2010-02-03, 14:59 | Link #1 |
NePoi!
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Ontario, Canada
Age: 44
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Muv-Luv Franchise - Game & General Discussion
Following on from the stories told in Kimi ga Nozomu Eien and Akane Maniax, the Muv-Luv franchise takes things into a wide and growing range of, one might say, Alternative directions!
The stories of Muv-Luv are spread over a range of timelines and settings. The first of the two universes shown in the original game is Extra - which starts the day after the events of Akane Maniax finish. In this reality, things seem somewhat normal, or at least as 'normal' as a Japanese high school setting in anime seems to be... Yet, it is the second half of the original game, Unlimited, where things really start to get interesting. Rather than the relative peace (in Japan, at least) which one found in Extra, this world has been slowly ground down by a full-scale alien invasion, launched by a collection of life forms known to humanity as BETA. It is here where the Senjutsuhokousentouki (or Senjutsuki for short) - i.e. the mechs which help to define the franchise - are introduced. The next game, Alternative, jumps to a second war-ravaged timeline. This is the world which has formed the basis of the range of spinoff stories - for example, while Alternative is mainly set in Japan, Total Eclipse is set in Alaska, while The Euro Front is, as its name suggests, in Western Europe. After Alternative comes Altered Fable, which goes to a timeline which looks more like the peaceful world shown back in Extra. So far, unlike Extra/Unlimited and Alternative, Altered Fable does not seem to have an all-ages version, though I could be wrong (and there may or may not be such a version, if you'd want one, along sooner or later anyway.) Included with Altered Fable, however, is the introduction to one of the side-stories previously mentioned - Total Eclipse. This story has been running in Tech Gian and published as a series of novels for a while now, and shows no sign of stopping. The second notable side-story is The Euro Front - which has been updated in Hobby Japan each month. One of the notable aspects of this world is the range of Senjutsuki shown here, as opposed to those elsewhere on the planet. (In this setting, many of the mechs are named after 'real' warplanes, and are intended to echo them design-wise. TEF includes units based on the real-life Eurofighter Typhoon and Dassault Rafale, compared to the craft of Japanese, Russian and American origin elsewhere.) There are a few other side-stories, too - some of which are previewed in this video - though it seems that TE and TEF are the ones to watch in terms of future development. There's been a range of other merchandise released, too. Mitsurugi Meiya, one of the leading ladies of Muv-Luv, has been released in Figma form. Her signature mech, as well as a load of others from Alternative, Total Eclipse and The Euro Front, have been made by Volks, in their A3 line. (Damn, I wish that black EF-2000 wasn't an exclusive...) Plus, there are a few background books, not least Integral Works - which looks pretty neat... Oh, and there's a Japanese-language wiki for the Alternative timeline, too. (On the TE page, it says there will be an all-ages release of that story released in 2010, but I'm not sure where the source for that comes from, so...) And one other thing: Both the original Muv-Luv game (incorporating Extra and Unlimited) and Muv-Luv Alternative have an English translation project in the works. So, have you already acquainted yourself with the Muv-Luv multiverse (Muv-tiverse?), or are you still wondering what all the fuss is about?
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Last edited by Nerroth; 2010-02-03 at 18:01. |
2010-02-05, 13:32 | Link #2 |
Senior Member
Author
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: USA
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I remember seeing KGNE and was blown away. Then I looked into Maniax and was like "...nah."
Then I read that exact wiki page a couple years ago and basically my reaction was (and I'm precise with the number of each punctuation here) "???????!"
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2010-02-05, 14:11 | Link #3 |
NePoi!
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Ontario, Canada
Age: 44
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Which brings me to a point which stands out for me here, compared to other franchises I know.
If one looks at stories from, say, Type-Moon, the kind of details, events and supernatural creatures involved may differ, but the underlying connection to the broader Nasuverse is still present - or rather, it's present in terms of going into a story and expecting the unexpected, as it were. To put it another way, Fate/Stay Night is a very different story to Tsukihime, but if someone told you they are in the same broader setting, it wouldn't be that hard to imagine it so. In this case, however, neither Kiminozo nor Akane Maniax - nor, indeed, Muv-Luv Extra - give much in the way of clues as to what other timelines are out there... or that these are all somehow connected. (Of course, that was part of the point - you weren't supposed to know until they suckered you with it. At this point, however, I think it's safe to say the cat is well and truly out of the bag.) If you went into one game/anime/manga/etc expecting a certain kind of story, seeing things go in such a direction might seem more jarring to some. I don't mind it, personally, as you might have guessed, but I can understand if others did.
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2011-04-02, 19:47 | Link #8 |
Mahjong Triple Pro
Join Date: Sep 2006
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Alternative is the most spectacular visual novel I've ever played. 10/10, 100/100, 10000/10000 - one can't call it anything less than a Masterpiece. It needs a lot of investment in watching KGNE, Akane Maniax and then playing Extra and Unlimited, but it was well worth it.
I'm ruined for anime/manga, it can offer me nothing more after playing Alternative.
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2012-03-17, 08:39 | Link #11 | |
灼眼の
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Look up. I am hanging from your celing
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They're still remaking the kimi nozomu universe and muv-luv games endlessly I think rather than new ones.
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2012-05-09, 00:43 | Link #13 |
Member
Join Date: Jul 2009
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By the way - english translation of MLA prequel "Schwarzesmarken"`s first chapter from Mister V is here:
http://xmistervx.blogspot.com/ Promising story about DDR pilots fighting BETA in 1983, 18 years before The Day of Alternative IV with art from CARNELIAN. What a pity that we have raw scans only for first chapter that was published in Tech Gian! |
2012-05-28, 16:23 | Link #15 |
Storm Vanguard
Graphic Designer
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Type-00
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Muv-Luv general thread, huh? Anything Muv-Luv related? Does that mean we can discuss the other series outside of the main trilogy? Just double-checking to make sure. >:3
On the side note, there sure have been a lot of TE figures being released as of late. Who else is hoping for GSC releasing more figures of the characters in their eishi suit? I sure am. I'd do anything for a Yuzuka, Irisdina, or Yui eishi suit pvc. T^T |
2012-06-17, 13:43 | Link #16 |
ヒットハード&高速
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Scanning...
Age: 38
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I don't know if this is the right thread or not but did anyone else noticed this:
I really wish this gets finished, i don't even need a story just fighting swarms of beta in an actual TSF suffices for me XD.
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2012-06-25, 11:12 | Link #18 |
ヒットハード&高速
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Scanning...
Age: 38
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Found quite a gem of a video it really makes you remember all the good parts of the series:
*DO NOT WATCH IF YOU HAVEN'T PLAYED THROUGH THE ORIGINAL MUV-LUV AND MUV-LUV ATERNATIVE VISUAL NOVELS CONTAINS SPOILERS*
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2012-06-25, 15:54 | Link #20 | ||
Forever Young
Join Date: Jun 2012
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eroge, military science fiction, yuimoto |
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