Plk_Lesiak
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Blog Comments posted by Plk_Lesiak
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1 hour ago, LemiusK said:
Well, that's all well and good, but it certainly changes my perspective of VNs now, and not in a positive way. If the hentai scenes are as hollow as you've described, and these companies are only adding them because they're catering to the rather niche demographic of eroge players, then it also explains why h-scenes are so superficial, adding nothing of value to the story. Kinda makes me glad I skipped just about all of them, save maybe the one or two exceptions that actually have some valuable story content, but again, disappointed. Kinda cheapens the value of VNs with h-scenes, makes them look like glorified porn games with decent plot.
I mean, not that I'm one to criticize porn games, since I do have my share of nukiges, but the thing is, I'm usually not proud of my fapping to these games and similar pornographic content, and frankly embarrassed by it. I see it as a human need, but not a very respectable one. So yes, I think "respect" is a good word to use here. A loss of "respect" for VNs and what they are, catering to these base needs of human nature for profit. Certainly doesn't make them as appealing anymore. Definitely more laughable if someone decides to call one of these a "masterpiece."
You seem to be in a pretty foul mood today.
Well, I don't think you're wrong, but my approach to this is more treating the h-scenes as a necessary evil and focusing on the other values the plot-focused VNs have. Just like microtransaction in many "normal" games, they might be something marketing staff pushes into products (making them less enjoyable for me personally but more lucrative overall), but it doesn't minimize the passion and creative input of the people that worked on it. Plus, not all VNs are eroge and at least with some of the 18+ ones we can hope for proper all-ages releases.
Plus, we're talking about the entertainment industry. Everything here is ultimately done for profit and when the bottom line tramples creative concerns, we're getting exploitative shit instead of a compelling product. But it doesn't mean there are no masterpieces created within the VN/anime industry or the compromises necessary to make them profitable should make us disregard their positive qualities.
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1 minute ago, LemiusK said:
Well, your explanation doesn't explain why VAs are so willing to voice serious stories if they're equally embarrassed about sex and porn then. You seem to be talking about eroge players, but what "the OP" was actually talking about was the VAs, not the players. You missed my point and went a little off-topic a little there.
Well, indeed, but I think Maggie addressed that well enough. The thing is, eroge VAs are not really mainstream celebrities. They chose a relatively lucrative niche where voicing porn scenes is a requirement, but you won't see many of them talking about it in cable TV. And if you ask Kana Hanazawa or some other highly-popular anime VA to voice straight-up porn scenes, I imagine they would decline the same way the Western VAs would, just maybe with less ideology attached to it.
On the other hand, if there was a booming eroge industry in the West requiring skilled VAs capable of doing both dramatic acting and voicing hentai, I'm pretty sure you'd find similar amounts of talents willing to do it (even if under pseudonyms etc.). Especially because I imagine that voicing an erotic game is still not comparable to working in the sex industry, or something similar that would borderline disqualify you from finding a normal job.
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19 minutes ago, Thyndd said:
Hmm, but who exactly are we talking about? I'm pretty sure most of us here on fuwa are not embarassed/bothered by 2D titties either, y'know. If it's only eroge players both in Japan and elsewhere, then there might not even be a difference in mentality to speak of. Maybe the average Japanese denizen is not so open to porn in their entertainment media. Maybe since the otaku culture was born in Japan they are more aware of its existence so they don't get so taken aback, but at the same time they may be who reject it the most.
Well, yeah, sure, in the confines of our rooms at least. Remember the recent "should I tell my gf?" thread.
And yeah, I guess I was mixing two issues. One is that I think plain porn is always plain porn and I don't think Japanese people have magical powers to extract deeper meaning from hentai. There simply is none. The second is that we shouldn't overstate the "liberal" approach to sexuality in Japan. It's different, but it doesn't mean pornography or eroge are as "accepted" or "mainstream" as some people would like to believe - I was mostly reacting to some statements by the OP, like that Japan's culture is "more promiscuous".
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5 hours ago, Thyndd said:
Well, I don't know how they actually see it, but I get why at least on this side of the planet people would think of it as nothing more than masturbation fodder
I mean, I know I do.
I'm pretty sure Japanese people don't see them any different, they're just not embarassed/bothered about having pure fap material in their narrative games. And remember, in you watch anime for example, you might notice that while the approach to sex is in many ways more relaxed in Japan (although it's, as always, pretty complicated and nuanced), eroge players are not exactly the most respected group in society and the games themselves not completely devoid of stigma. There wouldn't be laws forcing mosaics over everything in a country fully accepting of pornography.
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5 hours ago, MirāNoHebi said:I read the Mystics of Sapphia demo ages ago, I liked the story premise, and the nice looking backgrounds. Character art however somewhat rubs me the wrong way, too much gloss, and polish making them look like living mannequins sometimes.
Well, yeah, the art isn't great, but I can accept a lot of compromises as long it's not actively repulsive and the story content is interesting. I would probably never want see those h-scenes though.
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1 hour ago, Dreamysyu said:
Well, it does sound like a very generic chuunige from the way you describe it. Even classics like Dies Irae has most of the same problems and overused tropes (and it's one of the reasons why I became kind of bored with it after just finishing one route). The reason why they are considered good VNs, on the other hand, is that they have some other very good points that make the whole overall experience worth it. This VN... probably doesn't have something like that, from what I understand.
I would say so.
Well, I thought about that and the truth is I know very little about this kind of third-rate JP chuunige. I know the really good ones are able to mix the cliches into something satisfying and craft an engaging story out of them. The "angry shounen" line was mainly to signify the lack of depth - a VN of this size would usually have some of it even if it's mostly about the corny action sequences, here... It's just a lot of shouting and purely-literary gore. Kind of missing the point I guess...?
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Where did that videos voice came from? The game has some kind of blooper section?
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1 hour ago, MaggieROBOT said:
Great review!
I used to read some chuuni shit (chuuniga? it was mostly manga and not games) years ago, but yeah the edgelord asshole of a MC that somehow still is the only man on Earth that the heroines care about, just for them to go completely submissive and OOC in romantic/ecchi scenes regardless of how head strong they were before, was way too common and became annoying way too fast for me to even bother with this type of story anymore.
Okay, maybe I just had a poor finger to choose reading material, I admit it, but guess this VN will not be the one to make me go back to it.
Thanks. ^^
What's funny, the studio behind it directly cite F/SN and similar games as their inspirations, so it really feels like a "let's take all the worst elements from this genre and compile them all in one product" kind of deal. But hey, they also made Analistica Academy, so I'm sure we'll see great things from them yet.
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19 minutes ago, Ranzo said:
I'm playing it right now and I agree with pretty much all that you said, I also wanted to write a review for this dammit! What I really don't care for is the obnoxious amount of referential humor its just not funny. Just the amount of it is staggering, like that long segment in which they referenced breaking bad. Also the boob physics are annoying as well. Tits don't move like that!
I think boob physics weren't that bad most of the time, but I found it funny how the engine tended to freak out when moving sprites in and out of the scene and after you minimalize the game. It never looked very dignified, but can't blame developers for that, it's just a Live2D issue.
And yeah, I found those X-men and Breaking Bad "references" (it's that school of "humour" that references things by smashing their exact copies into your face for prolonged periods of time) pretty awful, but I know many people like that kind of stuff, so I didn't talk about them in detail in the review.
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1 hour ago, Dreamysyu said:
Hmm. I don't know what happened to "graphics in games doesn't matter" me from the past, but in spite of all the bashing the screenshots still make me want to read it. And, like @littleshogun said, the isekai themes in VNs are actually pretty rare, and I wouldn't mind this changing just a bit (to a reasonable degree, of course
). So, I don't know, considering the size of my backlog, most likely I will still skip this, but maybe I'll take a note and return to it at a point where I just want to read something stupid.
Yeah, it does look good and is not unpleasant to read, so I really don't discourage it. Just, I'm like the most shameless consumer of isekai of all types and quality levels (remember, I'm a guy who LOVED the first half of Deathmarch, so it's hard to say I have high standards in this regard), but it was still for me to hard to find this story compelling. There's just SO LITTLE in there beyond fluff...
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It's a bit sad that these derivative VNs never get translated, they seem like something pretty easily marketable, especially when based on popular series such as New Game. Well, maybe one day...
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Trains > idols, thus there's no reason to learn Japanese anymore.
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8 hours ago, SeniorBlitz said:
Wonder who is being dowrating your posts recently, not that is that important just kind of curious since this came out of nowhere. O.o
I had a theory on that, but it seems the person I suspected actually stopped logging in. I guess I have more enemies than I thought.
QuoteAnyway EVN recommendation, https://vndb.org/v20918, know you're not into BL and this pretty much Bara but I heard good things about It. As always keep up the good work, and post more yuri content since I Love the gay (can't use the line over phrase effect on Phone so use your imagination kek).
Wow that title.
Anyways, there's a Yaoi Jam nowadays and I'm always at least tempted to check that out. Probably will try to save enough time for it next year, find some interesting-looking entries and do an overview post similar to this one. 
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21 minutes ago, MaggieROBOT said:
Make it 3
And I also super agree about the art bit. Something I love in those indie games is how stylish they can be.
And since it is a visual novel, visuals are important!! And Marco and Shira are nice in the visual department.SpoilerMarco and Shira are OTP and I adore that the game lets you explicitly bring them together as one of the "true endings" in the final route.
- MaggieROBOT and Zander
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8 hours ago, Zander said:
5 stars from me ☆☆☆☆☆
Personally I wouldn't call the visuals good in a general sense, but they are above average tier for an EVN. I like being able to romance both genders and platonic friendship endings are a big big yes from me. It's something I'd love to see more of.
idk if anyone else on the planet would tho... 0.0
Well, I wouldn't mind it too so there's at least two of us. :]
The art can look a bit mediocre when you just look at screenshots, but the expressions and variety in visual design make it much more enjoyable while actually reading the VN. I think it does a better job of communicating the story than some "objectively" prettier games and this is something I feel few people ever talk about. Good stylizati9n can make a huge difference, especially with limited resources.
- MaggieROBOT and Zander
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51 minutes ago, ittaku said:
Why would someone give you 1 star for this thread?
That's the first time I got a one star on a blog post here. Maybe someone really don't like SoulSet?
...or, more likely, really don't like me.
Not worried about it either way. ^^
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8 hours ago, Ranzo said:
Man, they really like the whole tie between the boobs thing don't they?
Battleship Bishojo sounds like a vn I should get drunk and play
Aye, I have a feeling that someone on their team is into the whole kyonyuu thing even more than most of their readers.
And yeah, that sounds quite right. Although trainwrecks such as Burokku Girls or Legends of Talia also can gain a lot from the reader being seriously intoxicated.
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50 minutes ago, Zakamutt said:
>not including Lynne (inb4 you already reviewed it)
It's "part 1" for a reason. And yeah, of course I did, the second post will come out this Friday. ;p
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50 minutes ago, Zakamutt said:
Sakura Nova was actually written by a Japanese writer, this dude (tfw I know the guy who translated it). While it still turned out not very good, the unusually high quality might be due to the writer having some experience.
Hah, I've missed that actually, this explains the slightly different feel it has. I would even risk saying that it's slightly... Underrated? I mean, it's pretty effective in what it tries to do and heroines are genuinely cute. It's that bare-minimum standard I rarely see Sakura games achieving and I don't think it really belongs with the same VNDB rating as Swim Club.
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5 hours ago, Zakamutt said:
the bottom link currently points to the same page it's on
Thanks for mentioning, not sure how I managed to mess that up, but should be working properly now. ^^
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17 minutes ago, Mr Poltroon said:
Lack of proper romance!?!? Absolutely disgusting.
Look at me just skimming those bullet points.
Well, it turned out to be quite a long article, you probably won't be the only one. ;p
SpoilerAnd well, I wrote it more as a warning for potential buyers than a genuine negative, but if I had to be very specific, I would phrase that point as "Even less romance than I reasonably hoped for after learning that the romance is not really the point, even in the routes that pretty much asks for a little bit of warmth". Because in my mind the ending of "the girl is very much into Sable and Sable is coerced into not pushing her away or is slightly annoyed by her" is still way less compelling than "Sable is not really into romance but is starting to warm up to the heroine after all they went through" would be. I mean, any kind of romantic gesture would do - in the routes it's shown that he's not completely incapable of making those, but in the endings he basically turns into a block of ice.
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1 hour ago, EroHataVNI said:
Her english just isn't on par to be a good writer. If you want you can exchange some words with her on discord shes there under the handle @Yukari
But if you can get over her negative side and her downplaying her own capabilities and convince her to improve herself instead of hiring people who handle the hard work for her (art in G&G) , then she might create better games. But you would need to go out of your way to do that and I think you used up enough of your time with these games. The problem is they actually sell on steam. I can give you the benefit that she actually read what you've written so you might have had an impact or made her self-reflect. Maybe...Well, I always hope that what I write might have this kind of effect - I've had quite a nice coversation with Katie from NewWestGames after she read my harsh review of Sweet Volley High. Here... Well, I would surely like to hear what exactly she thought about my post, but this format is not really serious and detailed enough to be a great starting point for a coversation (I'm easily conactable of Fuwa, Twitter or through my blogs contact form BTW :>).
On the other hand, if something can make a difference for the EVN market, I don't mind investing time in it. Plus, watching playthroughs of horrible EVNs is a major guilty pleasure of mine, so this wasn't much of a sacrifice. :]
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16 hours ago, EroHataVNI said:
I have actually considered to look into Games and Girls if its like on sale for one or two dollars and I have a coin too much, but after your thorough analysis that likely has more substance to it than the game itself, i might avoid it from as far as I can. Also the G&G Design looks like it deceives people into buying a Neptunia-artstyle-esque game. Thanks for going out of your way, and likely many others, to play these abominations of OELVNs from a german developer that sadly represents partially the creations of our country...
Heh, well, I think that the first two (Aozora Meikyuu and Yozora Rhapsody) were terribly-written and clunky games, but they at least tried telling a story and weren't completely generic. They seemed like genuine attempts at creating something decent, that just failed spectacularly. Games&Girls, on the other hand, just feels cynical, just like that imouto incest VN (I think it's called Imolicious? [lol] It was apparently blocked by Steam a few months ago, postponing the release until they implement the new filtering tools - might be months away, considering the response Dharker got from Valve lately).
But, hey, I don't think many people know the author is German. The horrible English make them even more believable as low-budget, poorly translated JP VNs. xD
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2 hours ago, Ranzo said:
So, what you are saying is that it is wrong to try and stick your dick in your videogame cartridge?
All of those seem to be pretty terrible, I wonder how many people actually played them?
Catridges are not so bad, I would warn especially against doing that to DVD drives (radiation) or other ports (electricity).
And when it goes to these games... They are among the best-selling OELVNs on Steam, if we can believe the recently-leaked data (especially Aozora Meikyuu and Games&Girls). To be fair, they're mostly dirt-cheap, especially when on sale, could've been included in some bundles too. :>
The Different Treatment of Sex Scenes: Japan vs. America
in Lemurian Ruins
A blog by LemiusK in General
Posted · Edited by Plk_Lesiak
Oh, well, you're definitely disproving my point about hentai being narratively empty.
But I think there's a difference between erotic scenes that are made to titillate the reader in subtle ways and have a significant narrative function (like the 18+ scenes in Kindres Spirits or Highway Blossoms) and plain fanservice. Hentai is mostly plain fanservice - which is not a bad thing by itself, I don't want to deny anyone their fapping material or deny that a good romance story and porn can complement each other. The problem arrives when every adult-oriented VN needs fanservice h-scenes to sell and money people shove them in where they don't belong.
I'd get minus 500 karma if I wrote it on r/visualnovels, but I'm actually all for portrayal of sex in VNs. I just think that typical eroge hentai scenes are a very shitty way of doing that.