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Ryan Ashfyre

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Everything posted by Ryan Ashfyre

  1. I'm surely grateful for all the hard work being put into this. I just wanted to know if we should still expect the partial by this week, was all.
  2. It's been a week and a half now. Should we still expect the partial by the end of the week?
  3. It's really awesome of you to pick this up and I wish you nothing but the best in seeing it through. One question though. Yandere put out partial patches as they progressed, so will you be doing the same or will there only be a full-patch release?
  4. Quite a couple of reasons actually: - Boring and/or unrelatable MC Example: Yuuji from Grisaia. Just an underwhelming, boring excuse of a protagonist if ever I've seen one. Not once did I feel genuinely engaged by him or even that he honestly cared about what was happening around him. - No worthwhile plot Now, I'm actually willing to give a little ground plot-wise IF the characters are fun, can make me laugh, etc, (Take Alcot's My Girlfriend is the President. No plot worth speaking of, but it was a fun ride nonetheless.) Example: School Days. 'Nuff said. - Doesn't live up to its potential Example: Da Capo Particularly Da Capo II, which just had the most unbearable, thick-headed MC I have ever had the displeasure of slogging through, and that's saying a lot. That aside, the Da Capo series does have significant potential, and yet it keeps getting rehashed in the same fashion, over and over again, as if the creators are scared to try anything new for fear of alienating their base. If they took a page out of a series like ef and put some genuine trauma and the like into their story, it could make for a much more interesting read.
  5. Fate/Stay Night was my first VN ever, and so it has an important place in my heart, but it has genuinely impacted me in a way that still lives with me today, particularly a certain scene that just seemed to really resonate with me... To this day I've yet to meet anyone else who feels this way, but it was the scene in the crypt underneath the church during the Fate Route, where Shirou finally faces down the pain of his past and confronts himself in what, IMHO, struck me as the most genuine and heartfelt expression of himself in the entire game, even more so than during his fight with Archer. That scene, right there, redeemed whatever flaws his character had up until that point and made me cheer for Shirou in a way that I've rarely ever done for any character in a VN. It also made me believe that Saber could fall in love with him in spite of their short time together, and that was really important for me. At that moment, during that time, Shirou was about as miserable and vulnerable as you could imagine him, teetering on the verge of death, sorrow and unimaginable despair threatening to crush his heart at any moment. Even so, and in spite of all that, he still refused to give in, and not for the sake of his wanting to become a hero or because of anything that Kiritsugu said to him. That was Shirou. It was his strength, right down to the very last, that let him look despair straight in the face and remain unbroken. It was a simple moment, but one that conveyed in a way that almost nothing else ever has, the pure, untainted strength that lets one stand strong in the face of sorrow and remain true to one's self.
  6. I've my doubts that, beyond a small, vocal minority, people considered YU-NO to be a "good game" purely by virtue of its length and difficulty. Given how I mentioned Rewrite in my previous comment, I'll take this opportunity to drown you all in a sea of text again bwahahahaha briefly explain my opinion on that. By and large, I actually like it. Character-wise, Kotarou was pretty fun to watch (plus his lunchroom scenes with Lucia were freakin' hilarious) and the five heroines, while not all equal (Lucia was obviously out in front by a mile and anyone who thinks otherwise doesn't know what the hell they're talking about has a different, but respected opinion) were at least entertaining to watch in their own ways. Story-wise, the common route, along with the five main heroines' routes and the Moon route were all good. Now, admittedly, I do think that some could've been a lot better; Shizuru and Kotori's routes in particular. Both had endings that, while not terrible, came across as trying to appeal as more emotional than they actually were. Shizuru's Route: It also reinforces the impression I had of Kotarou throughout the whole route, in that he was something of a sacrifical lamb, all for the sake of Shizuru's personal development. And honestly, that really took away from any emotional investment I might've otherwise had for them. If Kotarou were going to be a source of strength for her, then you've gotta do better than just having him throwing himself into the proverbial fire for her. That just ain't gonna cut it. I need more. Kotori's Route: Kotori, while I like her character well enough, had probably the weakest route of the five, with an ending that just screamed And hey, I'm a fervent believer in all of that, hands down. That said however, you've got to earn that in a story. Kotori's route didn't do that, instead seeming to rely on gimmicks and cheap plot twists in order to try and force it out of us, and it didn't work. All finally, we come to the Moon Route. Honestly, I don't have a single major complaint about it. Essentially, it took all the best elements of what we'd seen so far and meshed 'em all together into a single, oh-your-god-the-world-is-on-fire-and-we've-gotta-save-it battle that brought our beloved characters back together again for a single, climactic ending. And it was great. If Rewrite had just ended there, I would've been happy. But noooooooooooooooo, the good people at Key just couldn't let it go and had to give us the absolute crapfest that was the Terra Route. That said, and to avoid another long rant on my part, I'm just going to list off everything that pissed me off about it one by one: - Kotarou turned into a complete d***. Seriously. He was so light-hearted and confident about himself before. I enjoyed reading his POV and now I just can't stand him. ALSO, I thought it was made painfully clear at the end of the Moon Route that - What the actual hell happened to Kotarou's powers? Sure, in all the preceeding routes, there were differences in developments and usage, but there was always a sense of consistency behind his power(s). In Terra though, things just go completely off the rails and throw you for a loop. It's like they just threw their hands up in the air and said: "F*** it. We need this to happen, so we're doing it," consistency be damned. - Kagari. Again, we come back to the end of the Moon Route where and yet Kotarou somehow still finds himself infatuated with this girl whom he knows nothing about? Um... okay, how do you square that with a character that has absolutely no recollection of anything that happened in Moon? - We don't see Chihaya, Lucia, Shizuru or Akane (aside from a brief encounter, iirc) anywhere. - The story. If the Moon Route was an exercise in how to do Rewrite's ending right, then Terra does the exact opposite. Instead of focusing on the characters and letting them develop the story, it's the story and extenuating circumstances that have everyone running around like a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off, and it's damn confusing and unemotional gibberish to boot.
  7. Aside from the soulless jerks dearly respected members' opinions on how Little Busters! wasn't that great (though in all fairness, I did zoom through Mio and Komari's routes halfway through), I haven't seen anything all that controversial here. Well then, guess I'd best throw my hat into the ring and see if I can't stir up a bit of hate then, eh? A'ight then, here goes. YU-NO - A Girl who chants lover at the Edge of the World does not live up to its hype and is, perhaps, one of the most prominent examples of failing to live up to its potential and what not to do in a VN. There are a number of reasons for this, of which some of the more glaring are... - Without a walkthrough, this game is damn near impossible. And even with one, it's still really confusing. Seriously, look at this beast. The first time I saw it, I had to double-check just to make sure that this was actually a VN. Indeed it is though, and easily the most confusing and difficult one I have ever seen in all the lonely years spent at my desk. That said, even if you're just looking to complete the game itself, that in itself is something of a herculean task. Various key items, which are scattered throughout YU-NO's first half, need to be collected, and even though the game does tell you if said item is in a specific character's route, that's about all the help you get. And in a game where damn near anything and everything can be clicked and examined, often times you need to need to click everything - and I do mean everything - in a given area, over and over and over again, in order to progress. It's very frustrating at times, and even then (again, without a walkthrough), there's no guarantee that you're going to find the item you need as - with the exceptiion of maybe one or two times - it's never a necessity to progressing through a given route. But then for people like me who actually have a vested interest in seeing our heroines' good endings, that's where things get really fun. See, YU-NO has this cute little quirk about it where, more often than not, you need a specific item in order to access a given heroine's good ending. Now, if said item could actually be found in that character's actual route, that would be one thing. Oh no though, often times you have to slog your way through another heroine's route - sometimes all the way to the damn end - to get the item you need. And, again, if you don't have a walkthrough or you're one of those unfortunate souls who played this game when it first came out, best of luck with choosing the right one. Seriosly, you're gonna need it. - The voice acting M'kay, I realize that YU-NO first came out in the stone age that was the 1990s. Even so though, there should be a decent standard of quality to expect, particularly in the exceedingly rare case that we have here where the MC was actually voiced. Seriously, when was the last time that happened? Maybe YU-NO was a trial balloon to see how it could work out? If so, safe to say that it failed quite spectacularly. Now, I don't have anything personal against Nouyuki Hiyama (I've thought he's done rather well in his recent roles, tbh) as a seiyuu, but here... he's a one note trainwreck. Seriously, it's like they recorded various lines and just played them over and over and over again, because they sound exactly the same. It's amateurish, irritiating crap, and I've honestly lost count of the number of times I've wished I just could just turn him off because I was so sick of having to listen to him. Example: Listen to him in Ayumi's route, saying "Ayumi-san! Ayumi-san!". Like nails on a damn chalkboard. - The fan service Just to have it out there, I'm no different from any other hot-blooded young guy out there. I like fan service as much as anyone, as long as it's done well and it's not shoved down my throat. Not so with YU-NO, not even close. In fact, the game, quite literally and shamelessly, starts off with you staring up the skirt of the school nurse. And this is but a precursor to various instances in the game where, time and time again, virtually all of the relevant females in the game have their panties exposed. Now, of course, that's not to say that a MC can't be a fun little pervert, lusting after beautiful women and getting himself in trouble (I like Alcot VNs as much as the next guy). All well and good, but make it fun. This right here? Lazy and insulting. - The story Alright, just hear me out on this one. For all my complaints thus far, I still genuinely enjoyed YU-NO's first half. We had a mystery that was slowly but steadily building up, characters that, while flawed in some ways, were still enjoyable overall (with the exception of Mitsuki, whom I regard as amongst the dullest of the lot by far) and I was looking forward to seeing how everything would be wrapped up in the second half. And then it all just went flat. YU-NO made the terrible mistake of trying to give everything a proper explanation, even if it meant having to force the proverbial square in the round hole to do so, and it resulted in an ending that, really, made you feel as if the first half was... well, kinda useless. Really, even as the second half was kicking into gear; honestly, I was so bored with it that I was just looking forward to it ending so I could get to the main heroines' good endings back in the first half. It just seemed so preoccupied with clearing up all the mysteries and what not and giving the characters themselves secondary attention. In a way, it was a lot like Rewrite's Terra route, which I also thought was by far inferior to the Moon route and, to be frank, sucked. It gave precedence to the story instead of the characters, which doesn't work. Sigh. I do have other problems with YU-NO, but those are my main gripes with it. With a remake coming out though, I do hope they'll be able to clear up a lot of them and give us a more enjoyable experience, hopefully one that doesn't end up so consumed by its own ambition that it leaves the players as an afterthought.
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