General Eroge Impressions & Discussion

[johnishida]

Originally Posted by Mahou

I played it only for the CGs and characters . An interesting plot is for me only half-important and serves more as an (great) supplement. That being said, I was kinda sad that there was no Ririko route available. Yeah the silent jealousy with only "Nghhh" from the girls was always enjoyable

Yes, no Ruriko route in the original game is killing me and there's still no release date for the fandisc >_<

2) Sakura Strasse: Finally done with Marie's route. The subtitle of "Eine Liebesgeschichte in der Sakura Strasse" (A love story in Sakura street) was for Marie a bit too misleading. I hated the main lead in the first half of the game. And even post-confession you had too much BS and drama going on. Her ending + conclusion was lovely, but could have been done less painfully overall.
I'm wary in playing the other routes due to the steady drama waves >_<

Sakura Strasse is from the same team that did Hareten. That should give an idea of how the rest of the routes should be like.

3) With savegame: Nanatsu no Fushigi no owaru toki:
Done with Misaki, Elis, Fumi and the true route.

Spoiler for Above-mentioned routes:

True route: I don't know how to explain it, but lately most True routes felt kinda lacking. I understand that they focus on the overall story than deciding on a "True" end girl. That being said, it was okay. Everything resolved smoothly and all, but the subtle hints of Nanaho as the "true" girl coupled with the ending bits were just meh. It ended where I was left scratching my head and thought "That was it?" Don't know what I would have expected, though. I assumed that the school head was Nanaho's copy as soon as I completed Misaki's route, so it was a nice "surprise" that I was correct for a change

Fumi: Her romance felt more of a 2nd element in her route, but was itsef quite sweet. Tomo's way to resolve the grand final was very powerful feeling-wise and the "epilogue" twist with Fumi also having kept her memory was lovely.

Misaki: Outside of the main goal in searching the watches, her romance felt quite normal in a positive way. The grand final with the poker game between Tomo and the student president was okay-ish. The sub-drama of Misaki's feelings was meh. I've seen that already elsewhere so not much to comment.

Elis: Better than expected. The growing romance between Tomo and her coupled with the master plan of Hyokou and Harumachi was nice for my taste. I somehow expected that Hyokou (sorry for misspelling) had her own route as well, but whatever. Anyway, Elis grand final-choice was harsh and I'm glad that she herself was ultimately not happy with it either.

Go play Nanaho's route. True end was more Tomo's route than anything else. Nanaho's route also has some nice romace, IMO.

I agree with Fumi's route not having enough romance but, I still enjoyed how the writers decides to focus on a different aspect of the misteries so, I can forgive them.

Misaki's and Elis' route were quite entertaining despite the cliche developments. Lots of romance which is always a plus!

4) 77 ~ and two stars meet again ~ : Yes, I have kinda a weak spot for Whirlpools VNs even though Suzukaze's True route was still the best handled in comparison to 77 and Lunaris Filia. I liked Lulu's route or generally the whole main story plot line of the "Destiny Tower". It had just a soothing and calm atmosphere .

Sevens still gives me nightmares with it's crazy amounts of junk dialogue, descriptions and scenes. Because of how mediocre I found this game I lost my faith in Whirpool. At least Suzukaze was better and I have yet to play Lunaris Fillia.

[Balzac]

Originally Posted by Soviet

Depends on what you would consider disappointing.
Majikoi S is pretty much 90% kinky sex. I like me some Majikoi girls so I think it's great.

Yup, yup, and I'm hoping for closure to some of the other heroines if there are after-stories.


By disappointing I meant no meaningful slapstick hijinks to record, and that is purely a matter of personal preference. I think some folks dig the moe more which Koisora's had a lot of.


Edit: To add, I will most certainly be not looking forward to the fight scenes that seemed to go on and on in the original game, which I have a good idea will be featured in Majikoi's fandisc. CTRL-dozer go!

[Crimrui]

Did anyone play Appare! Tenka Gomen? Can't find much info about it and by the looks of the design, it looks really gorgeous. Reminds me of Koihime Musou. I'm guessing it's another harem, although I hope that the guy has a bit of self control when it comes to girls. Not really a fan of those ''gotta score them all'' types.

[velocity7]

According to Getchu ranking, WA2 still maintained 5th place for the month of January.

Also, a Japanese blog mentions that there were hints about a fandisc, soundtrack, etc. in the mention for WA2 in Gemaga March 2012 issue. Though there were only 4 pages...

[Mahou]

Originally Posted by johnishida

1) Sakura Strasse is from the same team that did Hareten. That should give an idea of how the rest of the routes should be like.



2) Go play Nanaho's route. True end was more Tomo's route than anything else. Nanaho's route also has some nice romace, IMO.

I agree with Fumi's route not having enough romance but, I still enjoyed how the writers decides to focus on a different aspect of the misteries so, I can forgive them.

Misaki's and Elis' route were quite entertaining despite the cliche developments. Lots of romance which is always a plus!



3) Sevens still gives me nightmares with it's crazy amounts of junk dialogue, descriptions and scenes. Because of how mediocre I found this game I lost my faith in Whirpool. At least Suzukaze was better and I have yet to play Lunaris Fillia.

1) I guess I should start to pay more attention to the developer team in Pallet's case I'll try the other routes mostly when my mind is ready for it, I think.
2) I agree! I liked what they did on Fumi's route with the mystery revelation and as I mentioned before the "grand final" with Tomo's plan was awesome. I simply tend to be too narrow-minded as in focusing (mostly) on the romance .
Nanaho's route was lovely, but the seven mystery focus post-romance development was just not my taste. It had a too strange vibe to me.
3) I don't really mind medicore games as my jp. comprehension is not high enough to really be able to evalute the "full experience". But, I see your point.
@Lunaris Filia: Uhm, if you do not mind vampire + church/crusader combined with romance in a school setting, you can try it. Expect a main lead who will be left in the dark to 99 % of the time regarding the various vampire and church/crusader topics + secrets and his father who seems to know everything and more. You will be slowly introduced to the "true route" main girl during the 2nd+ playthroughs similar to Sevens, I guess.
But, in retrospec it might also fall under a "medicore"-score.

/is playing Kimi o aogi otome wa hime ni
It has a pure love story tag on vndb, so it should be quite to my liking.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by Mahou

@Lunaris Filia: Uhm, if you do not mind vampire + church/crusader combined with romance in a school setting, you can try it. Expect a main lead who will be left in the dark to 99 % of the time regarding the various vampire and church/crusader topics + secrets and his father who seems to know everything and more.

Yes, this really encapsulates the main problem I had with the plot in that game.

Spoiler for Lunaris Filia:

Pretty much all the tension from the plot could have been eliminated if they all just had a sit down at the very beginning and be like "okay, tell me everything you know". But instead, they only explain some bits when they get around to it, conveniently leaving other things out that get revealed later. I recognize this element is not an uncommon element of stories that have mysteries in them, but it's so over-used in this game I felt it was a bit silly. Well, that and the plot is so over-the-top harem for the common route; usually I don't mind those sorts of plot elements, but it depends on the execution. So yeah... I'd sort of have to agree with a "mediocre" rating all in all. I did like some of the characters and routes, but they still contained elements that I found a bit annoying.

Originally Posted by Mahou

/is playing Kimi o aogi otome wa hime ni
It has a pure love story tag on vndb, so it should be quite to my liking.

I quite liked Rin's route in that game, and also Maiki to some degree, both for the plot and the characters. I also quite liked the general themes of this game, particularly the contrast between home life and school life and some of the common route entanglements. I think the game definitely has some interesting ideas, at any rate. I wrote a review of it, if you're interested in reading more (though I do spoil some of the plot developments, so be warned).

[Mahou]

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

I quite liked Rin's route in that game, and also Maiki to some degree, both for the plot and the characters. I also quite liked the general themes of this game, particularly the contrast between home life and school life and some of the common route entanglements. I think the game definitely has some interesting ideas, at any rate. I wrote a review of it, if you're interested in reading more (though I do spoil some of the plot developments, so be warned).

I share most of your review impressions. Rins's route was nice and instead of heavy dramaload focused more on the regain of her self-confidence. Since I focus mostly on the lovey-dovey moments I found Maiki and Ayane's route in that regard slightly better. In the latter case both were mere open towards their dating-relationship or at least that was my perception. And in Maiki's route both the skit-scenes where they grew gradually closer to eachother + the ending was very, very sweet. And the theme of friendship from both Satoshi's family and his school friends was quite well done when they supported the end girl through her hardship(s).

What I found a bit annoying: When the VN reached the second half and the drama had already kicked in post-lover time both Satoshi and the girl-of-choice lacked a "great" deal of communication. It felt each bottled their feelings too much up for reasons I can logically see why they did it, but just didn't enjoy it. Sure, other VNs did the same, but here it seemed like more noticable or something like that.
And Satoshi could have been somehow more (pro)-active, except for the confession scenes which were nice. It felt like he mostly needed a push from the other characters to make a move even if he had had an idea of what's wrong/happened. Maybe it was like that due to his portayal of gentleness and now wanting to dig into possible inner wounds of the girl-of-choice.

[johnishida]

I'm done with Ritsuko's and Chiho's route in Princess Evangile. Like I said before these two heroines were the only reason I decided to read this eroge but, I may read the remaining routes for Rise and Ayaka someday in the near future.

Since I just read two routes I can't give a complete impression of the game but, from what I played Princess Evangile is just above average overall (7.5/10). Plot is generic and is not really interesting but, that's to be expected since this game is all about the characters and is there where the game shines.

Not only the heroines but also the side characters are all likable. During the common route they all get a chance for character development which is one of the parts I enjoyed the most. Interaction between the characters results in many funny situations. I found myself enjoying these more than the plot itself, always looking forward to the next development in the character relationships. These interactions not disappearing after the common route was also another part I liked about this game.

My favorite heroines is Ritsuko and out of the two routes I played her is my favorite.

My greatest complain about the game is the drama which is exaggerated and plain annoying. Thankfully these dramatic moments don't drag too much.

Princess Evangile may not be the best game out there but, it's still really entertaining and enjoyable if you don't mind the generic plot and drama. If you are looking for a chara-ge with comedy and romance this one has lots of it. There also a fandisc coming out this year with routes for the side-characters. Looking forward to Ruriko's route!

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by johnishida

My greatest complain about the game is the drama which is exaggerated and plain annoying. Thankfully these dramatic moments don't drag too much.

Totally agree with your impressions of the game, and agree that this point was the main downfall for me too. The characters are all great, including the sub-characters, so as you say: the fandisk will be great. As always, this author creates great characters and fun character interactions. But man that drama. The funny thing is that there are a number of characters in the game that are pitched as antagonists and end up being rather well-developed and even sympathetic. But the antagonists in the routes proper are so over-the-top evil that there is no redemption for them, and there ultimately doesn't seem to be much point to the drama other than to put a roadblock in the way. Because it doesn't really develop the main characters all that much, and you know that somehow it has to all work out in the end, it just feels like a waste of time. If you can overlook that, the rest of the game is pretty good given its genre/style.

[hyl]

There is a psp port of Princess Evangile coming out in 2 months. I have no idea if it's a direct port (minus the h-scenes of course) or if it has something new added though.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by hyl

There is a psp port of Princess Evangile coming out in 2 months. I have no idea if it's a direct port (minus the h-scenes of course) or if it has something new added though.

It looks like it contains the same four routes, with a new OP and some new CG to make up for all the removed ones. So yeah, basically a straight port, and the new content will come in the fandisk.

[Mahou]

I forgot: I tried playing WLO - World Love Organization by Akabee Soft. But, somehow it hasn't been that appealing. The whole reason of why the main and his osananajimi are acting so strange to eachother just didn't feel quite impactful. Not to say that the reason why the WLO is helping in the first place is very bland even though the idea itsef of an organization actively helping to get people (romantically) together isn't *that* bad Kinda unfortunate as I loved Sharin no Kuni and Kourin no Machi was also well enough.

@Princess Evangile: The drama annoyed the heck out of me. Ignoring the girl's individual drama there was - for my taste - even too much of it in the common route. To be fair, maybe not directly drama, but "suspense"-feeling situations. As soon as one problem was settled, the following started to jump in one's face in - at times - even the next chapter.
Still, I liked Rise and cannot wait for the fandisc in order to see Ruriko's route. I hope it will be a non-drama route seeing that she had her share of it already during the common route to a certain degree.

[Balzac]

W.L.O. had one of the most decent (to me) character development in an eroge during the past five years and one of the rare eroge that actually showcase the children of the protagonist and his chosen in a fluffy situation.


(And I'm not just saying this because I liked that game's huge soundtrack and the varied, tempered comedic hijinks)


That Majikoi fandisc better be here by next week, or I'll be breaking something.

[hyl]

There is a small teaser in the colorfull sinfonia booklet from Tsubasu Izumi for a new pallete project.
So I am assuming that Tsubasu is doing the art for their latest eroge.


edit: because i suck at taking pictures and i didn't want to fold my book (it's pretty thick for it's size), you can't fully see : "New title coming soon" "presented by Pallete"

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by hyl

There is a small teaser in the colorfull sinfonia booklet from Tsubasu Izumi for a new pallete project.
So I am assuming that Tsubasu is doing the art for their latest eroge.

Yup, that was revealed not too long ago in a magazine... Comptiq, I think. They also said that the new project would not be a Mashiro-iro fandisk or port-back, which I still wish for, but I'm looking forward to seeing what the new project will be about.

[Mahou]

Originally Posted by Balzac

W.L.O. had one of the most decent (to me) character development in an eroge during the past five years and one of the rare eroge that actually showcase the children of the protagonist and his chosen in a fluffy situation.


(And I'm not just saying this because I liked that game's huge soundtrack and the varied, tempered comedic hijinks)

Oh, I will not refute that. Given, I have only played into Aisa's route so far up to after the first steamy scene, but I must commend Akabeesoft for the very nice confession + first kiss scene. It set off the mood fantastically. I'm also interested in Arisa's route because her characters seems fun.
So far I haven't played a VN which I would have regretted to have completed. After all, I'm quite and very easy to satisfy as I mentioned before

EDIT: I completed 3/4 routes in My Girlfriend is the president. Wow, quite the hilarious experience in a positive way . Yukino and Irina's route were so "HNGH!!!" that I thought my heart could stop. And even though it was a close call Irina's route outedged Yukino's ultimately. The former had simply the better epilogue to boot. In terms of lovey-dovey both were abosolutely lovely, but Yukino's epilogue was too stupid and thus a big downer. All before was great with many memorable moments.
I liked how Junichiro was one of the active protagonists, but his ero-jokes and joking sexual harrasments grew annyoing by the end.

[Balzac]

Some negatives:

In the trunk, the protagonist is hopelessly spineless and indecisive.

At some points, the "chapters" focus on the inner workings of the sub-characters and are like mini-stories in themselves. (like the members of WLO/NOA and the whole robot thing) I remember them almost having nothing to do with the chosen route at hand.

For me, nosebleed girl got a bit too much after the fifth gushing

[Mahou]

Finished Houmi's route of Strawberry Nauts a moment ago. First off: It's logical that similar to SugirlyWish you could not expect some kind of story. It's really nothing more of a usual school life followed by fluff post-confession. Not bad itself, but depends of course heavily on each's individual preference. Loverable was similar and it was very enjoyable for a purely-sweet-romance VN.
Likewise, the protagonist of Strawberry Nauts is as generic as he can be. Donkan at the highest level, skilled in cooking and the usual nice guy. He realizes the word "love" apparently only after the girl-of-choice (here Houmi) confessed directly, which - for me - is even for this archetype rather poorly done.

@Houmi: I loved her character and thus it was a "must-have" as the first choice to complete her route. Overall: Totally loveable, huggable, and sugary cute like there's no tomorrow
Where's the drawback?

Spoiler for just to be safe:

The time travel part. It didn't really fit in a Hooksoft title IMHO, but I only played SugirlyWish before. I suspected it as soon as her child-self was introduced, though. Still it was "meh". For instance: The part where Houmi said they both met 10 years ago and she has loved him since that time. Why were there no scenes where Seitarou remembers it? Every other protagonist would have had a flashback at one point in time at least =/

[Balzac]

Fuhahaha!~

Finally got Majikoi S and proceeded to arm the CTRL-Dozer. As expected, the very first scenes hit me with the one thing I dreaded from the original game: the fight scenes. Smash, skip, smash, well, at least for the fists swinging part and not during actual lull in battle.

It's a treat hearing new voices, some of which I recognize, but man, the plot of the new heroines' trunk gets very nonsensical. I mean, clones? I smell a Star Wars vibe incoming.

I went after the one most interesting, Monshiro (and no, I'm not like Jun), and it was refreshing to see the protagonist actually has a brain when he can apply himself, getting into the honors' class after some work, though in my opinion, he's extremely OOC in doing so.

I then went to check on an after story: namely Yukie's, and as expected, it was purely in a format to deliver sex scenes as believably as possible. No actual significant story involved, just getting introduced to the younger sister and that's that.

I'm betting I have time to edit this in with final impressions before the next post! I'm working on a very good pace!

[Hooves]

So basically, S is just a skip to interesting parts?