finished kicking out some slackers. While getting some new ones and is proceeding to release a patch sometime soon I believe.
3/2 - MangaGamer is scheduled to release Deardrops (http://vndb.org/v2368) in English Version.
3/18 - Scheduled date where Staircase Subs finally releases Hoshizora no Memoria (http://vndb.org/v1474).
Short update about the Crescendo issue: I installed it today on my Win7 (64 bit) home computer to see if there were problems with it. It runs as it should with no sound or voice problems. Ironically when choosing whether to want it in your start menu folder or not I *had* to uncheck the option or else the installation would show an error and be canceled :heh:.
3/18 - Scheduled date where Staircase Subs finally releases Hoshizora no Memoria.
I'm looking forward to this one even if only for Komomo's route as a prime reason :p.
They're not exactly done with the entire VN. I believe it's a 40% patch maybe? Or maybe they did bum-rush everything.
Finished Yukina's route in Nursery Rhyme.
Uhm ... what can I say so far: The VN seemed very calm and without girls who are over the top in love with Shizuma and this part helps to overlook him being dense (under the common premise that he did not have any female friends before and of course no girlfriend yet). There aren't any high-paced moments, but rather a down-to-earth school life ignoring the different race mix and magic approaches. Still, the characters are likeable and Kururu is very cute :D.
In Yukina's route was really only one moment where the donkan moment was lol-worthy "The apron looks good on you" - "I'm a bit surprised" - "Huh? Did you see a cockroach in the kitchen?" :heh:
BUT, the drama in Yukina's route was annoying. Sure, it was realistic in how it started, but it felt slow-paced and - dunno - boring(?).
To sum it up: Where the heck were my lovey-dovey moments!?
-> Disclaimer: I only played Diamic Days among the other Lump of Sugar VNs.
relentlessflame
2012-02-26, 14:01
Nursery Rhyme is a bit of a funny game to be playing now, because it feels very out-dated compared to modern games, and in a lot of ways feels like a prototype for some of their future works. It actually reminds me a fair bit of Shuffle in the sense that it's got good characters and neat ideas, but suffers a bit in the execution. Still, though, it's not a long game, so there's no harm in playing it. It also happens to have really really catchy OP and ED themes. :p
That OP has cursed me for years...
johnishida
2012-02-27, 08:49
Finished Corona. Overall, I liked the game even though I was expecting something else from the plot which lacked depth to the very end.
This game could use / needs a FD since there is a few of unresolved stuff and side-character deserve proper routes. :p
Let's start with the plot. The game's plot is very simple: bad guys want to destroy the world so our heroes rise to stop them. No, it doesn't get any more complicated than that. Well, maybe just a little.
Didn't find the lack of depth necessarily bad when it comes to the plot but, I was disappointed with the lack of proper development for the characters. The whole gang is really fun and likeable. However, once I reached the end of the game it felt like I barely got to know them all that well. :(
Continuing with the plot. Even though "properly raising Corona to avoid her power from destroying the world" is one of the main points of the game, as the player, you can't influence her character in any way. Not a problem since it saves you the effort. However, this part is rarely touched even during the main plot and only appears at the writers convenience for dramatic purposes only. :eyebrow:
So yeah, even Corona lacks a proper development along with her own plot. Same happens with Murial. Tokino also suffers from this to a lesser extent. Remember, those three are supposed to be the main heroines so you can imagine how poor the development for the side-characters is... :eyespin:
Gameplay is fun and somewhat challeging. More importantly, it does not require you to grind endlessly unless you really want to. Don't recommend it since EXP gain values decrease greatly for weaker enemies.
Bosses are quite annoying, by the way. You need to be extra careful against them at first but, once Corona gets a certain skill taking them down will be fairly easy. :)
Corona should be played for entertaining purposes only. Don't take it too seriously and you (probably) will find yourself enjoying the game.
Well, I think that's pretty much it. I few complains mixed in with the "comments" but, I just had to say it.
Now, what to play next...
Nursery Rhyme is a bit of a funny game to be playing now, because it feels very out-dated compared to modern games, and in a lot of ways feels like a prototype for some of their future works. It actually reminds me a fair bit of Shuffle in the sense that it's got good characters and neat ideas, but suffers a bit in the execution. Still, though, it's not a long game, so there's no harm in playing it. It also happens to have really really catchy OP and ED themes. :p
Pretty much. I started to play it because I have recently read about it on a blog without paying attention to release date or other information ;). I try almost everything that has at least an okay-ish art and sounds entertaining, that's why my "currently completed" posts are heavily mixed between "old" and new VNs ^^.
Anyway, instead of playing Sakura Strasse as I decided sooo often before, I actually ventured again into Sugirly Wish. Yeah I'm aware it's - even among the character-ge and/or moe-ge's - a quite "boring" title. Nontheless, Akane's route has been very sweet so far. A confession that happens before chapter 12+? Yatta. A route where Junpei isn't so clueless and dense that you feel to slap him through the screen? Too good to be true *lol*.
It seems as hooksoft enjoys to make their protagonists as dense as possible because Seitarou of Strawberry Nauts was not better. Fortunately Lover Able's main lead is much more enjoyable while the VN still maintains all the raburabu moments up to the end PLUS it starts relatively early in the character route chapter.
NoemiChan
2012-02-27, 16:34
MGQ2 is 70%... 30% TO GO!!!
I finished somehow Karin's route in Sakura Strasse ... :upset: I don't know if I should feel angry, depressed, sad, utterly speechless, shocked, disappointed or file it as a "You should have expected it" phenomena. Maybe the worst osananajimi route I've played so far, heck even the very few funny moments in it didn't make up for it. Damn you Hareten team X_X.
At least I liked the OST ...
I've stopped playing Visual Novels now, but I'll still be around for information.
Finished Meikyuu. The cliffhanger at the end of the Grand Route was just...evil. Grisaia no Rakuen seems so far away, this will drive me crazy for a while.
And I can't believe how good Michiru's after-story was, it's like 90% of everything that comes out of her mouth is just pure comedy gold. She's an adorable and hilarious dumbass, a total miracle of the universe. Seriously.
Cosmic Eagle
2012-02-29, 22:35
Finished Meikyuu. The cliffhanger at the end of the Grand Route was just...evil. Grisaia no Rakuen seems so far away, this will drive me crazy for a while.
And I can't believe how good Michiru's after-story was, it's like 90% of everything that comes out of her mouth is just pure comedy gold. She's an adorable and hilarious dumbass, a total miracle of the universe. Seriously.
Grisaia seems like it's really good....what's the genre in brief? Espionage?
Grisaia seems like it's really good....what's the genre in brief? Espionage?
Well, the protagonist DOES work as a Special Agent / Super Long Distance Sniper for a Japanese intelligence agency but that doesn't really mean that this is James Bond: The VN.
Grisaia no Kajitsu is more about Yuuji trying to experience a somewhat "normal" Highschool-life with a bunch of not so normal heroines. The common route is 100% comedy while the individual heroine-routes are about Yuuji trying to fix these broken girls.
Grisaia no Meikyuu contains After-stories for the heroines and the story of Yuuji's past, explaining how he ended up working as an anti-terror agent for the government.
It's the characters and dialogue that make Grisaia so good. A protag who is as far from hetare/dense/useless as a human male can possibly be interacting with rather...unique heroines, coupled with unusually crass humor and writing that is several notches above your usual moege makes for a very entertaining reading experience. There's really nothing quite like it.
Cosmic Eagle
2012-03-01, 08:16
I see....thanks....shall start playing when I'm done with WA2....
Grisaia no Kajitsu is more about Yuuji trying to experience a somewhat "normal" Highschool-life with a bunch of not so normal heroines. The common route is 100% comedy while the individual heroine-routes are about Yuuji trying to fix these broken girls.
It's the characters and dialogue that make Grisaia so good. A protag who is as far from hetare/dense/useless as a human male can possibly be interacting with rather...unique heroines, coupled with unusually crass humor and writing that is several notches above your usual moege makes for a very entertaining reading experience. There's really nothing quite like it.
Even though I will probably stay far, far away from it due to my earlier mentioned preferance, how is the drama in the individual routes or rather how fast will it be resolved? I know from a spoiler review that the drama seems on the heavier or darker side + the CGs had a few images to underline it (more or less). Just being curious.
/continues to enojy the 0815-drama and ligh-hearted VNs
erneiz_hyde
2012-03-02, 12:10
HOLY SH*T
Just cleared through Tenshi no Hane wo Fumanai de, Sun route. Everything's fine then, I even contemplate on my life a bit after clearing that (very beautiful story). Until...
I got into the moon route.
Holy hell what is this, is this really the same game!?
Though Shumon Yuu did have a history of "things appearing not as they were", I never felt like this before (or perhaps I did in ItsuSora, but it's such a long time ago I forgot), that feeling of when you're so full of happiness but suddenly smashed right through the bottom of hell...
The initial shock was so much, but as I continue, I can vaguely sense the moral of this story as I play through more of the Moon route(I picked Ikoi).. Now to try and actually reach the endings...
relentlessflame
2012-03-02, 13:03
Just an FYI that I moved the Kamidori conversation to its own thread, as I figure there'll be enough interest with the patch being out.
Even though I will probably stay far, far away from it due to my earlier mentioned preferance, how is the drama in the individual routes or rather how fast will it be resolved? I know from a spoiler review that the drama seems on the heavier or darker side + the CGs had a few images to underline it (more or less). Just being curious.
Depends on the route, really. But they mostly center around an ongoing conflict which gets resolved at the end of the route by Yuuji using rather extraordinary means to save the girls either from themselves or from danger brought upon them by others. But yeah, it goes beyond the territory of High-School love drama.
Anyway, started reading Hatsuyuki Sakura. Not sure what to expect but Sakura is adorable. And the protag seems to be an alcoholic.
Yume no Hana
2012-03-03, 01:27
Getchu announced the result of PC game award yesterday.
http://www.getchu.com/pc/2011_g_ranking/
White Album 2 won almost every section including best game overall.
Phew, finished Yuuka's route in Sakura Strasse. As a slight surprise her route wasn't as horrible as I thought because at least the relationship drama about non-blood related siblings progressed the ususal way. The good: Her ending was done nicely thanks to Marie. The bad: Too frequently-occuring drama, her character was portrayed too extreme (At first as the "violent" tsundere-onee-sama and post-confession as a vulnerable person who tried to escape from her own drama).
Be it as it may, Marie was probably the best character in the Visual Novel even though her route suffered horribly from all the seemingly non-stopping drama. She did a lovely job as a supporting type in the other routes and was cute and adorable throughout there.
Furthermore, the subtitle of "A love story in Sakura Strasse" fits only for the ending + the short post-drama scenes before the "the end" appears in general. Pallet's naming sense was a bit strange regarding Lulli. I know at least that Marie is a german witch, but Lulli , her "familar", as in the name itself doesn't really sound german :heh:. Nontheless, kudos for bringing german elements in it :D
erneiz_hyde
2012-03-03, 05:43
Uh...OK...
With all that tension I went through, Ikoi ending felt a little lacking. A lot of things felt like a cop out, or simply hand waved. I suppose I'd still have to go through the other routes to have the whole picture. ふえ～
erneiz_hyde
2012-03-05, 20:24
OK, I just finished the entirety of Tenshi no Hane wo Fumanaide.
As expected, more routes become available as I complete one, and since these routes are in the Moon route, you could say that the Sun route really is just a "prologue" of things to come.
To say the least, it was mind boggling. There are lots of meanings; hidden and even more hidden; in most of the route. But at the last true route, everything overwhelmingly came together at once.
Shumon Yuu is indeed somewhat of a folklore specialist (aside from being a cunning linguist who's very very good at Japanese wordplay). He once made a story based on Norse myth in ItsuSora (and I suppose Japanese folklore in the AsaIro, I'd have to check that out soon). And for this game, he based a lot of story elements on the tales in Christianity. Not Christianity itself, but stories around it. God, Angels, Demons, Humans, Sins, Witchcraft, Miracle,etc etc. In the end, though indeed it came out as a very good story, it also left me contemplating about a lot of thing. And indeed that is one of the moral of this story: to think and act for yourself.
Regarding character development, I'd say that most of the characters have been explored quite decently. Everyone had their moments, and I managed to actually care about the main 7 characters (I even left my Crusader Kings II to finish this game lol). If I have to name one my favorite though, I'd say Hanene is the one.
Also, I guess I pretty much confirmed that Yuu has a thing about hax characters. Pretty much everyone is hax in their own way, and they were implemented in the story in such a way that they didn't really seem out of place.
And now while my switch is still on, I'll try to finish AsaIro as well.
Cosmic Eagle
2012-03-05, 21:22
Huh?
Dies Irae getting a sudden popularity boost on VNDB? That's strange....would have thought the gore and Masada-style characters and plot would turn off most of the general audience...
Finished Rin's route in Amesarasa and it was quite lovely in general. I will probably leave it like this with only her second ending done as it seems to be the good one :D. I liked it how Haruichi's "supernatural" aspect was connected to Rin's (whole) existance, though it was a bit strange :3.
Mitsuha's route was okay. The way to her two different endings were somewhat similar (except that one route left out a h-scene due to the prior events).
In general: Most of the everyday-dialogues seem to be quite simplistic (in terms of amount of words used).
I think I'll try Yuki's next
After finishing every story in Hatsuyuki Sakura i can say one thing
Pure Rage!!!!!
One of my first WTH moments came at the end of the (fixed in the first playthough) regular Sakura route.
Which had pretty much a bad end. But i still liked it because of this scene.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKz8o-djNsc
My actual rage comes from the true route: Graduation
I really liked it from the beginning till the climax . It had a nice mixup of comedy, lot's of deredere moments and drama at the end. But both endings of that route left me with a really bitter taste.
In fact i didn't really like all of the endings.
Because the main character Hatsuyuki ends disappearing at the end of the story, because he was a ghost (Ghost child or in fact the king of ghosts) from the start. Or in the case of Aya's route, she lost her memories about him.
I am still pissed at both endings of the true route. My favorite 2 heroines: Sakura and Aya don't get a truly happy ending there.
Seeing that i was actually hoping for an actual happy end after all of the somewhat dissatisfying endings of the regular 4 characters,
However the story was overall ok. Sometimes they felt a little dragged and every story became sometimes a little overdramatic for me at the end.
The plot about ghosts could have been used better for the plot and it was pretty much only served to add drama to the end of the routes.
I liked the stories in this order.
Sakura> Aya > Shirokuma> Nozomu > Azuma
Sakura, because it was the true route and it was probably the best written of all the stories. Also it was the most related to the ghost story.
Aya, because i liked the character and her route was also canon with the true route because it was set 1 year before the current one.
Shirokuma, because of the character development/changes that she has gone though after the timeskip of 2 years.
Nozomu was probably one of the sillier and more comedic stories, which went way too dramatic at the end for no good reasons.
i liked Azuma the least, because her story had pretty much nothing to do with the overall story (mostly about her figure skating) except that she was haunted by a ghost.
The music was in my opinion quite good. Not just the opening and ending songs, but the BGM's were nicely varied and when it was quite fitting for the mood/atmosphere when it was used. Especially the tracks "Freak of Nature: start" and "Ghost parade"
As for the seiyuu's, it was a mixed bag for me. Some did really great, while most of them were pretty bad in my opinion.
Especially Shimizu Ai and Fuuri Samoto did a really good job with Sakura and Aya.
I didn't really like kadowaki Mai's role as Nozomu, because i am probably not used to her voicing characters that way. The other female seiyuu's besides Yoshida Airi (voicing Megumi and other side characters and a ghost)were mostly ok but i disliked most male seiyuu's in this one. One problem for me (because i really like to listen VN's as well) was that every seiyuu were also voicing random students or other people. Even the more important side characters in certain routes were voiced in pretty much the same way (hardly any attempt of trying to change thier voice) as they did with the regular characters.
relentlessflame
2012-03-07, 23:31
I sort of regret reading those spoilers given that I just received the game the other day, but I had already figured as much when I found out about the premise and the similarities to Natsuyume Nagisa (heck, even the title is similar!). It is a bit harsh that none of the characters have a truly happy/satisfying ending, though. As with Natsuyume Nagisa, I will likely have to pad this game on both sides with happy games to get over my depression! :heh:
I never played Natsuyume Nagisa though, so i can't say if it's a Saga Planet's trend of making games with those kind of stories without a true good ending.
I think i am somewhat harsh because i didn't like any of the endings while i did enjoy the stories overall. The slice of life moments were enjoyable, the comedic moments were most of the time funny and the suspense about the ghost story was great.
But i am a person who likes happy endings in VN, but the true route endings in Hatsuyuki Sakura were even worse than the endings for regular characters (besides the first fixed story with a bad end with Sakura)
In the true end Sakura story, the first 3/4 of the story revolves around the nice romance with Sakura. But she ended up dying/purified because she turned out to be the princess of the ghosts. The last part of the story revolves around the group saving Hatsuyuki from rampaging as the Ghost king and he ends up overcoming it. He graduates from school, but Sakura remains dead eventhough she does seem exist as a ghost that can't be seem by other people.
In the Aya end of the true story, Aya ended up sacrificing herself to buy Hatsuyuki time for him to make the whole hotel explode to get rid of their pursuers.
So in short, in the true Sakura route left the Sakura dead (technically she is already dead, but banished/purified by the organization) and Hatsuyuki, Aya and Sakura didn't survive in Aya's branching of the true end
Worse part is that Aya and Sakura are my favorite characters.
I need to find a lighter VN after this one.
Edit: maybe i should try Lover Able and it's fandisc dousei
erneiz_hyde
2012-03-08, 00:14
Btw, I fiddled around and found out that Tenshi no Hane's male protagonist was voiced by Suzuta Miyako, who did Kudo from LB...
I mean sure, the protagonist is a trap, but he can be prettyvery manly at times (his scream/shout in particular), to think that the voice behind him used to go all wafuu......:heh:
OK, so I tried going back to Kitto sumiwataru asairo yori mo, though I have forgotten most of the story, so I did a quick reread through the earlier parts.
Sure enough, there is a heavy Japanese myth influence throughout, with one which imo is particularly interesting (and often mentioned) being "kotodama" and the "demon" who had it. Also, I don't really see the concept of "character routes" here and sure enough, I asked a friend who finished this long ago and he said that this is a "Hiyo-ge" (Hiyo is the main heroine). There are a few choices, but the impact didn't seem too important (yet, at least).
relentlessflame
2012-03-08, 01:01
I need to find a lighter VN after this one.
Edit: maybe i should try Lover Able and it's fandisc douseiHeh - I'd venture to say that it's a perfectly good antidote in this case. Fun, light-hearted, and full of over-the-top romance. It's a little less story-driven than Mashiro-iro Symphony (really all about the characters), but is about on that level in terms of the sugary-sweetness. So yeah -- sounds like a good recommendation to me!
Hyl, as someone who finished that Sagaplanets game, in your opinion was it overall good? I did not want to give Saga Planets another shot as their last offering (gold stars) had none of the things I liked about Natsuyume Nagisa. When I saw they had a new game, I was of course pessimistic, but I could change my mind about buying it if it made a good impression
It depends on what you want. Like i have posted earlier, i haven't played Natsuyume Nagisa, so i can't compare Hatsuyuki Sakura with it. Overall i liked Hatsuyuki Sakura alot. I enjoyed it more than the last few VN's that i have read in the last few months.
The art and characters were nice, it had lot of good mix of elements from comedy, drama,suspense, slice of life and cute romantic moments. The atmosphere and the music that accomponies it are also very good in my opinion.
The routes are at the beginning quite lighthearted but get darker (some more than others) at the end. But what i didn't like about the routes was the somewhat forced drama at the end of each one.
The endings themselves are not that bad if you can accept that the main character and the heroine of the story can't stay (physically) together.
If you are not sure, you can download the trial first. I think it goes up to the prologue and it should give you either a good or bad impression of the game.
@Hatsuyuki Sakura in general:
Sakura: It was indeed a big downer that Sakura received a bad ending. I really hoped that she somehow would manage to come back at the end, but no chance :(. The whole unseen ghost part was very harsh towards her, although I didn't quite understand how her chibi-version appeared before Hatsuyuki stopped his rampaging mood. I was confused at the part in her normal route when she turned "insane" (the video Hyl posted). Maybe it was due to her unrequitted love? Still, her chibi-version was also great with her formal introduction to Sakuya in the distant past when the hotel incident had occured. And how she prioritized Hatsuyuki's happiness instead of the town's future. Does it mean she followed Hatsuyuki as the unseen ghost until Sakuya brought her to the side of the living beings where she spent the time with him in the present time appearance?
Aya: Her normal route was really nice with the whole focus on what happenend between Hatsuyuki and her in the past.
Shirokuma: The continue of her story post-credit roll was a nice idea or otherwise he route would have been too short and uneventful. I liked how in the last part Hatsuyuki snapped back from revenge-mode and decided to save her from the burning hotel instead.
Nozomi: Probably the most normal route in terms of the ghost background. I actually enjoyed her romance part.
Azuma: Uhm, their romance felt a bit strange at first, but the whole deal with finding the culprit of the harrasing letters dragged on too much. I liked the interaction between Hatsuyuki and Sakuya in her route, though.
As for Hatsuyuki himself: I didn't really enjoy his foul way of talking and hoped that it would get better once the romance started. I first thought that there was more to him than just the ghost king because Sakuya implied something like that when she told him he didn't know anything about himself or something like that. Maybe I just interpreted it wrong. And how he decided to not care about anything when Sakuya told him the truth of the past after Sakura disappeared was imho stupid. And him not remembering a bit about his past with Sakura until after she had already disappeared was disappointing. Nontheless, it was also nice to see how he openly thanked everyone for the "good time" after he finally graduated.
As for the sound track: I loved freak of nature: start personally.
@hyl: Lover Able is a great choice for light-hearted and sweet romance. The girls have many "HNGHHH!!!" moments and the humour was quite good for my (poor) taste ;)
grylsyjaeger
2012-03-08, 05:12
Has anyone here played 失われた未来を求めて (In Search of Lost Future)?
I played it for five minutes before realizing I was grossly under prepared to try it with my current Japanese. I quite enjoyed the art work and the introduction to Airi caught my attention pretty quickly!
Just wanting to hear some thoughts if people thought it was a good VN?
Has anyone here played 失われた未来を求めて (In Search of Lost Future)?
I played it for five minutes before realizing I was grossly under prepared to try it with my current Japanese. I quite enjoyed the art work and the introduction to Airi caught my attention pretty quickly!
Just wanting to hear some thoughts if people thought it was a good VN?
The VN liked to be confusing at some points (at least with subpar jp. knowledge like I have). The VN has the mean concept of letting you play first through the bad ending of each girl before you get the option to choose the alternate/good ending. In that way, the bad ending(s) focus more on the actual background storyline of the VN. It also has a forced playing order in terms of which route to complete first.
Was it good? If you like the characters, it was decent enough. It has quite a few time travel moments, which also servers as one of the sub-themes I think. But, that part is mainly portayed in the latter half of each route more or less "subtle".
Used up office bandwidth to see trial, eh it doesn't ring anything for me. Music's good, atmosphere reminds me of something like Hoshizoria (or Natsuyume) but after finishing with a light CTRL-dozer speed, there wasn't anything that stood out as must-read-to-finish-so-buy-it-now.
So I decided to read the spoilers. Well, on that score hyl, regarding the "not -redacted- between heroine and protagonist thing"? It happened in natsuyume, in a way, so it's not really that new. And I personally didn't mind that element (some '07 VNs had that device a LOT in their endings), but I think I'll hold off because of what I've read from the trial.
I guess yuzusoft's really is the only thing next on my go-to list...
@Hatsuyuki Sakura in general:
I was confused at the part in her normal route when she turned "insane" (the video Hyl posted).
After replaying the normal Sakura route, I think she went crazy after she found out that she was the other ghost child: the ghost princess (She did say that she is not Sakura but the ghost child in the normal route. Also in the true route it turned out that Sakura lost her memories of being a ghost after she being returned alive with the help of Sakuya. But Sakura still recovers her memories earlier than Hatsuyuki in the true route.) and I think that she thought that Hatsuyuki has betrayed her feelings by breaking their promise in their past about being together forever.
@Hatsuyuki Sakura in general:
Does it mean she followed Hatsuyuki as the unseen ghost until Sakuya brought her to the side of the living beings where she spent the time with him in the present time appearance?
I am sure that near the very end of the story in the flashback that the chibi Sakura that she was watching unseen over Hatsuyuki in every season the whole time before her wish was granted by Sakuya.
I agree that i didn't like that Hatsuyuki regains his memories of his past with Sakura way too late. But it did add some mystery to it by revealing that quite late and it increased the impact of the chibi Sakura appearing at the end
edit:
The whole unseen ghost part was very harsh towards her, although I didn't quite understand how her chibi-version appeared before Hatsuyuki stopped his rampaging mood.
Her spirit was never truly banished. Hatsuyuki has noticed the invisible chibi Sakura spirit even after Sakura was gone (the chibi Sakura also appeared at the end of Shirokuma's story and Sakura was gone in the 2nd half of Shirokuma's story ), but it was revealed in the end that it was Sakura.
edit 2:
I guess yuzusoft's really is the only thing next on my go-to list...
I guess you mean Dracu Riot :p
After replaying the normal Sakura route, I think she went crazy after she found out that she was the other ghost child: the ghost princess (She did say that she is not Sakura but the ghost child in the normal route. Also in the true route it turned out that Sakura lost her memories of being a ghost after she being returned alive with the help of Sakuya. But Sakura still recovers her memories earlier than Hatsuyuki in the true route.) and I think that she thought that Hatsuyuki has betrayed her feelings by breaking their promise in their past about being together forever.
She didn't go crazy, she always said that she prioritized Hatsuyuki over the town itself and since Hatsuyuki ends up dying alone without developing a bond with anyone in the bad end, she lost the only reason she had to continue protecting the city.
The true end was pretty good, I don't think it can get any more happy than that without shitting on the premise of the story itself.
I certainly prefer this over Hatsuyuki collecting Dragon Balls to revive the dead.
I liked Hatsuyuki Sakura, the characters are very likable, the romances are sweet, Hatsuyuki himself is a good protag and the plot was interesting. So it was really frustrating to see how the writing just couldn't keep up with rest of the VN.
It's like the writer had a good idea for the plot and characters, but he had problems putting those ideas on paper. There is like, zero descriptive text, scenes that are supposed to be important for the story are over in an instant, it's just so shallow and lacking...oomph?
A lot of things happen and I just couldn't give a shit because it's about as engaging as reading a story summary on wikipedia. It's a shame really, because the smalltalk and jokes are genuinely funny but as soon as the story tries to move forward everything takes a nosedive.
Just started with Lover Able and i will begin with Chinatsu. I don't care if she is more bland than the other heroines, i like her character design :p
After finishing the emotionly heavier Hatsuyuki Sakura, the much lighter Lover Able cheered me up a little after reading it for a few hours.
I have to say that I enjoyed the "Akatsuki no Goei" series the most. It's full with laughter even though there are serious situations.
Cosmic Eagle
2012-03-09, 05:45
Its artist is somehow damn familiar...one of the LNs.....is it Date A Live? Don't think so....
I have started playing With Ribbon and hope that it will fit into the light-hearted genre to at least some degree.
It has a quite an early introduced time travel and the second time the main gets involved himself to travel back - behold - three days :heh:. The re-introduction to Yumimi was rather too sudden/out-of-the-blue, but her route was generally sweet.
It seems that most routes focus more on the girls circumstances than obvious rabu-rabu moments.
Yumimi = gambatte-but-no-talent which ultimately ends succesful, Sumika = love rivalry with her sister and some kind of inferior feeling.
A route for Airi and the home teacher would have been nice as well, but you cannot have everything :p
So far I have completed two routes which shows quite well the drawback this kind of time travel can bring.
By itself the time travel device in With Ribbon isn't that bad. The problem lies within the in-game time limit that requires Shoutarou and girl-of-choice to hook up AND kiss. IMHO this frame is too limited and leads that the same three days will be repeated - each with a better outcome - two times excluding the "original" days. So while the main lead will keep some kind of future knowledge advantage, the pace in which the couple grows closer can feel less natural. Something like the protagonist himself is using a walkthrough for the first few days :P. You can see a rather obvious character difference in Sumika who become much more aware of the prota after the first time loop due to the changed circumstances when Shotarou managed to save his future-daughter in time from an approaching car.
Fortunately, the drama is kept short and nothing rage-producing.
The characters are quite loveable. Yumimi is a cute kouhai and Sarara's mix of serious atmosphere and cute/embarrsing moments are very enjoyable. The kiss CGs are quite good, as well.
Sarara's route was overall quite enjoyable. One part in the latter half of her drama was quite stupid, but had a funny concept. And her ending scene was very heart-warming.
Sumika's route was okay ... It had a good share of touching moments, although the love triangle part could have been kept a bit shorter.
I'm into Hina's part and it's much sweeter than I expected. I quite liked her character development so far, although it felt also sudden.
Its artist is somehow damn familiar...one of the LNs.....is it Date A Live? Don't think so....
Yeah I think its the same artist is Lovely Cation(H-Game). I like his designs.
Shadow5YA
2012-03-11, 08:53
So I jumped on the Muv-Luv (Alternative) bandwagon
I was told to play the Extra and Unlimited for some background information, but not all routes are required. If I want to get into Alternative as quickly as possible, which routes do I have to do in Extra/Unlimited? Just Sumika's and Meiya's?
erneiz_hyde
2012-03-11, 09:12
Umph...umph...huwaaa T^T
...I just finished "Kitto Sumiwataru Asairo Yori mo" and is now crying (figuratively) because it was such a touching and beautiful story T^T
Everything had a proper closure. And even though the whole game is actually one huge HUGE route (which you can't continue unless you choose the right choices), every character was adequately explored.
Shumon Yuu is great at creating unique worlds, atmosphere, or backgrounds, and then bringing a proper and ultimate closure to it. All the hints which were laid out before...slowly taking shape as the story progress and finally formed one big picture in the end...
Damn, even though it was only a few days ago I finished Tenshi no Hane, the feeling I get after finished reading Yuu's works hasn't dulled...T^T
Done with With Ribbon :) Overall a nicely done Visual Novel with a very likeable cast and lovely CGs. The music was nothing too extraordinary, but it did fit in well enough.
Mahou's favorite route order: Hina > Yumimi >= Sarara > Sumika > Kasumi.
As I mentioned before, I really enjoyed Hina's character deveopment as it wasn't made out to be a major deal. Her drama part was simply strange, but was resolved quickly enough. Chibi-Hina is adorable :D. Her route focused also more on them as a couple. Yumimi received her major development boost rather later and her 2nd introduction seemed rushed, still she was a "huggable" Kouhai and her route was more about her growth rate in her swimming club. Her drama part was done rather realistic and down-to-earth so there's nothing too much too add.
Sarara's drama part was rather stupid, but her route was generally enjoyable. Her ending was good and showed also her growth relationship-wise pre-credit roll.
Lastly, Sumika and Kasumi: Their route was not really bad per say, but I'm no big fan of love triangle tropes. I applaud Shoutarou for realizing himself that he dragged his "what-are-my-real-feelings" out for too long, though. Based on the choice selection and overall length Sumika's route felt more true than Kasumi's, but maybe that was just my strange perception of it.
Also finally completed Satsuki's route in Lover Able. Wow, so sugary sweet and smile-producing that even a diabetic would be be surprised :heh:. Speaking of Lover Able in general, I cannot really pick a "favorite" girl in this one, they were just all awesome :3.
Next, I might try Hotch Kiss (if the drama is similar annoying as the one in Sucre than I know at least what to expect) or dare to venture into another Palette (nakige) VN X_X.
judasmartel
2012-03-13, 04:02
In general, which type of girls have the easiest and the hardest routes?
erneiz_hyde
2012-03-13, 04:45
In general, which type of girls have the easiest and the hardest routes?
The main or titular heroines tend to be the hardest, and the extra heroines which were outside the main line-ups tend to be the easiest...
Wait that was just crap I made up. Seriously though, I can't really see how a certain character archetype affects how "easy" their routes are.
judasmartel
2012-03-13, 10:05
Well, I just remembered something from KamiNomi where Keima says "teacher routes are the hardest" or something like that. Sure, he's a fictional character, but hey, every VN gamer has his own taste. It seemed like athletes and tsunderes are easier to conquer, but I guess it's because their routes are pretty predictable.
Athletes, you just need to keep up with her physically and/or stand by her for better or for worse.
Tsunderes more or less act like real-life women to me. However, in practice, I find their routes incredibly difficult.
My rule of thumb is that the more likely a VN girl is to Friend Zone the MC, the more difficult.
Well, I just remembered something from KamiNomi where Keima says "teacher routes are the hardest" or something like that. Sure, he's a fictional character, but hey, every VN gamer has his own taste. It seemed like athletes and tsunderes are easier to conquer, but I guess it's because their routes are pretty predictable.
Athletes, you just need to keep up with her physically and/or stand by her for better or for worse.
Tsunderes more or less act like real-life women to me. However, in practice, I find their routes incredibly difficult.
My rule of thumb is that the more likely a VN girl is to Friend Zone the MC, the more difficult.
Ah, then it's maybe difficult in terms of in-game drama until girl-of-choice is completely ready to accept her true feelings.
Teacher routes are difficult due to the usual anxiety of studentxteacher relationship.
The only "difficulty" in choice-selections mostly occur if at least one selection in the early or middle part of the VN locks you out of another route completely before MCXGirl get together and you are not aware of it (of if there are some internal "affection counters" running. I don't know how many of these VNs are out there, but I think I've seen one or two :heh:
judasmartel
2012-03-13, 10:32
Let's see... For one Come See Me Tonight 2 had more straightforward routes than any VNs I ever played, though I only got through the "shy girl" and "ideal candidate" routes.
erneiz_hyde
2012-03-13, 11:27
ah...right.
If it's "difficulty" by how the protagonist pursue the heroine, then yes, character archetypes often affect how the route progress.
The difficulty that comes with choices are really just game design and doesn't always reflect the difficulty the protagonist has to go through.
EDIT: Oh, also, I think the "family member" route is another one that often offers much drama.
Btw, I forgot, did TWGOK explain about the different genres of galge, like nukige, nakige, moege, etc? I think those are the "primary" distinction between galges, and often the "difficulty" for the protagonist as well. The different character archetypes that appears is secondary.
Bane Rieko
2012-03-13, 16:50
Does anyone have an in depth opinion on DearDrops? I finished the trial and it interested me but I am not sure if I want to buy it yet.
I forgot that the trial edition of Dracu-Riot was released almost 2 weeks ago because i was too heavily focused on Hatsuyuki Sakura back then.
After finishing the web trial edition of Dracu-Riot today in 1 run, i am not sure if i will like the full game as much as i expected/hoped to be.
For starters I think it has many elements that are quite common with toaru majutsu no index: school settings in an isolated city + moe characters + supernatural elements (vampires are quite similar with espers, because they have special powers) + a secret organziation.
For also being marketed as partially a slapstick, i didn't think the trial was that funny (the trial of Renai 0 km was much funnier, but that eroge was mostly a comedy) but that didn't mean that i didn't laugh at some jokes.
The SD CG's in this trial are in my opinion quite good, unfortunately there weren't that many of them yet.
The overall art is ok, but the music was eventhough not bad but at the same time not that memorable for me.
The trial however was quite long (roughly 4-5 hours for me) and it ended half way (i am pretty sure the common route isn't over, seeing that it left with somewhat a cliffhanger)
At the end of the trial, you can choose to watch some silly random scenes or 1 of the H-scenes of the heroines.
Dracu-Riot might be a little overhyped in my opinion, but regardless i will still get it and read it.
edit:
i did end up enjoying Loverable for being very light, but I think that there was at some times a little too much sweetness in it. I will put it on hold for now after finishing Chinatsu and Satsuki.
shmaster
2012-03-17, 01:10
Have no other better place to drop this, so I'll drop it here.
If it can make more people go play Dies Irae this June.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTxWYSda7uY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hysZcCW65lw
Cosmic Eagle
2012-03-17, 03:03
Have no other better place to drop this, so I'll drop it here.
If it can make more people go play Dies Irae this June.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTxWYSda7uY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hysZcCW65lw
What are you doing dancing around like that Carl?
Damn...it's so much better than the PC OP
shmaster
2012-03-17, 16:22
Having some exercise is always nice, no?
And have you take a peek at Theresia's twits yet? She has been leaking info on the PSP version.
Cosmic Eagle
2012-03-17, 20:07
Having some exercise is always nice, no?
And have you take a peek at Theresia's twits yet? She has been leaking info on the PSP version.
Who's Theresia?
shmaster
2012-03-17, 20:21
http://twitter.com/#!/Tokoyo_Theresia
And here is the rest.
http://twitter.com/#!/Hagar_gold
http://twitter.com/#!/Queck_silber
http://twitter.com/#!/Cain_sakurai
http://twitter.com/#!/Thrud_Walkure
http://twitter.com/#!/Malleus_8
http://twitter.com/#!/11_Magdalene
velocity7
2012-03-18, 21:49
WHITE ALBUM2 Original Soundtrack has been announced:
http://leaf.aquaplus.jp/product/wa2cc/special_ost.html
There will be three OSTs; two of them cover introductory and closing chapter respectively. The third OST, however, involves a vote on the top 4-5 songs from this list:
http://app.aquaplus.jp/vote/wa2ost_setsuna/
Cosmic Eagle
2012-03-18, 22:21
Any WA music is always welcome.
I can't believe To Heart is dominating that poll though...
velocity7
2012-03-19, 12:45
My vote is on キミガタメ, though. :)
After my sadly unsatisfying experiences with Corona and DamaMuko (and after spending some time recovering from them :heh:), I figured I'd try a more serious looking title among the newly released ones that had caught my eye - Shinigami no Testament. Being the fan of fantasy that I am, a darker one if fine too.
qcCjsHbj7jE
I have only finished one route thus far, and while not quite as gripping as I hoped it would be, it was a reasonably satisfying experience all around. Though I won't discount the possibility of it still reaching new heights - the potential seems to be there and I have 4 more routes to go through after all, and most importantly - the "True End" route that can be unlocked after completing the five original ones. This being the case, I wouldn't be surprised to find out it's the "true route" that got the lion's share of the writer's love, as tends to be the case.
The production values are on the high side here (Though still no voiced male lead ... I guess we won't experience another Eustia in this regard anytime soon, sadly), both art and music wise, and I found myself quite fond of the frequent camera panning the title employs. It was a bit weird having the focus move across the screen at first, but I quickly got used to it, and applied at the right time it can quite enhance the mood, like action or chase scenes - like when someone is chasing the male lead, and the camera actually pans around as he is looking over his shoulder to catch a glimpse of his pursuer. Pretty good.
If there is one thing that dampened my spirits though, it would have to be Rui - our residential male lead. I suppose he wasn't anything too bad, but far from impressive or innovative either - built from the same generic protagonist mold where the lot of them originate from.
Irritatingly simplistic black & white worldview, emotional sensitivity and mood-reading ability of a rock (when it doesn't come to feeling sorry about himself anyway), loss of brain function when something concerning romance crops up, insistence of "helping" during a fight when he only gets in the way bigtime, not failing to be opinionated about things he barely understands - you know, the usual lot that we have come to love and adore :heh:
Luckily for him this is a dark fantasy title though, so at least the plot is there to forcibly nudge him along, so at least he isn't allowed to be indecisive (in various ways) for too long, though it's still somewhat irritating waiting for these pushes to come along. Why can't we have more male leads like Kouhei from Fortune Arterial - one with a head straight on his shoulders and actually having awareness in things relationship related. *sigh*
Anyways, the route I went for first was Kana's - probably because she was the heroine who appealed to me the most, both personality wise (her cellphone antics were cute :heh:) and style wise - in a cast dominated by swords and scythes, being a gunslinger certainly makes her stand out (not to mention appears more practical :heh:). Her route was good for the most part, though the ending certainly could have used 5 minutes more to explain how everything got resolved, as the situation certainly warranted it. A decent ride overall, never the less.
The romance part was overall a positive one - given her somewhat shy demeanor and Rui being Rui I was expecting a lot of beating around the bush, but Akina ("Kana's" real name) pleasantly surprised me with going straight for the kill. I guess having difficulty interacting with others doesn't mean the same as being passive when she wants something :heh: That said, it did feel rushed at the time how quickly they went from Akina's confession to having sex - barely took a day to get there, and almost felt like something they wanted to get out of the way so they could move on with the plot.
Though the introduction of Kana and her situation did help here, as it certainly explained why Akina was in such a hurry to get what she can out of the relationship in the little time she thought she had left. Akina's motivation to give up her own life to save Kana was certainly understandable, though I wish they had spent more time portraying how close the twins actually were - Akina's decision is very human and thus quite understandable, but they certainly could have added more Akina/Kana flashbacks to show their bond more deeply. Would have done a lot to add more emotional urgency to Akina's actions, they fell a bit short of milking the mood for all its worth here.
I am, however, borderline disgustingly disappointed with Rui here, and his utter failure to offer any emotional support to Akina. Especially after Kana's death, when she needed it the most - had he done so, I have a feeling they could have avoided a good amount of the grief that was in the finale. Though Akina's resolution to use a page of Epistula in order to revive Kana was quite strong, I feel she still could have been talked out of it at the time.
Of course, he failed to offer any support at all though. I was nothing short of pissed when Akina was holding to his sleeve from behind while crying after Kana's death, and only thing the idiot could do was look away and go "Hurr durr, I don't know what to say, so I won't say anything" in his head. The least he could do was hold her, but no, even that much was beyond him apparently. Useless.
Wasn't exactly better when he failed to offer an opinion on Akina's plan to revive Kana using the epistula page, thinking he's an outsider and thus shouldn't have a say in this deep matter between the two sisters. Excuse me ? Outsider ? You are Akina's lover, you are already more than involved. Kana's last wish was for you to look after her "little" sister. She is even telling you this, obviously expecting an opinion of sorts. Yet again, nothing.
Putting the above two instances together, I seriously feel that Rui failed bigtime here - both at being Akina's lover and emotional support, and at upholding Kana's wish. Zero points for him here. Disappointing, but sort of expected from your typical mold of male leads I guess - dense enough not to move a finger until the situation is way post the boiling point.
And while the boiling point and Akina's march to retrieve Kana's corpse was well done (ignoring the fact Rui managed to stall her for 10 minutes ... quite silly really :heh:), it's the aftermath that interested me most - and they managed to completely gloss over the details and jump straight to the "happily ever after" point after Rui passed out!
Yes, Yua extracted the epistula page from Akina and thus her own organization wouldn't need to hunt her down anymore, but that still doesn't change the fact that she blew up a street along with plenty of vehicles, possibly injured some people in the process, did plenty of property damage and bluntly staged an attack against Wisdom, the same organization she is a part of. I would think Wisdom would have been plenty angry with her, even without her being possessed by an epistula page. And I'm not sure to what extent her parents would help - seeing they saw fit to involve their daughter in this business in the first place, I highly doubt parental love is something known to them.
I "guess" Yua could have carried both Rui and Akina away to the shrine after extracting Akina's page, and that being Aldebaran territory would put them outside Wisdom's reach, but that should only be a temporary solution, at least for Akina - yes, after learning of Rui's ties to Aldebaran I doubt Wisdom would try anything with him, but Akina was still a member of Wisdom. And Rui's lover or not, I highly doubt Aldebaran would go to war with Wisdom over one of Wisdom's "rogue" agents. Though I suppose they "could" have struck some sort of a deal.
Or perhaps Akina could have been excused as having acted under the influence of Epistula page, and thus not fully accountable for her actions.
Either way, they should have shown us how it got resolved. Yes, we see her visiting Kana's grave with Rui and the two doing quite fine, but what exactly happened! Was she excused or Aldebaran stepped in for her, and Wisdom let it go, a conflict not being worth it? Was she pardoned? Was she pardoned but discharged from Wisdom ? Did she quit on her own ? Did she switch sides to Aldebaran instead ? I want to know, dammit!
At least all is well that ends well, right. *sigh*
So ... yeah, a decent route overall with some good emotional moments, but Rui certainly didn't earn many points with me here, and they skimped on the epilogue, certainly could have used some more explaining of the situation. 15 sentences worth of narration would have done it, really. Ah well.
Now I have to decide whose route to go for next ... might be a bit problematic, as while Kana stood out for me almost immediately, the rest of the female cast didn't really catch my attention. Yua is a gigantic troll and can be both entertaining and tiresome to listen to, Ayumu is ... Ayumu :eyespin: (meaning excessively childish and hysteric), and Irina is creepy, as far as her single appearance in Kana's route suggested. I guess I'll go for Vivi - she didn't have any role to play (or even appearances) in Kana's route, but her involvement in the "common route" part of the story was enough to peak my interest about our local "shinigami". Here's hoping she gets a more expanded epilogue than Kana did.
I'm varying my gaming time between my 2nd run in Kamidori and having started Eien no Aselia (although I am generally quite average at strategy gameplay).
Obviously Kamidori's story is simply meant to make the dungeon grind more tolerable, but personally I enjoyed most of the character quests (<3 Melodiana).
I also tried playing Palette's steal my heart, but somehow it didn't appeal to me. During the first few hours, the sister was extremly annoying; her bro-con was way onverdone. I *might* try out "moshimo ashita ga (...)". I looked at the CGs and saw quite a few in-character tear shedding scenes, so I'm roughly aware of what to expect :heh: Once I return back home to Germany over Easter break, I can also finally pick up my PSP version of Mashiro-iro Symphony :).
velocity7
2012-03-20, 21:23
http://i.imgur.com/sd23C.jpg
Appears that Maruto isn't quite done expanding on the world of WA2.
Comes from:
http://0taku.livedoor.biz/archives/4145538.html
Got around to finishing my second route of Shinigami no Testament, and now I can say with certainty the title is growing on me and without fail providing good doses of motivation to keep going. After finishing Kana's route I had planned to go for Vivi next, but turns out her route is unavailable unless you have finished Yua's route first, so off for Yua I went. And it certainly didn't disappoint, even though once again the romance-> sex portion felt somewhat rushed, although (same as with Kana) there can be arguments presented why it unfolded as fast as it did.
Anyways, Yua's route was fairly different from Kana's in terms of focus (which was to be expected I guess, Yua being the "main" main girl) and thus provided a nice shift of pace - while Kana's route was mostly focused on Kana herself and her personal issues, with the supernatural side playing more of a background role, the situation was quite different in Yua's - the plot came knocking in full force.
I won't go into spoilerish details (as I'm not sure anyone else here has even read it yet or planning to do so :heh:), but suffice to say it did a very good job in building up my intrigue and suspense, and the introduction of new interested parties (and their motivations, which are still largely secret at this point) certainly arose that feeling in me where you simply must find out what happens next and how it all ties together. I certainly appreciate when a story manages to do that.
Plenty of suspense and uncertainty as to how it's all going to end, up to the very end, decent amounts of sufficiently grim action, interesting plot elements being introduced (some more predictable, some less), questions being answered while more being introduced, exposition to the important players in the grand scheme of things - indeed, Yua's route did a very good job of building up my anticipation for the eventually upcoming "true end route".
In a way I'm glad that I played Kana's route first, seeing she had somewhat of a role to play in Yua's route as well, with a couple of important (if few) actions that had a definite influence on how it all played out. Indeed, given the broader scope of Yua's route, I was quite glad to see others of the main cast aren't forgotten and have their roles to play even on the sidelines. That's a very good thing indeed, especially if we consider these first five routes as the "world building" for the true end one that unlocks afterwards. I may have only completed two routes thus far, but I get a definite feeling they are steadily building towards the eventual grand finale. Vivi is up next (I guess quite fitting, seeing what the closing scenes of Yua's route entailed), this time for sure.
So far I'm enjoying Shinigami no Testament a good deal, and I'm certainly glad for having picked it up. It's shaping up to be a very solid title (minor gripes with overly speedy, if excusable, romance developments aside ... and a dense male lead, though I guess complaining about that is like complaining about desert having lots of sand and few oasis :heh: ) and it certainly has me on the edge of my seat craving for more - a genuine drive to devour as much of the title as soon as I'm able to, and it's certainly good when a story manages to invoke such a feeling in the reader.
Cosmic Eagle
2012-03-21, 09:19
http://i.imgur.com/sd23C.jpg
Appears that Maruto isn't quite done expanding on the world of WA2.
Comes from:
http://0taku.livedoor.biz/archives/4145538.html
Would this mean WA3? Would that even work? Maybe a fan-box like with Ef....
velocity7
2012-03-21, 11:37
Would this mean WA3? Would that even work? Maybe a fan-box like with Ef....
Leaning towards a fandisc. An intent to "expand upon the world of WA2" implies stuff related specifically to WA2, and most certainly not WA1, even though they're in the same world, etc. Having said that, the interview also says that he wants to do so while WA2 is still popular (at least, that's what it implies).
.
So far I'm enjoying Shinigami no Testament a good deal, and I'm certainly glad for having picked it up. It's shaping up to be a very solid title (minor gripes with overly speedy, if excusable, romance developments aside ... and a dense male lead, though I guess complaining about that is like complaining about desert having lots of sand and few oasis :heh: ) and it certainly has me on the edge of my seat craving for more - a genuine drive to devour as much of the title as soon as I'm able to, and it's certainly good when a story manages to invoke such a feeling in the reader.
Might be somewhat off-topic, but I must comment about the bolded part :p. While it is true that the usual dense (and at times utterly useless) main lead is the sad standard for most VNs, I tend to complain not about him if his density will not be rubbed in my face at each given moment (*coughstrawberrynautsorsucrecough*). Same for the "usesless" part - I'm looking at you Mirai Nostaglia >_<!
So, in a fair and square world, NO VN prota should invoke the urge in me to either punch the monitor, make me complainy in disbelief or similar fashion :D.
Still on my first playthrough of Eien no Aselia due to many, many reloadings during the battle phases. And as it should be, Aselia's route has been the first choice. Damn you plot-event that reseted her mind points back to zero *insert crying-smiley*
PhoenixG
2012-03-24, 03:30
Got around to finishing my second route of Shinigami no Testament, and now I can say with certainty the title is growing on me and without fail providing good doses of motivation to keep going. After finishing Kana's route I had planned to go for Vivi next, but turns out her route is unavailable unless you have finished Yua's route first, so off for Yua I went. And it certainly didn't disappoint, even though once again the romance-> sex portion felt somewhat rushed, although (same as with Kana) there can be arguments presented why it unfolded as fast as it did.
Anyways, Yua's route was fairly different from Kana's in terms of focus (which was to be expected I guess, Yua being the "main" main girl) and thus provided a nice shift of pace - while Kana's route was mostly focused on Kana herself and her personal issues, with the supernatural side playing more of a background role, the situation was quite different in Yua's - the plot came knocking in full force.
I won't go into spoilerish details (as I'm not sure anyone else here has even read it yet or planning to do so :heh:), but suffice to say it did a very good job in building up my intrigue and suspense, and the introduction of new interested parties (and their motivations, which are still largely secret at this point) certainly arose that feeling in me where you simply must find out what happens next and how it all ties together. I certainly appreciate when a story manages to do that.
Plenty of suspense and uncertainty as to how it's all going to end, up to the very end, decent amounts of sufficiently grim action, interesting plot elements being introduced (some more predictable, some less), questions being answered while more being introduced, exposition to the important players in the grand scheme of things - indeed, Yua's route did a very good job of building up my anticipation for the eventually upcoming "true end route".
In a way I'm glad that I played Kana's route first, seeing she had somewhat of a role to play in Yua's route as well, with a couple of important (if few) actions that had a definite influence on how it all played out. Indeed, given the broader scope of Yua's route, I was quite glad to see others of the main cast aren't forgotten and have their roles to play even on the sidelines. That's a very good thing indeed, especially if we consider these first five routes as the "world building" for the true end one that unlocks afterwards. I may have only completed two routes thus far, but I get a definite feeling they are steadily building towards the eventual grand finale. Vivi is up next (I guess quite fitting, seeing what the closing scenes of Yua's route entailed), this time for sure.
So far I'm enjoying Shinigami no Testament a good deal, and I'm certainly glad for having picked it up. It's shaping up to be a very solid title (minor gripes with overly speedy, if excusable, romance developments aside ... and a dense male lead, though I guess complaining about that is like complaining about desert having lots of sand and few oasis :heh: ) and it certainly has me on the edge of my seat craving for more - a genuine drive to devour as much of the title as soon as I'm able to, and it's certainly good when a story manages to invoke such a feeling in the reader.
You might want to finish Elina's route first. Because in that route it's explained why she has vendetta on Vivi. Also it explained why Rui survived at the end of Yua's and Ayume's route.
About Ayume's route it's really on par with the other routes, it's just you need to see through her childish behavior at the beginning.
You might want to finish Elina's route first. Because in that route it's explained why she has vendetta on Vivi. Also it explained why Rui survived at the end of Yua's and Ayume's route.
About Ayume's route it's really on par with the other routes, it's just you need to see through her childish behavior at the beginning.
I assume you mean Irina's route, and yeah - I certainly am going to read it. It's not like it's possible to access the "true end" route without doing so anyway, so I couldn't skip it even if I wanted to, which I don't :) Suffice to say, that should be the messiest romance option around as well, considering Irina's nature :heh:
I haven't gotten to Ayumu's route yet (Still on Vivi's route, been preoccupied for the last few days, so progress hasn't been as quick as I would want), though it never struck me as odd that Rui survived at the end of Yua's route. Rather, unless I missed something, was there a specific reason he shouldn't have ?
While Nine did succeed in his/her (which one is it ? :heh:) goal in having Rui triggering the book's power to mess up reality / rewrite the world, I don't think it was ever mentioned that doing so would actually be fatal to Rui himself. Nine was just after the reconstruction of the world after all (for the lulz it seems, though I wouldn't be surprised if there is more to him/her than that), not Rui's death.
I suppose the end result didn't really satisfy Nine though, seeing the world is almost exactly the same, so I guess that's why we have Nine still messing around with things in Vivi's route - trying to ultimately trigger yet another change by using the book, probably wishing for more chaotic result. (I guess that's why Nine is assaulting the wisdom society labs/bases and "killing" all the possessed people the organization has captured - to return more pages to the book and add fuel to the fire in doing so).
PhoenixG
2012-03-25, 03:51
Well to access the true route, you only need to finish Yua's and Vivi's route.
Even the game itself is suggesting that Nine is bi-gender ^^;
Has anyone played applique-soft's Concerto Note? It looks quite nice and sounds interesting. I know that it has dark parts, but if the degree of dark elements is similar to Tasogare Sinsemilla, I can handle it (ignoring that the latter is more supernatural, mystery focused). Yes, I'm ~ 4 years too late :p
Otherwise I'll wait for Strawberry Feels; simple plot and love-dovey works perfectly fine for me.
Well to access the true route, you only need to finish Yua's and Vivi's route.
Yeah, seems I had gotten the "need Irina as well' part wrong; completed Vivi's path and the final one has been unlocked. Must .. resist ... urge ... to ... read ... before ... Ayumu ... and ... Irina ...
Even the game itself is suggesting that Nine is bi-gender ^^;
Indeed. On the note of Nine, is it me, or does Eris (from Vivi's memories) share the same voice actor as him/her ? It certainly is somewhat creepy to hear Eris speak in the voice of that little devil. Studio skimping on budget considering how few lines Eris has, or them setting up a massive troll on Nine's part regarding the identity of Eris ? Hmm ...
Anyways, Vivi's route. I have a bit of mixed feelings about this one - the parts focusing on the plot were good, and managed some interesting twists (and the curveball in the end caught me off-guard, props to the story for that), but I feel the romance part of it was handled somewhat poorly. I'm coming to think that Shinigami no Testament doesn't handle romance all that well in general (or rather, it likes to jumpstart it out of nowhere) - and while that could be reasoned away in Kana's and Yua's routes, due to their specific circumstances, it was pretty meh in Vivi's route.
While the romance developed in to something worthwhile (if typical for someone of Vivi's character) by the end, the way it all started was quite silly. I almost groaned when Vivi taking a dip in the hot spring (to wash off after-battle smells) somehow degenerated in her acting as if hot water had made her drunk, and Rui developing the sudden urge to molest her, and Vivi going along with it.
The way it played out was very hard to take seriously, to say the least, considering there had been no buildup on the romance front previously. Rui shouldn't have had any reason to be romantically interested in her at the time, considering they had interacted about half a dozen times previously, always under weird or combat circumstances. Double so for Vivi. The whole deal literally jumped out of nowhere, it's as if they needed the relationship for the closing parts of the route, so they simply hacked it in, without building it up properly.
It should have been more natural if they had done the whole "beauty contest" (and a few similar) events before said first H scene - it would substitute for development and the whole ordeal would gain credibility. As it stands though, romance is the weakest aspect of Vivi's route. For much of it I didn't think it even needed to have romance, the plot itself would have sufficed, though I suppose they needed Vivi to somehow trust Rui enough to feel safe about forfeiting her life in the end.
Which leads me to the good part - the plot. They certainly had me believing the world has been reset/time has been rewound to 1 month ago, with some things changed due to Rui's wish (like his relationship with Yua being considerably less rocky than before), and Vivi retaining said knowledge because of her testament status. In other words, I fell for it completely.
I certainly didn't expect that life had been going on as usual, only the memories of people having been altered. In retrospect, the blooming sakura tree (I was quite wondering why Vivi was pointing that out as strange to Rui), Ayumu acting suspiciously at school around Yua, the absence of the class rep (forgot her name :heh:) and the rumors about people acting strangely should have clued me in. Chalking it all up to Rui's wish having had some errors in the potential "rewrite" was obviously the wrong move.
In that regard, props to Nine - the little bastard had me fooled until the very end, up to the moment he/she destroyed Vivi's scythe. Posing as Yua to make Vivi think she had indeed been revived (and lacking testament powers due to the memory wipe) was pretty ingenious, I don't blame her for not noticing - I didn't either. A very well executed final twist indeed.
On another note, I guess the swordsman hanging around with Nine is Rui's father. I don't know how Nine managed to revive him, but I have a feeling he will be more of a final boss than the little demon itself. The bastard killed Akina; whatever Rui's wish ends up doing at the end of Vivi's chapter, bringing her back better be included :mad:
So ... yeah, very much looking towards the final chapter (Here's hoping I can resist reading it until I am done with Irina and Ayumu :heh:), the plot buildup has been quite good thus far, and leaves me wanting for more.
I just hope they don't somehow make Rui and active combatant in all this. Some of the stuff he managed to do in Vivi's route was already bordering uncomfortable, considering what they are fighting against. Having learned swordsmanship from young age (and dropping it several years ago) hardly cuts it in the grand scheme of things.
Well I finished Kajiri Kamui Kagura, it's just awesome (the only way I can describe it), and another detail..... is just me or KKK is more like a shounen manga than Dies Irae? Not that is bad thing, I think is great.
I going to buy the ost.
Anyway, somebody knows if the KKK artbook has some new ilustrations or better yet, some character sketchs/character designs?
Kleeyook
2012-03-29, 02:36
Anyone ever played VenusBlood games? How were they?
So for reasons that are beyond my own awareness, I decided to play Tsukumo no Tsuki. And uhm ... I'm at loss to what to say about it. The story writing seems from the bits I have understood somehow messy. Tsukumo's route was veeeery strange, if not even straight awkward in a sense. Her drama and supernatural element were not really to my liking and I prefer Maya definitely over her (without having played her path, yet).
I hoped that Akane's route would turn out to be somewhat normal, but so far it's heading also towards the supernatural element direction =/.
The good aspect? The OST is nice, no doubt about it. And the cast itself is mostly likeable, even though I couldn't really warm up to Tsukumo.
Cosmic Eagle
2012-03-29, 10:07
Well I finished Kajiri Kamui Kagura, it's just awesome (the only way I can describe it), and another detail..... is just me or KKK is more like a shounen manga than Dies Irae? Not that is bad thing, I think is great.
I going to buy the ost.
Anyway, somebody knows if the KKK artbook has some new ilustrations or better yet, some character sketchs/character designs?
Dies has a darker atmosphere than KKK yes but well....characterwise...I wouldn't say that the quicksilver serpent is darker than me...
I'm more interested in knowing if Masada is going to expand the story in Amantes Amentes
Dies has a darker atmosphere than KKK yes but well....characterwise...I wouldn't say that the quicksilver serpent is darker than me...
I'm more interested in knowing if Masada is going to expand the story in Amantes Amentes
I heard in 4chan that Amantes Amentes is just more like a fix version of Acta est Fabula. I mean, Amantes Amentes is going to include the CD dramas, you know, Verfaulen segen and the epilogue of Rea's route now with CGs. Things that can be seen in the OP.
And Masada confirmed that he is rewriting the final fight in Rea's route too, to make it more long and flashy. Some thinks that maybe...just maybe he make some bad end for Marie's route, which connects DI with KKK.
And.....yeah Dairokuten, nobody is more darker than you, too much sun? :heh:
Cosmic Eagle
2012-03-29, 19:01
Well I was hoping for games focusing on the earlier Thrones...like that crazy bitch Daiichiten or how the quicksilver one overthrew Satanel.
It isn't sun....just the inherent superiority of my form over everything else. So superior that all the multiverses of creation can just go rot in oblivion compared to it.
shmaster
2012-03-30, 02:18
The after story for Marie's route has been confirmed. This is my opera after all, you think she'll be off the spot light?
Hajun is going down of course, I'll retcon KKK out of reality if I have to.
Cosmic Eagle
2012-03-30, 05:04
HAHAHAHAH
Keep dreaming Cogliostro....This is one musical where the one taking over the stage is ME
If it's Marie's bad end I want to see you, your substitute and your golden partner's faces as I crush the dusk Throne....
And if you somehow rewind the timeline to one where you can implausibly escape from me....that's just running away like a coward and a mere delaying of the inevitable
Still don't know why my accursed tumor is rated lower on the powerscale than you three though....I can't believe I actually got replaced by that damned thing which is supposedly lesser compared to you all whom I so effortlessly smashed
erneiz_hyde
2012-03-30, 15:13
So I've been playing a bit of "Your Diary".
At first I thought this would be a moe-ge where everyone goes happy all the time, but there's been some hint that there could be a bit of drama too.
Kantoku's art is cute as usual. I wonder how many scenes the heroines would have...
Btw, does anybody know if Yuzusoft is making a new game? the last one I played was Noble Works.
relentlessflame
2012-03-30, 15:26
Btw, does anybody know if Yuzusoft is making a new game? the last one I played was Noble Works.Not only are they making a new game, but it was just released today (yesterday). The game is called Dracu-Riot! (http://yuzu-soft.com/special/ja/dracuriot). I should be receiving my copy in the mail in the coming week, so quite looking forward to it (though, to me, I suspect I still might prefer Noble Works for its theme... but we'll see).
So I've been playing a bit of "Your Diary".
At first I thought this would be a moe-ge where everyone goes happy all the time, but there's been some hint that there could be a bit of drama too.
Kantoku's art is cute as usual. I wonder how many scenes the heroines would have...
Btw, does anybody know if Yuzusoft is making a new game? the last one I played was Noble Works.
Your dairy has the usual amout of h-scenes, I assume. And of course, each character route has its share of drama. Some is decent enough, while in other case(s) it was tiresome in terms of lovey-dovey : drama share ratio ;).
So far, two routes done in Concerto Note and I haven grown to quite like applique-softs VNs. The reliance on the flowchart system is a nice idea, even though if you have so much time as I have on hand, you need hardly to use the saveslots :heh:. With my trustworthy walthrough available, I move straight to the good end anyways ...
Anyway, Wakana's route was well enough. Her drama was kept to a very tolerable level and was more based around her softball activity instead of "emo overload". The usual deal of MC realizing his true feelings, etc felt a bit too long dragged out, though.
Shirayuki's route was overall quite cute and her drama was really touching. I actually expected some kind of meeting/confrotation between Shinya and her father (+ the option to b!tchslap him), but that did not happen. The poor girl suffered from an unpleasant past and it was moving how in the end the relationship between Mariko and her grew somewhat better + her reunion with Shinya :). Definitely a character who deservered her happy end very much.
shmaster
2012-03-30, 20:54
HAHAHAHAH
Still don't know why my accursed tumor is rated lower on the powerscale than you three though....I can't believe I actually got replaced by that damned thing which is supposedly lesser compared to you all whom I so effortlessly smashed
Over half of the credit of beating you goes to Bey. Shame Hajun, you got a hole on yourself because of Bey among all people.
You cannot imagine how outrageous is the entirety of the Roundtable rightnow. A clean and pretty Bey is not Bey. A world saving Bey is the nonsense of nonsenses. We well not tolerate this, his existence will be denied!! Ahahaha, more reason for me to retcon KKK out of existence!!
Cosmic Eagle
2012-03-30, 21:08
If anything it just means that Bey is worth more than you....he did what you could not.
Done with Concerto Note! Fitting and beautiful OST, a for me great cast and a nice story. Rito's route as the true ending was an interesting finishing touch. Unfortunately, her route lacked in the romance department, yet I'm aware that how it developed is consistent with her character traits (a mutual donkan relationship). There were a few hasty parts as well + something I wished that would have be adressed in the end, but that's in comparion smaller details. And while in that regard the individual romance wasn't that well developed post-confession, I can forgive this point because the VN had quite many funny moments. The descriptive writing can be a blessing or a curse depending on the degree of jp. knowledge :heh:
Personally, I'm also simply a big fanboy of "true endings" with a set pairing so this was an additional plus point. After my dose of sleep I will bring myself to finish Tsukumo no Tsuki as only Maya's route remains. And as expected both Akane and the Miko-san's route were much more tolerable than Tsukumo's. The latter was also one case where you wished for an option to slap her mother for being such a horrible existance ...
PhoenixG
2012-04-01, 03:44
Anyone ever played VenusBlood games? How were they?
Haven't play the old ones, but VenusBlood is pretty much tentacles and game play. If you look for storyline, better avoid it.
I just finished 真夏の夜の雪物語 -MIDSUMMER SNOW NIGHT-. it has a real good storyline, although the gensou chapter is really heart breaking. It's also quite unique that you can choose your route from the start. Each heroine has three chapters; Genjitsu, Gensou and after. With exception on Yukina who has only two, and it will unlock after you finished the three gensou chapter.
The genjitsu chapter focus on the relation between MC and heriones, Gensou about their secret and the after chapter is a sweet happy ending that takes after the gensou chapter.
Yukina's shinsou chapter is more about the secret about the town and why she's doing the things in the genjitsu and gensou chapter and the after chapter is also a sweet happy ending.
I don't want to spoil much about the story itself. The story itself is quite mysterious and don't want to spoil too much about it.
Kleeyook
2012-04-01, 06:57
Well, I didn't expect much from VenusBlood anyway. Just thinking how fun it is to corrupt the cuties. :p
Not only are they making a new game, but it was just released today (yesterday). The game is called Dracu-Riot! (http://yuzu-soft.com/special/ja/dracuriot). I should be receiving my copy in the mail in the coming week, so quite looking forward to it (though, to me, I suspect I still might prefer Noble Works for its theme... but we'll see).
Indeed, the theme of Dracu Riot didn't have all that much of an instant appeal to me either, but having played it for several hours just now, I can say it's steadily growing on me. (Which also means I have put Shinigami no Testament on hold currently ... I'm frustrated at myself for doing so, but I can't help it, seeing I'm quite the Yuzusoft fan:heh:).
The whole setting reminds me a lot of Dance in the Vampire Bund actually - with the whole special floating city-island built for the vampires and such, though it obviously isn't nearly as dark as that story. In fact, the first impressions were that Dracu Riot doesn't take itself all too seriously at all, despite the vampire theme and main character being turned in to one.
It has otherwise serious scenes layered with thick comedic presentation, the characters have their individual quirkiness factor dialed up to eleven, and the main doctor who is looking after Yuuto is completely gay for him, never missing an opportunity for more of his antics in winning Yuuto's heart :uhoh::heh: In comparison, the cast of Noble Works wasn't quite as overdone (though I don't mean that in a bad light) as the one of Dracu Riot. While it certainly had it's own share of bizarre people, the overall feeling was more down to earth.
Though like I said, that's not really a complaint, and the cast has been steadily growing on me as I read on, which is certainly a nice feeling. As far as the main heroines go, Miu is becoming the one I like the most probably, which is a bit unexpected ... then again, I guess my assumptions on what her character was going to be like were a bit off.
I had expected Miu to be a rather stiff person (I guess the nazi-like uniform and her "droopy" eyes gave that first impression), but that really isn't the case. She carries herself in a serious manner, but isn't stuck up or self-important at all. Rather, she is surprisingly honest and even friendly in many ways; it's like she is in love with the idea of having an "adult" personality (though that makes the sentiment sound stronger than it actually is), but is easily dragged astray and doesn't really throw a fuss about it.
I especially like her constant "There is no reason for an adult to be embarrassed about saying such things" when the conversation turns to sex related stuff / jokes (which happens rather often with this bunch), with a confident look on her face, while blushing red as a beet from ear to ear :heh: Doesn't seem like that much of a tsundere either (like I said, she is surprisingly honest), because when cornered in some embarrassing conversation she doesn't try to feign ignorance to the very end, but rather cuts it short with her traditional "U-ru-sa-i !", which is on the level of a friendly banter, not hostile or anything. And unlike what the OP would have you believe (the scene I'm referring to unfolded with a different reaction from her), thus far hasn't displayed any sign of physical violence either.
You know she can't be all that bad when she agreed to escort Yuuto and his typical perverted best buddy to the red light district at start of the game, without too much of a fuss about it :heh: All in all, I'm very pleased with her as a character thus far. Certainly a good thing, seeing she's the main heroine as well.
My second favorite is probably Erina, and the best way to describe her is "a giant tease". Gutter is where her mind seems to be located most of the time, in a semi-innocent (or not so innocent :heh:) and curious manner. She certainly puts Yuuto's willpower to test from time to time with her honest shamelessness about all things sex (him?) related. I certainly wouldn't be surprised if her route turns out to be the most steamy one in various ways.
Though she did raise up a good point for Yuuto to consider - if it's normal for adolescent males to be interested in females (a point Yuuto didn't deny when confronted with it, thankfully :heh:), why can't the opposite to be true as well. And thus, the teasing continues.
So ... yeah, I don't know what her route will contain, but so far she is a quite fun and quirky (and did I mention absolutely shameless) character to have around and serves the purpose of often derailing the conversations towards embarrassing grounds, which the whole gang play off of.
In contrast to Miu and Erina, Azusa comes off as a lot more typical in terms of characterization. You can say she is the wannabe dutiful type, though not in an overbearing manner, and her efforts to play the straight man in the group get quickly buried under the onslaught of Erina's ever more shameful topics, and Miu's following teasing when Azusa tries to put a stop to them.
Notable features include being an observable closet pervert (something she would probably never admit to :heh:), and apparently being turned on by having her blood sucked, something that Miu takes merciless advantage of as ammo for teasing the poor loli. Also the only human in the gang.
All in all I'm pretty neutral about her, though I feel she has decent potential for becoming a compelling character over the long run.
And then there is Rio who has, sadly, left a fairly bland impression compared to the rest. (A real shame, as her character design reminds me of Aoi from Tenshin Ranman, who was easily my favorite heroine there). She's a bit of a kind airhead who doesn't really have any strong personality traits, and her most defining feature (besides being the local cook for our gang) is being left with ??? hanging over her head whenever the rest of the gang descend in to yet another conversation about sex related stuff.
You know the type of a female character who is so clueless they could be tricked in to thinking that a kiss could get you pregnant ? Well, Rio's lack of knowledge regarding all things H related is probably on that level. As Miu remarked to Yuuto, before one could explain what one of the sexual plays that Erina brought up entails, one would first actually have to explain to her what sex even is :heh:
Sadly that's all there is to her for the moment - she just gets to sit there with an innocent look and go ???, while the rest of the cast are busy embarrassing themselves over Erina's topics. As such she doesn't really have much of a presence, because she can't even really partake in those discussions, aside from the occasional "What is masturbation/whatever/???" question, which gets brushed off by Yuuto with a "You don't need to know that".
I sincerely hope she gets some chance to shine, or the group dynamic of the gang changes in a way that would leave her more involved, otherwise she has a very weak presence that gets easily drowned out by the more colorful personalities in the group.
Though overall I am certainly satisfied with how the cast is panning out, and the interactions are refreshing in a way - considering the typically overblown reactions from the female side of cast when it comes to anything sex related (outside of serious context), it's a nice change of pace to see them (well, at least Miu and Erina) not immediately shying away from the topic or finding it offensive, but rather even cracking some jokes on the male lead on that front.
So ... yeah. I had my doubts on how well the setting would appeal to me, but I'm steadily getting there. The character interactions are largely fun and the story is slowly picking up steam as well. I guess it's going to take a turn towards more serious sooner or later, given the theme, but I would be surprised if it ever went completely dark. At the very least, it doesn't feel like it takes itself as seriously as Empty x Embryo, for example.
Nothing bad to say about production values (the BGM seems a bit peculiar in terms of style at times, but I guess it fits the atmosphere they are trying to build) and I rather like what they are doing with character sprites - much like in Noble Works, they are decently "active" with frequently changing postures and facial expressions that reflect the flow of the conversation.
All in all, I'm quite happy with Dracu Riot thus far.
Cosmic Eagle
2012-04-01, 09:54
Not only are they making a new game, but it was just released today (yesterday). The game is called Dracu-Riot! (http://yuzu-soft.com/special/ja/dracuriot). I should be receiving my copy in the mail in the coming week, so quite looking forward to it (though, to me, I suspect I still might prefer Noble Works for its theme... but we'll see).
New Yuzu? Thanks for the information....
@DracuXRiot
Personally, the OST is a bit getting-used-to, but the first impression of the VN was quite funny. Honestly, I don't have too much of high hopes about the main lead, but let's see ...
Rio seems indeed to be the "boring" part of the character cast so far. Mainy because the typical naiveness-about-sex trait usually becomes tired very fast. At least she was all flustered when Yuuto saw her in nude in the bath while he had been phoning with his buddy.
Azusa: Honestly, I found the scene where he sucked her blood for the first time quite creepy. I hope as well that her route will be nice as her anti-ecchi "dorm manager order" are always funny to read.
To my surprise, I found out that Nikea has also a route available after meeting one condition. From each apperance he/she gives the "trap" impression so I'm a bit unsure what to think of this future route :heh:
I just finished 真夏の夜の雪物語 -MIDSUMMER SNOW NIGHT-. it has a real good storyline, although the gensou chapter is really heart breaking. It's also quite unique that you can choose your route from the start. Each heroine has three chapters; Genjitsu, Gensou and after. With exception on Yukina who has only two, and it will unlock after you finished the three gensou chapter.
The genjitsu chapter focus on the relation between MC and heriones, Gensou about their secret and the after chapter is a sweet happy ending that takes after the gensou chapter.
Yukina's shinsou chapter is more about the secret about the town and why she's doing the things in the genjitsu and gensou chapter and the after chapter is also a sweet happy ending.
After I finished Mana and Nozomi's chapters I was in dire need of their happy after stories :D. That is not to say the other's didn't derserve their respective ones, but Mana and Nozomi left the "deepest" impression in that regard.
@DracuXRiot
Personally, the OST is a bit getting-used-to, but the first impression of the VN was quite funny. Honestly, I don't have too much of high hopes about the main lead, but let's see ...
Thus far Yuuto hasn't really done anything to distinguish himself from the typical male lead mold - The "straight guy" stance on most of the perverted stuff, generally kind and helps those in need, easily accepts his new circumstances, etc, so you could say I am neutral about him. The big question is, how will he handle romance when I get to a part where that actually takes front stage. Is it naive for me to hope he will display above rock-levels of sensitivity on the matter ? :heh: (As far as I remember Noble Works, the guy wasn't half bad there).
Rio seems indeed to be the "boring" part of the character cast so far. Mainy because the typical naiveness-about-sex trait usually becomes tired very fast. At least she was all flustered when Yuuto saw her in nude in the bath while he had been phoning with his buddy.
I agree with that, but I think the main issue is that her personality and interaction dynamics almost hinge on that trait alone. I suspect that being prone to change in her route, but I really find it kinda sad that Rio is basically one-dimensional, and her defining trait (cluelesness about sex in any way, shape or form) basically almost excludes her from half the interactions within the gang. She doesn't really get much to do most of the time, and when she does, it's along the same vein of going ??? over the latest perv joke :/
Azusa: Honestly, I found the scene where he sucked her blood for the first time quite creepy. I hope as well that her route will be nice as her anti-ecchi "dorm manager order" are always funny to read.
Personally, I laughed when he licked her neck first. They were certainly milking innuendo for all its worth during that scene ... "first time" "I'll be as gentle as I can" "entrust your body to me" :heh:
To my surprise, I found out that Nikea has also a route available after meeting one condition. From each apperance he/she gives the "trap" impression so I'm a bit unsure what to think of this future route :heh:
Yeah, I honestly don't know what to think about this. Do we have a reverse trap on our hands ? I certainly would like to think (hope??) so, but on the other hand, the voice doesn't really sound all that feminine. Approach with caution ? :heh:
Thus far Yuuto hasn't really done anything to distinguish himself from the typical male lead mold - The "straight guy" stance on most of the perverted stuff, generally kind and helps those in need, easily accepts his new circumstances, etc, so you could say I am neutral about him. The big question is, how will he handle romance when I get to a part where that actually takes front stage. Is it naive for me to hope he will display above rock-levels of sensitivity on the matter ? (As far as I remember Noble Works, the guy wasn't half bad there).
From what I've seen so far, his dokan degree might be a case-by-case scenario. I orginally intended to progress in each route up to the confession moment, but found myself completeing Erina's route instead (after I temporarily stopped Miu's route post h-scene 1) :p. I liked her route very much; the serious parts of her route were kept quite captivating for me, while keeping Erina's erotic talk in the carefree moments.
As for rock-levels of sensity: I can at least suggest to be on guard in Miu's route pre-confession ;).
Main prota trait #2: Knowing how to say something that moves the girl's heart greatly without realizing the romantic level of it :heh:
It's not a surprise for me that most people who have read Dracu-Riot seem to favor Miu and Elina.
So far (I am not that far) my initial impressions haven't changed that much from the web trial, because I still think it's less than funny than I would have expected for a comedy but it still has it moments.
From what I've seen so far, his dokan degree might be a case-by-case scenario.
...
As for rock-levels of sensity: I can at least suggest to be on guard in Miu's route pre-confession ;).
Main prota trait #2: Knowing how to say something that moves the girl's heart greatly without realizing the romantic level of it :heh:
Aye, I just got past the "shopping for presents" part (on Miu's route), and it indeed feels like I'm in for a ride of the usual lack of awareness. And Miu isn't really someone who is going to flat-out spell her feelings out either ... so I guess it's time to buckle down and ride it through, waiting for enlightenment to hit Yuuto ... or the gang eventually getting frustrated with him and pushing him off a cliff in the right direction. Ah well ... I guess it's simply easier to create tension with clueless characters, rather than smart ones.
At least, I dare to hope that Erina's route will be free from this. Given her personality, I expect her to make her intentions very clear and upfront, in a manner that's impossible to miss (more so than usual :heh:). Though I could always be wrong ... but yeah, once she actually falls for the guy, I expect her actions to not leave much room for Yuuto's density to exploit :heh:
It's not a surprise for me that most people who have read Dracu-Riot seem to favor Miu and Elina.
Aye, I expect this character preference to be pretty universal. It feels like extra effort has went in to these two characters to make them more quirky and somewhat unique. While my usual character preferences should place me closer to someone like Rio (the polite/kind type), she simply feels bland compared to those two :/
Azusa fares a bit better (well ...at the very least, she is louder :heh:), but still feels somewhat typical compared to Miu and Erina. Those two indeed feel like the main attractions of the story. (Though the local bishie vampire weirdo who may or may not be a reverse trap is still the biggest enigma :heh:)
(Though the local bishie vampire weirdo who may or may not be a reverse trap is still the biggest enigma :heh:)
Nikola is a reverse trap (meaning she is a girl). Stumbled on that when i was looking on seiya saiga for a guide.
blitz1/2
2012-04-02, 14:20
Nikola is a reverse trap (meaning she is a girl). Stumbled on that when i was looking on seiya saiga for a guide.
The konoe subaru of Dracu-riot. :heh:
johnishida
2012-04-02, 18:42
To all you guys who are currently playing Dracu-Riot! Stay away from Miu, she's mine :P
With that said, I have already finished Miu's and Azusa's routes, currently on Rio's. Out of the two I have played Miu's is my favorite though the development near the end was a bit exaggerated the overall plot was pretty decent IMO and it had a rather satisfying ending.
Azusa's route on the other hand was a bit of a let down; it touched many different themes and characters but lacked the proper development for all of them which lead to a rather unsatisfying ending.
Miu's overall plot had a more global danger feeling than Erina's, which was really more centered on Yuuto and her. And from a romance point of view it felt like Yuuto showed his more pathetic side in Miu's route with one of the only sweet moments being the ending (while it was quite cliché which I generally don't really mind). She's the "hard-working" part of the relationship after all.
I would sub Rio's route up to the first ecchi scene as the "dere dere" route if not for my usually bad sense of description/wording :heh:. It has had a fair share of awkward moments (*coughdateonecough*), but I wouldn't mind if her route were to stay the most "normal" one drama-wise. Azusa's route up to first ecchi scene has felt like it had a somewhat slow start from a romance point of view. The match maker idea was actually quite funny in its execution.
I think I'll keep changing between those two.
I have also started playing Strawberry Feels. I *really* hope it will be "sugary" sweet later on, but so far it's uhm average. The MC's attempt of pervy jokes were not that funny imho. But, I wouldn't mind to attend that type of school :D.
Just completed Miu's route, and I can definitely agree to the above sentiment that the final developments of it were "exaggerated". It felt like they tried too hard to introduce drama on a scale that was somewhat out of touch with the general mood of Dracu Riot (Which is quite lighthearted).
While the discrimination against vampires had been mentioned in a passing manner now and then, it honestly felt out of place when brought to the front stage. A background flavor suddenly became the main concern, and it felt lacking proper buildup or foreshadowing, considering how far they pushed it.
Let's just say I didn't appreciate them suddenly introducing an evil government clique with the immediate agenda of blowing up the bridge, causing random bombings through the city, and then nuking it all for good measure and sinking the city to the bottom of the ocean (There is no way a few flimsy cruise missiles would have accomplished that anyway) just to be safe, thousands of innocent people be damned.
I can appreciate evil government conspiracies as well as anyone, but this honestly felt like a rather cheap attempt to generate a grand finale. Exaggerated is exactly the word to describe just about everything that happened in the finale. Ah well.
The "serious business" mood was somewhat jarring as well, considering the title had been comedy first, perversion second, romance third and drama a distant bystander up to now. Even when things took a turn for the serious previously, they still blew over quickly and retained a light tone.
Like when Yuuto got kidnapped and injected with L ... withdrawal symptoms were pretty bad indeed. How to ease his heightened desire to suck blood? Why, having copious amounts of sex with Miu is obviously the solution, brought up and executed as a serious medical treatment with the doctor's approval! :heh:
The final arc lacked a similar air of silliness though, and for a story that had largely defined itself with silliness irregardless of situation, it didn't feel quite at home.
Ah well. Despite my qualms with how the ending was handled, it was still a fun ride overall. While I don't think it ever made me laugh out loud, DR did succeed in keeping a near-constant grin on my face. The characters and their antics were quite entertaining and I never felt bored, so that's definitely a plus.
Miu was a quite refreshing heroine as well, and definitely not a bad choice for the main one - I had expected some sort of a tsundere (appearances can be deceiving, heh), but she turned out surprisingly upfront and honest. The moments when she was trying to act all "mature" and "calm" while blushing from ear to ear in reality (and spilling tea all over the place :heh:) were quite endearing.
A shame Yuuto had to be made from the typical male lead mold though; It was definitely Miu that carried that relationship and made it worthwhile. There were certainly some moments of frustration to be had pre-confession (or should that be pre-first H scene) , courtesy of Mr. Dense. Though I guess this almost comes with the territory, so nothing to be surprised about. (And this is why August is the best eroge company around - Fortune Arterial is still probably the best example of a good male lead that has his wits about himself, and an example that you don't need to have a clueless male in order to create compelling drama.)
Though in the end that didn't detract from the experience too much, and the overall feeling is certainly a positive one. Erina is up next, I have a feeling this will be quite the riot (pun intended).
Erina's route is my personal favorite. I can even say that I enjoyed her drama because the solution to end it was to my liking.
@Miu: The CG where Yuuto carried her princess-style at the end was, I think, the only moment where he wasn't portrayed as a complete hetare (a word that became somewhat a frequent basis on her route).
Personally I found the victory Ai no Chikara versus missle funny. I actually thought her drama would be more based around their police-style work or Yuuto's vampire eater characteristic seeing that it was a big point between the trust of Miu and he. To share that secret and such, I mean.
A good part of the drama was Aogi's role with his past relation to this kind of stuff. And the barkeeper lady is sure scary with her hacking and eavesdropping-devices.
I actually thought her drama would be more based around their police-style work or Yuuto's vampire eater characteristic seeing that it was a big point between the trust of Miu and he. To share that secret and such, I mean.
Yup, I certainly expected that to be their final point of drama as well. Considering how uneasy of a topic the "vampire eater" status had been presented as on several occasions, I fully expected it to become a main topic of concern.
I have no qualms with that not being the case, but considering what we got instead with the whole evil government conspiracy, it feels like a bit of a missed opportunity. At least this point would have been properly supported by the previous story as a valid concern, unlike a sudden plan to sink the city. Ah well.
Dracu Riot should have focused more on the rabu rabu, I have no interest in serious drama when the setting is just so retarded. The whole game should have been like Nikola's little bonus route.
I already suspected from the web trial that Dracu-Riot would not have impressed me that much, but it was still fun overall.
Time to find a new eroge to play that is a somewhat similar to Hatsuyuki Sakura, when it comes to drama and likable characters.
So, two hours ago, started playing Dracu-Riot and...
Well, I liked the music and the characters - especially with the ol' "funny tension"- type comedy Yuzu-soft has. So far, into Azusa's route, and assuming the trunk was the same, it didn't have the more intense Yuzu-soft comedy which was exemplified in my opinion in Tenshin. Ah well, here's hoping there's more to come from the heroine routes. (as an aside, have yet to use my ctrl-dozer once)
Finished Kotori's route in Strawberry Feels yesterday and honestly I'm in a mix of being angry and "WTF"-dumbfounded on how the VN progressed.
Let's start. Character's having "skills" aka special powers? No problems with it. BUT, pushing the focus on on some kind of phantom moster hunting? Ending it with Kotori's death and disjointed ending for the MC? I was really like "WTF just happened".
As for the last point in the spoiler: I can vaguely foresee why it ended as it did for the MC as Kanna's route is unlockable after you complete the three other routes. And as such I have the bad premonition on how the other two girls ending will be http://www.shoutmix.com/smileys/cry.gif They better make the 2nd endings of the girls worth it >_<. "Love is like a fruit, sweet like a strawberry, and sour." The normal type of "sour" would have been more agreeable with me, though :upset:.
*takes a deep breath* Overall the VN started out veeery normal. The MC with pervy mind, but serious about romancing, the concept of "first kiss", for example. Not surprising, his pervy jokes eventually became boring and it was Aoi-chan who provided with her large fawning over the MC most of the humor with her ero-mind. Personally, I found the OST quite nice and the opening song sounds very appealing for me. On I go to the other routes ... x_x.
erneiz_hyde
2012-04-04, 02:14
I recently stumbled upon Material Brave. Nice to see another Giga game with gameplay!
Though I'm curious, is there a point in controlling the heroines directly as attackers to level them up faster? I'm only used to controlling Ayumu and the level difference is too staggering to try to equalize all the character's levels. Since there must be a time limit, I tend to try and maximize Ayumu's level instead.
Also, the Engage board. I'm confused whether to equally distribute the points in different attributes or to just increase one or two of that character's specialty (like weapon damage for Kanae and Hikaru and ability damage for Tsubomi). I ended up hoarding all the crystals I got since the beginning of the game.:p
Also confused whether I'll have time to do all of the girl's events (I'm still not sure how the routes work or if there are any). I'm expecting that even if I advance into a girl's route, I'll get to see the earlier scenes of all the other heroines, judging from the way the Engage board leveling works.
Cosmic Eagle
2012-04-04, 08:59
I've heard Mat Brave is the successor to Duel Saviours? Is it the same verse or a sequel?
Also confused whether I'll have time to do all of the girl's events (I'm still not sure how the routes work or if there are any). I'm expecting that even if I advance into a girl's route, I'll get to see the earlier scenes of all the other heroines, judging from the way the Engage board leveling works.
There are no routes, protag is a total man-whore. I kind of gave up on MB because the gameplay didn't really evolve beyond what you see in the first couple of hours and the story was just...bad. Playing it just got really tiring after a while. Same reasons I stopped playing Eiyuu Senki.
Here's hoping that the gameplay eroge in April turn out to be more interesting. The trial of Soukoku no Arterial was great and Demonion will at least have the ero on its side (90+ Scenes with art by M&M) so I'm slightly more optimistic.
Cosmic Eagle
2012-04-04, 09:13
There are no routes, protag is a total man-whore. I kind of gave up on MB because the gameplay didn't really evolve beyond what you see in the first couple of hours and the story was just...bad. Playing it just got really tiring after a while. Same reasons I stopped playing Eiyuu Senki.
Here's hoping that the gameplay eroge in April turn out to be more interesting. The trial of Soukoku no Arterial was great and Demonion will at least have the ero on its side (90+ Scenes with art by M&M) so I'm slightly more optimistic.
What's Soukoku's story? MB story bad? From the same group that did the Baldr series?
What's Soukoku's story?
Mega corporation is somehow responsible for shifting the entire city into a different dimensional plane where an Angels vs. Devils conflict seems to be happening, protag awakens to his blood-controlling powers...don't know about the story but the card-battle system has potential to be awesome.
MB story bad? From the same group that did the Baldr series?
That doesn't really mean anything, Baldr Force/Sky were written by Murasaki while MB is by the same dude who did Koi Kishi (I think he also did Eiyuu Senki, ha). Not sure how he keeps getting work when everything he churns out is shit.
Cosmic Eagle
2012-04-04, 11:10
Mega corporation is somehow responsible for shifting the entire city into a different dimensional plane where an Angels vs. Devils conflict seems to be happening, protag awakens to his blood-controlling powers...don't know about the story but the card-battle system has potential to be awesome.
That doesn't really mean anything, Baldr Force/Sky were written by Murasaki while MB is by the same dude who did Koi Kishi (I think he also did Eiyuu Senki, ha). Not sure how he keeps getting work when everything he churns out is shit.
Oh...different writers...I see....
Did you try the Soukoku trial?
johnishida
2012-04-04, 11:24
What's Soukoku's story? MB story bad? From the same group that did the Baldr series?
Played through the first five chapters of MB before leaving it on hold till I finish Dracu-Riot! (Priorities :D)
I can't say the MB plot is awesome but, it's pretty decent and quite standard for this kind game. Not entirely accurate summary: normal high school boy awakens to his, until then, hidden powers and is sent to a special school in order to develop them. Meanwhile, evil organization wants to take over everything and rule over the non-superpower wielding people.
Quite standard, right? There seem to some other stuff mixed in but, I don't really expect too much but, who knows; I was expecting something completely different when I played BaldrSky and what I got instead was pure epicness. :D
Anyway, Material Brave's focus are it's characters (mostly the heroines) and the gameplay so if you like them you should not have any problem enjoying the game.
Heroines are all really cute, fun, likable and interesting. They all have pretty unique traits to themselves and their interactions will result in many moments filled with comedy. Kinda sad Ena doesn't have a "route" :(
Gameplay wise, it's entertaining but very, very repetitive. Maybe it's because I still haven't got too many skills but, after a while I just need to repeat the same old combo to kill everything in my path which is why I pretty much now spend the free time developing the Engage Points for the heroines and completing quest instead of exploring dungeons.
Hope that helps you decide whether to play it or not.
After failing to find an eroge or VN that is somewhat similar to Hatsuyuki Sakura, I have decided to go for an earlier title from Saga Planets: Natsuyume Nagisa. I held it off for this long, because I wasn't impressed by Sagaplanet's other game Kisaragi Gold Star (besides it's catchy opening Rolling Star). But after reading that HatsuSaku has similarities with Natsuyume Nagisa, i will give it a try.
Completed my second route of Dracu Riot, that being Erina's, and it seems that drama that's on the exaggerated side of things is going to be a staple of this title. That said, I still found it somewhat easier to swallow than the final developments of Miu's route, and Erina's one being better structured and more consistent in its buildup as a whole.
While eventual drama with the experiment-hungry nutsos from Russia was to be expected (they got me with Sofia, I was sure she was going to be the antagonist), much like with Miu's route drama, it felt like they took it a few steps too far. I can understand the military wanting to get their hands on a "vampire eater" for their supersoldier project, but going as far as killing their own ambassador so they could frame Yuuto for it, which then proceeded to devolve in to a city-spanning manhunt ? Yeah ... "overblown" is how I would describe that whole ordeal.
That aside, I found the rest of the route pretty enjoyable (aside from Yuuto acting like a semi-jerk in the bedroom, which is just about his only defining quality) and consistent in its theme. Erina's issues surrounding her need for vampire blood and the resulting fear of being ostracized much were more heartfelt than anything Miu's route had to offer, and the romance was built upon those things pretty decently as well. I also appreciate the fact they went to the hospital with these issues fairly quickly, rather than taking a wait-and-see approach on their own.
Erina herself proved to be a fairly dangerous mix of lasciviousness and innocent cuteness (happily rolling around her bed while hugging a pillow and giggling happily :heh:) as well, and her background gave her character some added depth. I'm still not sure whether I find her or Miu as the most compelling heroine of the title, as both are very entertaining and quirky characters in their own ways. I just hope Azusa and Rio don't end feeling somewhat dull after these two.
What I appreciated about Erina's route, despite it happening amidst all the overblown final drama stretch, was how it displayed the friendship and bind between the little gang, as they came together to help Yuuto and Erina during the chaos. An element that wasn't really brought forth in Miu's route, so it was definitely nice seeing them portray the friendship this bunch shares. The short fragments showcasing how life went on during their absence were appropriately sentimental as well, like Rio confessing she occasionally prepares more food than necessary (And Nicola remarking on atmosphere not being the same without Erina's perverted jokes :heh:).
So .. yeah. Despite the same issues with overblown drama, I found Erina's route to be a quite compelling experience. The romance was there and suitably mushy, it stayed consistent and focused on its introduced themes, the eventual main conflict (overdone as it might have been) was properly foreshadowed and it did a good job in showcasing the gang's friendship as a whole.
In many ways this route felt more "complete" of an experience than Miu's, and felt better structured as well. While both Miu and Erina are definitely the main attractions of the title (and I would have real trouble choosing my favorite between them), at least to me, Erina's route felt like the better journey on several levels.
Rio is up next I guess ... let's see what exaggerated drama they have come up with for the most simple-minded of their heroines.
@Erina's route: The biggest advatage over Miu's route was that it felt like Yuuto realized his koibito sooner and without being a complete failure in previous events *coughpresentshoppingcough*. And it was veeery direct and funny how Erina decided to "deal" with the school rumors :p.
It's embarrasing to admit, but I nearly thought the "showdown" at the cliff would be the real deal instead of a play :heh: Yuuto, Erina and the vampire leader's acting were - for me - awesome. E. g.: at the storehouse"I don't care if Yuu becomes a criminal as long as I can stay by his side." "I really thought we could solve this conflict otherwise, but sadly I was wrong *reloads gun`*" :D
And the epilogue when he narrated how his best friend was on the verge of crying due to their icha-icha at his house was very funny.
I completed Strawberry Feels: It was not terribad as debute title, but had unfortunately many ugly parts. For once they pushed too much different "mystery" elements into the VN once the drama would start and in turn it was too surreal. And the way the routes were structured caused a bit of inconsistency.
It's also a bit funny how seiya-saga named Kanna's route "Kanna route" despite that you can choose to get the 2nd ending of one of the three girls during it. But, from a pure story point of view this naming would still be correct.
Most of the drama was for my taste very stupid. The first OP was beautiful and the girs were quite likeable disregarding the obvious sterotyping.
It really felt like that a more normal theme would have suited the VN better and much more icha-icha and rabu-rabu moments :heh:! There's no need to hold back on those two elements at all.
Does anyone have a cross-reference to what other familiar works the voices of DRACU-RIOT's heroines have done? I've a penchant for matching up VAs you see, and I feel, as I read the game, that I haven't heard these girls before. Either that, or they've voiced games I haven't played.
And as to the game, so far, it's been worth the money at least :) compared to that koisora fandisc, grr....
@Erina's route: The biggest advatage over Miu's route was that it felt like Yuuto realized his koibito sooner and without being a complete failure in previous events *coughpresentshoppingcough*. And it was veeery direct and funny how Erina decided to "deal" with the school rumors :p.
Aye, Yuuto actually displaying initiative on the romance front was a welcome change from Miu's route. Well, to be fair, the circumstances surrounding Erina had a much greater sense of urgency, so I guess the plot related circumstances forced him to gather his wits early :heh:
It's embarrasing to admit, but I nearly thought the "showdown" at the cliff would be the real deal instead of a play :heh: Yuuto, Erina and the vampire leader's acting were - for me - awesome. E. g.: at the storehouse"I don't care if Yuu becomes a criminal as long as I can stay by his side." "I really thought we could solve this conflict otherwise, but sadly I was wrong *reloads gun`*" :D
And the epilogue when he narrated how his best friend was on the verge of crying due to their icha-icha at his house was very funny.
Sayo was quite convincing indeed in her apparent determination to shoot Yuuto, but the most obvious giveaway was actually one of her lines from Miu's route - that she wouldn't sacrifice a single vampire to protect the city, because that would defeat the very purpose she established it in the first place (a safe haven for vampires). So ..yeah, I didn't fall for that :p
And yeah, the epilogue had me laughing with Yuuto's friend begging them to leave ... saying he would leave himself otherwise :heh: Poor guy, driven out of his own home by not being able to stand their constant flirting :heh:
Does anyone have a cross-reference to what other familiar works the voices of DRACU-RIOT's heroines have done? I've a penchant for matching up VAs you see, and I feel, as I read the game, that I haven't heard these girls before. Either that, or they've voiced games I haven't played.
And as to the game, so far, it's been worth the money at least :) compared to that koisora fandisc, grr....
According to the jp. wikipedia entry a few examples:
Miu's VA: Natsuno Yuki - Masamune Shizuru (Noble Works), Yazaki Hoshimi (Hatsukoi Sacrament), Chinatsu (LoverAble)
Azusa's VA: Satou Shizuku - Kisa (Diamic Days), Onigokko, Tenshi no Hane o Fumanaide
Rio's VA: Ayukawa Hinata - Iroha (Hatsukoi Sacrament), Amakasa Mayo (Majikoi)
Didn't find anything on the first glance about Erina's VA (Suzuki Erio).
Didn't find anything on the first glance about Erina's VA (Suzuki Erio).
Come on, she sounds exactly like Sakura from Hatsuyuki Sakura, she's probably one of those VA's with a couple of aliases. I've heard her voice in a bazillion of other eroge too. Same is actually true for basically every female voice in Dracu Riot and considering that I have zero interest in Seiyuus they can't be very new in the business.
Thanks, may have to use the jp wiki myself in the future :P
Rio's was the most generic voice, something which I could swear I've heard in all-out H-game fests (back when I bought those rabidly without thought to their content). To be frank, I was more curious about hers, because I think I had an inkling of who Miu's was, like a "where have I heard this before" moment.
...And I found Erina's voice and character annoying for some reason, which is why she's saved for last.
@hyl: Oh yeah, Kisaragi Gold Star was for me a waste of time and money. It had almost none of the appeal Natsuyume had, and which contributed to my decision not to buy Hatsuyuki. (and as I stated much earlier in the thread after reading the trial, I may not have the motivation to buy it). Makes me think they're riding on trends in otaku-land over in Japan and this wave is something to gloss over until they head back to the "great age" of 2007. Or 2005. Hm.
Come on, she sounds exactly like Sakura from Hatsuyuki Sakura, she's probably one of those VA's with a couple of aliases. I've heard her voice in a bazillion of other eroge too. Same is actually true for basically every female voice in Dracu Riot and considering that I have zero interest in Seiyuus they can't be very new in the business.
Now that you mention it, they sound indeed exactly the same. I usually don't check VAs nor can I remember any names. So I just keep thinking about why the voice of X sounds so familiar :heh:
@Erina's VA: I thought it fits her characters quite well. Especially if you consider that Sakura, who Soviet mentioned, has the exact opposite standpoint regarding ecchi in Hatsuyuki Sakura :D.
After two drama VNs completed, I should sooner or later look for something light-hearted again or I just replay LoverAble and/or Mashiro Symphony once I'm back home during Eastern tomorrow :3.
But replaying Hoshizora Memoria now that the english fan translation is out is also tempting >_<.
Elina is just voiced by Shimizu Ai (under a psuedonym), anyone can hear that >_>
As for the other more well known seiyuu in dracu riot
Nikola: Nabatame Hitomi
Miu: Taguchi Hiroko. Who is known for voicng Sora in Yosuga no Sora, Yutsuki in Mashiroiro Symphony Mutssu no Hana, Miyako in Ef and many other VN's
Azusa: Nanjo Yoshino, who is probably more well known for being the current lead vocalist of the Fripside (who also did the 2nd opening of Hatsuyuki Sakura: Hesitation Snow)
edit:
For these seiyuu's i didn't even need to look up, because they are very easily distinguishable for me.
edit to balzac:
Dracu-Riot felt less worth for my money than Hatsuyuki Sakura. While Dracu-Riot is not a bad VN , it did not live up to the hype that it got almost 6 months before it's release. Also Dracu-Riot costed me 1000 yen more than HatsuSaku and my bonus item was just a stupid book or telephone card....
Kleeyook
2012-04-05, 06:23
I have a question for you all!
Which eroge company has the best character style (art work) in your opinion from all eroge you have played so far?
I want to draw hentai doujinshi as well as CG scenes like in VN but I am having a hard time decising which art style should I use. The ones that are suitable for drawing realistic proportion, sexy pose and ahegao... Am I being too honest?
I like artstyle from BISHOP (I don't like their games though), I want the eye part to be more refine though (more noticeable eyebrows). Any recommendation?
I hate NTR and tentacle BTW!
Oh! VenusBlood isn't really my choice since the characters' proportion are a bit off (I believe head:whole body for they are 1:5-1:6 instead of 1:7-1:8).
I think it depends on the character designer, rather than the company. Eventhough some companies tend to use the same artists for their games.
Overall the art from the games made by Minori are among my favorites.
Hello, Though that's not the usual thread that I creep in, I've come today to seek some information. (And because I didn't find any visual novel general thread but I'm sure it exists)
I'm training my japenese and such I'm seeking a VN that can be categorized in the "easy to read" (if you have very easy to read I take too), I know it's +18 VN but you should be as well the people who knows general VN the best.
The romance + school life settings seems the easiest for me. ( I was thinking of doing fortune arterial? maybe Clannad but I already saw everything about it). Things like Rance or Bloodvenus seems too hard for me (>imply things with battle) so I would like only dialogues (like G senjou no maou but easier).
So any idea my deviants brothers?
I find loverable really easy to read. Mostly because it does not have a complex ( it's almost non existent) story.
Hello, Though that's not the usual thread that I creep in, I've come today to seek some information. (And because I didn't find any visual novel general thread but I'm sure it exists)
I'm training my japenese and such I'm seeking a VN that can be categorized in the "easy to read" (if you have very easy to read I take too), I know it's +18 VN but you should be as well the people who knows general VN the best.
The romance + school life settings seems the easiest for me. ( I was thinking of doing fortune arterial? maybe Clannad but I already saw everything about it). Things like Rance or Bloodvenus seems too hard for me (>imply things with battle) so I would like only dialogues (like G senjou no maou but easier).
So any idea my deviants brothers?
Pretty much any moege would do the job. Flyable Heart, Lover Able, Koiiro Soromoyou are entertaining enough and easy to read for example.
Axanael is pretty good too because barely anything in that game is unvoiced.
Cosmic Eagle
2012-04-05, 20:35
Hello, Though that's not the usual thread that I creep in, I've come today to seek some information. (And because I didn't find any visual novel general thread but I'm sure it exists)
I'm training my japenese and such I'm seeking a VN that can be categorized in the "easy to read" (if you have very easy to read I take too), I know it's +18 VN but you should be as well the people who knows general VN the best.
The romance + school life settings seems the easiest for me. ( I was thinking of doing fortune arterial? maybe Clannad but I already saw everything about it). Things like Rance or Bloodvenus seems too hard for me (>imply things with battle) so I would like only dialogues (like G senjou no maou but easier).
So any idea my deviants brothers?
I find most Nitro+ stuff apart from Muramasa quite easy to read...
Fortune Arterial is ok too
Much as I love pretty everything Nitro+ has made, I wouldn't recommend using them for Japanese practice unless you're really, really passionate about that type of story. (Which I am, granted, so it worked fine for me.) They're good for tackling once you can comfortably read a slice-of-life / reality-based story, since each game will teach you a new set of additional fantasy/sci-fi/more obscure vocab and so forth.
I think the ef series of games is absolutely perfect for someone with lower-level Japanese. Fairly short, simple language, set in the modern-day real world, lots of dialogue, basic vocabulary--and the constant barrage of gorgeous CGs and music means that you get rewarded all the time for working to understand what's going on. Even if you go through the games super slowly, you don't have to wait around for ages just to see a new CG. And if you've watched the anime adaptation (although this certainly isn't required), you'll intuitively pick up on the meaning of the story/language even more quickly.
Cosmic Eagle
2012-04-05, 21:23
Ef dialogue is easy but I found the descriptions a bit hard back when I was just starting to play eroge...
I do agree about the CGs and music though. It sure keeps you going...
As someone who had to learn jp. without school support (and as such no structure at all), I found Fortune Arterial a bit on the harder side to get into. This, of course, depends on the route itself as well (i. e. the true roue with its large amount of vampire background, etc was very confusing other than getting a very rough outline).
Anway, LoverAble (already mentioned), Shuffle!, Mashiro-iro Symphony (I think), Amesarasa. The easiest in general would be to download the trial versions and see how you like it. Better for your harddisk + money purse as well :D
For learning kanji, try *puts pinky finger in corner of mouth* Itsuka todoku anosorani!
erneiz_hyde
2012-04-06, 00:38
For learning kanji, try *puts pinky finger in corner of mouth* Itsuka todoku anosorani!
You, my friend, is a devil :heh:
On that matter, try "Kitto Sumiwataru Asairo yori mo"
and "Tenshi no hane wo fumanai de"
for good measure :heh:
Seriously though, I second the voice that most school love type games doesn't have too much of complicated words.
I suggest getting a text hooker and a kanji translator ready as well.
Makes me remember of my earlier time where I challenge an all kanji galge...which was Little Busters (not sure if it was a wise choice for first timer though). it was though, but I learned a lot out of it. And, I was able to get and enjoy the story.
I see Thank you, I have quite a number of game now.
I will try LoverAble and Mashiro to begin with, thanks to all of you.
Cosmic Eagle
2012-04-06, 09:28
You, my friend, is a devil :heh:
On that matter, try "Kitto Sumiwataru Asairo yori mo"
and "Tenshi no hane wo fumanai de"
for good measure :heh:
I'm playing that right now and it's hell to understand.....not because of the language, but the girls' characters....
It's brutal trying to guess what's going on in their heads....As well as looking beyond the words for any hidden double meanings in their speech and actions
I don't know if I'm just over-paranoid or what but the whole setting seems...off...somehow. Like something's very wrong...It's like a mystery story except you don't know even what the mystery is.
Hell even the protag seems odd to me....At first glance, he's just someone who loves his friends very much but there's always a hint of something...more...
I hear the wordplay in Tenshi no hane is ghey though. Might try that out later...For Itsu Sora though, which aspects of Norse myth did they cover? And was it done in a fairly serious manner? (IE, Odin running around school being cute is a plus but not the main thing I want)
Anyone here played 11eyes?
Anyone here played 11eyes?
*Raises tentacle*
Indeed, though it has been a couple of years since then. My impressions of it were fairly good though; from what I recall, it managed the grim mood and sense of urgency (and action) fairly well. The presentation was certainly much better than the 11eyes anime, which was a quite poor adaptation of the original as far as transmitting the same "feel" went.
If you are in the mood for dark-ish fantasy/horror (mystery?) with bits of action thrown in (with the option to mess up and die midway through), 11eyes is a decent choice.
Cosmic Eagle
2012-04-06, 10:41
I never knew there was an anime...I heard it was a depressing kill em all kind of game....basically my kind of thing...
I guess it should satisfy your needs fairly well then. If grim and depressing is what you are looking for, 11eyes should have something to offer for you. While I wouldn't call it outright grimdark, it's certainly no field trip of flowers and sunshine. To this day I'm still quite fond of the opening (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1KsmjkzvFc) as well.
blitz1/2
2012-04-06, 23:32
I never knew there was an anime...I heard it was a depressing kill em all kind of game....basically my kind of thing...
What anime? There is NO 11eyes anime.
Kleeyook
2012-04-07, 01:35
What anime? There is NO 11eyes anime.
^^ Kinda agree. 11eyes anime adaptation sucked so hard I seriously doubted how it become popular to be animated...
BTW, I want to do some fanart but I can't find art style with more realistic eyes yet able to show ahegao face... All I can find don't have good eyebrows.
erneiz_hyde
2012-04-07, 01:38
I'm playing that right now and it's hell to understand.....not because of the language, but the girls' characters....
It's brutal trying to guess what's going on in their heads....As well as looking beyond the words for any hidden double meanings in their speech and actions
I don't know if I'm just over-paranoid or what but the whole setting seems...off...somehow. Like something's very wrong...It's like a mystery story except you don't know even what the mystery is.
Hell even the protag seems odd to me....At first glance, he's just someone who loves his friends very much but there's always a hint of something...more...
Ah, I'm glad someone else here played it! The particular scenario writer who wrote Kittosumi tends to create a huge hit-or-miss stories.
And yes, the author just LOVES to insert multiple meanings in seemingly everything. No loose ends are left. Every seemingly trifling thing could mean something in the end.
The one thing I particularly like about Kittosumi is about how everything wraps up in the end. I'm looking forward to hear your impression on it.
I hear the wordplay in Tenshi no hane is ghey though. Might try that out later...For Itsu Sora though, which aspects of Norse myth did they cover? And was it done in a fairly serious manner? (IE, Odin running around school being cute is a plus but not the main thing I want)
ItsuSora doesn't take any of the characters in Norse myth directly. So, no Odin, Loki, Thor or what have you. If you want to know which part of the Norse myth that is the ultimate theme in ItsuSora, it's
The Mead of Poetry and the stories revolving around it.
Tenshi no Hane is the most recent, and you could say the "mildest" of the galge stories that scenario writer made. It's geared towards wider public than ItsuSora or Kittosumi (meaning less difficult kanji :heh:).
winhlp32
2012-04-07, 01:50
On that matter, try "Kitto Sumiwataru Asairo yori mo"
I remember a scene of the 四君子 and their reactions when they overheard some random little kids talking on the street...that was me throughout the entire VN.
Cosmic Eagle
2012-04-07, 12:08
Ah, I'm glad someone else here played it! The particular scenario writer who wrote Kittosumi tends to create a huge hit-or-miss stories.
And yes, the author just LOVES to insert multiple meanings in seemingly everything. No loose ends are left. Every seemingly trifling thing could mean something in the end.
The one thing I particularly like about Kittosumi is about how everything wraps up in the end. I'm looking forward to hear your impression on it.
Well it'll be some time though....seeing as the Spring anime season is starting along with school....>_>
ItsuSora doesn't take any of the characters in Norse myth directly. So, no Odin, Loki, Thor or what have you. If you want to know which part of the Norse myth that is the ultimate theme in ItsuSora, it's
The Mead of Poetry and the stories revolving around it.
Tenshi no Hane is the most recent, and you could say the "mildest" of the galge stories that scenario writer made. It's geared towards wider public than ItsuSora or Kittosumi (meaning less difficult kanji :heh:).
Oh...ok, ok, I understand now what it's like.
After failing to find an eroge or VN that is somewhat similar to Hatsuyuki Sakura, I have decided to go for an earlier title from Saga Planets: Natsuyume Nagisa. I held it off for this long, because I wasn't impressed by Sagaplanet's other game Kisaragi Gold Star (besides it's catchy opening Rolling Star). But after reading that HatsuSaku has similarities with Natsuyume Nagisa, i will give it a try.
Bon courage on it :p. I read a full spoiler review on each route about it and decided right away to keep my hands from it. Another melodrama is "too much". I'm actually resisting of replaying Hatsuyuki on my home computer as I *know* I'll be "heart-broken" afterwards again :heh:
Currently replaying Hoshizora no Memoria; this time with the fan translation, as well as LoverAble (but not as much as Hoshizora). Ignoring a few typos here and there, I have had my fair share of laughs in the common route so far. Komomo-chan still remains one of my favorites of the VN.
DRACU-RIOT overall score: average!
I'm quite disappointed that Yuzu-soft only used the comedic tension scenes I like them for in the trunk, and even then it wasn't enough to fill up a savegame page. When the routes occured, there was more focus on "plot" and rabu--rabu instances.
At the end of the day, at least the game didn't make me feel like it was a waste of money. (shakes fist at koisora fandisc)
I am now crossing my fingers for D.C. III.
blitz1/2
2012-04-07, 23:40
DRACU-RIOT overall score: average!
I'm quite disappointed that Yuzu-soft only used the comedic tension scenes I like them for in the trunk, and even then it wasn't enough to fill up a savegame page. When the routes occured, there was more focus on "plot" and rabu--rabu instances.
At the end of the day, at least the game didn't make me feel like it was a waste of money. (shakes fist at koisora fandisc)
I am now crossing my fingers for D.C. III.
Personally, I'd think that Yuzusoft should go back to more serious plots like what they did with ExE, one of the best VNs I've read. And the bgms were memorable.
I personally got into Yuzu-soft's wagon on natsuzora, which I think was arguably their best offering (though not the best in its genre). VNs with "plots" are a headache to follow for me.
This time something other to nitpick than story or drama-overload:
I'm playing Aile soft's "Friends" and somehow the game engine seems clunky. For example, even though the skip function is set to "only unread text", the game decides to skip ahead when you click the button. And something in the option to turn on/off some kind of button (can't seem to identify the last kanji), where I couldn't see any difference (yet).
Not that it greatly matters, as their VNs are rather unspectacular. Relation sisterxsister had out of four routes only two nice ones (and those were not the sisters :heh:)
Oh, interesting.
This is mostly a quality of life topic when reading visual novels, but sometimes I get to thinking, when playing, that there's some minor interface feature that is missing from this game that was present in a previous game I played. Because strangely enough, there does not seem to be a game (or if there was, it was too low profile and I haven't played it) that has all or most of these features in. Bear in mind that these are just some of my personal quality of life preferences in playing, so they may radically differ for others' impressions about their interfaces.
For example, there's the seemingly ageless skip function. Yes, almost all games have this function, and it works just as well as one would expect. But I especially like yuzu-soft's and some other games' features where there's another button other than skip which goes directly to the next decision tree. Obviously this is only for those who are on the way to their second or so route, who (barring flag- or love points-type games) already know what there is to know about the events in the trunk, and so replaying it again would seem tedious. Yet not all games have these feature in their engines, and it feels jarring to start reading and realize the feature's unavailable when one sits down with a new game.
I won't go into detail with the rest of these, as they're sufficiently self-explanatory:
>A backlog skip - where clicking on a line or dialogue during the backlog gives you the option to go back to it. Most games just has it repeat the voiced line, etc.
>Movable savegames - probably doable outside game, but I especially like Key's example (which they used in Little Busters! and Rewrite) where I can copy, delete and most importantly, movemy savegames. Most games just let you put in a description, or delete, and feel rather restricted.
>Now this is something only quite a few games I've read feature. We all know about the scene viewing in the gallery, but I personally like it better if there's also a gallery to view all unlocked scenes from the game, so I don't actually have to keep saves of memorable moments.
>This is more aesthetic: dynamic sprites. One can't fault the aesthetic decisions of each developer to only have one or two sprites for each character as part of their mission/vision, but it makes me smile when some games I read have more than just the standard static sprites. Sprites that change mid-dialogue, sprites that aren't restricted to the x-y of the dialogue box, sprites that have complete back-side- and front-sprites, mouths that move, among others are pretty fascinating for a developer to include.
Those are just some examples off the top of my head. So, any of you folks feel the same during the same instance of a missing interface feature or miscellaneous aesthetic?
Done with Rio's route in Dracu Riot, and I must admit the whole experience turned out better than I had expected. While I still think she comes off as the most bland of the heroines, her own route actually allowed other aspects of her personality (besides cluelesness about sex) to shine.
As far as romance went, this was certainly a motherload of sugary overdose. Though hardly surprising, Rio in love shot the fluff scale through the roof. Even Yuuto managed to present himself decently on the romance front, which was a welcome change for once. The plot had some interesting things in store as well, and I appreciate the fact that, unlike Miu's and Erina's routes, the drama wasn't nearly as overblown.
Though Motoki suddenly deciding to become the villain did come a bit ... meh. Yeah, I had always been suspicious of the guy, but so far (Miu's and Erina's routes) he had been only helpful. I understand the prospect of a naturally born "vampire eater" stirred him up, but still ... didn't really seem in line with his personality as it had been displayed up to now. Ah well, at least it didn't last.
What really got my head spinning was how Rio and Yuuto turned back in to humans. I understand that the act of having one's blood sucked by a "vampire eater" destroys the vampire virus, but it's a bit boggling that they could mutually do so. Even if a vampire eater is still vulnerable to this effect from another vampire eater, shouldn't the fact they were sucking each others blood cancel this out ?
I mean, obviously the vampire eater factor doesn't destroy itself, only other vampire factors that are genetically different from it, so ... shouldn't Yuuto be immune to said effect from Rio while sucking her blood (and vice versa), because he now has her blood within herself, which obviously wouldn't be affected by her specific factor ? So even if Rio nibbling on Yuuto destroys "his" vampire virus, that doesn't change the fact he has just drank her blood, which should also contain the vampire virus, only one immune to her own vampire eater status. So in effect they should have "exchanged" the vampire virus factor, not mutually erased it :eyespin:
Ah well ... best probably not to think too deeply about it. At least Rio has now gained full access to Yuuto's knowledge, and thus won't be left out of the loop whenever Erina makes her ecchi jokes :heh:
That aside, overall it was a nice twist to have Rio as a vampire eater as well. Unexpected, and added a little bit of flair to her character that felt otherwise missing.
A decent route overall indeed, and I must say, some of the developments almost made it feel like the "true end", if this story actually had one. Unexpected, considering I didn't expect much when starting it. Always nice when a story does something above my expectations, so from that perspective, I rather liked Rio's story.
She still doesn't measure up to Erina or Miu character-wise, though her route has certainly helped her to close the gap somewhat. She was very much in need of some more exposition (she gets the short end of the stick in common / other character routes on that front), and this certainly helped. Story-wise I still consider Erina's the best one (and with the biggest emotional punch), but this one wasn't bad either.
Azusa left now ... here's hoping this one manages to surprise me as well, because character wise, while entertaining, Azusa isn't really my cup of tea.
@Balzac: The flexible character expressions à la Dracu-Riot are definitely a good idea imho even though it seems a bit "too much" at times, but still on a positive degree overall. It made me kinda expect it on the VN I played afterwards :p.
The backlog jumper is for me a simple nice-to-have I mostly use backlog to hear the voice again when I need to type it into NJStar for a better grasp, but I like Giga's scene rewatching (i. e. like in HotchKiss and Sucre). When I don't really care about the story due to e. g. gory or grotesque elements, but it has nice CGs (kiss or wedding :D) then a simple event mode for non-h scenes would have been sooo nice.
@Dracu-Riot: Guess, I'll continue Rio's route when I'm back at my laptop tomorrow. Azusa has imho a rather slow start until h-scene 1 or 2, haven't played after that. Not bad itself, but something to keep in mind possibly.
relentlessflame
2012-04-08, 12:32
Those are just some examples off the top of my head. So, any of you folks feel the same during the same instance of a missing interface feature or miscellaneous aesthetic?In addition to the examples you listed, the one thing I would add -- and it seems dead-simple -- is the option to add save slots. Typically the game designers come up with some arbitrary number of save slots that they figure will be good enough -- usually 100 slots over 10 pages or some such. But it's so completely arbitrary and arcane. The engine Windmill uses for its games has a simple plus button that let's you make more pages on the fly so if you're not satisfied with their arbitrary limit, you can just add more.
As was said, this especially applies to game that don't have a "Scene Memory" feature that goes beyond the H scenes, which is another arcane hold-out from back when these games were more about the sex than the story (so the sex scenes were presumably the only ones worth recalling?). One interesting approach that PeasSoft does is have a scene recall for every CG (whether H or not), which isn't a bad idea since those are typically the major scenes you'll probably want to jump to. But a full scene listing is always nice too -- only weakness is to keep them descriptive enough to explain what happens in each (some Circus games have this problem). I've seen a few games with a flowchart too (that allows jumping to any point in the story), and that's an interesting way of doing it too. Da Capo games also have a "scene summary" feature that is kind of nice for subsequent playthroughs (gives you a brief synopsis of what happens in the scene if you've seen it before).
I also agree with Mahou that while I like the dynamic sprites in Yuzusoft games, sometimes I think they go a bit overboard with motion and changes -- almost for the sake of having things move. If it's done well, though, it's nice. Certainly better than seeing the same 20 sprites in the same poses and places all the time.
I also agree with Mahou that while I like the dynamic sprites in Yuzusoft games, sometimes I think they go a bit overboard with motion and changes -- almost for the sake of having things move. If it's done well, though, it's nice. Certainly better than seeing the same 20 sprites in the same poses and places all the time.
For what it's worth, I think they have struck just the right balance in Dracu Riot. The sprites are "active" enough to add to the flow of conversation, without going overboard and looking like movement for the sake of it. Sometimes it's just the character's eyes/expression that shifts to reflect small shifts in tone, sometimes the whole pose for bigger ones.
While I'm no fan of overbearing movement, something I think Yuzusoft has been a bit guilty of in the past, I have no qualms with their visual presentation of Dracu Riot - it looks quite nice.
And I hereby place a bet on Miu being your favorite heroine, whenever you get around to reading it :heh:
Dhomochevsky
2012-04-08, 12:51
I like the bouncyness of TinkleBell's 3D models. ;)
While the usefulness of the bouncing may be limited to H, it makes for very lively, natural characters where other games present you with more or less static pictures.
I wonder how it would translate to other visual styles. I have not seen anyone else use it to that degree yet.
Though I understand one twenth of what's said, I find dracu riot quite good, men hopefully there's voice without that it would be marsian for me.
After reading a few people disliking Dracu-riot, well I didn't think that it was that bad. It's not great, but i have seen much worse. Atleast i liked most of the characters.
@zakoo If you can't understand/read what was said, then you are obviously missing out alot 0_0
Certainly, but I understand the general thing like how the red haired girl (for example I don't even know her name) seems blocked with "sekusu".
Weell, after this I'm not a regular gamer of erogame so I can't really judge it but the pictures are quite good.
Certainly, but I understand the general thing like how the red haired girl (for example I don't even know her name) seems blocked with "sekusu".
Weell, after this I'm not a regular gamer of erogame so I can't really judge it but the pictures are quite good.
Seriously though, how can you even judge the the game (you probably haven't even finished one story) if you can't read/listen to it at all. You even said it yourself that you can't even remember her name, eventhough many characters in the game clearly say "Miu" or "Yarai" all the time to her.
VN's are similar to books. You do need to understand the writing to enjoy it. It's not like manga or comics in which you can understand most of it by just looking at the panels and the character expressions.
Its not much different if i am going to my local library and i read the book "Madame Bovary" and i find it bad just because i can't understand french.
Eeeerrr, sir I never said I wasn't understanding a thing, I understand the whole story but narrative line are a bit too much for me and what I meant by this is that without the voice I wouldn't be able to understand a thing. Hopefully I can match the kanji with the voice and make a research when I totally don't understand.
Also you are missing the point why am I playing those novels, I do understand that as a VN fan you might be heavily offensed by what am I doing here, but it's for training, if I never launch myself into "real book" and stay inside my educational book, I won't ever understand a thing about the real japenese language. This is how I did for english and this is how I plan to do with japenese.
And if I didn't know why her name was Miu, it's because I wasn't at the hospital yet, true that she always had the name "woman" on her.
Eeeerrr, sir I never said I wasn't understanding a thing, I understand the whole story but narrative line are a bit too much for me and what I meant by this is that without the voice I wouldn't be able to understand a thing. Hopefully I can match the kanji with the voice and make a research when I totally don't understand.
Also you are missing the point why am I playing those novels, I do understand that as a VN fan you might be heavily offensed by what am I doing here, but it's for training, if I never launch myself into "real book" and stay inside my educational book, I won't ever understand a thing about the real japenese language.
And if I didn't know why her name was Miu, it's because I wasn't at the hospital yet, true that she always had the name "woman" on her.
So you are just at the beginning of the game and you already say that it's not good? (i assume you meant the first hospital scene after Yuuto was bitten). Isn't that a little too early to say that?
I have read many VN's that started out average and it ended up quite good. (some eroge have the standard cliche settings)
For training, i wouldn't use eroge with dark or supernatural settings. Eventhough Dracu-Riot was not that hard to read for me, but there are other VN's that are much easier to understand.
I never said it wasn't good, my words were something like "even though I understand one twenth of what's said, I find it quite good".
I think you and I must be pretty tired. Because either I expressed myself pretty pooly, wich is heavely possible seeing the hour it is here, or you misread me.
Well, whatever I'm going to hug my pillows, it's fairly night here, continuing reading this would simply hurt my brain cells more and more.
I never said it wasn't good, my words were something like "even though I understand one twenth of what's said, I find it quite good".
I think you and I must be pretty tired. Because either I expressed myself pretty pooly, wich is heavely possible seeing the hour it is here, or you misread me.
Well, whatever I'm going to hug my pillows, it's fairly night here, continuing reading this would simply hurt my brain cells more and more.
oops i misread not good :p
Anyways, i still dont recommend dracu riot as a training VN though.
Kameruka
2012-04-09, 00:47
Hitomi My Stepsister anime adaptation anyone. It might be a crappy 2-episode OVA but at least that the best thing it can get.
winhlp32
2012-04-09, 01:33
na44Zx8I9ko
Stuff like this is why I play visual novels.
Ahh, minori, there is little that beats them when it comes to visual eye candy. I could rewatch the flying part of that PV a dozen times and not get bored, such a treat for the eyes. (The first OP of ef is still probably my favorite of their offerings).
Being the long term fan of them that I am, I'm definitely looking towards this.
Hello, in hoshizora no memoria does anyone know what Komomo said in the end of her route? The one with no text and just voice where the background was white with ~Fin~. Thanks..
relentlessflame
2012-04-09, 01:51
Stuff like this is why I play visual novels.I think the trailer looks great, and I'll definitely buy the game, but two unrelated thoughts:
1. Alice should maybe consider slowing down a bit to avoid unnecessary chaos in flight. :heh:
2. If this is Story #01, I assume that means there'll probably be at least three. Not that it's surprising give first/latter with ef, but hopefully the franchise will be well-received on the whole (and they won't keep us waiting too long for the other parts).
The "Nice to Meet You" preview was interesting, but really didn't tell you much beyond introducing the characters, and giving a very brief hint of something much darker at the end. Not much hint of that in this trailer yet either... but we'll see. (It also wasn't terribly clear in the preview if there'd be a typical male protagonist (or even a male character :heh: ).)
winhlp32
2012-04-09, 02:04
The "Nice to Meet You" preview was interesting, but really didn't tell you much beyond introducing the characters, and giving a very brief hint of something much darker at the end. Not much hint of that in this trailer yet either... but we'll see. (It also wasn't terribly clear in the preview if there'd be a typical male protagonist (or even a male character :heh: ).)
Male protagonist has been confirmed. A person by the name of 真田幸成:
http://i.imgur.com/Tx9yLl.jpg (http://imgur.com/Tx9yL)
Anyways, I just hope the actual game doesn't lag like the "Nice to Meet You" preview did.
relentlessflame
2012-04-09, 02:14
Male protagonist has been confirmed. A person by the name of 真田幸成Aha -- I sort of figured that would be the case since the preview did talk about love as a theme, which per that magazine will be a central feature here. With the way they're splitting it, I imagine that means that each Story could feature a different protagonist, as with ef.
Anyways, I just hope the actual game doesn't lag like the "Nice to Meet You" preview did.This is really true. :heh: That was sort of impressive in its own way.
Hitomi My Stepsister anime adaptation anyone. It might be a crappy 2-episode OVA but at least that the best thing it can get.
Please not. The only saving grace of Hitomi's route was the ending. The rest was nothing more than huge mistreatment of her :mad:
I would much prefer a Crescendo anime ;).
Back to "Friends": Seriously, the VN seems unpolished. Among the issues I mentioned before there are also at times kanjis which are slightly cut-down at the bottom. It doesn't make them unreadable per say, but it's annoying.
@Minori VNs: I'm torn in my opinion. Ef was an amazing piece of work for me, but "winds a breath of heart" on the other hand had a few really unpleasant points (the dense MC's talk of "I always knew how you felt about me, but was too afraid to change our current relationship" I was like "WTF?! No you had no clue and showed no single reaction to Minamo's attempts!", and the feeling-wise sudden change to all-drama/tragedy towards the end)
Somebody saw this?
Video about White Day in Dies Irae.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2L78qEDBDc
I LOL'd so hard!!!
Cosmic Eagle
2012-04-11, 11:02
Somebody saw this?
Video about White Day in Dies Irae.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2L78qEDBDc
I LOL'd so hard!!!
Yes...been on Nico Nico for a while. It also proves the raging homolust of Machina...
Yes...been on Nico Nico for a while. It also proves the raging homolust of Machina...
Well, I'm more surprised with Shiro being totally nuts here ajajaa
And the little confusion about Wolfgang's gender.
Hello, in hoshizora no memoria does anyone know what Komomo said in the end of her route? The one with no text and just voice where the background was white with ~Fin~. Thanks..
Kore kara wa zutto saki ni tomo ga aru ... We will live from now on forever together. Or something along that line. If I had to guess, I think it refers more to Kosame and Komomo-chan due to how the ending around the twins was resolved ;).
I finished Rio's route on DracuXRiot. First the non-spoilers: As expected my created subtitle of her being the "dere dere" route was very fitting :heh:. For a change Yuuto wasn't useless romance-wise and the chemistry between those to was quite sweet. Their common background may be plot related, but from a romance point of view you might as well call it "destiny" ^^.
Furthermore, I found Miu did an adorable job as a supporting character and her usual embarrased moments when Erina leads the conversation were very amusing. Although it was shown that each member cares much about Yuuto, it felt here that Miu's level of worry/care was somewhat higher, not counting the main girl obviously.
Random point of interest: The character animation that looks as if the character would sligtly jump/hop up and down (for the female cast) is absolutely adorable.
The bad/annoying stuff at first: Personally, I found their first date + the lead up to ecchi 1 veeery awkward, maybe too awkward somehow. Funnily, once they became a couple Rio's cluelessness about sex didn't seem as tiresome as before at many instances aka Erina's breakfast talk about impotence. I found it quite funny. The scene where Yuuto caught her at the beach way before the Lycantrop drama went into the last stage was also sweet. A few VNs had the problem of the couple failing to communicate enough and here it was done, for my taste(!) correctly.
@Lycantrop plot: It felt a bit too sudden that Yuuto and Rio were "created" Lycantrops. Likewise the explanation that the psyeudonym of Vampire Eater was meant as in to erase the special ability + memory of the devoured vampire felt like it was changed to make the innital Lycan mystery less extreme or dark. If Sayo-sama had really died during her short confrontation with Ogi then I would have raged a lot. It felt a bit anti-climatic how she got "trolled" even though it was explained by her lack of knowledge of fighting a Lycantrop itself.
Lastly, the end where they drank each other's blood and exchanged their memories is from a romance viewpoint very corny, but also incredibly lovely. No reason for me to *not* like it :heh: Same for the wedding ceremony epilogue: Gimme more of it!
And was it only me or was the reaction of Miu-tachi when they revlealed their secret even more "relaxed" than during Miu and Erina's route? I mean it was basically like *Secret reveleaded* "So what? No probs, let's move on to dinner" *BAM* :3.
Cosmic Eagle
2012-04-11, 17:59
Well, I'm more surprised with Shiro being totally nuts here ajajaa
And the little confusion about Wolfgang's gender.
Shiro has always been nuts if you realize...
I finished Rio's route on DracuXRiot. First the non-spoilers: As expected my created subtitle of her being the "dere dere" route was very fitting :heh:. For a change Yuuto wasn't useless romance-wise and the chemistry between those to was quite sweet. Their common background may be plot related, but from a romance point of view you might as well call it "destiny" ^^.
Indeed, ain't that the truth. While I still hold Erina's as the superior route overall, this was certainly a factor that made Rio's route a very relaxing experience (especially compared to Miu's ... present shopping ... aargh!). The overall lovey-doviness and Yuuto actually displaying a sense of awareness and ability to be somewhat romantic was very welcome, and made for an overall sugar overdose.
Furthermore, I found Miu did an adorable job as a supporting character and her usual embarrased moments when Erina leads the conversation were very amusing. Although it was shown that each member cares much about Yuuto, it felt here that Miu's level of worry/care was somewhat higher, not counting the main girl obviously.
To follow up on that thought, this is actually one thing I have come to appreciate about Dracu Riot - even when you are one someone's route, the other main heroines (Miu and Erina at least) still have their own little, but important, input upon how things play out.
In Miu's case this translates to being Yuuto's emotional anchor of sorts, seeing she is someone who has accepted his "vampire eater" status from the start. Without Miu being there to give him the final push when time comes to come clean with the rest of the gang (and serving as a living reminder that he won't necessarily be shunned), chances are he might have drowned under the pressure.
Indeed, irregardless of route, Miu is always the first to remind him that they are all friends, and to chastise him for not giving enough weight to said friendship. Whatever the route, she feels like the heart of their little gang.
Likewise, Erina also gets her moments to shine, though hers are more general plot related, as opposed to Miu's interpersonal emotional support of Yuuto. In Miu's route it was thanks to Erina that they managed to find the jamming devices and thus save the city.
In Rio's route, she was the constant go-to person for Rio regarding her relationship worries (much to Yuuto's dismay :heh:), and i liked the bits where she urged Rio to clear up their initial misunderstanding before it gets out of hand. It was also her who found out where Rio went in the end (the seaside), thus enabling them to salvage the situation in time.
Indeed, having the others play important roles in the overall scheme of things, even when not on their own route, is definitely a strength of Dracu Riot, and it does well in establishing the friendship/bond between the little dorm gang.
@Lycantrop plot: It felt a bit too sudden that Yuuto and Rio were "created" Lycantrops. Likewise the explanation that the psyeudonym of Vampire Eater was meant as in to erase the special ability + memory of the devoured vampire felt like it was changed to make the innital Lycan mystery less extreme or dark. If Sayo-sama had really died during her short confrontation with Ogi then I would have raged a lot. It felt a bit anti-climatic how she got "trolled" even though it was explained by her lack of knowledge of fighting a Lycantrop itself.
Actually I didn't find this bit too awkward, probably because it was already "speculated" by Ogi on Miu's route that Yuuto might have had a latent Lycantrope factor before becoming a vampire, which shouldn't be possible normally. Obviously I didn't know exactly what those implications meant at the time, but I feel Rio's route expanded upon that groundwork nicely.
On the other hand, I feel the appreciation for Lycantrope stuff is largely related to the order you play the routes in. I suspect that had I started with Rio's, I wouldn't have appreciated it all that much and it would have felt abrupt. Seeing Miu's route touched upon the whole mystery without giving any concrete answers, Rio's route almost felt like a follow up in this regard, shedding light on already established factors. It almost felt like a solution to the puzzle.
What I'm getting at is, playing Miu's route first allowed the mystery to be built up (along with a few clues), and Rio's route felt like the answer to a previously established question(s). Had I went with Rio first though, I have a feeling I would have found the infodump a bit too easy and the Big Secret being solved and explained without having time to properly sink in. Indeed, I think Rio's route works best when read after Miu's, but no so good the other way around.
As for Ogi winning against Sayo, that's to be expected I guess. I mean, Yuuto already got to play the superman by pulling flight out of his *ahem* and flying to Rio's rescue, before showing off with pyrokinesis and telekinesis, and then there is his body hardening ability ... and whatever else is buried in the genetic code of Lycantrop he is infused with.
And that's still nothing compared to Ogi, who likely has hundreds of different abilities at his disposal. A swiss army knife doesn't even come close to describing his potential, for all intents and purposes, a Lycantrop is completely hax to a silly degree. A normal vampire, no matter how experienced, really doesn't have a chance against that with their single ability, unless said ability is something extremely potent. (Wouldn't be surprised if Erina could beat one though, if she were battle minded - seeing her electricity knocked a vampire out cold for a day+ in an instant, I bet she could put a Lycan on his backside before he realizes what happened. But then she probably has the strongest ability of them all, so heh).
So ... yeah. Sayo is an excellent "tank" due to her ability, but it's no wonder she lost against something that has potentially unlimited ways to dish out the punishment. And who knows how old Ogi actually is, plus him having all the experience of the devoured vampires at his disposal. One would need something truly overpowering to take on a Lycan (like Erina's ability) , and Sayo simply doesn't have that, so her defeat was somewhat expected (and can't have her stealing spotlight from the main character after all :heh:)
Oh, and
Funnily, once they became a couple Rio's cluelessness about sex didn't seem as tiresome as before at many instances aka Erina's breakfast talk about impotence. I found it quite funny.
I so expected for Erina to explain it to Rio, with the follow up of Rio immediately jumping to Yuuto's "defense" and spiritedly proclaiming that's not the case at all. A shame that didn't happen, they missed out on a golden opportunity for some hilarious reactions from the rest :p
So ... yeah. If there is one advice I'd give to anyone planning to read Dracu Riot, it would be to not touch Rio's route until you are done with Miu. While not crucial, I feel it allows a good deal more appreciation for the events taking place during Rio's route.
In the case of Ogi-sensei, either that, or:
Just shoot him with a special bullet! The routes may also be grouped amongst Miu/Erina and Rio/Azusa. The former deals with retaining the vampire germ while the latter explores how it is removed.
It might also be argued that Miu's route serves as the "must-read first" route seeing as there are few major revelations related to the "plot" that are present there, unlike the major scraps that only appear exclusively in the other routes.
In the case of Ogi-sensei, either that, or:
Just shoot him with a special bullet! The routes may also be grouped amongst Miu/Erina and Rio/Azusa. The former deals with retaining the vampire germ while the latter explores how it is removed.
It might also be argued that Miu's route serves as the "must-read first" route seeing as there are few major revelations related to the "plot" that are present there, unlike the major scraps that only appear exclusively in the other routes.
Leaves the question where Mrs. Reverse Trap fits into this scheme :D.
(especially compared to Miu's ... present shopping ... aargh!
X_X Don't remind me. The job-related couple-faking afterwards wasn't really better in that regard :heh:. It feels like the developer realized themselves he's too stupid and quickly added some inner conflict for himself (1. dream conversation with himself about snatching Miu away to claim her for himself, 2. his "sudden" fear that Miu wouldn't accept him and his inner "demon")
Time to finish Azusa's route before I devote myself to Mashiro-iro Mutsu no Hana (and more if I find something that picks my interest) :).
I finally have the time to start Natsuyume Nagisa and my first impressions of the entire prologue seems positive. I like the mystery surrounding Nagisa's past due to his amnesia and i have no idea yet how the 3 girls that he recently met are connected to Nagisa and the girl (according to the opening movie Ayumu) from his past.
However the prologue/common route does have a very slow start (also it felt pretty short, because it was pretty much only used to introduce 4 heroines) and it gives me the impression that the overall mood of the story seems much lighter than Hatsuyuki Sakura (an amnesia compared to revenge and ghosts).
So far Hitsuji (a pretty good performance from Goto Mai) seems the most interesting of the first 4 heroines and i will probably aim for her first.
edit: Seeing that some people compared it with HatsuSaku, i probably should expect something depressing or in the best case something bitter sweet at the end of each route
Finished Azusa's route in Draco-Riot.
Well, I admit firstly that I didn't understand (language barrier-wise) much of the main story in the second half. With that being said, her route was okay-ish. I felt it wasn't super exciting, but it had in comparion with the other routes a different character screen time distribution ;).
Romance-wise: A slow start and a more or less steady progression afterwards. You might think the deal about HumanXVampire relationship would have been somewhat more critical, but that wasn't quite the case.
From the parts I understood: It's the somehow the only route where Sayo had the least amount of screentime/importance during the late-game drama. And it's possibly the one route where an important character dies after the drama is resolved - Anna in this case. It was an - imho - nice surprise that Azusa turned out to be Anna's granddaughter. Somehow, the sub-conflict between Azusa her former clan members (vampire hunters) wasn't quite to my liking even though it seemed to be well enough tied to Anna's past + her present time plotting. The usual bunch of people who hate all vampire regardless of them being good or baddies.
The good part was when Anna hid in the student residence of Yuuto-tachi. She was the main shipper and initiator of YuutoXAzusa. I found that part quite enjoyable in general.
Yuuto's lycantrop problem in this route was mostly centered around Ogi's "mind control" and the past memory of Anna's partner in her past. Furthermore, as Yuuto was afraid to possibly hurt Azusa when in Lycan-mode he decided to learn how to use a gun in combat like she does, which in turn increased the time the two spent together pre- and post-becoming a couple.
As Balzac said, Azusa's route is also Ogi-Lycantrop encounter #2 with the battle quickly resolved thanks to an anti-evil bullet created to destroy the vampire virus.
So overall her route wasn't really bad or unenjoyable, but still not as awesome as Erina's or as cute as Rio's. Erina > Rio >= Miu > Azusa for me. As I value fluff and sugary moments more for my total entertainment, Rio's was slightly more satisfying than Miu's (who was the only driving factor in the relationship, but with a great performance as such), but not as to say "generally better or superior"!
Yes, I admit that Erina came somehow as a surprise because I tend to be wary with pervy characters, even though the ero-girl archetype does seem to be a rare case among the VNs I've played.
I put Nikola on hold for the time being despite of resulting that I don't really have a VN, which would absolutely wake my interest, to play at the moment D:.
Erina > Rio >= Miu > Azusa for me.
I'm not done with Azusa yet, but from what I'm seeing so far, I would rank the routes in the same manner. Erina seems like the clear winner both personality wise and route plot wise; there wasn't much to dislike about her route (aside from slightly over-scaled drama near the end, but not as bad as can be seen in other routes), and it managed to deliver a lot of good things at the same time.
Meanwhile, it feels like Miu got the short end of the stick as far as the content of her route goes. I absolutely love her as a character (still can't decide between her and Erina in terms of my favorite Dracu Riot heroine :heh:), but her route ... simply isn't very good or memorable. It felt lacking a proper theme or noteworthy focus for the most part (unless we count Yuuto's uselessness on the romance front ... did I mention she also gets the most annoying romance plot ?), and then suddenly degenerated into overly exaggerated drama near the end with some completely over the top developments.
Rio's route on the other hand was simple and fluffy, which suits her character just fine. And they played upon those strengths quite well - a sweet and easy to digest experience; it might not have been very ambitious and thus didn't have the emotional punch and overall tension of Erina's route, but that also means it never had the opportunity to fall on it's face either (unlike Miu's route). It also helps that romance wise Yuuto managed himself surprisingly well.
So ... yeah. As much as I like Miu, I can't help but feel that she loses to Rio as an overall package. Miu >> Rio, but Rio + Rio's plot => Miu + Miu's plot, unfortunate as that might be :/
NoemiChan
2012-04-13, 20:15
Please not. The only saving grace of Hitomi's route was the ending. The rest was nothing more than huge mistreatment of her :mad:
They ended as a family. No good romantic development between the two.
I would much prefer a Crescendo anime ;).
I agree. Hope they maintain the original art and story.
PhoenixG
2012-04-14, 06:00
I'm not done with Azusa yet, but from what I'm seeing so far, I would rank the routes in the same manner. Erina seems like the clear winner both personality wise and route plot wise; there wasn't much to dislike about her route (aside from slightly over-scaled drama near the end, but not as bad as can be seen in other routes), and it managed to deliver a lot of good things at the same time.
Meanwhile, it feels like Miu got the short end of the stick as far as the content of her route goes. I absolutely love her as a character (still can't decide between her and Erina in terms of my favorite Dracu Riot heroine :heh:), but her route ... simply isn't very good or memorable. It felt lacking a proper theme or noteworthy focus for the most part (unless we count Yuuto's uselessness on the romance front ... did I mention she also gets the most annoying romance plot ?), and then suddenly degenerated into overly exaggerated drama near the end with some completely over the top developments.
Rio's route on the other hand was simple and fluffy, which suits her character just fine. And they played upon those strengths quite well - a sweet and easy to digest experience; it might not have been very ambitious and thus didn't have the emotional punch and overall tension of Erina's route, but that also means it never had the opportunity to fall on it's face either (unlike Miu's route). It also helps that romance wise Yuuto managed himself surprisingly well.
So ... yeah. As much as I like Miu, I can't help but feel that she loses to Rio as an overall package. Miu >> Rio, but Rio + Rio's plot => Miu + Miu's plot, unfortunate as that might be :/
I blame the annoying romance at Miu's tsundere and Yuuto's donkan. Well my hatred against that arc-type is a bit biased :)
But for some weird reason when a tsundere is voiced by Ringo (Sayo in dracu-riot) I kinda like it.
They ended as a family. No good romantic development between the two.
Hitomi VN was never heavy on the romance, I would dare to say. Even the route of the classmate wasn't that "normal", iirc. Then again it's been many month since I played it, so my memory is hazy.
I based my statement around the outcome that the main realized he was a complete intolerable douchebag and decided to protect Hitomi in the good end when he spoke his mind about the messed-up family atmosphere to his father and stepmother(?). So yes, I agree that there wasn't a good romantic development, unless you count the last ecchi scene when they did it "normally".
Likewise with Crescendo. From a romance pov, there was a lot of anxiety (not necessarily a bad thing, though) in *most* of the routes, especially Ayame and Yuka. IMHO, the most normal route was Kyoko's.
@Dracu-Riot - Miu: I can see the dissatisfaction with her late-game drama, but for me it was, despite being overblown, quite entertaining (if only for the last CG after it was resolved :p). Maybe I just appreciate dramas that don't give me the urge to punch my screen or make me want to strangle the MC in annoyance :heh:.
Still enjoying Mashiro-iro PSP. Of course, Airi is and has remained as my must-have route to complete first (while skipping through all of Sana's b1tching) :D. The common route changes felt nice, even though Yuzuki seems a bit getting-used-to at first.
I blame the annoying romance at Miu's tsundere and Yuuto's donkan. Well my hatred against that arc-type is a bit biased :)
But for some weird reason when a tsundere is voiced by Ringo (Sayo in dracu-riot) I kinda like it.
I honestly don't think Miu can be classified as tsundere, she is actually quite straightforward with showing her affection and intentions. (And this is coming from someone who hates the tsundere archetype with a passion intense enough to rival a star going supernova :heh:).
Pretty much the only time when she didn't immediately come out with her feelings (she did so eventually though because of how useless Yuuto was) was straight after the fact she figured out she likes him, and that's mostly because Yuuto didn't seem to display any special interest in her (the present shopping ...urgh).
Not shouting her heart out the next day after figuring out her feelings, when the guy doesn't display any indication of being romantically inclined towards her (and thus no reason to expect a positive result), doesn't really make her a tsundere. Rest of the time Miu is almost brutally honest about what she thinks and borderline wears her heart on her sleeve. Which leads to some endearing bashfulness given the image of maturity she tries (and often fails :heh:) to portray. And that is what made her so likable to me.
@Dracu-Riot - Miu: I can see the dissatisfaction with her late-game drama, but for me it was, despite being overblown, quite entertaining (if only for the last CG after it was resolved :p). Maybe I just appreciate dramas that don't give me the urge to punch my screen or make me want to strangle the MC in annoyance :heh:
The issue I had with Miu's late route drama was how poorly it was built up. It borderline came out of the blue and didn't really feel connected to what the route had been about up to that point. It didn't make me want to punch my screen, not even close (thankfully, I'm quite fond of my screen :heh:), but it certainly stirred the urge to shake my head in disbelief.
The route mostly revolved around investigating the new drug and Yuuto's lycantrope factor, and IMO they should have stuck with that. Especially after Yuuto's nature was exposed during his kidnapping incident - it was the perfect time to capitalize on all that buildup and Yuuto's personal insecurities regarding the issue.
But instead we suddenly (and by suddenly I mean lacking proper buildup or even foreshadowing) have building vampire riot and then spec ops troops start blowing up the city and evil government clique, which literally appears out of the blue, plans on nuking the whole island along with all the humans living there and be done with it. Suddenly the world is ending! WTF, where did all that come from! 0_o
It's like the writers suddenly realized they are not happy with the fairly localized Lycantrope drama and decided to go out guns blazing instead. Except the buildup was sorely lacking for drama of the scale they brought out (the bigger the better, apparently :heh:) and very much out of touch with the themes Miu's route had been building up.
There is nothing wrong with absolutely evil governments with itchy trigger fingers and willing to sink the whole city. But there is something wrong with introducing such an angle 15 minutes before the route's end, without any real foreshadowing of said group's existence or extreme stance. It was drama of the most "epic" scale the writers could come up with (for the sake of having an "epic" finale I guess), almost literally pulled out from a hat.
And that's my issue with the ending - not the scale of it in itself, but the fact something of such a scale was literally dropped on us from the blue. The route was very much okay prior to this, but what they did during the home stretch honestly felt unnecessary and somewhat soured the overall impression.
Wow, I almost forgot, this is like my tenth anniversary of visual novel reading (never can remember the exact day, but I do know it was in April 2002). I can't believe how much time has passed :heh:
Ah, here's to a silent toast for myself. To ten years of bishoujos and slapsticks!
*waiting patiently for the next game to fall under my scrutiny*
Cosmic Eagle
2012-04-15, 02:13
Time sure flies.....
Been...wow, 5 years since I read Ef....the first Japanese thing I ever read alongside the Shana LNs...
I can't believe Ef is actually getting old...feels so weird
relentlessflame
2012-04-15, 14:11
I honestly don't think Miu can be classified as tsundere, she is actually quite straightforward with showing her affection and intentions. (And this is coming from someone who hates the tsundere archetype with a passion intense enough to rival a star going supernova :heh:).
Pretty much the only time when she didn't immediately come out with her feelings (she did so eventually though because of how useless Yuuto was) was straight after the fact she figured out she likes him, and that's mostly because Yuuto didn't seem to display any special interest in her (the present shopping ...urgh).
Not shouting her heart out the next day after figuring out her feelings, when the guy doesn't display any indication of being romantically inclined towards her (and thus no reason to expect a positive result), doesn't really make her a tsundere. Rest of the time Miu is almost brutally honest about what she thinks and borderline wears her heart on her sleeve. Which leads to some endearing bashfulness given the image of maturity she tries (and often fails :heh:) to portray. And that is what made her so likable to me. Received the game earlier this week so now I can actually participate!
I'm actually not sure if I would call Miu a tsundere or not. I can see why some would see her that way, but I can also see why you would say she isn't. Incidentally, I haven't made it to the end of the route yet, so can only speak about what I've seen so far (I'm guessing I may be 2/3 of the way through?)
I think the big thing is the way she sort of runs her mouth as part of her quest to look "mature" (like some weird sort of pride?). So for example, she's constantly giving Yuuto lip about being a good-for-nothing virgin, and seems to be constantly putting him down. But at the same time, she says this even though she's fallen head-over-heels in love with him. In one sentence she'll say "you're such a hopeless loser", and the next she'll say "but I can't stand when we're apart". Maybe she thinks the fact she's fallen in love with Yuuto is an indictment on herself? :heh: This is also coupled with the fact that she's ultra-easily embarrassed so puts on a "cold front" to hide her feelings. Goes back to the thing at the very beginning of her route where Yuuto accuses her of being a sadist, and she says she's actually a masochist; the way she talks him down makes it seem like she's on a power trip, but she's really not. It's just a sort of teasing.
I guess, rather than a tsundere, you could call her a "tough cookie". Maybe part of that goes with the job. The center is really "soft" though for sure; the way she constantly fails at acting mature and blushes after saying any dirty word is totally endearing and cute.All in all, my impression of the game so far is that I like the characters and the interactions, but as I suspected I'm not as interested by the plot/setting as I was for some of the previous Yuzusoft games. Also, the "vampire power" part of the plot (particularly Yuuto's ability) reminds me a lot of Kamikaze Explorer, but I guess that makes sense given that it's a lot of the same writers. I think my favourite character in the game so far is actually Erina, but we'll see if that changes by the time I've finished everything. All in all, my initial ranking would say this is a solid "base hit" for Yuzusoft -- maybe not an all-time great, but definitely solid and recommendable (particularly if you look more for fun characters than "serious plot" -- there is a plot, but I'd say it's not the star).
Received the game earlier this week so now I can actually participate!
I think the big thing is the way she sort of runs her mouth as part of her quest to look "mature" (like some weird sort of pride?). So for example, she's constantly giving Yuuto lip about being a good-for-nothing virgin, and seems to be constantly putting him down. But at the same time, she says this even though she's fallen head-over-heels in love with him. In one sentence she'll say "you're such a hopeless loser", and the next she'll say "but I can't stand when we're apart". Maybe she thinks the fact she's fallen in love with Yuuto is an indictment on herself? :heh: This is also coupled with the fact that she's ultra-easily embarrassed so puts on a "cold front" to hide her feelings. Goes back to the thing at the very beginning of her route where Yuuto accuses her of being a sadist, and she says she's actually a masochist; the way she talks him down makes it seem like she's on a power trip, but she's really not. It's just a sort of teasing.
I guess, rather than a tsundere, you could call her a "tough cookie". Maybe part of that goes with the job. The center is really "soft" though for sure; the way she constantly fails at acting mature and blushes after saying any dirty word is totally endearing and cute.All in all, my impression of the game so far is that I like the characters and the interactions, but as I suspected I'm not as interested by the plot/setting as I was for some of the previous Yuzusoft games. Also, the "vampire power" part of the plot (particularly Yuuto's ability) reminds me a lot of Kamikaze Explorer, but I guess that makes sense given that it's a lot of the same writers. I think my favourite character in the game so far is actually Erina, but we'll see if that changes by the time I've finished everything. All in all, my initial ranking would say this is a solid "base hit" for Yuzusoft -- maybe not an all-time great, but definitely solid and recommendable (particularly if you look more for fun characters than "serious plot" -- there is a plot, but I'd say it's not the star).
Aye, I guess you could call her a (wannabe) tough cookie, she certainly is constantly trying to appear as mature. I guess it doesn't really annoy me though because of how see-through she is, and she never takes it too far, nor does she remain in denial when called on it - instead of doing the typical tsundere thing and trying to verbally weasel herself out of an embarrassing situation, she just ends it with her "U-ru-sai-i!" line, which might as well be a concession on her part that she was cornered :heh:
It sort of feels like fun and games on her part, rather than a serious aspect of her personality - and thankfully one that doesn't intrude upon her expressing her affection towards Yuuto. Yeah, she might toss out the virgin line from time to time, but like you say, the next sentence will be a honest and soft one. There were many cases after they started going out when I expected her to take a "defiant" stance, but instead got honesty without much pretense.
The whole virgin thing pretty much became a running joke between them I believe, considering she continued using it even after they had done the deed more than once. With Yuuto's typical response being "I'm not a virgin any longer, you should be the first to know that!" :heh:
So ... yeah. She might be a bit of a roundabout tease at times (in small dosages) and tries to put on airs (in a not very serious manner) at others, but neither really lasts, nor do these actions infringe upon her ability to be quite mushy and affectionate at any given time. Which is why I can't consider her a tsundere - she lacks the typical dishonesty of one, comedic banter aside, and is rather very open when it goes beyond poking fun and cracking jokes. (Or being genuinely angry I guess :heh:)
Other than that, I'm not surprised you like Erina - as has been said before, she and Miu rather stand out among the rest of the cast indeed. If your experience follows mine, you will like her route as well - it certainly did a better job at exploring the characters and making me feel for them than Miu's route did, not to mention a plot with better pacing and consistency to it's themes.
Will be interesting to see what you think of some of the final developments (plot wise) of Miu's route.
IMHO:
The strong point of Erina's route is that it managed to build up a balanced mix of humour and seriousness/drama, even though the latter part would be debatable :D.
Whereas Miu's route tried to be too serious and/or uneasyness-creating. Common words in her route: Doutei , urusai, hetare. To put it friendly, if not for Miu's adorable character, I dare to say her route wouldn't be "worth" it. She's the initator of the relationship + the main voice of reason for Yuuto (during the drama).
A non-spoiler opinion about her "extra story" aka let's-find-a-reason-to-give-ecchi-without-being-too-obvious: OMG what a pain in the behind. Good job Yuuto for being even there romantically-useless. Yes, I mostly ctrl-skipped through it. I mean, would it have really been too much to give them a cute non-donkan, non-BS rabu-rabu time in her extra story? Exaggerated, it felt like a small part died inside of me :heh:
Cosmic Eagle
2012-04-16, 05:53
I just realized I should try Eden* some time....Minori work has to be good.
Anyone played?
Someone else can answer better because I slept through the majority of reading that...
At least it was pretty.
relentlessflame
2012-04-16, 15:01
Will be interesting to see what you think of some of the final developments (plot wise) of Miu's route.Finished it last night (though I really shouldn't have stayed up that late :heh: ).
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 :heh: -- 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! :heh: ), but I've sort of come to expect that from Yuzusoft.
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.
And yeah, having played the story to the end, Miu's "tsundere"-ness definitely gets less and less to the point where it's basically just a sort of teasing game she plays -- sort of banter between the two. And in a way it's sort of endearing, since it reminds them of where they started and how far they've come. I guess I'd say she's like an ultra-mild version of Hitagi Senjougahara -- she talks big, but is actually as docile as they come, particularly to the person she loves.
All in all, I ended with a good impression of this route, which was helped by the really strong epilogue that tied everything together and gave a good sense of finality to the story. And, as was mentioned, it emphasizes again that this story's main strength is its cast and dynamic between them. If this had been the last route I'd played, I would have been sad to say goodbye, but thankfully still some routes to go. Looks like I'm playing in the same order as everyone else; Erina is next.
Finished it last night (though I really shouldn't have stayed up that late :heh: ).
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 :heh: -- 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! :heh: ), but I've sort of come to expect that from Yuzusoft.
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 :heh:).
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 LoveTM :heh:
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 :heh: 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 :heh:
relentlessflame
2012-04-16, 16:30
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 :heh:).
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.
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? :heh:
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. :p
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 :p.
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
2012-04-18, 12:41
So now, having finished Erina's route, it puts the rest of what you guys were saying about Miu's route into context.
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... :uhoh: :heh:
Anyway, don't have much more to say about it I guess. Very satisfying route from start to end. Now, on to Rio...
So now, having finished Erina's route, it puts the rest of what you guys were saying about Miu's route into context.
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... :uhoh: :heh:
Anyway, don't have much more to say about it I guess. Very satisfying route from start to end. Now, on to Rio...
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 :heh:
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! :heh: 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 :heh:
So now, having finished Erina's route, it puts the rest of what you guys were saying about Miu's route into context.
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... :uhoh: :heh:
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 :D. Although for me, I finished Erina's route first, after reaching ecchi 1 on all routes first to get a romance comparion.
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 :D.
Secondly, her very direct suggestion to have sex to turn the school rumours true when both of them were being kept at home temporarily :heh:.
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 :heh:
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
2012-04-18, 15:05
I am ready to start MonsterGirlQuest 2.
Is there any way to import something from part 1, or do you just jump into it?
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
2012-04-18, 15:30
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! :heh: 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 :heh:
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.
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.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.
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.
So now, having finished Erina's route, it puts the rest of what you guys were saying about Miu's route into context.
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... :uhoh: :heh:
It's like Renai 0 km.
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. :p
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.
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
2012-04-18, 15:56
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. :heh:
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.
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. :heh:
relentlessflame
2012-04-18, 16:35
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. :heh: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. :heh: )
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 :p
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
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.
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. :heh:
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).
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.
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 :heh:
@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.
@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.
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
2012-04-18, 19:58
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.... :heh:
Edit: 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. :heh:
Key Board
2012-04-19, 01:15
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
2012-04-19, 01:28
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.
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