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Plk_Lesiak

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Blog Comments posted by Plk_Lesiak

    MaggieROBOT

    Posted · Edited by Plk_Lesiak

    The Masquerade Killer looks quite interesting IMHO, I actually have the previous game by that developer, AIRIS, on the top of my to-read list - also quite a unique looking thing, but mostly overlooked, even while being free on Steam. I guess otome games simply don't have that many enthusiasts on the platform, compared to yuri for example. ;)

    Plk_Lesiak

    Posted

    14 minutes ago, littleshogun said:

    PS - Just asking here, will you gonna play Everlasting Summer sometimes in the future? I wonder about that here, because I did play that in the past.

    Thank you for the comment. ^^ And yeah, I've played it, but for now I'm trying to prioritize stuff that was never reviewed/never properly discussed on Fuwa. The main idea is to give those VNs visibility, because most people around here don't look for them and have no way to stumble on them on the forums or on similar JP VN-centric sites.

    Everlasting Summer is so well known that I don't think it needs much additional exposure - I will most likely get to it at some point, it's just much lower on my list of priorities. :)

    MaggieROBOT

    Posted

    Oh, and BTW, you're gonna have some competition soon. I'm officially proclaiming January 2018 an Otome Month on my blog. :D

    This way I'll have an extra motivation to read through all those western Otome waiting in my Steam library - there's surprising number of free-to-play, but pretty highly rated ones on the platform. And going with themed periods should be a bit more interesting than just putting up random reviews. :>

    MaggieROBOT

    Posted · Edited by Plk_Lesiak

    2 hours ago, MaggieROBOT said:

    Yeah, Andromeda's romance options (all of them actually) are weird, the intimate moments are all poorly written and laughable awkward with those animations and all... I didn't played Inquisition yet (like you said, the game is pretty long and all that) but I heard that you have total control to "keep going" with the relationship with him or be just flirtatious friends! It's nice to have options, yk? So yeah, that made various little interesting things that adds to the character, and that's pretty good! And the game also have Yuri routes, so everyone can celebrate.

    Aye, althought Inquisition also made Sera, the worst Bioware character in history, as pretty much the main F/F romance options, so it's not without sins. :D The romance arcs I did (Josephine and Cullen) felt very thoughtful and compelling though, maybe more than I've expected. If only they weren't dilluted by the 60-70 hours of filler content - it's even hard to recommend that game with clear concience. With all its awesome storytelling and attention to details, the 160 hours I've burned on it was one of the major reasons I've banned myself from playing RPGs. I'm not even sure I'll break that rule for the next Dragon Age, Bioware was so disappointing lately they even made me quit Star Wars: The Old Republic, the only game that ever immersed me enough to make me want to RP and that nearly made me write fan fiction. Also the yuri romance on my main char there got irreversibly bugged, and considering it's an MMO with maybe hundreds of hours invested in that char, it was a hard pill to swallow. :P

    Plk_Lesiak

    Posted · Edited by Plk_Lesiak

    2 hours ago, Zakamutt said:

    I might look through the text of the review a bit more closely later (I should probably sleep, it's 12 AM,) but one recommendation is to look up the definition of deus ex machina because I don't remember any kind of magical tier save of anyone. An unpredictable or unfair reveal or twist is not at all the same thing.

    Well, maybe it's a strech in this case, but I reffered to the fact that the reveal rapidly resolves the story in a way that was pretty much impossible to predict from the reader's point of view. I don't think it's that much of a difference whether its an actor, an event or a piece of information falling from the sky to break the logic of the plot and pass judgment on the characters. But it might be just me being an uneducated peasant. ;)

    With the protagonist, it might be subjective, but I saw him as more or less neutral at first and grew to hate him during the story, just because how he treated people who actually cared about him. My reaction might be a bit against the point of the story, but some things cannot be easily justified even by any serious issues he had with himself.

    With ambiguity of meaning, I think it was to some extent intentional, especially considering the structure of the story. The protagonist's fairy tales all gain clear meaning after the reveal, I think that some of the Ziva's monologues or interactions with Claire would also gain a lot more sense when re-reading tge story. And some things are simply left for interpretation, I don't think it's a bad thing by itself, unless you go overboard and end up with pretencious, pseudo-intellectual gibberish. I think OTL kept the right balance, at least for the most part. 

    Plk_Lesiak

    Posted

    7 hours ago, Dergonu said:

    Nice review.

    OTL is such a great OELVN. Definitely worth a read, (or two, to make sure you understand everything! :P )

    I'm a sucker for mysteries, so I was hooked from start to finish when I read this. (Phew, can't believe it's been well over a year since I read it.)

    It's more like an "OSLVN" though? I think there are even some traslation-related jokes in there. ;) That's why I avoid the "OELVN" term by the way, not all I want to write about fits that category presicely. :)

    MaggieROBOT

    Posted

    You mentioned Mass Effect and Dragon Age, you've played any M/M arcs in Inquisition or Andromeda? TBH Dorian's and Iron Bull's gay romances looked so good that I would've probably played through them at some point if the game wasn't so damn long. :D In Andromeda on the other hand, F/F Peebee romance was so laughably bad that I didn't even feel compelled to check out the other ones on YouTube. They've also made Jaal retroactively bisexual with a patch, I don't imagine that producing a compelling storyarc. :P

    Plk_Lesiak

    Posted

    5 minutes ago, MaggieROBOT said:

    *You got me on the Otome part* Is one of them Cinderella Phenomenon? ^_^ I really want to play it!! It'll be nice to read your opinion about it!

    And I totally understand you, I should be writing my graduation thesis now...

    It is one of them indeed, although I'm not sure how much my opinion on it will be worth. This will be the first time I'm playing an Otome without any f/f routes. ^^

    Plk_Lesiak

    Posted

    1 hour ago, MaggieROBOT said:

    Great review! And for free? :Chocola: I'll definitely play this in my summer vacation (meaning: soon, I live in the south hemisphere)!!!

    Thank you. :3 And well, there's quite a few quality free VNs if you know where to look for them. I actually have two free-to-play Otome high on my to-read list, it's quite possible I will get to at least one of them during the winter break and put up a review somewhere next month.

    Obviously, I should be writing my PhD during the whole break, but I have a feeling I will achieve much more when it goes to reading VNs and writing blog posts... :P

    12 minutes ago, SeniorBlitz said:

    IT'S FREE?! LIKE SWIMMING CLUB ANIME FREE? (Dumb jk, I know)

    Joking aside, great review mate, next week I will start a "Emptying short\very short VNs from my Giant VNDB wishlist", I will definitely include this one.

    Thank you. ^^ Considering how the western VN market works, rather short and cheap/free titles will dominate this blog in the foreseeable future. :>

    Clephas

    Posted

    I've once lost around $150 on one of those pay-to-win mobile games, although throughout like 6-7 months, so admittedly it wasn't that more expensive than typical subscription fee on an MMO. For people that have addictive personalities or are otherwise susceptible for this kind of manipulation though, it can have pretty horrible consequences. I don't expect game companies to follow any kind of moral codes as long as we let them get away with it, but I find it strange how little was done so far to regulate this stuff, especially on mobile.

    BTW, there's an actual pay-to-win, or maybe "pay-to-read" visual novel, Moe! Ninja Girls. TBH, it's actually one of the worst, most predatory mobile games I've seen so far. I was going to write a post about it at some point, might do it sooner as you've already brought up the topic. :)

    Clephas

    Posted

    5 hours ago, Clephas said:

    *smiles wryly* it is more that I subconsciously distrust all humans that aren't family and am paranoid even about family if something triggers one of the 'traps' in my brain.  Being paranoid is emotionally exhausting, so it eventually comes out as open irritation that can easily blow up into raw hatred and anger.  I have to be alone for several hours for every hour I spend in company, lol. 

    Also, that was just me blowing off some steam... I had my neighbor say - sarcastically - that he envies all the free time I had, and it was all I could do not to take his head off this morning... literally.

    I honestly wondered about this part of the story when observing your knowledge and the output of your blog, especially after I've started preparing my own and realized how much it will take from me to keep a weekly schedule. :)

    I guess it all have costs, but I've just wanted to say that I find this kind of dedication extremely impressive and have a huge respect for what you've achieved around here. I always had a lot problems with giving my all to anything in my life and honestly VNs are a bit of a therapy to me, something I want to stick with and build upon in creative ways (while in the past I've spend literal years mindlessly playing strategy games and RPGs, really barely getting anything out of it - just wasting time). I hope I can one day get anywhere close to your level of expertise and authority on the topic. :)

    Also, with bad/mediocre VNs... That's the everyday reality of every genre, isn't it? Classics are classics, but following new stuff always has this effect. So far, I find lesser stuff entertaining in it's own way and don't really feel regrets about postponing my obligatory kamige experiences. I wonder how I will look at it in a few years... :)

    Plk_Lesiak

    Posted

    1 hour ago, Mr Poltroon said:

    I actually thought the music was quite charming. Certain tracks were associated to certain families or themes, and I really got to know them over time.

    Despite my enjoyment of both this game and the sequel having been on more or less the same level when I played them, I can say the sequel left a much deeper impression on me than this one.

    I still have to get to the sequel. :) 

    TBH, I hate a problem with reading "serious" VNs lately, I need to have a bit of clear mind for those and my mood was so bad in past few months I mostly ended up reading bad or silly ones just to relax. "Hate+" and "Digital: A Love Story" are high on my list but in reality always lose to a thing like Nekopara or some obscure crap I read just for the fun of mercilessly picking it apart. ;)

    I'll definitely get to those two around the winter break though, otherwise this whole "western VN appreciation" formula will get a bit hollow. :)

    PS Next week's review will be One Thousand Lies, I hope you'll enjoy it. ;)

    Plk_Lesiak

    Posted · Edited by Plk_Lesiak

    2 hours ago, MaggieROBOT said:

    I didn't knew that such a powerful story was hidden behind a simple interface like this. Interesting.

    When I'm writing something like this I'm always a bit afraid that I'm overhyping it and setting people up for disappointment, because how you respond to this kind of story is probably very much a personal matter. But Analogue is definitely much more than it seems at first glance. I still have to play through Love's first VN, Digital: A Love Story, which is pretty much a text game in a retro internet browser stylistics, but also gets a lot of praise. Minimalism seems to be her default style. :)

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