Jump to content

Leaderboard

Popular Content

Showing content with the highest reputation on 04/21/20 in all areas

  1. Foreword: All the previous complex meta-textual intellectual novels got the highest score from me. Itsuka, Todoku, Ano Sora ni is exactly this kind of novel. So... is it 10/10 for me as well? Synopsis: In this town, there are "clouds" covering the nightsky, that the starlight won't even pierce. Because of this, constellations would always be too far. Born and raised in the Tatsumi noble family, Saku has failed to meet the expectations that lie on every male member of the family. One day, he receives word from his strict grandfather "to live life the way he wishes." Estranged by his family, Saku travels to the estate of Kuumeishi, a town that has never seen the stars. He went without hardly making sure of the details of arrangements for a wedding... Youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQOtL0k7pXk&list=PLs4Gp5VU4Fv9cLlVyGlSgO3KP-VwxGWLb Game type: Mindscrew Character Design rating: 9/10 Protagonist rating: 8/10 Story rating: 10/10 Game quality: 9/10 Overall rating: 9/10 There are enough English reviews for this game (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8) and especially Japanese reviews (1 is one of the best ones). But game has such complex nature that there is still room for discussion. Minor spoilers are inevitable for discussing game concept, but I'll hide big spoiler under the bar. I played the only available at the start Futami route blindly before reading anything on the game... and I did not like it at all. After rather fun greeting of our supposed fiance in this ancient town nothing much really happens for the bigger half of the game. There's astronomy committee at school and Futami who tries to roleplay a perfect wife at home (and she studies at the same school as well). Futami wants to become protagonist's wife and wants his help in ritual for clearing clouds by the festival, and she constantly demands answer, like five times, really. And Saku never gives one. Then I was absolutely pissed by the fact how writer crosses out previous development with just one sentence "And it was the last night before Futami returned to her parents' house". The reason is not explained, and strange scenes start to snowball at this point. Basically, Saku kind of continues to live alone. At this point he is visited by three girls frequently - Mememe, Konome and Asuku San - and it becomes the fork for the routes to initiate. Then there's sudden burst of conflict with many antagonists showing up, and everything loses sense almost completely. There are constant time shifts, recollections, recollections inside recollections and what not. It gets really messy instantly followed by battles and really unsatisfying unification with Futami under weird circumstances. I'm telling all that just to say that first playthrough can be really bad, it's normal. Game still managed to rise from 6/10 to 9/10 somehow. I'll try to explain how. So the concept of all routes turns out to be slightly different. This town is ancient town of several mighty clans dating from Heian period with heroines belonging to different ones. And these clans have both powerful warriors and magicians. A very important day approaches, so in each route protagonist Saku has to deal with the clan of route heroine. Problems and antagonists vary greatly for each heroine, so each route manages to provide an absolutely fresh experience. Concept looks much simpler now, but only because I try to simplify things on purpose. These clans exist at the same town and have a mutual co-habitation history. It means that in different routes all the heroines and sub-heroines and even lots of antagonists act simultaneously, and these arcs intersect. Positions of these clans are absolutely different, hierarchy and heroines positions are absolutely different. Even the purposes of clans are absolutely different. There's a lot of infodumping to chew. And after all three routes are finished another small story shows up which actually puts most of the dots at the right places. It explains both the origin of this town and clans, the history behind most important personalities, the ritual day and even role of Saku. It's a very strange structure where we get to know what the game was about after game is actually finished already. But this move gives incentive to recall or reread parts of heroines routes that made little sense beforehand. And it actually gives room for theory-crafting. My insight is under spoiler. Itsuka, Todoku, Ano Sora ni is a complex meta-textual intellectual visual novel. But why is it just 9/10 for me? The answer is because I did not really like the process of reading it. It's basically mindscrew where nothing is explained until the end and you are hit in the head over and over and over. But I really appreciate direction, text, concept, attention to details and discussion that it provokes. It's not a natural masterpiece, but an artificially kneaded one. The process is not really good, but the aftermath is. There is a feeling of accomplishment afterwards and recognition of something absolutely new done within a scale of visual novel. That's why I can't really recommend it. But if you read all this and still want to read it - it's worth it, at least for the after-taste, but it will be anything but easy.
    2 points
  2. I want to eat your pancreas. Before I watched it, I thought it was going to be a very sad tearjerker. I've read a bunch of reviews of this movie on MAL and most of them suggested that it's a badly executed story with shallow characters and it completely fails as a tearjerker. So after watching it, I absolutely didn't get the impression that this movie even wanted to be a tearjerker. 90% of it had a rather happy atmosphere. I think that this movie was very much misunderstood by the audience. Shinchou Yuusha. After reading the summary, I expected this to be just another random comedy isekai with some fanservice and that it would get boring quickly. An overpowered protagonist who only has 1 personality trait and nothing else to his character. Well, I was proven wrong really quickly. This anime was actually genius and the comedy never got boring. The way it works is rather simple. This overpowered hero is not actually the protagonist (this is made obvious by never hearing any of his internal thoughts). Instead, the protagonist was this goddess who summoned him and her interactions with the hero and her overreactions are totally golden. Her voice actor did a seriously good job. I feel a little bad for this show, because most of the audience probably couldn't realize that and therefore couldn't enjoy the show because of some biased opinions towards random isekai comedies.
    2 points
  3. MDruidd

    Senren * Banka

    Senren * Banka VNDB Free Patch uncensored for Steam here (all image from vndb) Summary The village of Hoori lies deep in the middle of the mountains, inaccessible by rail. Since there isn’t much interaction with its surroundings, the town seems like it is stuck in the past. However, it is because of this exact olden feel and subsequent development that it has turned into a nice hot-springs town for tourists. One of the popular sightseeing spots is the legendary katana Murasamemaru, embedded in stone. No one has been able to pull it out… until Masaomi somehow broke it in half. He has to take responsibility for his actions: “Marriage” with ‘shrine maiden princess’ Yoshino!? He was perplexed at the unexpected turn of events, but this is only just the beginning. What lies ahead for him is a much more peculiar and mysterious life, including his new fiancée, a mysterious girl who only he could touch, and the secret behind the curse that remains on the town. What will become of Masaomi’s love amidst his rapidly changing life? The answer lies within the Murasamemaru in his hands. Ending Guideline / Suggested Route Order This VN has 4 Main Heroines and 2 Side Heroines and Normal Ending. Each Route can be completed in any given order. Each H-scene will give you the choice to do "inside" and "outside". This doesn't affect the endings but showing different CG. All heroine has after ending so you can play it on the title screen by menu after story. Recommendation read from Yoshino -> Mako -> Murasame -> Lena ->Roka -> Koharu Other You need to finish any 1 heroine before Unlocks Koharu & Roka Route. Best Heroine Route: Mako* Guide for Save Choice : Save the data before the next selection below the text (save #) Route Guideline Yoshino Mako Murasame Lena Roka Koharu Normal End Attribution This walkthrought from Steam
    1 point
  4. I'd say for me it's Erased. The first 3 episodes weer very atmospheric and pretty good overall, but after that it just turned bland. People say that it's a great show with an awful and predictable ending, but for me the meh part started way before the ending. Fushigi no Kuni no Shounen Alice is a manga that nobody ever talks about, and it has some awfully low rating on Mangaupdates, but I personally found it strangely fun. There isn't really any coherent story in it, neither there is any obvious hidden meaning, and it feels like some kind of a high trip. According to the last chapter, it looks like it's supposed to represent mental illness in some way. Still, somehow, it was really fun to read. I guess, my tastes are just that awful. Well, here's my personal unpopular opinion: there are quite a lot of really good isekais out there, especially comedies, but they rarely get noticed because, due to the abundance of awfully written escapist fantasies, they rarely ever get noticed by the general public.
    1 point
  5. mcigames

    Free 3DCG assets

    Greetings to all, i'm a 3DCG artist and want to share my work with everyone, i own a website where i post all my work if any of you are interested you can go to http://free3dcg.com and download anything you need, some of them are decent some are awful but i'm sure you'll find something I mainly make background CG props for daz 3D renders, do not recommend importing them into game engines, so if anyone is making 3DCG visual novel using daz 3D and needs some free stuff feel free to download anything you need, also feel free to share my site with your friends you are not obligated to do so but would help me a lot so more people cand use them. There are not many at the moment but updating every day with new content so be sure to check it out. If you have any questions feel free to ask in this post. Thank you and have an awesome day.
    1 point
  6. MDruidd

    Free 3DCG assets

    good work
    1 point
  7. Today I found a funny one. It turns out that there was a Captain Tsubasa reference during the sports festival in chapter 8 Of course I'm putting that reference back in
    1 point
  8. Clephas

    Floral Flowlove

    Now, as I stated in the previous post, Saga Planets' has two types of VNs it primarily produces... a story-focused type that doesn't avoid the kind of bitter drama that charage/moege tend to despite the moege-type visuals... and a 'strong charage' type that essentially is a more character-focused VN with many of the same strengths as the former type. Floral Flowlove is the former type, being much closer to Hatsuyuki Sakura and the other 'Four Seasons Series' VNs. As such, as in all VNs by this company, there is a definite 'proper' play order, if you want to fully enjoy this game. First, unless you are inexperienced at playing VNs, you probably would have figured out that Kano's path is the one that touches on the core elements of the story most intensively... and that is the case, so I seriously suggest you do her path last. This is my suggested path order Adelheit>Aoi Suu>Kohane>Nanao>Kano. My reasons are that Adelheit's ending is the one that goes the most out of its way to avoid touching on the protagonist's most intensely personal issues and is the most 'charage-like' path, and Suu is a sub-heroine whose path branches off of Kohane's path. Nanao and Kano share a basic flow of events up to a point that basically requires you to choose one of them and it dramatically splits off, so it is best to play Kano's path right after Nanao's. Now that I got that out of the way, I'll make a few comments on the setting and subject matter. For those who dislike Christian mythology, this VN might make you feel uncomfortable, though - given that it is a Japanese story - it isn't full of the moralist excess that a Western Christian writer would have put into it. The focus on angels does have meaning, but for most of the VN, you won't know what meaning it has. Another issue is the protagonist. He isn't a cipher in any way, shape, or form. He is an extremely emotionally-scarred, somewhat self-derisive character who also happens to be eminently capable at whatever he chooses to do (my favorite type, lol). However, his tendency to distrust everyone, despite his ability to see the nature of people's intentions, will probably drive some people up the wall. The guy is fundamentally a rationalist (which is fairly rare in Japanese VNs), save on a few issues regarding his emotional scars and the need to protect Kano from her own bad luck. The common route of this VN is fairly dramatic and interesting, and Adelheit's path branches off from the rest almost immediately after the first dramatic point. A second turning point occurs after the turn-off for Adelheit's path that sends you digging through the protagonist's half-healed emotional wounds and his past, and it is actually pretty interesting. Save for Suu's, the paths and endings are universally first-rate (Suu's path is this game's abortion, though it is fun to watch the protagonist seduce a nun, lol). I will say that I - as always - have to complain a bit about the fact that the endings only go a few months to a few years past the climax of the story (I really, really wanted to see Adelheit five or six years later, because I thought it would be rofl-worthy). However, for most people this won't be a problem. Each of the paths gives you a final snippet of the past after the credits, and it is, in part, this that made me give you that order of completion. To be blunt, Kano's revelation is a bit too big in comparison, and as a result, it would be problematic if you saw it too early on (it is meant to be viewed right before going to the final path). About nine out of ten people are going to spend this VN wondering 'who the hell is Riku?' because the protagonist never really explains her in any of the game's main paths. So... I'm not going to spoil it for you (though a lot of you will probably figure it out anyway). Emotionally, this VN definitely has impact... but a lot of it is pitying, sympathizing, or empathizing with the protagonist. I will say that Kano has seriously awesome hidden depths that come out in all the paths (think a ditz with an intelligence of ten but a wisdom of five hundred in a D&D game), as she is perhaps the single wisest, most selfless and compassionate heroines I've seen. She isn't terribly intelligent though. On the other side, Adelheit is pretty hilarious... she is easily the laziest heroine I've ever seen (though she is also one of the more intelligent ones). Kohane is the kind of girl who would make the perfect mother for a family of twenty adopted kids, and Nanao is basically your standard tsundere (on her own merits, she is probably the second-weakest heroine). The true route... you will cry, so I predict (lol). Anyway, the true route had me crying for a while, and it was definitely worth playing. Unfortunately, it is also impossible to talk much about this route without spoiling the entire mess, so I'll just stop here. I will say that they did manage to avoid the 'true route renders all the other routes meaningless/relevant only relative to the true route' screwup, which is what happens in most VNs with a true route. Overall, this VN is Saga Planets at its best, having learned from a lot of the little mistakes in their previous games. For those who liked Saga Planets already, it is crack, and for those who like a good story-focused VN that isn't a chuunige, this is an excellent choice.
    1 point
×
×
  • Create New...