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Showing content with the highest reputation on 12/13/18 in all areas

  1. For the next 12 days, MangaGamer store will feature both a set of fixed discounts and some sweet daily deals, today's one being -70% on Edelweiss titles. While, as usual, most of the things on sale are crappy nukige, there are a few worthwhile titles even now and really cool stuff will definitely show up among those short-term discounts. And, through some unexplainable lapse of judgment, I actually did end up grabbing euphoria for -50%. I guess this year's Christmas will be all red and brown...?
    2 points
  2. Now that I've completed the main game, it is time to post about the story... which is the most important part of any VN, hybrid or not. The story begins with Judar Schwarka, a Rovari (race of nomad/barbarians who are the source of prejudice due to their physical attributes) mercenary and his employer, Eutre Hyte, heading out to ambush the supply train of a Telphion Federation army besieging the Belgrad Empire forces in a fortress. Judar, flat and uninterested in anything except the job, is forced to listen to his loquacious employer as he expounds on the battle below, and it is in that scene that you get your first impressions of two of the game's key characters. Naturally, given that Judar is a general badass, the prologue is mostly about him being a badass and getting the job done, but the idiot general who was protecting the fortress surrenders about the time they get the job done. This results in Judar and Eutre being sold to the Vanguard City of Grasesta as war slaves for the purpose of serving as cannon fodder against the constant incursions from the underground dungeon. This should give you an idea of the atmosphere of the early game. Judar, being razor-edge focused on survival and the keeping of his contractual obligations, takes being sold as a slave in stride. Judar's personality is unique amongst the protagonists I've seen in Eushully's VNs. Having clawed his way up from the worst slums of an Empire aligned with the Dark Forces, Judar is extremely straightforward and blunt. He is a mercenary because it is all he knows, and, while he loves battle, he is nonetheless a survivor at heart, so he will avoid battles that don't benefit him or his employer. He is an honorable individual to a fault, and he always keeps his word in all matters, large or small. If I were to give him a D&D style alignment, it would be Lawful Neutral, albeit with the stipulation that his guide is his given word rather than the law as laid down by others. Judar could probably be considered a fighter/barbarian hybrid. The early game is mostly about him fighting various forces in the underground and facing the oppression in the city itself, but he meets some interesting characters along the way, many of them party members. I'll go ahead and give you a quick spoiler-free rundown of the recruitable characters and their personality/roles in battle. Eutre Hyte is a schemer by nature and a military man at heart. He gathers information and uses people who aren't his allies ruthlessly, and he is not above spying or assassination as tools to fulfill his goals. He does feel a strong sense of obligation to those in his care (Judar being one of those he considers to be such, though Judar just ignores him most of the time), but he is definitely from the Belgrad Empire, meaning his nature is more aligned with Darkness than Light. If I were to give him an alignment, it would probably be True Neutral with one foot into Evil. His role in the party is mostly as a battle-focused rogue, but he spends very little of the game in your party, so that is mostly irrelevant. Yuunagi is a gambling-addicted hedonist from a race that is a cross between oni and kitsune. She is a freeman fighter (having willingly entered the city rather than coming as a slave). She is very light-hearted and focused on pleasures of the moment, and she doesn't even really care that her personality is self-destructive. Her alignment, quite naturally, would be Chaotic Neutral. Her class would probably be barbarian with a bit of rogue, albeit with more of a focus on evasion. I say this because all of her attacks are single-enemy, physically based, and she has the lockpick skill. Ekthel is probably the second weirdest non-dark elf I've ever encountered in any game (the first weirdest being the child-killing schizo elf from Darkengard). I say this, but i'm not going to tell you why. On the surface, she seems kind and helpful... but appearances can be deceiving. I'd consider her to be Neutral Evil. Her class would probably be ranger, with no deity alignment. Aguna is the battle-addicted mage-warrior who would probably scare the shit out of any man irl. She loves battle, money, and sex (in that order), and she absolutely loves life in Grasesta, despite having been enslaved (mostly because she couldn't stop picking fights and got dropped down there). She would probably be considered a hybrid class of fighter and mage, as she can wield swords, staffs, and whips, and she has both a high attack and magic attack stat. Unfortunately, she is also one of the two slowest characters in the game, with only Rosalind being slower. Her alignment would probably be Chaotic Neutral. Rosalind is from a sub-race of dwarves known as the Nebel, who are less hairy and... round. She is cheery and light-hearted on the surface, but she has a bad habit of making weapons that explode... on purpose. Her alignment would probably be Neutral Good, and her class a combination between the engineer and fighter classes. In battle, she wields a warhammer and has some nice area attacks, but she is so slow that most characters get multiple turns before she gets hers. Mikuri is probably the only 'pure mage' character in the game. Her personality is that of a studious sorcerer type... with the twist that she is cursed so that bad things happen to and around her whenever she goes to sleep (ranging from the silly to the seriously dangerous). I'd probably call her True Neutral. She is a pure wizard type, but until you finish her character quest, she has serious disadvantages due to her 'sleep deprived' 'skill'. Yureeshya is an angel who has been asleep since before the worlds were fused together. As such, she is extremely naive and uneducated about the current world, and she still acts as if she were in the service of the creator god of the original human world (most angels in this setting have either 'fallen' and turned dark or are in the service of one of the many deities on the side of Light). If you manage to complete her events (which should be started as soon as you get her) she becomes one of your better healer characters, though she is only mediocre as a sacred magic user. Unfortunately, you only have a very small window in which to complete her character events, and they require you to use her healing/support spells in battle and have them fail to activate them (this failure is a roughly 25% probability). If you don't like her, you are given an opportunity to sell her to the brothel halfway through her events, but this means she isn't around to provide HP to your overall HP bar, lol. Needless to say, she is Lawful Good. Dulphia is a Telphion noble and third in command of the Indigo Knighthood. She is very much a believer in knightly virtues, but her personality has some... problems. Primarily, she is a natural sadist and has a tendency toward tough love in her interactions with subordinates. She also joined the Knights pretty much since she didn't want to get married to some random aristocratic scumbag and because going into battle lets her get the sadistic tendencies out of her system. Her alignment would probably be Lawful Neutral, like Judar, but it should be noted that her fighting style is that of a fight-focused paladin (light element sword enchantments, power against monsters and undead). She is only permanently recruited near to the endgame, and this makes it impossible to get full use out of her... but to be honest, this game has too many light-element mages and fighters already, so I only used her against regular monsters. Lilika is the main heroine of the story, a Grasestian noble who, due to exposure to dark miasma in the past, is forced to live most of her days with her soul attached to a flying mechanical doll whose technology is based off of the Madou Koukaku magitech concept. She is a sweet-natured but determined girl who has a lot of the positive elements of aristocratic upbringing without the negatives. She is also a skilled researcher of divine magic, magitech, and ancient languages. She wields holy magic based off of the Blue Moon Goddess Luscion, which is the most effective light magic in the game by far. She can also cast healing and support spells, making her the closest thing you'll have to a true cleric. She is Lawful Good by nature. After playing this game, my basic impression is that, while the story segments that exist are excellent, it is too sparsely spaced out through each chapter, due to the inevitable grinding of a dungeon crawler. While I say 'inevitable grinding', it should be noted that it isn't grinding for levels... it is grinding for items to make money off of to upgrade skill levels, buy back weapons, or just in general for any of a number of purposes. I found that the only item I used regularly after the first few chapters was the container item Gladiator's Bird, which can be used to store Gladiator's Wings, which restore skill uses. One-use items are not something I found myself using on a regular basis. Instead, I tended to rely on healing magic and just not getting seriously damaged by enemies. Levels generally come to match the enemies around you or pass them slightly just by winning every symbol encounter and regular encounter on your way through each level of the Black Caverns. Like a lot of Eushully's more recent titles, this game makes a number of major mistakes, the most annoying of which is the simple fact that gameplay has too strong of a grinding element without an accompanying 'reward' element. Rewards from grinding are generally meager, outside of first trips through a given dungeon. I only started seeing good drops in the final dungeon, where I was getting the ultimate female stat-boosting accessories on a rate of one for every other random encounter. The story itself is not layered on heavily, and it is hard to find some of the heroines' events without a guide, which is a huge problem, since that meant I never did get rid of Yureeshya's negative skill (she has a very small window to see her events that lead to this occurring, and it requires you to do something counterintuitive). Ekthel, for instance, needs you to occasionally sleep while she is not a member of the party to progress her events (because she shows other sides of herself away from you). I'm also pretty sure I completely missed the extra events for the high-level courtesan, Atelyla, and she was a pretty intriguing character I never really got a full grasp of. I'm also pretty sure I missed out on non-H events related to Lucilla, the brothel owner in the lower city. One thing that seriously annoyed me about this game is that it is completely linear... there is no room for altering the ending or picking someone other than Lilika. I would have appreciated a full-on Fleurety ending, just for the fun of it. In conclusion, this was a reasonably fun game, and it is probably the best one from this particular writer. However, it has a number of glaring flaws that keep it from reaching its full potential.
    2 points
  3. Luiginico

    Craving a good tsundere

    Hey all! Can you recommend me some good romance VN with a tsundere heroine?
    1 point
  4. Corrupted

    Best Imouto Routes

    I would like today's updated opinion on the best imouto routes. Thank you.
    1 point
  5. Oni-chan -> Dude. https://imgur.com/a/5UchlU3 Someone kill Arunaru, please.
    1 point
  6. r0xm2n

    What are you playing?

    Yeah. Mei's route in Clannad ...... had some serious drama. Also loved how she trolled Tomoya be saying Onii-chan. "Onii-chan is banned!!" Good luck with the other routes dude.
    1 point
  7. I'm kind of thinking about picking up euphoria. I'm kind of interested in what it really is about, and I was waiting before it's on sale. But, on the other hand, I still have a ton of VNs to play... And it will probably be on sale a few other time before I get to it... And I'm not even sure I'll be able to read it, considering its reputation... I don't know, maybe I'll pass for now.
    1 point
  8. "I was reincarnated into another world and became a light-novel! But why do I have the lamest title ever!? NOOOO!"
    1 point
  9. Alcorin

    What are you playing?

    Clannad update: I WANT TO GET OFF OKANO-SAN’S WILD RIDE That Sunohara route was… It was quite something, wasn’t it? Ooooh boy. I’m not even sure where to start. It may have been only my second route, but I hereby proclaim Mei to be Best Girl™ - cute, upbeat, hardworking, dedicated… She almost makes me wish I had a little sister myself ;w; She did not deserve any of that punishment she received for, you know, TRYING TO DO SOMETHING NICE FOR HER BROTHER?! Holy shit, did those cunts at the soccer club made me mad Sunohara for the most part was annoying as well, but at least he got better by the end… Much better, actually ^^ I think I have a newfound appreciation for him, if that’s even possible at this point… I also liked the fact that it was more of a friendship route, really. So much so that I’ve got the urge to reconnect with my high school friends right now ^^’ Damn you, Youhei... Anyway, it seems like I’ve underestimated this novel. Sure, it drags on at times, but when it finally goes down to business, by golly, it can certainly punch ya in the gut Or maybe it’s just because I like the Sunoharas and Okazaki so much. It might just be it. I guess the best way to know is to press on and check the other routes as well, right? *nervous laugh* But only after I will have found the joke Youhei ending. I just need it right about now, ok? I promise that I’ll cool it with being an annoying fujoshi after that.
    1 point
  10. It is. All h-scenes are put into after stories.
    1 point
  11. Zidan209

    What are you playing?

    I've just finished the 4th episode and therefore the first Umineko game. Not going to take a break at all before continuing this behemoth as if 3 huge plotges in a row could ever take me down! As for some of my thoughts...
    1 point
  12. Why exactly do you feel like that? When I read his commentary, I found the whole thing exciting. These girls are crazy. It should be crazy fun, too.
    1 point
  13. Isn't the sexual content in that unlocked after you finish a route?
    1 point
  14. Dergonu

    What are you playing?

    I have decided to go back and read ChuSinGura 46+1 again, thanks to talks about it I've had with @Larxe1. (Jeez, I can't believe it has been 2 years since I finished it.) Been quite ill the past week, so since I haven't been able to do any work or anything, I read a decent chunk of chapter 1 already. Probably halfway through it, at least. This is so nostalgic. I'll be changing my avatar to the respective heroine for each chapter as I go through them, as they are all great waifus, and I couldn't decide which one of them I should pick.
    1 point
  15. New avatar. Recent talks of ChuSinGura made me real nostalgic, and I've decided to go back and replay it myself. I can't sully my beloved waifu's ahoge with a christmas hat, so that's enough christmas hat wearing for me this year. (/ω\)
    1 point
  16. Clephas

    Best Imouto Routes

    Reminiscence, Aki's route is the single best overall imouto route I've played. Hatsugamai has several 'imouto' routes that are generally excellent. Minori's path from Unmei Yohou has a very screwed-up full-on incest path.
    1 point
  17. adamstan

    Best Imouto Routes

    SakuSaku and WagaHigh - two pretty good imouto routes.
    1 point
  18. adamstan

    Craving a good tsundere

    If you ask for the ones you havent played: - Mirai from KoiIroChu! - Saki from Yukizakura - Nanase from One ~Kagayaku no kisetsu e~ - Yuma and Ruri from ToHeart2 all heroines from Tsujidou-san no Jun'ai road are tsunderes to some degree, but mostly Renna.
    1 point
  19. I'm Looking for full nudity Anime or Hentai has a scene for a girl or girls do a strip show or nude dance show. exactly like Afro Samurai Resurrection: NSFW: https://imgur.com/YZmUw27 and The Roommate: NSFW: https://imgur.com/iJrUikB and Foxy Nudes: NSFW: https://imgur.com/Y1Gxwlg Please click the links to see the pictures and know exactly what I'm looking for, and don't forget the write from what episode the scene came from.
    1 point
  20. I've just got to ask the question I'm sure everyone already has on their minds Will there be more Shoggoth dicking or not?
    1 point
  21. What's even the point of writing a continuation anyway? Literally the entire story was resolved by the time it was finished, and it would require some insane plot gymnastics to continue. Hell, that's what I consider one of its major strengths, despite the short length, the whole work feels fully cohesive and natural. Why Ootsuki was picked I have no clue.
    1 point
  22. For those who suffer from any sort of mental health issue, you are probably going to have the worst time staying committed to studying. But with the right kind of mindset and a practical approach, you may find yourself well within reach of your goal. While this guide is not a suitable replacement for real treatment from a specialist, it may give you a few ideas on how to deal with your own issues. But everyone has their own unique issues and complications, so there isn’t a single correct answer for everybody. Oh and be very careful about self-diagnosing these types of illnesses. Mental health is a complicated subject that requires a lot of training to make the correct judgment, so please seek confirmation from a professional before you decide to take on that kind of baggage. Sadness and fear, even on a regular basis, are normal human emotions. It’s only when they affect you in an abnormal way (which, again, needs a proper diagnosis) that you need to be concerned. Okay, so some of you may have noticed I’ve been severely behind on updating my blog. Well, as it turns out, the solution I had in mind for anxiety didn’t pan out very well. I had gone through another bout of anxiety, lagged behind on my homework, and was left with virtually no time to put out another post. But I’m actually really happy I delayed it since I’ve gained so much valuable knowledge about anxiety since September. When I initially started writing this entry, I had written about the success I was having with positive self-talk. At the time, I was extremely focused on repeating a single line to myself in order to stay motivated, and it was working for a good while. But see, once the idea had lost its novelty after a couple months, I wasn’t getting any kind of benefit from it. I did feel a sense of confidence I hadn’t felt in a long time, and it was making me more productive, but it wasn’t the answer I was looking for. What I’ve learned since then is that I need more than false confidence to drive me forward, and I think I may have come up with a more reliable way of coping with my emotions. I’m still using positive self-talk in order to combat negative thinking, but I’m doing so in a much less specific way. For my most recent episode, I was unable to pull myself out of it, but I had managed to escape after two whole months of misery by focusing on the more crucial flaws with my mindset. I happened upon a simple, yet insightful comment on Quora that helped me ground my thoughts and properly outline my path to improvement. One of my key takeaways from this was to focus on what could happen rather than what has happened already. If your mind is stuck in the past and all you can do is think about is how much you haven’t accomplished, you won’t have much to look forward to. Additionally, you need to accept the problems you have in front of you and see them more as opportunities for growth rather than as barriers. If you can find a solution to the problem at hand, then you’ve exercised the part of your brain that solves problems. And if you can’t find a solution, then your accomplishments will be much more meaningful because you had to jump through extra hoops to succeed. Another issue I’ve had the most difficulty with is blaming my problems on everything. I can’t get good sleep because of my noisy surroundings, I’m not losing weight because of all the sweets around the house, I can’t concentrate well because I’m under a lot of stress, I’m unhappy because I can’t afford to support my emotional needs, my life sucks because society sucks, my parents are the reason I’m not that smart, and so on and so forth. I was always thinking about how much crap I had working against me, and yet I never wanted to see myself as the source of my misfortune. Now don’t get me wrong; I’m not trying to preach personal responsibility or anything as mundane as that. I do understand that the human mind is easily susceptible to influence, and that we aren’t in full control of our decisions or circumstances. However, I do think there is something to be gained by taking ownership of your problems. What this does is take you out of a state of hopelessness and entrapment, and empowers you to pursue your goals further. When you decide to take life into your own hands, you can then mold it into something you want it to be. Probably the most important lesson I’ve learned is to accept myself for who am. I am a nervous wreck. I freak out whenever I set out to do any kind of improvement. Having to make major life adjustments always puts me on edge. I will panic even as I’m handing in a homework assignment, terrified of how the professor will grade it. And my response to these dilemmas has been to either pretend the fear isn’t there, convince myself that I can’t keep living this way, or beat myself up when I let my nervousness get the better of me. But instead of just working against my anxiety, I decided it was time I started working alongside it and let it be. What I’ve come to understand since then is that fear hurts my motivation a lot more than it does my performance, so I don’t even need to acknowledge it as an obstacle. I eventually came to the conclusion that it’s better to focus on resolving issues that I have immediate control over rather than the ones I can’t do anything about. There is still chance I’ll be able to find a fix eventually, but I have no way of knowing what that is at this very moment. And you know what? I’m perfectly fine with that. And to wrap things up, I’ll jot a few quick tips you may have heard about already, but are still important to know. There won’t always be an ideal time to get something done; do it anyways. Try to focus on what went right rather than the opposite. Don’t be afraid to work hard; working hard will generally give you advantage over others. Finish what you’ve started, even after it loses its novelty. Don’t ever feel discouraged if you can’t solve a problem in a timely manner. Afterword: So, did anyone miss me at all? Yeah, this one was a real doozy. I was putting myself through even more stress trying to find time for this blog during college, but I wound up having to wait until Winter break to finish writing this entry. Thankfully I won’t have any more classes to take until next year, so I’ll have all the time I need to keep this blog up and running… and to get caught up on all the dust I’ve let accumulate in my room and bathroom. Oh and I started my Japanese studies back up again yesterday too! I’ve been kinda behind on them up until now due to excessive stress (to the point of neck injury) and my scramble to get homework turned in on time, but I’m 50% sure I’ll be fine in the near future. Next week’s topic will be on living a healthy lifestyle. Once you’re able to find proper coping methods, the next step toward building momentum is figuring out how to best optimize all the other factors that impact your brain’s performance.
    1 point
  23. Zidan209

    Fuwanovel Confessions

    Confession: I have PTSD from experiencing a few nights with a mosquito around my bed - had no sleep, constant alert and nervousness As a side effect, i can now hear mosquitoes even when there are none around
    0 points
  24. Confirmation they don't know how to business
    0 points
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