LemiusK

I KNOW RIGHT?! 
God, the merchandising on this will be off the chart!

Is this real? How the hell it's not some kind of disgraceful abomination?? Why do I like the trailer so much???
*DEEP EXISTENTIAL CRISIS*

I love it uwu

I was actually thinking about Ef as I was typing that too. I was actually playing it for a couple hours earlier today. It would be perfect to start around Christmas. I started it around last Christmas and I found the opening church scene and everything, so atmospheric and perfect. I still haven't even finished it, but I love it. It can be so slow, but the art and music and everything is just so good. I'm gonna be sad when I finally finish it.

I was actually remembering "ef - a fairy tale of the two" just as I was writing that. lol I remember it fondly because its adapted anime was one of the few with Christmas in it. Since ef's beginning starts some time near Christmas, it might be fun for me to pick it up some time then.

Yeah, definitely. Plus, when you start the VN again the next day, sometimes the protagonist would forget about something from yesterday, and you would find yourself vaguely remembering it too since it's also yesterday for you. That kind of experience is just fun.
 
Man, that's really cool, but I don't have seasons here (only rain or shine), so I can't pull off the same trick. That said, it is cool to be playing a visual novel during the same holidays as featured in the story sometimes. Like playing a story set in Christmas during December. lol That's kinda cool in its own way and makes the reading experience much more richer.

I think the first time I caught myself doing something that was playing Persona 4.  I thought it would be cool to go through the year playing the date in game in real life, but since some days just fly past and others go on for awhile I never attempted it though. Playing VNs I definitely do like to quit at the end of a day, since it's usually the perfect spot to remember whats going on, but I also like to try to match up seasons with the ones in real life. Seeing it snowing and reading about how warm my character's tea is, while it's snowing in real life and I'm wrapped in blankets, drinking my own tea just makes me feel extra cozy.

"Die the death" 

Episode 10 of Muv-Luv Alternative was shorter than I expected, given that it's the final battle and all. But man... it's finally come to an end. A grand epic finale worthy of the hype.
Sigh. Gotta hate it when good stories end. lol
Though I've gotta be painfully honest, I actually don't have as hard a time leaving Muv-Luv behind as I do towards other franchises.  It's one of those cases where you acknowledge and respect the hype surrounding something, but you're just not as personally invested as everyone else. It's a reaaaally solid story with amazing characterization, don't get me wrong, but I don't know, I just don't feel that torn up about leaving it behind.
I guess if I'm to be honest, it probably comes down to not being that attached to the characters. I was going to blame it on all the infodumping dampening my experience, but then I remember how much I liked Fate/Stay Night (or specifically, Saber's character) in spite of the infodumping. Muv-Luv has a very clever way of growing its characters, but none of their personality just appealed to me the way other VNs/anime did. Even my favorite girl, Ayamine, was only so because I found her to be witty and funny, but no deeper connection than that. I might have changed my mind if there was actually an Ayamine route in Alternative to further explore the character, but I doubt it.
This is going to be the same case with many VNs I've played and will play in the future, so I won't bother boring you again with a similar post next time. G-senjou no Maou, Saya no Uta, Corpse Party, and the Zero Escape VNs are all examples of popular visual novels I acknowledged the quality of, but not as crazy or fanatical as everyone else. It takes a really special kind of VN that go above and beyond the average quality to really get me singing praises about how much of an impact it has on me; timeless and epic stories like Steins;Gate, Umineko no Naku Koro ni, Clannad, and of course, Fate/Stay Night. Muv-Luv Alternative, unfortunately, won't be on my AAA list. But that's not necessarily a bad thing, mind you; I'm extremely fussy. Second place is still considered great in my book.
That being said, I will still be browsing the Muv-Luv spin-offs in the future. I am a bit curious whether if there would be sequels where
But first, I need to finish clearing up some of the unread routes in Unlimited and Alternative, of course (I sort of rushed into Alternative without clearing all the routes in Unlimited because they were all so similar). I'm currently at the "Final Episode" of Alternative, so I guess farewells are not too far away.
Anyway, to bring this verbose statement to a close, Muv-Luv Alternative is great. I enjoyed all the clever subversions they did for the harem setting. And you know, I have to talk about the music too, because that's a pretty solid soundtrack up there. Some of my favorites were the grander trumpet scores played during the closing of a large battle, and man, the theme songs inserted between scenes definitely boosted my spirits in the face of a grim battle ahead. "CARRY ON, MY WAY!" lol
Final Rating: 9/10
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Now that Alternative is out of the way, I could hopefully get back to my favorite blonde tsundere over at Grisaia no Meikyuu soon... Then after that, I might see if I could spare some time for Ever17.
Speaking of Ever17 - which I've dropped twice now - I remember that the second time I dropped, I was probably very close or at least halfway through the first route of the game. I was at the point of the story where
Anyway, if someone could clear that up, I'd appreciate it.

Nice to see someone that feels the same about choices as me! ^^  Walkthrough is useful for endings hunting and for getting those pesky 100% completion but it take all the fun out of the game. I love to experiment, to try, and pick what feels natural and to figure out how can I favor my best girl/boy.
...Although because of this refusal to look at walkthroughs my first ending on my first VN ever was the Bad Ending 13 of FSN (the one you get for insufficient points with Saber on the last day, you know?). The backtrack still haunts me to this day. Fun times.  

Rereading Ever17 because my save data was lost. Decided to just wing it and pick whichever option I feel like for my first playthrough to make it feel more natural. After looking at the flowchart, it seems like I'm heading for Tsugumi+Sora Bad End. Oh well.
Couldn't stand Tsugumi's edgy loner attitude enough to play nice with her, so I didn't pick the nicer options for her this time (as opposed to my original playthrough). Became closer to Sora this time round, but still not enough to earn enough points because I listened to Coco's joke instead of paying attention to her at the beginning. C'mon, it was a hilarious joke. I'm annoyed that Takeshi didn't laugh one bit at the joke. Poor Coco.
Speaking of whom, Coco is soooo cute. Best gurl of the game. She seems like someone whom I could just hang out with all day, joking around. Well, I kinda understand why they wrote her that way, since I could still recall vague details of what happens near the end of Tsu+Sora's route. Feels bad man.
Sora's infodumping got me to fall asleep, literally. Then again, I was reading at 2 in the morning, coincidentally the same in-game time Sora was infodumping in the VN. Gah, I didn't bother trying to figure out half of what she said.
Anyway, can't wait to get on Coco's route soon.  

One advice I can offer you is to not follow the walkthrough, at all. Try and get the true end of each time block by yourself while avoiding the bad end during your first try. It's more fun that way, since your choices would have a bigger impact that way, and it feels much more satisfying finishing each time block by yourself (not to mention that it definitely feels a lot more awesome when you complete the final time block and achieve the ending by yourself, since the ending would feel like you've earned it rather than just following some walkthrough). Each time you've completed a time block, refer to the walkthrough for the bad ends you haven't acquired. Rinse and repeat the process for every time block. Complete => Refer WT => Next Time Block => Complete. And if the walkthrough doesn't provide you enough clues, just ask it here again in this thread and I'll be glad to answer.
It might take a lot more work than if you just blindly follow the WT, but I guarantee that the ending feels much more emotional if you put in the hard work yourself, as you'll feel like you were fighting alongside these characters.  Well, that's how I felt anyway. lol

One advice I can offer you is to not follow the walkthrough, at all. Try and get the true end of each time block by yourself while avoiding the bad end during your first try. It's more fun that way, since your choices would have a bigger impact that way, and it feels much more satisfying finishing each time block by yourself (not to mention that it definitely feels a lot more awesome when you complete the final time block and achieve the ending by yourself, since the ending would feel like you've earned it rather than just following some walkthrough). Each time you've completed a time block, refer to the walkthrough for the bad ends you haven't acquired. Rinse and repeat the process for every time block. Complete => Refer WT => Next Time Block => Complete. And if the walkthrough doesn't provide you enough clues, just ask it here again in this thread and I'll be glad to answer.
It might take a lot more work than if you just blindly follow the WT, but I guarantee that the ending feels much more emotional if you put in the hard work yourself, as you'll feel like you were fighting alongside these characters.  Well, that's how I felt anyway. lol

Thank you a lot! I will probably come to ask for your help again pretty soon haha

Did you follow the walkthrough in order? You need to start the 11:00-12:00 block with Osawa's route first, because Osawa automatically gets the Bad End 16 if you start with him first. I made that mistake too when I thought I could just wing it on my own. lol
But since you've messed up, no worries! I just completed this awesome game a few days ago, so it's Lemius to the rescue! 
The way to acquire this ending is by having Minorikawa texting his fellow reporters instead of asking Chiaki during 11:30. The exact quote of the choice you're looking for is, "What he needed now were dependable folks he could count on. He decided to email all his contacts from back in his staff reporter days." Pick that option, then move on to Osawa's route. TADA!
If you need any more help, feel free to ask me. I pretty much acquired all 85 Bad Ends through trial and error, so I pretty much know how to get every single one of them. Hope you enjoy the game! It's awesome!

Right now we're in the nomination phase, so if there's anyone in the current nomination bracket you don't see, feel free to nominate as many as you want.
There is a separate bracket for characters that are only in untranslated visual novels. Nominations will last about 3-5 days. Rest of the rules are in the reddit topic.

Chaos;Child

I tried tellin' cats that waiting for the 18 patch was a bad idea but they never listened to me. Yeah I found it really weird and off putting as well.
And yeah I wish the characters had been a bit better initially especially design wise. I ended up really loving the cast that joins the team later in Alternative and I wished that they had been the main girls. I did like Meiya quite a bit.
 
I played Corpse Party for the first time recently and while I enjoyed my experience I think it is certainly one of those games I would have liked more had I played it when I was younger. A lot of the horror stuff just didn't click with me and walking through all the samey rooms and hallways got old after a while. I also really didn't like that guyz younger sister. For one thing she is supposed to be in Middle School yet they have her talking like she's in kindergarten or elementary school. Middle School girls do not talk like that unless she has some developmental disability I know they were trying to make her seem innocent but they should have just made her younger. I also really didn't like how most of their arc was dedicated to her really needing to piss. It was weird and stupid. Also, I thought the ending was just whatever for me. Nothing was really solved and it seemed like bait for a sequel. One which I don't quite feel like chomping at.
 
I'm playing Crystalline you know that EVN that was made by the fine folks behind Ace Academy and while I'm sort of enjoying myself there are some issues I have with it. One, the story is pretty basic it's your classic Isekai tale that has already been done to death but that's okay the characters are decent and the writing is decent. The second thing is the boob physics. I hate boob physics they are always real off putting and fake. A woman putting her hands on her hips and slightly leaning forward will not cause her tits to ruble like some kind of earthquake. The last thing and worst thing about it is the amount of references. There is just too fucking much and they are not very funny and quite annoying. Referential humor can be funny only if it used in small doses and not all the fucking time. Visually however I think it is pretty great and the backgrounds are damn good. 

Don't bother. The "routes" in Unlimited are basically the same anyway. Alternative doesn't even have routes (technically, there's one scene right at the very end that depends on which girl you favored during the walkthrough, but I'd just recommend to watch it on YouTube).
I don't think any of the spin-offs cover that, sadly. I myself would love to see a proper sequel with this as a setting.
You know, not being crazy about a VN even when you acknowledge its quality is pretty normal. I actually feel the same way about quite a lot of VNs. Not every good story will work for you personally.
You almost finished a route I believe. Also, Ever17 gets a lot better when you start it for the second time (if you choose a different protagonist).

It looks like today new patch for Ever17 has been released.

Yeah, it's kinda debatable whether or not games like are actually VNs. As far as the series, I think Book of Shadows felt most like one to me. Wandering around exploring things in these kinds of games can be a lot of fun, but when you're forced to run away from things non stop it can get tiring. Especially when it has nothing to do with the story and is just some random, endlessly respawning spirit. I kinda like how Danganronpa did exploration for a VN type game. You couldn't die or anything, but it still felt suspenseful and let me appreciate the uneasy atmosphere of the school.

I'm glad I read this. I've been playing the Vita versions and wondering if it was a good idea. I don't like missing R18 scenes if it goes well with the story and builds on the relationship of the characters, but H-scenes for the sake of H-scenes can be pretty stupid. I'm hardly ever alone, so it just makes things more awkward too. Especially, if they're ridiculous ones.

It's a legendarily bad scene. I had actually just finished MLA a few days ago after starting it in freaking 2014 (it's taken a while...). When I got to that scene last week I was flabbergasted. I knew everyone was calling it bad, but I didn't expect it to be THAT bad. There are dozens of different ways you can tackle that sort of storyline, and they chose the worst possible one, lmao.

Okay, that's the explanation I was looking for. lol I would react with the "Like" button, but I've hit my reaction quotas for today.
Yeah, okay, when you put it that way, it does make the scene a bit more tasteful. Buuuuut yeah, I'd still say the execution is poor because
But yeah, you're right, other hentai titles wouldn't even bother to include such meaningful context in their sex scenes, so it does elevate Muv-Luv above them. You're right. It's kinda like what Saya no Uta did for the gore scenes, or what Spec Ops: The Line did for the FPS element. In fact, it's a lot more like what School Days did with the harem setting. Thanks for the explanation.

You see, the problem is... the scene with the BETA right there was a cliche itself, a cliche of ALL hentai that involves monsters in general. That's not a clever subversion at all! And unless there's a clever subversion down the line I'm not made aware of yet, then I don't think it's the same thing as what subversion they did for the transparent suits and harem setting. This is like the opposite of those subversions.
Again, it's really just one scene, so it's not like I'm THAT affected by it. I just wanted to point it out, that's all. It's a small peeve, but it's honestly not that big of a deal.
Honestly, this felt like that scene with Nae in Steins;Gate (that they cut out in the anime), the one that was so over-the-top that it felt like it was made for shock factor. It was an annoying flaw in an otherwise perfect VN, but that didn't mean I hated Steins;Gate for it. I still love it.