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akaritan

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  1. Like
    akaritan got a reaction from Mr Poltroon in What are you playing?   
    Given that there was a steam sale going, I had ten dollars in my wallet, and I'm on break, I decided to buy and read some cheap OELVNs that I've been interested in a while. The games in question were Aviary Attorney, and Sweetest Monster. Now, in retrospect, I should have played Aviary Attorney second, because I certainly could use a pick-me-up after Sweetest Monster, ahaha.
    Aviary was like Phoenix Wright, except with birds and more puns (if you can even believe it). While I like Ace Attorney more, Aviary certainly stands on its own merits. The production is relatively good, and there's nothing quite like it in VNs. The 19th century France setting was a relatively unusual one, and it was really refreshing. The characters are likable, and while they aren't complex, they did everything they needed to in a game like this. The gameplay was similar to Phoenix Wright, but there were a few differences. Most notably, you can fail entirely to collect all of the evidence beforehand, thus screwing yourself over before the trial even begins.
    Aviary Attorney is a great way to spend an afternoon, especially for it's current ~$3.70 price.
    Sweetest Monster, on the other hand, was my first ebi-hime VN. And if this is a good indicator of her work's quality, then I need to pick up more. It follows a man who meets a catgirl in the midst of marital problems, to grossly oversimplify. Frankly, I shouldn't say much about the plot of a 2 hour game at all. The atmosphere was incredibly uncomfortable without coming off as too heavy, and as adorable as the catgirl Belle is, while reading this game you can't quite shake the feeling that something is off. There's a sort of creeping unease that develops as you slowly start to realize the implications of the game's events. But it's definitely a good experience and I have quite a bit to say about it, so I'm throwing that in the spoiler tag.
    So in short, Aviary Attorney was good and fun and Sweetest Monster was fantastic, and they're both good choices, especially given their current price tag. And thanks to anyone who devoted their time to reading this ungodly text wall, ahaha. 
  2. Like
    akaritan got a reaction from Plk_Lesiak in What are you playing?   
    Given that there was a steam sale going, I had ten dollars in my wallet, and I'm on break, I decided to buy and read some cheap OELVNs that I've been interested in a while. The games in question were Aviary Attorney, and Sweetest Monster. Now, in retrospect, I should have played Aviary Attorney second, because I certainly could use a pick-me-up after Sweetest Monster, ahaha.
    Aviary was like Phoenix Wright, except with birds and more puns (if you can even believe it). While I like Ace Attorney more, Aviary certainly stands on its own merits. The production is relatively good, and there's nothing quite like it in VNs. The 19th century France setting was a relatively unusual one, and it was really refreshing. The characters are likable, and while they aren't complex, they did everything they needed to in a game like this. The gameplay was similar to Phoenix Wright, but there were a few differences. Most notably, you can fail entirely to collect all of the evidence beforehand, thus screwing yourself over before the trial even begins.
    Aviary Attorney is a great way to spend an afternoon, especially for it's current ~$3.70 price.
    Sweetest Monster, on the other hand, was my first ebi-hime VN. And if this is a good indicator of her work's quality, then I need to pick up more. It follows a man who meets a catgirl in the midst of marital problems, to grossly oversimplify. Frankly, I shouldn't say much about the plot of a 2 hour game at all. The atmosphere was incredibly uncomfortable without coming off as too heavy, and as adorable as the catgirl Belle is, while reading this game you can't quite shake the feeling that something is off. There's a sort of creeping unease that develops as you slowly start to realize the implications of the game's events. But it's definitely a good experience and I have quite a bit to say about it, so I'm throwing that in the spoiler tag.
    So in short, Aviary Attorney was good and fun and Sweetest Monster was fantastic, and they're both good choices, especially given their current price tag. And thanks to anyone who devoted their time to reading this ungodly text wall, ahaha. 
  3. Like
    akaritan reacted to Dergonu in Rate the avatar above you   
    Praying upside down is the new meta. 8/10.
  4. Like
    akaritan reacted to Thyndd in What are you playing?   
    Damn, should I be afraid?  
    For now all I can tell, being like 2 hours into it, is that I really enjoy the poems. I think it's a great innovative resource to get to know the characters in depth, and I really revel in figuring out the meaning or at least trying to work out an interpretation. 
    I must say that I'm going into it completely blind. The only thing I'm aware of is that it's supposed to be pretty messed up, and that at some point shit hits the fan. Before starting to read I thought it might be something like Higurashi, that started out looking cute and fluffy, but then it progressively builds up into a more sinister and dark atmosphere, until indeed shit gets real, but for the time being the only sinister tone I could grasp is built in the poems. Some of them definitely have a weird shade, and some even creep me out.
    Well, we'll see~
  5. Like
    akaritan got a reaction from Thyndd in What are you playing?   
    good luck
  6. Like
    akaritan got a reaction from Turnip Sensei in What are you playing?   
    Just finished Kara no Shoujo 2 and it was preeeety damn fantastic. Now, I had quite a few problems with the first game and found it to be somewhat forgettable, but the opposite was true here. The new characters were great, and I found myself liking the old ones more than before (though, I can't really say why myself). Giving Reiji a sprite and voice worked wonders for giving him a presence in the game, and he was just as fleshed-out and likable as the other characters. It's a very well constructed game, and the story is intricate without necessarily being confusing. The settings, 60's(?) Tokyo and a rural Japanese village, mesh together far better than they have any right to. KnS2 is incredibly atmospheric to boot- the art has an ethereal appeal to it, and the score is lovely. It did a good job alternating between grimdark and relatively peaceful, and I can't say I ever really felt bored. The ending delivers a rhetorical punch to the gut, and it leaves you craving for more while still answering most questions. I'm sorry if this is all ranty and incoherent, it's early morning for me and I stayed up very late playing this Chinese slideshow.
    I also played DDLC and sorta hated it, but that's been discussed to death so I won't go into it too much. Basically, it's only real selling points aren't that impressive at all (and slightly overdone), and the characters are all either boring or unlikable. Also, it makes me a tad upset that out of all of the wonderful and powerful stories in VNs, this one is the one that gets the most recognition. But these things, especially the latter two, are subjective and there was certainly a lot of love and energy put into the production and scripting, so I will give it that.
  7. Like
    akaritan reacted to Ranzo in What are you playing?   
    Finally managed to get around to finishing off Kindred Spirits On The Roof and man I'm glad I did! Those were some real fine emotions though!
    I even teared up a bit at the end and that almost never happens. There was a lot of tenderness and warmth on display along with lots of humor. I enjoyed pretty much all the couples and I thought they matched each other pretty well. Overall it was definitely worth playing (Still haven't gotten through the bonus content though)
    Plus it was worth playing just for this one moment alone
     
  8. Like
    akaritan reacted to Silvz in Good Free Visual novel recommendations   
    Lucid9 is a great mystery novel, and it is completely free! I recommend it both for that and for having enjoyed the game a lot. There's even a fuwareview on this, if you get interested.
    There is also Narcissu, the original one, which is always a must-read for new readers. Since you don't have a VNDB accound linked, I supposed you are new.
     
  9. Like
    akaritan reacted to Dreamysyu in SeaBed demo is out   
    Honestly, I don't get why people care about voices so much. To me they are always a nice addition to a story, but not a necessary one.
  10. Like
    akaritan reacted to BunnyAdvocate in VNConf 2018   
    For those interested in the development side of VNs, VNConf is coming up soon on Jan 13, 2018. There will be 18 speakers from various parts of the industry including 2 from Japan: Kio Nachi and Watanabe Ryoichi. I'll also be doing a fun little presentation on trends in the VN medium.
    The presentations from last year's conference are online for free here.
    Tickets can be bought from the VNConf website here. It's priced to just cover the streaming and web hosting expenses, but for those who can't afford it, the presentations will be going up online a few weeks later.
    It should be a lot of fun~
  11. Like
    akaritan reacted to Silvz in Identify Umineko Song   
    Well, I could do a thread later talking about my experience, as definetly, a LOT changed after all these years. To be exact, I read Umineko in 2013, and as some know, Visual Novels are the genre I'm working in my final College papers, so yeah.
    About Umineko itself, I'm still on Episode 3, and I'm doing a lot of research to complement my reading about the characters, the setting and all. To be fair, knowing what I have to go through yet, I'll not comment a lot on this, but I still believe, without bias, that Umineko is one of the best stories I have found in the genre. There are many exceptional VNs, but this is very different in comparison to others.
    On the technical part, it bothers me A LOT to not have all the features recent games have, such as volume settings, textboxes, it has very limited text speed, no way to change the font, very few CGs, etc etc.
    On the narration, someone already pointed once that this is Ryukishi's problem, but the change of perspective in the game is terrible to follow. Once you get used to Battler, you get a "neutral" narrator, then other characters start doing it, and you don't know what to take as biased or not. For example, many people think Battler is unreliable as a narrator, though many scenes start from his point of view then change completely, which makes you wonder what is reliable and what is not.
    And on the story itself...... I get and believe the true culprit, but it still makes me wonder sometimes if Ryukishi changed his mind after episode 2 was released, since many "plot points" were only introduced very late in the story, and even though some got the Epitaph right, or even the culprit, I believe it is impossible to get a lot of the game in the beginning, and ever since Ange is introduced, I think much of it was not as one may have expected in the first episodes.
    Again, it is not completely fair to review it now, so I will only get to specifics when I finish it, probably in January. There are many things that I believe are relevant to talk about, and I constantly think of questions that probably will never be answered, so I'd love to have a discussion around them.
  12. Like
    akaritan reacted to Narcosis in Dateless Japanese high school students create their own anime-style dating simulator   
    Interesting and bold undertaking, but it takes a bit more than just passion and money to create something outstanding. Age has nothing to do with it and they probably have yet to experience it, to truly understand why people make these games.
    That aside, I wish them all the best.
  13. Haha
    akaritan reacted to Fred the Barber in What are you playing?   
    I like to call it The Catmaid's Tail, but I should probably be saving that joke for when the next season of The Handmaid's Tale debuts. But the parallels are haunting.
  14. Like
    akaritan reacted to Silvz in Identify Umineko Song   
    This is the one! Thank you so much!
    Umineko was my first VN ever, and I planned on rereading it for a long time. I have to say that now it is way smaller than before, maybe because I still didn't have the "rhytmn" for Visual Novels then. You should at least try the first Episode, and see if you get pumped to read the others.
  15. Like
    akaritan got a reaction from Silvz in Identify Umineko Song   
    Oh, man. Umineko is such a masterpiece and I keep meaning to replay it, but it's also so long. I'm a little jealous, ahaha.
    At any rate, it sounds like you're talking about Daydream's End? I could be wrong, but I can't think of any other 1-4 tracks that quite fit what you're talking about.
     
  16. Like
    akaritan reacted to MaggieROBOT in Most Hated   
    The "rape out of love" part is actually something that plagues 18+ josei manga and otomege to a less extent. I once read a VN called Monochrome Heaven that had a hero that "raped the MC to show her that she's his" and she pretty much agreed with time. This is actually kinda sad, seems like she was brainwashed, but the game not even once adressed it like a problem. Needless to say, I hated this guy.
    One that bored me... I guess I could say Rondo Rondo from Comyu. She's just there to be the token tan girl, her H-scene comes out of nowhere and goes nowhere, she's not even a heroine and everything involving her is just plain uninteresting! And she just kept appering in two out of five routes like she's important! It seems she's just in the game to trigger a important fight in the last route, but even then I found this to be extremely dumb!
  17. Like
    akaritan reacted to Dreamysyu in Getting bored of SoL VN's (mostly moege)   
    I agree with Narcosis. Both of these VNs have quite a lot of SOL scenes. Rewrite is basically SOL in the common route, with little hints that something "grand" might be happening behind the scenes. And the common route in really long, comparing in length with Grisaia's common route, I think. FSN has a lot of SOL scenes, to the point that they actually get pretty boring at some points. And they continue throughout the whole story, excluding maybe the second half of UBW and the final third of Heaven's feel. Honestly, if you're tired of slice of live, I can't recommend either of these.
  18. Like
    akaritan reacted to Yuuko in Your Daughter Brings Home Her First Boyfriend Home For The Holidays   
    But I am my daughter's boyfriend
  19. Like
    akaritan reacted to Narcosis in Your Daughter Brings Home Her First Boyfriend Home For The Holidays   
    I won't have to deal with this, because I'm not planning any children.
    You should do the same. They say stupidity multiplies with each next generation.
  20. Haha
    akaritan reacted to MaggieROBOT in Which VN should I play next?   
    You just described why I love this series so much!
  21. Like
    akaritan reacted to melo4496 in Which VN should I play next?   
    I'm extremely biased here but KnS2 is a nice read. Has over 50 characters, reiji is voiced, with top-notch art (like really, it's pretty) and bgm. Storywise, overall great plot and I didn't see it coming so well-played ig. Never bored considering that it was lengthy. Most of all, the game has Yukari who is the best imouto ever.
  22. Like
    akaritan reacted to Kurisu-Chan in Which VN should I play next?   
    Did we read the same VN?

    I'll answer you, poll person, all 3 VNs are great, if possible, play them 3, just be aware, S;G 0 is the shortest of them, while, if i'm not mistaken, Kara no Shoujo is the longest of them. 
    I don't wanna give you my opinion on them because i don't want to spoil your fun, just...go for them, you can't mistake yourself.
     
  23. Like
    akaritan reacted to littleshogun in Which VN should I play next?   
    Let's see what I could write here, even though I may be wrong here.
    As for Steins Gate 0, I admit that it's good VN. For more detail, I won't say that it's a big waste of time though but instead it was a nice choice if you want to knew more about Steins Gate. That said, to enjoy SG0 you probably should play it until either Mayuri's or Kurisu's route then you could started SG0 before tackling the true route, because it was more like interquel from what I understand. Oh, and by the way most of the stories were came from Steins Gate additional light novels.
    From what I saw when I tried this, Kara no Shoujo 2 did have the Seven Deadly Sins theme in the chapter titles, and have very lengthy flashback for the new characters. It was quite divisive from what I understand, but what you should know is that Reiji's and the older characters were take a backseat at the beginning for hours because of the aftermentioned flashback - make sense if we consider that this supposed to be about new characters before they decided to add Reiji's story (ie the main story) that was unresolved in first Kara no Shoujo. It was resolved here at least, but unfortunately it was resolved at the very end of the VN and even then it was very obvious that it was set up as the Sequel Hook. So in short, I think we could see this as the second part of trilogy if you're focused on the main plot only (Just like Phoenix Wright trilogy in which it also borrow some elements from there in regard of the investigations) which mean that it will be resolved in the third VN, but if you want to just focused on the new characters then yeah they're mostly get satisfying conclusion.
    V3 was supposed to the the final part of Danganronpa, only that it's twist was remind me of Star Ocean 3 infamous twist although it's probably because the creator want to emphasize that he don't want to make another Dangan Ronpa VN anymore, at least for now. Oh and actually it did have an interesting Decoy MC at the first chapter, but at the end of first chapter the Decoy MC was got a brutal forced retirement and we got to see the real MC which is a detective. Most of the fans were dislike that fact, because the creator made the Decoy MC a bit TOO interesting for the series (The reason was because the Decoy MC was an optimistic woman who is initially not a detective compared to the male MC, something that the fans did find that very interesting because it's quite rare to see female MC inside man oriented VNs outside yuri/shoujo ai VNs). In the end, I would still said that it's a good addition though for Dangan Ronpa fans only that it might be bored the longtime fans though, because it was followed Strictly Formula that the franchise have.
    So after I wrote this, I think you should try Kara no Shoujo 2 as well because looks like you already finished Steins Gate there and Dangan Ronpa might be not good for you. Keep in mind that you probably better focused on the new characters instead of the main plot, because it was obvious that the effort goes there - the main plot still got the focus alright, just not as much.
  24. Like
    akaritan reacted to Deep Blue in Which VN should I play next?   
    S;G0 is a waste of time, as a fan of S;G it was a big disappointment. Everything that made S;G a great vn was lost in S;G0.Okarin is a wimpy crying guy, even if you understand his reasons of why he is acting that way it just doesn't fit his character.
    Maho is a great character but is not on par with Kurisu. 
    You get this NVL parts with secondary characters that nobody cares and spent a lot of time developing them... again, nobody cares, it's a big waste of time, like Ruka.
    Finally, to sum all up, it just doesn't add anything to the plot or the overall story.
    I will suggest KnS2, the translation is excellent (probably the last GOOD translation I've seen)- The first hours are superb, after that the vn drops out the pace and quality overall and picks it up at the end again.
    Overall better than KnS, specially because of the voice acting of the main character, a good and solid sequel, so my recommendation goes to this one.
    Can't comment on Danganronpa 
     
  25. Like
    akaritan reacted to Fred the Barber in What are you playing?   
    Glad to see one person enjoying Gahkthun and another person considering playing it. It's a lovely game with a lot to recommend it. I think Inganock is ultimately a better story, but it's not that big a gap, and I found Gahkthun to be a very enjoyable read.
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