General Eroge Impressions & Discussion

[Tong]

Originally Posted by Cosmic Eagle

Very. Go play. Both Zanma and Kishin

Hmm, I shall someday.

Now weird question guys/gals. Do you think that eroge scenes help to improve that ability irl?

[johnishida]

Done with Mizuki's route from Hareten. Maybe it's just me but, felt like it didn't belong to this game. Like it happened in a parallel universe. The route itself was fine, neither good nor bad.

Spoiler for Mizuki's Route:

Honestly, I found her "common route" better than her route. She may had behave like a selfless b*tch towards Kanae with her "wish" and all but, that's actually why I liked it. That was a lot better than being indecisive all the time or just giving up her feelings like she was planning to do in the beginning. She was also feeling guilty and in the end apologized to Kanae so I can forgive her.

This is just personal preference but, would have liked for Kanae to show a bit of disdain towards Mizuki before forgiving her but, I guess it would have felt out of character...

The route itself had absolutely no foreshadowing of the drama surrounding it. Simply came out of nowhere which is why it felt out of place for me.
The plot for the route was fine and I was able to relate to Mizuki's feelings of guilt until the author took it too far with the chocolate girl and Mizuki's father.
Another part I didn't like were the timing of her h-scenes. The main driving forces behind them were "jealousy", "guiltiness" and "self-loathing". Normally I would not mind this but, I think is worth mentioning because, to me, it felt they did it for the wrong reasons...
Loli Mizuki not disappearing was a nice twist, where's my 3P?

Mizuki herself was cute during her ichacha moments and everyone's reactions were really funny. Yuuya was more bearable in this route than in Ayane's as well.

[Cosmic Eagle]

Originally Posted by hyl

Eventhough SoniComi is not an eroge, but a regurlar VN though.

Well it's still cute....and has that Idolmaster vibe....

so guess that's why it's so popular...

[Hooves]

Idolm@ster, The World God Only Know's Kanon, etc.

The idol hype has expanded with recent anime releases that it certainly reached Nitro+.

[Mahou]

Originally Posted by johnishida

Done with Mizuki's route from Hareten. Maybe it's just me but, felt like it didn't belong to this game. Like it happened in a parallel universe. The route itself was fine, neither good nor bad.

Spoiler for Mizuki's Route:

Honestly, I found her "common route" better than her route. She may had behave like a selfless b*tch towards Kanae with her "wish" and all but, that's actually why I liked it. That was a lot better than being indecisive all the time or just giving up her feelings like she was planning to do in the beginning. She was also feeling guilty and in the end apologized to Kanae so I can forgive her.

This is just personal preference but, would have liked for Kanae to show a bit of disdain towards Mizuki before forgiving her but, I guess it would have felt out of character...

The route itself had absolutely no foreshadowing of the drama surrounding it. Simply came out of nowhere which is why it felt out of place for me.
The plot for the route was fine and I was able to relate to Mizuki's feelings of guilt until the author took it too far with the chocolate girl and Mizuki's father.
Another part I didn't like were the timing of her h-scenes. The main driving forces behind them were "jealousy", "guiltiness" and "self-loathing". Normally I would not mind this but, I think is worth mentioning because, to me, it felt they did it for the wrong reasons...
Loli Mizuki not disappearing was a nice twist, where's my 3P?

Mizuki herself was cute during her ichacha moments and everyone's reactions were really funny. Yuuya was more bearable in this route than in Ayane's as well.

I share your sentiment!

Spoiler for Mizuki:

The drama left me with a "=/"-feeling as soon as she first had the dream talk with child-Mizuki. I didn't like it when even I can predict stuff and her gradual distancing from Yuuya due to her "misfortune" made me slightly cringe. Also that she bottled up the whole deal for so long didn't sit well with me. The drama left a worse impression on me because I had decided to finish her route first.
As for Chibi-Mizuki not disappearing: It felt a bit anticlimatic due to the built-up for it when the whole child-confession scene was brought up in an altered way, but the former method of showing the whole scene from each point of view was nice. For that I liked the firework scene as soon as you chose to visit her and the few lovey-dovey moments.
As for her common route: It was good how they pulled off how she really didn't have any innate romance feelings (disregarding that those were sealed off due to the childhood events) and how she was questioning herself. In exchange disliked the anxiety parts at the end of the fake-date as well as when Mizuki witnessed the "Seiki recharge kiss". I'm generally not fond of such happenings. Though Kaname's bound-to-fail plans to help the couple in the common route were funny, e. g. the horror movie idea whereas Kaname herself is really vulnearble to it as opposed to Mizuki

I'll wait for your Nazuna impression because I couldn't motivate myself to venture into her route. I found the point in time of the choice selection for it extremely badly chosen.

[johnishida]

Originally Posted by Mahou

I share your sentiment!

Spoiler for Mizuki:

The drama left me with a "=/"-feeling as soon as she first had the dream talk with child-Mizuki. I didn't like it when even I can predict stuff and her gradual distancing from Yuuya due to her "misfortune" made me slightly cringe. Also that she bottled up the whole deal for so long didn't sit well with me. The drama left a worse impression on me because I had decided to finish her route first.
As for Chibi-Mizuki not disappearing: It felt a bit anticlimatic due to the built-up for it when the whole child-confession scene was brought up in an altered way, but the former method of showing the whole scene from each point of view was nice. For that I liked the firework scene as soon as you chose to visit her and the few lovey-dovey moments.
As for her common route: It was good how they pulled off how she really didn't have any innate romance feelings (disregarding that those were sealed off due to the childhood events) and how she was questioning herself. In exchange disliked the anxiety parts at the end of the fake-date as well as when Mizuki witnessed the "Seiki recharge kiss". I'm generally not fond of such happenings. Though Kaname's bound-to-fail plans to help the couple in the common route were funny, e. g. the horror movie idea whereas Kaname herself is really vulnearble to it as opposed to Mizuki

I'll wait for your Nazuna impression because I couldn't motivate myself to venture into her route. I found the point in time of the choice selection for it extremely badly chosen.

Spoiler for Mizuki's route:

Yes, I too reacted quite indifferently when Chibi-Mizuki first appeared in Mizuki's dreams. I blame the lack of foreshadowing.
Yes, Mizuki not wanting to reveal anything was really annoying. I felt like the writer tried too hard to keep an atmosphere of suspense until the time for the grand reveal. Instead, we got some predictable drama that dragged too much for it's own good.

In retrospective I agree, it was anti-climatic that Chibi-Mizuki didn't disappear but, it makes sense. She is the representation of Mizuki's "love" after all, as long as she doesn't forget those feelings Chibi-Mizuki will not disappear. I also see it as a sign that, by accepting those feeling, Mizuki has overcome her trauma.

Yes, her "common route" was well done, indeed. The kiss scene was so cliche I didn't mind it and the rest was fun and interesting. Having a peek to the characters feelings is always a plus for me

Done with Nazuna's route! Overall it was better than Mizuki's but, Ayane's is still my favorite. Drama was handled better and the character development for Nazuna was good with Mizuki playing an important role on it.

@Mahou, why did you find the timing of the choice selection badly chosen? For me, there was no better timing.

Spoiler for Nazuna's route:

Common route was fine. Didn't expect Kotarou to be in love with Nazuna. Also, didn't see the point in having him compete with Yuuya since it was clear Nazuna will end up rejecting him no matter what. I guess it was meant to cause anxiety in Nazuna and have confess to Yuuya?

The second part was slightly better. Drama was all over the place with Yuuya being so indecisive. Liked how both Kanae and Nazuna took the initiative instead of just waiting for him, great way to have him realize it was time to make a decision.

Nazuna's route dealt with her feelings of wanting to keep Yuuya forever at her side. Those feelings took the form of a curse that kept her always "sick" so Yuuya would stay by her said nursing her. The incest part was also considered but played a minor role.

Resolution was well done with Nazuna overcoming her fears. Also, I really liked Mizuki's role in this route

[Mahou]

Originally Posted by johnishida

@Mahou, why did you find the timing of the choice selection badly chosen? For me, there was no better timing.

Spoiler for Nazuna's route:

Common route was fine. Didn't expect Kotarou to be in love with Nazuna. Also, didn't see the point in having him compete with Yuuya since it was clear Nazuna will end up rejecting him no matter what. I guess it was meant to cause anxiety in Nazuna and have confess to Yuuya?

The second part was slightly better. Drama was all over the place with Yuuya being so indecisive. Liked how both Kanae and Nazuna took the initiative instead of just waiting for him, great way to have him realize it was time to make a decision.

Nazuna's route dealt with her feelings of wanting to keep Yuuya forever at her side. Those feelings took the form of a curse that kept her always "sick" so Yuuya would stay by her said nursing her. The incest part was also considered but played a minor role.

Resolution was well done with Nazuna overcoming her fears. Also, I really liked Mizuki's role in this route

It's hard to precisely describe it. Maybe the whole anxiety parts throughout the game influenced my mood more than they should have. Or maybe it was my usual disdain of that it made sense in-game, but I just didn't prefer it anyways.

Spoiler for Nazuna + Kanae's common route:

Uhm ... let's see. I didn't like how they mashed together both common routes. It increased Yuuya's undececivness by an amount where I just thought "No, just no ". I know they had to deal with Nazuna as a romantic option, but the whole anxiety when she intended to do it with him + Kanae's drastic decision both in the classroom and afterwards to "offer" herself to him in order to relieve his sexual tension left a sour aftertaste in me. When a short time afterwards came the choice to choose between Nazuna and Kanae to whom Yuuya *still* hasn't his feelings completely sorted out, appeared to me somehow wrong. I can't really tell why, though.

Of course the above are only the extreme cases, but somehow I focus on them too much despite that everything else were not really bad (maybe I'm too drama-damaged in fiction ). The part where Nazuna was brought into the parallel world of the city and Yuuya followed her the next day was done quite well. And I also didn't expect that Koutaro would be in love with her. Nazuna's "challenge" seemed to me more of an impulse action even though it was obvious that she was cheering for her brother all along. And it was funny how both Nazuna and Yuuya were aware of Kotarou and Hina's feelings, but totally clueless of their own. I felt sorry for Kanae. The poor girl had been so insecure about Yuuya's affection to her and it was shown how "desperate" she was during the incident in the classroom at night.
When you play both Kanae's routes I suggest to pay attention to Kanae's insecurity and to Yuuya's general (re)action. Ero-scene 1 + 2 (not the deed itself, though) are more or less the starting point of it within her route(s).

[erneiz_hyde]

So, I finally finished reading Itsuka Todoku Ano Sora ni, which in total took me about 3-4 years. Even then, I still can't perfectly read what's written there due to Shumon Yuu's writing style. It was a very nice ride though, and I recommend it to anyone with interest in heavy Japanese literature, folklore, and atmosphere. It also has fantasy themes and some awesome battles, and unexpected twists in the end.

My favorite heroine is Futami. But make no mistake, the writer is extremely good at writing his characters, even side-characters. All of them had some significance in the story depending on whose route you take.

Perhaps the one thing that left the most impression to me is the fairytale-like story telling during the introduction arcs (the school, tereyuki, yokubari-maou,etc). The beauty of it left very strong impression even with words alone. The kanji wordplays (there're a LOT) were also interesting and so integrated into the story. These two things are perhaps one of Shumon Yuu's strong signature, which is why I love reading his(or her? I don't really know) works. For the next game with his scenario, I'll try reading Kitto Sumiwataru Asairo Yori mo.

[johnishida]

[mod edit: Baldr Sky content moved to its own thread]

BTW, I finished Hareten yesterday. Kanae's route was very touching and it explained the bad end nicely. I'll post some final thoughts later.

Spoiler for Hareten Final Thoughts:

First, Kanae route was pretty touching and overall well done. The only part that I was like =/ was when it was revealed that Kanae had misunderstood Yuuya's intentions but again, considering all she had to wait and go through to finally become his lover, it's understandable.

Out of all the routes my favorite is Ayane who also ranks as my favorite character from Hareten. Especial mention to Mizuki who was an overall great character and played an excellent role in Nazuna's route. Too bad her own route wasn't as good.

Plot wise, I think Hareten was pretty solid but, lacked depth and besides from obvious character and romantic development everything was pretty much unchanged. The bus-stop like structure was weird and pretty much stops the character development for the rejected heroines. Drama was bearable but, some of it was unnecessary.

Character wise, I liked all of them. Yuuya was pretty dense and annoying for the most part but, he wasn't a bad protagonist. Kanae was pretty much useless during the whole game and the only time she truly shined was in someone else route. Ayane is awesome and extremely adorable plus rather the ecchi girl. Mizuki is your classic tsundere osananajimi and her deredere mode is Ayane tier adorable. Nazuna is one crazy imouto with over 9000 levels of genki, she can't stay put for too long without saying some dirty joke, also has some yuri tendencies with Ayane. The development on her route was great!

Visually, the game is gorgeous. No complains here. Soundtrack was average and fits the atmosphere but, nothing memorable. Voice acting was good all-around too except some lines of Kanae sounded weird, too high-pitched.

Overall, Hareten was enjoyable experience. I would recommend to anyone who's interested in playing it. 7.5/10

[hyl]

I never really have gotten into Hareten like pallete's previous works like Moshiraba or Mashiphony. It's not bad, but somehow i feel like there is something missing for me. So i dropped it after going through Mizuki's and Nazuna's story.

[Mahou]

Originally Posted by johnishida

And that is just the tip of the iceberg

BTW, I finished Hareten yesterday. Kanae's route was very touching and it explained the bad end nicely. I'll post some final thoughts later.

Spoiler for Hareten Final Thoughts:

First, Kanae route was pretty touching and overall well done. The only part that I was like =/ was when it was revealed that Kanae had misunderstood Yuuya's intentions but again, considering all she had to wait and go through to finally become her lover, it's understandable.

Out of all the routes my favorite is Ayane who also ranks as my favorite character from Hareten. Especial mention to Mizuki who was an overall great character and played an excellent role in Nazuna's route. Too bad her own route wasn't as good.

Plot wise, I think Hareten was pretty solid but, lacked depth and besides from obvious character and romantic development everything was pretty much unchanged. The bus-stop like structure was weird and pretty much stops the character development for the rejected heroines. Drama was bearable but, some of it was unnecessary.

Character wise, I liked all of them. Yuuya was pretty dense and annoying in the most part but, her wasn't a bad protagonist. Kanae was pretty much useless during the whole game and the only time she truly shined was in someone else route. Ayane is awesome and extremely adorable plus rather the ecchi girl. Mizuki is your classic tsundere osananajimi and her deredere mode is Ayane tier adorable. Nazuna is one crazy imouto with over 9000 levels of genki, she can't stay put for too long without saying some dirty joke, also have some yuri tendencies with Ayane. The development on her route was great!

Visually, the game is gorgeous. No complains here. Soundtrack was average and fits the atmosphere but, nothing memorable. Voice acting was good all-around too except some lines of Kanae sounded weird, too high-pitched.

Overall, Hareten was enjoyable experience. I would recommend to anyone who's interested in playing it. 7.5/10

I agree roughly about your overall impression

Spoiler for Hareten - mostly Kanae True route:

Her true route was very lovely once it finally, finally progressed past the awkwardness. I wasn't completely shocked that her anxiety/insecurity about Yuuya's love stemmed from the missing "I love you"-phrase he failed to deliver during the brief moment of her first route and the first part of the true route because I've seen a similar scenario in a more normal ero game (i. e. one without a deep story). Of course, Yuuya took it somehow for granted that he loved her during the time and Kanae didn't help either by saying "use me like you want". But I sighted relieved when that part was settled for good and Yumika(?) started to call him "papa". These sweet and light moments were the ones I missed sooo much in general. And fortunately Kanae in the mother-role did a better job than during all of the previous times combined (except as support in other routes). I'm still somewhat bitter that they kept her so useless, both as a goddess-in-training AND in everydays life. That was simply an overkill in my opinion and a huge kick in the behind in regards to all the hard-working she did.

Nazuna was for me a hit-or-miss character: I liked it that Pallet did something fresh with the disability, but her pervy joked were more annoying than funny for me. Doesn't mean she was a bad character!
If I ignore all the drama: Ayane was a pretty great character. Her dere side was adorable and she had many moments that could draw a smile in my face. Mizuki was enjoyable and I liked her role and how she decided to move on as fast as possible after the player decided to choose Kanae to visit during the firework. Kanae was generally lovely and had great potential for more. After resigning to her being more or less useless, I got to love her cute, touching or similar moments the stronger. The true route was worth all of it as was her happy ending. The two possiblities to either keep future-Yumika, but give up Yuuya or lose future-Yumika, but keep Yuuya + her happiness with him were quite harsh and maybe one of the few good drama parts in the game (= good drama for me: Drama where you can feel with the characters be it good or bad. Bad drama: Drama where you "rage" [more] because it's drama and felt unrequired)

[johnishida]

Originally Posted by Mahou

I agree roughly about your overall impression

Spoiler for Hareten - mostly Kanae True route:

Her true route was very lovely once it finally, finally progressed past the awkwardness. I wasn't completely shocked that her anxiety/insecurity about Yuuya's love stemmed from the missing "I love you"-phrase he failed to deliver during the brief moment of her first route and the first part of the true route because I've seen a similar scenario in a more normal ero game (i. e. one without a deep story). Of course, Yuuya took it somehow for granted that he loved her during the time and Kanae didn't help either by saying "use me like you want". But I sighted relieved when that part was settled for good and Yumika(?) started to call him "papa". These sweet and light moments were the ones I missed sooo much in general. And fortunately Kanae in the mother-role did a better job than during all of the previous times combined (except as support in other routes). I'm still somewhat bitter that they kept her so useless, both as a goddess-in-training AND in everydays life. That was simply an overkill in my opinion and a huge kick in the behind in regards to all the hard-working she did.

Nazuna was for me a hit-or-miss character: I liked it that Pallet did something fresh with the disability, but her pervy joked were more annoying than funny for me. Doesn't mean she was a bad character!
If I ignore all the drama: Ayane was a pretty great character. Her dere side was adorable and she had many moments that could draw a smile in my face. Mizuki was enjoyable and I liked her role and how she decided to move on as fast as possible after the player decided to choose Kanae to visit during the firework. Kanae was generally lovely and had great potential for more. After resigning to her being more or less useless, I got to love her cute, touching or similar moments the stronger. The true route was worth all of it as was her happy ending. The two possiblities to either keep future-Yumika, but give up Yuuya or lose future-Yumika, but keep Yuuya + her happiness with him were quite harsh and maybe one of the few good drama parts in the game (= good drama for me: Drama where you can feel with the characters be it good or bad. Bad drama: Drama where you "rage" [more] because it's drama and felt unrequired)

That is exactly why I think there are so many different opinions about Hareten. The plot, characters and drama can be just as appealing (or not) to a wide range of readers.

With the plot being character driven there is no way you can enjoy Hareten if you don't like them.

[erneiz_hyde]

So I managed to finish all but the last route in Mirai Nostalgia.

Out of all the heroines, I like Iori and her route the most. Her tsundere is on a live-threatening level (literally ). Actually her route is the only one that left a strong impression because the others were just too...what, bland? Though I like all of the characters.

Also, let me voice this:
GIVE ME KANATA ROUTE DAMN IT~~!!!

She's my most favorite character in the whole game, and yet why didn't she get a route? I really hope there's a fandisk for this

[winhlp32]

Fortune Arterial:

Spoiler for Fortune Arterial:

Finally got around to this. One of the most satisfying school-life moege I've played in a while. The really good routes(Erika and Kiriha's) were tightly written, had a good balance between the "icha-icha" and the main conflict of the route. It was also much funnier than Keyorina. The other routes all had pacing problems at some point (Haruna's route took the longest to get through), but were all still pretty good. All the character routes received proper closure instead of the usual game where they throw you one CG after the ED for you to speculate upon.

Characters were all great, though Shiro is probably the least developed of the heroines. I thought Iori was funny but annoying at first, but he got significant development in the true route, and now I have a much better impression of him. And Kanade's character bgm was too loud, though music on a whole were pleasant though. And thank god this game had a protagonist I actually liked and can root for.

The True end did very well at tying the whole picture up together, explaining the origin of the vampires and Kaya's history. One little nitpick would be that I thought Kouhei acquiring Marehito's memories from that rock he ingested was a bit Deus Ex Machina-y, but its no biggie.

Favorite route order: True>Kiriha>Erica>Shiro>Haruna>Kanade

Probably the best August game to date, definitely way more satisfying than their latest efforts(Looking at you, Moonlight Cradle and Eustia).

[Soviet]

Anybody else reading White Album 2 right now?
Because that's what you should be doing, it's amazing.

[Nikkan]

I'm busy with the What A Beautiful REBORN-series starting with Sharnoth. I've only played Memories before which I loved but so far it's living up to my expectations!

[Cosmic Eagle]

Originally Posted by Soviet

Anybody else reading White Album 2 right now?
Because that's what you should be doing, it's amazing.

May play if I can finish off some other half completed eroge first....

Why so much stuff to play arrgh...

[Mahou]

I'm nearly done with Ushinawareta Mirai o Motomete and uhm ... yeah, the VN likes to be confusing at some points. It's very harsh towards poor Kaori on every single route . Music is alright, characters are likeable and the story is acceptable. I have been able to endure the cruel way of having to see the bad end of each route before the good one becomes available.

[johnishida]

[mod edit: Baldr Sky content moved to its own thread]

Also, finished my first route in etude's latest game Nanatsu no Fushigi no Owaru Toki. So far, I really like the game and it's a lot better than Akizora ni Mau Conffeti. Production values for the game are really high, almost everything has some kind of animation. Love the Opening song by Kawada Mami!

[winhlp32]

Flyable CandyHeart:

Spoiler for Flyable CandyHeart:

I forgot how dark the this franchise was for an UnisonShift Blossom product. Various main heroines died or was left to their own fate after disaster strikes. A character I didn't know had died in the original game was revealed here to have died. So I'm happy that this fandisk provided an alternate happy end for the characters in this series.

The meat of the game is an alternate Yui and Suzuno route, the new Megumi and Maxx route, and the crossover route. All the other main heroines from the original game gets an short after-story. Of the after storys Sakurako and Amane's are my favorite as they are just adorable. Mayuri's on the other hand was too short(then again she already had a whole fandisk devoted to her). The crossover route isn't that great in my opinion since it was a bit tedious to go through plus I didn't really care that much for the heroines from the other games. Plus there was a really weird Alice Parade H-scene.

I didn't really care much for Gumi in the original game, and wasn't really excited to play her route, but it blew my expectations out of the water. Though her character is probably an acquired taste, Gumi's route was probably one of the sweetest first-love romance story I've played. While throughout the bulk of Maxx's route I had to question myself whether I really want to keep reading, and the ending was very "uhh...".

The writing and atmosphere for this game was typical UnisonShift Blossom, has the whole "everything in life is wonderful" feel to it, and all the very creative fun and games that the studio has been known for since Nanatsuiro. Homosexuality was rampant in this game, especially in the crossover route where the premise is pretty much that most of the heroines turned into lesbians. There was also one very funny Kei x Souryu scene near the end of the route.

The game gets really good and ramps up the drama at the end when Yui's alternate route became available, where they revisited the nature of Flyable Heart universe and pretty much serves as an true-end to the series. This was where the writing was at its best and rewards the readers who played through the original game and the first fandisk. Suzuno's route speeds through much of the same events in Yui's route before ending in a very bittersweet and a little tear-inducing manner.

If you've played Flyable Heart, I highly recommend Flyable CandyHeart. Very funny and sweet, a great close to the franchise(though there is also that prisma-star thingy coming).