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Showing content with the highest reputation on 02/20/19 in all areas

  1. After quite a long wait I have finally have the Grisaia complete box. This is the front of the box The back of the box The sides of the box The back of the things that houses the games as well as the soundtracks. The games and soundtrack The artbook (it is quite large) A random sample from the artbook (sorry for blurry picture, not really that steady when holding a camera). Extra items Size comparison with a regular DVD case and a normal japanese physical VN. As for the quality of this I would say it is amazing. It looks wonderfull and it has quite a lot of weight to it and just feel like an overall really high quality product. If I were going to nitpick some things I guess one would be that I think it would be nice if they had the small extra stories on disc, since they already had so many things on disc they should have just added one more (not a huge complaint though since they are only really short stories, <2 hours each according to vndb). Another thing is that the cover thing for The cleaning of grisaia light novel doesn't really seem to fitt perfectly (seems larger than it should be compared to the book). Though again these are just small nitpicks, overall I am really really satisfied with the quality of the box and glad I bought it even though it was really expensive.
    5 points
  2. Aside from the "sighed" thing there's nothing wrong with that line. But even then, it's fairly obvious to see that it's a pun on side. As for why, I don't know, but it probably has something to do with the original pun being with "soba". The fourth one they just switched "I'm pitching to you" to "You're up to bat". Simple change, and this is done all the time in professional translations. As for the last one, I'm not sure what about it is "nonsense". The "side effect of intense aggression" is obviously referring to the からくるもの and not the サカリ part itself. If you look up to the SD image, you see the word testosterone. Testosterone is related to both sex drive and aggression. As for the sentence fragment issue, VNs are full of sentence fragments. The wording of the line here makes it pretty obvious that it continues off of a previous line so I'm not sure where the confusion lies.
    3 points
  3. Studio Elan, and I refuse to copy and paste the accent mark like they do on their Twitter account, bursts out onto the EVN scene with their long awaited debut visual novel, Heart of the Woods. A mix of Ghost Adventurers, fluffy yuri relationships, and a magical elements, Heart of the Woods is an ambitious showcase of talent wrapped up in a tightly woven tale of love and sacrifice. From the very beginning of this roughly 4-6 hour long VN, Heart of the Woods sets a tense tone that persists throughout the entire run time. Tara and Maddie, the team behind the viral paranormal internet show, Taranormal, are on their way an isolated town located in the woods at the behest of Morgan, a fan of the show who tips them off at paranormal activities within her town. Conflict is bubbling, though, as this is the final episode that Maddie will be working on, and this month long trip to produce the episode has pushed their now strained friendship to the breaking point. What follows is a series of rapidly escalating events where the very lives of the characters hang in the balance. The story itself is generally solid with a few hiccups due in large part to how the passage of time is handled in this VN. Events progress at a whiplash pace in the VN which leads to the relationships between characters feeling more than a little contrived. This is something many VNs suffer from, however, and might be the most difficult aspect of writing a romance VN without feeling it completely with fluff pieces to flesh out character relationships for the sake of believability. While normally I despise long periods of fluff, Heart of the Woods would have benefited from a padded run time with more light hearted character interactions without the main conflict looming overhead. One half of our main cast, Maddie and Abigail do get far more of this type of treatment when compared to Tara and Morgan who are relegated more towards the advancement of the plot at the expense of a more evenly paced relationship. The light hearted moments that do exist are tender and well done generally. Tara is a magnificent goofball, Abigail is a not so pure cinnamon roll, Morgan (my personal favorite character) features a great amount of excellent character growth, and Maddie is versatile, able to smoothly interact with every character in an interesting way, even when the interactions are less than amiable. More often than not, the interactions between couples, is incredibly cheesy and I feel that once again, the lack of establishing scenes for the relationships is the main cause of this. With that said, just because they are cheesy does not mean that they are poorly done or bad. Perhaps my inexperience in reading yuri VNs is showing here and the purpose is to create a more light, fluffy feel, in which case, the cheesy love dialogue achieves its goal. Setting aside the character interactions, the storytelling is an improvement over the standard skeleton that director Josh Kaplan’s previous work, Highway Blossoms, follows. Far more ambitious and fantastical, Heart of the Woods’ story features some unexpected developments that caught me off guard. Aided by a writing style that seamlessly switches from whimsical and comedic to foreboding and brooding the story rarely misses a beat and when it does, its due to the previously mentioned passage of time. Of special note is how the writers successfully pulled off narration perspective changes in seamless fashion. Usually when a VN switches the narration character to tell a different side of the story, I find that one character’s side of the story is far stronger, more engaging than the other character. This is not the case in Heart of the Woods. Each perspective shift is treated with equal amounts of effort and I never found myself wishing I could go back to a different character’s narration/story. The VN features phenomenal artwork from Adirosa and Rosuuri which establishes the magical world that the reader enters and also gives each character a highly unique appearance to match their personality. For example, just what in the hell are Tara’s hair clips? This question will inevitably lead you to “Why can Tara not even cook toast without nearly burning down an entire ecosystem of magical creatures.” Each character’s look matches perfectly with their personality. Once again, I have to show some love to my favorite character, Morgan, who’s sprite work is downright unsettling at times giving her a very mysterious feel which helps establish the magical strange setting for this VN. The final piece of the puzzle for establishing this world is the music, which I am pleased to say is top notch. Featuring the talents of Sarah Mancuso and Astartus, the soundtrack is heavy on the use of stringed instruments but never overpowering which gives the reader the same level of comfort, or discomfort as the characters in the VN. When a soundtrack can assist in the world building and storytelling as the soundtrack in this VN does, that is the sign of great composition and direction. The characters, art, story, and music all come together magnificently in creating the world of Heart of the Woods and therein a major hindrance to the VN comes into play. It is quite literally too fantastic of a world and story to be told in a VN. The limitations of the VN medium are on full display as despite all of the efforts taken to create this magical world, it never really feels like it is used to its full potential. Technically the VN is sound, utilizing clever camera movement, character positioning, and particle effects to bring this world to life, but I still felt it did not quite reach its full potential because it felt too static. This is in no way a knock on the team behind this work, but rather a criticism of the medium as a whole. This story and world would be far better suited in the form of an animated movie to allow the environment to truly come to life. I want Studio Elan to take this as a compliment, rather than a criticism. The work they did was too good to be trapped within the VN medium. Heart of the Woods is a welcome entry to the EVN scene injecting a strong dose of professionalism into the market. While it does feature a couple of flaws, the overall package is an well polished work that is well worth the time to read if you want to spend a few hours in a world of yuri and magic. This is a fantastic debut work and leaves me excited to see just what Studio Elan has in store for the future. Rating: 4.5/5
    3 points
  4. So, there's a release date - it should be available by the end of the month - 2019.02.27 TBH, I kind of lost interest in this release... After @Dergonu's report/review I made up my mind to read Cruise Sign instead someday. Well, might still buy it just to see what they did with it...
    2 points
  5. Hello everyone! It's been a while since the last time I updated this post. I'm glad to say I have a lot of new information about Synergia's development. First of all, due to professional disagreements, I've decided to cut ties with Sekai and move to what I think will be a better partner given the needs of the project: Top Hat Studios About the development, translation is finished, but the script is now being edited thanks to Top Hat's help. UI is also finished and mostly working. Just a few days ago we announced the game being published by Top Hat, here is the trailer with some small changes: As well as the beautiful visual aesthetic, Synergia has a incredible and vivid soundtrack, composed by one of the composers of Katawa Shoujo: AoiichiNiiSan (Andy Andi Han) We'll be producing several special DATA LOGS which will show to you more of the world and music of Synergia. The first I've made available on youtube already: And thats all for now, but there will be more coming soon, so stay tuned! Remember that you can check my twitter to find more about the game: BloodDaughters
    1 point
  6. While Japanese VNs are the prime source of inspiration for most EVN developers, some Western games, such as Telltale’s The Walking Dead series, also have a significant influence on the Western VN scene. This inspiration is pretty obvious when we look at the stylistic choices and main themes of Perseverance: Part 1, a debut title by the Polish studio Tap It Games, released on Steam in late July 2018. As you can imagine, this episodic release involves surviving an outbreak of a mysterious disease which turns people into cannibalistic monsters, with personal drama and conflict between the major characters a least as important as the apocalyptic events happening in the background. And while the short first act, which I’ll be writing about today, leaves us at the precipice of disaster, focusing mostly on presenting the backstory of the protagonist and establishing the setting, it does so in a promising manner which will most likely left you wanting for more – even though, just as the adventure games by the now-defunct Telltale, it has its distinct share of problems. The first episode ends rather abruptly and leaves us with very little knowledge about the outbreak and the conspiracy behind it – it feels like the first, tiny bit of a rather grand story Perseverance follows the story of Jack – a painfully average and unfulfilled guy, living in a secluded, small town somewhere in the US interior (a place pretty much only kept alive by being in close proximity of a large military base), struggling with lack of purpose and trying to cope with his failing marriage. After leaving college to take care of his severely-ill father, he ends up without education and stable job, while his attractive wife, who also shortened her medical studies to join him in his hometown, works as a nurse at the local hospital. Together, they raise a young teenage daughter and the game opens with a rather vicious argument between Jack and his wife, centred around his ambition to teach their child how to hunt. After saying a few words too many, he leaves for his late father’s forest cabin to think things through, while, in his absence, the intrigue that might lead to humanity’s downfall unfolds in the usually-sleepy town. One lesson that Tap It Games definitely took from The Walking Dead is that compelling characters can, or maybe even should be deeply flawed and a survival story benefits from showing their shortcoming and exploring how they can overcome those in the moment of truth. Jack and his family are at times borderline unlikeable, but above all else feel like ordinary people, struggling with the challenges of everyday life and in no way prepared for the disaster coming for them. Most of Part 1 is dedicated to establishing them as characters and making the player invested in their story. From my perspective it worked pretty well, as both the main cast and the supporting characters (very few at this point) were interesting enough for me to want to learn more about them and, at least to some extent, care about what might happen to them. My only complaint in that respect is that devs overdid it with foreshadowing and minor “spoilers” in Jack’s narration – I would very much prefer to be left in the dark about some future developments within the story, like fate of certain crucial characters or the scale of the outbreak, but you can easily deduce much of it from the opening monologue and Part 1’s ending. Many of the game’s choices feel “off”, making little sense unless you enjoy playing your VNs as an over-the-top asshole One other problem I had with the game at this point is connected to the choices – most of them only seemed to serve a purpose of choosing whether Jack is a somewhat decent human being, or a complete asshole, with options in the latter category often feeling forced and insulting to common sense. Should you apologize to your wife after hurting her feelings in a horrible way, or is it a better idea to persist with emotional abuse? Is it better to calm her down while she’s hurt and most likely in shock, or to shout at her with anger? What makes these choices really bad is that they’re not about choosing between selfishness and altruism, or between the others and your personal safety, like it would be the case in The Walking Dead – it’s just about being a horrible human being for the sake of it and unless that’s your personal kink in regards to choice-based games, there’s no added value in that. The choices, also, don’t seem to have any real impact on the story at this point. While they might, in rare cases, lead you to an abrupt game over scene, they generally don’t affect anything beyond the immediate dialogue lines and it’s unclear at this point to what extent they might influence the storyline further down the line. If I was to guess, I’d say not that much, considering how near-impossible it is to create a genuine branching story in an episodic game, especially with the, most likely, very limited resources the devs of Perseverance have available. I personally don’t mind an illusion of choice, if it helps your immersion in the story, but it’s still something to keep in mind and downscale your expectations appropriately. A riddle – what do you use to cut a rope? Thankfully, it’s not one that you can fail – the choices, apart from one or two dead ends, don’t seem to matter at this point The visuals are definitely one of the strongest aspects of the game, with a distinct artstyle that feels inspired by Western comic books more than anime (and by that virtue once again resembling Telltale adventure games more than the typical, Japanese-style VNs). While it’s not super-heavy on details, the sprites are distinct in their designs and expressive, while the backgrounds and CGs are simply nice to look at and feel very consistent with the overall aesthetic. The sound and music are minimalistic and support the general, eerie vibe of the story without standing out much. What stands out, unfortunately, is the technical aspect of the game. Perseverance was made in unity rather than a dedicated VN engine and lacks some typical quality-of-life features, like the skip option, possibility to roll back the text, easily switch auto-mode on and off, or even convenient access to the backlog. For someone like me, used to EVNs made in Ren’Py, these omissions were quite painful at times and made replaying the game to check out alternative choices a chore. In the end though, what mattered the most – the story and production quality of the game – did deliver and from this point of view, I’d consider reading Perseverance: Part 1 a positive experience. It’s a really solid first act, which might develop into something truly exceptional if Tap It Games directs it well. I just hope that the future episodes will be at least a little bit longer – reading a story in hour-long bits every few months is never a great formula and if the Part 2 doesn’t offer a more substantial piece of storytelling, it might damn the whole project into obscurity. That is, if the future episodes ever happen – the radio silence from the studio is worrying and I would not recommend buying this as long as we don’t know whether it will receive at least some continuation. Without that, Part 1 is only an extensive demo – a good one, but not really something worth investing your time in, if we’re never getting a full story. Time will tell. Final Score: 3/5 Pros: + Solid, well-stylized visuals + Interesting, realistically flawed characters Cons: - Unconvincing and inconsequential choices - Clunky interface - Very short VNDB Page Buy Perseverance, Part 1 on Steam
    1 point
  7. Seeing the ones you're currently playing, Kara no Shoujo is gonna feel more fresh than Rewrite so i'm recommending that (despite me liking Rewrite more).
    1 point
  8. I'm currently playing Little Busters and I'm about to start Higurashi. I'm also playing The Fruit of Grisaia on and off. Little Busters is so good so far
    1 point
  9. The Uso series is the original series of kinetic novels made by Campus based in a school campus where magic and mundane exist in parallel. The protagonist of the Uso series, Sakurai Souichirou, is the head of the Cat's Hand Club, which is a jack-of-all-trades club that will take on just about any request, as long as the individual is willing to pay the price. However, that is merely the open face of the club, which has the purpose of gathering magical energy from the emotions of those whose requests he fulfills in order to power the magical artifact implanted in his body. This magical artifact is the Redline, a powerful tool that lets the person who is melded with it see the lies of others (portrayed as red text in the game's text boxes). Despite this ability, Souichi isn't cynical and is generally a good and straightforward person, though, in his own words, that is only because he met the right people. The main Uso series is made up of four kinetic novels, each following the path of an individual heroine (a similar setup to Tiny Dungeon, though the details differ). It begins in 'Spring', continues with 'Summer' and 'Fall', and concludes with 'Winter'. Haru Uso The spring-themed game of the Uso series follows the serial liar and school idol Himeno Satsuki as she essentially pushes Souichi into forming a relationship with her. This game is a bit heavier on the H content than the three games that come after, though some of that is because Satsuki has a pretty forceful personality under her pleasant atmosphere. The conflict in this story begins when Satsuki confesses her love for Souichirou (in the first scene) and moves on from there. The formation of their romantic relationship is sweet and frequently amusing, though it is mostly ecchi because of how it begins. While I normally don't like the trope used here, it is used in the least awkward fashion I've ever encountered in an SOL VN, so I was willing to overlook it. There is some serious drama, but this is immediately after Souichi starts to realize his feelings for Satsuki are real... and the drama will definitely come as a surprise if you haven't been paying close attention with an eye for mild mindfucks. It all comes to a happy end in the end, but it can be a bit wrenching emotionally at a few points if you've gotten to like the couple in question along the way (which I did). After Story 1 After Story 1 was present with the original game and is pretty extensive for an after story, mostly focusing on a much milder set of trials and tribulations that you'd see in any charage. That said, since you already saw the more dramatic scenes immediately before, it comes off as cute rather than boring, since it is impossible to shake the feeling that 'they'll be all right no matter what' after the ending of the main path. After Story 2 Drawn from Full Uso, this is based a few months after the end of the story, when the two have begun to live together and have settled in. Satsuki is starting to come into her own and has grown as a person, and Souichirou is feeling his way out of some of his more extreme donkan habits (yes, he is donkan). As in the previous after story, this one comes across as cute in comparison to the main story, and it mostly leaves you smiling at the lovers as they survive the trials any established couple is prone to. Natsu Uso Natsu Uso focuses on Izumi Aoi, a member of the student council who, even in Haru Uso, is rather obviously a deredere heroine hiding under a tsundere mask. That said, as is indicated from certain scenes in the previous game, the past between her and Souichirou is complicated and painful for them both, and it becomes central to the background conflict of her story. Aoi is pretty much the perfect tsundere heroine, but this is not because of her personality alone. More, this is because of how Souichirou's Redline underlines precisely when she's telling the truth and when she's lying. It's an experience worth having even if you aren't particularly into tsunderes, lol. Anyway, due to a certain event, Souichirou and Aoi end up forced together by circumstance and Souichi's inability to be dishonest. While both of them have serious hangups about the past, the fact is that Aoi is rather blatantly in love with him from the start, so don't expect this to be so much about relationship development as untangling the complex emotions the two hold for another and growing beyond them. The ending is pretty touching, and worth a smile or two. After story 1 Natsu Uso's After Story 1 is a lot more focused on ichaicha than Haru Uso's in the first half... not to mention having some really heavy h-scenes. Basically, for those accustomed to the tangled emotions that made up the atmosphere between the two in the path itself, this is a time when they are more open with each other. Aoi adorable-ness is more extreme here (which looks impossible until you've actually experienced it), and she gets really clingy (which is part of the adorable-ness). However, if you've come to know Souichirou by this point, you know he always puts what is best for others first. This is what causes the minor tribulations that make up the second half, though these aren't relationship troubles but rather troubles relating to Aoi growing as a person. After Story 2 Similar to Haru Uso's second after story, this one occurs in the school year after the original game. Aoi has taken up a place of responsibility, with Souichirou by her side. Settling in to their new rhythm, one of the issues that has plagued Aoi since before she met Souicirou rears its head once again. The resolution is pretty quick and not dramatic, but it is nice to see Aoi still following her chosen path. Aki Uso To be frank, the heroine of this story, Eris R Renford, has a wildly different story from the other heroines. As such, the path's drama is a bit more serious than in the first two games and her issues are mostly on her side, rather than involving her personal relationship with Souichirou exclusively (though that does come into play). Since it is treated as a spoiler and not stated in the previous two games, I won't reveal the core reasons for the conflict in this story. Eris is a heavy gamer, a wannabe NEET, and a generally lazy person on all levels. If Sou didn't kick her out of bed she would sleep all day; if Sou didn't feed her real food, she'd probably eat nothing but ramen and takeout; and if Sou didn't teach her, she probably would have dropped out of school long ago. In other words, she is completely dependent on Souichirou, which makes her the butt of numerous jokes both in her own path and in the other games. Her path/game is worth going through twice, if only to use a certain function that pops up on the second playthrough to lead you through the mindfuck hidden inside the dialogue. After Story 1 The first after story covers the growth of Eris after the turning point of the main game, along with a number of humorous and H scenes. Since there is pretty much nothing I can say about this without spoiling the main game, I'll just say that it was this after story that made me want a second after story for Eris, lol. After Story 2 For anyone who was expecting this after story to be full of drama based on the ending of the previous one, I have to inform you that, unfortunately, the events that followed the end of the after story 1 were spoken about in a short summary at the beginning (from the sound of it, they could have made a whole new VN out of them), and instead this is just another bit of SOL, which I found somewhat disappointing... though the Uso series characters are generally fun to read about. Still, it does close out Eris's story, even if it didn't fulfill my desires, lol. Fuyu Uso Fuyu Uso follows Teidou Setsuka, the daughter of a powerful (not just wealthy) family and the Student Council President of the mammoth school they are attending. She is beautiful, brilliant, and incisive. From the very beginning (Haru Uso) she has been openly pursuing Souichirou, though Souichirou is perpetually suspicious of her reasons and wary of her in general. This is, by far, the darkest of the four paths. Teidou Setsuka's personality is the hardest to read from surface cues of all the heroines (even Satsuki, who is a mistress of lies), and she is so capable she doesn't even really provide an opening to read her. I'm going to say that, like Aki Uso and Haru Uso, there is a mindfuck built into this story, though it is one (just like those) that you can figure out if you pay close attention to what is going on and the various cues you should have learned to pick up in the previous games. However, this story is, as I said, much darker than the others, which were essentially straight-out romances involving simple deredere heroines with various issues. Setsuka is... scary. I say this from the point of view of a guy who likes his VN heroines scary. I'd say that she is on my list of top 5 scariest heroines that aren't yangire (yangire heroines being scary because they are unpredictably homicidal). Damn, it is hard not to spoil this one, lol. Thankfully, this isn't the main company (Light) so this isn't a bad end path, hahaha. After Story 1 I'm going to start this by saying that, of the after-stories so far, this one shows the heroine's personal growth the most. For better or worse, Setsuka is pretty twisted up inside, and this covers her growth after the dramatic end of the main path (along with a number of really hot h-scenes). In a way, Setsuka's growth in this after story is as dramatic as the other heroines' growth in their own paths, and in a crappy charage, this would probably have been enough for a path on its own, hahaha. After Story 2 This is the shortest of the second after stories by far, probably because Setsuka's issues were resolved so completely in the original path and the first after story. It follows Setsuka and Souichirou after she has graduated, and it lightly touches on the aftermath of the original path (considering what happened, that isn't surprising). There really isn't much to it, but it was nice to see a less yandere-ish Setsuka, lol. Hare Uso Hare Uso is the harem story added for those who bought each of the original four games separately before this month. Essentially, all the events (including the sex) happened in each of the games, but Souichirou never chose any of them as his lover. Just to be clear, given that Souichirou ends up forced into the sexual situations in all four games (through different means), this is not as unrealistic as it might sound. Moreover, I was laughing throughout much of its hour long length. Harem paths with serious protagonists are always hilarious... Overall Overall, playing the Uso series altogether is like playing the best of the best of plotge/charage hybrids. It is amusing at times, heart-warming at others, and it brings tears out at the right times. The heroines are interesting and unique, presented in a first-class fashion, and generally given a depth of character development that has been lacking in recent years. By handling each path as a separate game with an intensive focus, Campus made the heroines feel like real people, rather than props or sex dolls (which is what most charage heroines end up being). While the series has its flaws, it is definitely worth playing as a whole.
    1 point
  10. VirginSmasher

    About Himawari

    Or calling it pretentious for having themes to its storytelling.
    1 point
  11. ? The definition of 'good enough' is that it is... good enough. So while I appreciate time and effort spent going above and beyond to do excellent work, 'good enough' is perfectly acceptable. That's what it means. Where it gets weird is that 'good enough' changes over time. Standards change. Work that was 'good enough' for video game translations in the late 90's / early 2000's will generally not pass today's minimum standards. Mostly, it doesn't qualify as 'good enough' anymore. Companies have raised the bar over time to bring the average up enough that people demand better. And that is the real threat here: The VN scene still does bad enough business that SakuraGame's business model - 'burn the forest down and profit off the ashes' - probably provides a comparable profit to doing things right. Some number of companies will look at the foreign 'market', see it an order of magnitude smaller than the Japanese market (even though Japan has shrunk so much since the heyday 10 years ago or so), and not care enough to pay attention and just sign with SakuraGame because they offered more money or it's easier. Just like normal video games moved the bar up, but there's NISA and Tecmo Koei trying to drag it back down - the real threat is lowering the bar, so 'good enough' starts including bad work.
    1 point
  12. So, if I understand this correctly, there is some content locked behind the $80 deluxe edition? In other words, "normal" backers/ people who buy the game normally after launch won't get all the content of the game? Art is nice, though knowing I won't be getting the full game if I pledge for a normal digital tier makes me a bit hesitant to pledge, tbh.
    1 point
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