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Grisaia Phantom Trigger Vol 5


Clephas

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Umm... it really isn't worth it to make a post for this, but I went ahead and played Phantom Trigger vol 5 in Japanese.

My impression of this one was that it was very  much like the 'flashback episodes' that pop up in so many urban fantasy anime of the nineties and two thousands...  It is all about Haruto and Murasaki's past (how they got acquainted, Saki's sister, etc), and, while that is in itself interesting, I felt cheated at the end.

I'm going to be blunt.  They should be putting a lot more content into these releases, considering how long the gap between each one is and the cost.  I would much rather pay forty or fifty dollars for a half-length VN than dish out fifteen dollars every six months for what amounts to a tenth of an average VN's length of content.  While I do like what is put out, I am always left feeling like there should have been more to it.  I pay less for books on Kindle and get a lot more out of them.  *sighs*

Anyway, like all the entries in this serial VN, this 'episode' is interesting... but I'm starting to get 'repetition fatigue' due to the way the series is constructed.  Each episode is, of course, self-contained but contiguous with the previous one and the one after.  However, the way each one starts is exactly the same (structurally), and you hear almost identical speeches out of Haruto (internal or external) throughout their lengths, the only difference being the subject.

If this were bundled as three episodes per installment, I probably wouldn't be feeling so irritated.  However, the amount of content given by a single entry in this series is very, very low.  Yeah, now I know all the main characters' backgrounds intimately except Haruto himself... but I also feel cheated because I'm finishing each installment in under an hour and a half... and fifteen bucks is a bit much to pay for an hour and a half of entertainment, in my mind. 

... in the end, I couldn't stop complaining.  The real problem here is that I love what is there, but there just isn't enough of it to satisfy me with any individual installment. 

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I went ahead and played Phantom Trigger vol 5

:miyako:

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in Japanese

:notlikemiya:

But nah, seriously, I'm glad you at least played it. For me, I find the games are about the right length; I'm usually a little worn out by the time I finish a full-length game, so these shorter installments are actually a breath of fresh air. Longer games tend to also have longer individual scenes, rather than just more scenes, and drawn-out SoL scenes and H scenes especially usually feel like a slog to me.

You're definitely right that the games have a clear formula, but I liked that this one broke from the mold in the second half by featuring a flashback with a lot more character history for Murasaki and her sister, rather than a "mission" showing off the featured heroine and her newly-introduced sidekick.

if your primary concern is $ per length, they objectively are pricey, and though I think that's an absolutely terrible metric (if it was, I'd be exclusively reading free or dirt-cheap books on my kindle), I do agree they still feel pricey for what they are. The bundled deals are a much better offer; I think the first four together are around the length of a normal, medium-length VN, and at $35 that's not bad. But the $15 per individual installment price tag is steep.

Incidentally, your "hour and a half" seems kinda skewed; I know you take pride in your reading speed and all, but it makes throwing out numbers like that deceptive for other people. I'm pretty sure it took me over four hours to read each installment in this series.

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17 hours ago, Fred the Barber said:

Incidentally, your "hour and a half" seems kinda skewed; I know you take pride in your reading speed and all, but it makes throwing out numbers like that deceptive for other people. I'm pretty sure it took me over four hours to read each installment in this series.

Mmm... it was just frustrating.  I got the first two as a bundle and I was more or less satisfied, but since three and four I've been getting more frustrated with each new entry.

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