Thyndd

It feels really weird when I find content I wrote on the internet more than 10 years ago, when I was essentially a little kid. I can't recognize myself in the way I worded things, it's like reading a completely different person. I wonder if, another 10 years in the future, I'll find this post and think the same thing. Time sure is scary.

I mean, I've already gone through Higurashi... so I've already experienced at least a little of what Ryukishi07 is capable of... maybe? We'll see. And on that note, I'm currently halfway through chapter 1 and came across the first mystery, when: Anyway, so far I'm enjoying the atmosphere and the characters. At the beginning the youngsters seemed a bit bland in comparison, but now they are starting to get some development. I can't wait to see what's all the fuss about, what with all the teasing

Hmm I also though of Fate, but it still does just one split. Like, the Fate route, UBW and HF can also be called the Saber, Tousaka and Sakura routes respectively, right? But yeah, it's definitely very close to what I'm looking for. If only in every one of those routes you could choose the romantic interest without straying too far away from the plot, it'd be perfect. I haven't read Tsukihime or Tokyo Babel, so I'll check them out, thank you! I can understand why something unnecessary can feel annoying, but hey, on the bright side, if the plot is not conditioned by the heroine you end up with, that kinda allows some more flexibility. Yes, I'd also very much like that the differences between routes were a direct consequence of the choices you pick so that they feel relevant, and I've actually created a thread on this same topic not so long ago. I think at this point the fact that VNs still rely mainly on the pick-your-waifu structure is just a bad vestigial habit that was carried over from their birth and it's time to leave it behind, that's why I advocate for that inverse structure I mentioned. Romance is fun, I love it, definitely one of my favorite components in any story, but it just doesn't make sense for a VN to have its route structure based on romantic choices when the plot is not mainly driven by the romance. That does sound very interesting. 999 was on my to-read list and I almost picked it to read now. I ended up picking Umineko, but I'll probably go back to it after I'm done with the seagulls. VLR I've never heard of. It's from the same developer as 999 huh... Guess I'll play 999 first and then if it's my cup of tea I'll read VLR. Thank you for the titles! Yeah... I'm so sorry @Happiness+, I carelessly followed the rant on the waifu structure and now your thread is a mess. I'll stop it here, this is my last post on this issue.

Danganronpa could also be considered linear. It doesn't have routes, but minigames you must complete in order to proceed. It seems to be true that it's almost always a route structure based on different heroines, though mind you, that's only on the surface. Most of the time each of the heroines routes tell a very different story (unless we're talking moege), and the choices throughout said route usually have an impact on the plot aside from the romantic development or reward scenes. That's why I don't really care that much about it and you won't see me complaining too often. What I'd like to see though is some kind of inversion in this structure, so, instead of spliting the story into different branches based on the heroine, and from there different plot lines branch off, do the opposite: split the story into different plot lines first, and from there, give the opportunity to pursue certain emotional relationship with a character within that certain branch, which could not have been possible otherwise. If anyone knows any translated VN that does this and does it well, I'd really appreciate the information On topic. As other people have said already, I don't think it's necessarily a revolution since it's only on the aesthetic aspect, but I am still excited. If SHAFT is one big inspiration, I have to be. I absolutely love how they play with the animation to convey feelings and sensations beyond the medium, closer to painting than cinematography.

I think the time has come for me to play Umineko. I've been putting it off because it's long af and from what I've heard, a pretty dense read, and I'm lazy Furthermore, I easily get obsessed over a mistery or challenge of some sort and yeah... I can waste all day thinking about it, so I'm pretty scared of what Umineko might do to me. I only know the basic premise. The head of some rich family is going to kick the bucket and everyone gathers in an island to discuss over the inheritance, then they get killed The setting looks like something out of Meitantei Conan. Oh, and I've also heard that: Well, that's all, wish me luck

Welp, my memory is also kinda hazy, but let me try to help you out. As I understand it, the cult and the researchers were not connected in any particular way, they just happen to occupy the cave that was annexed to the facility. To get rid of them the researchers actually gased the cave, so yeah, not on friendly terms. As for Rinne, her conception and growth, I believe that the cult Leader had a grown child about the age of Keisuke, or a year younger I think, who had sexual amorphism, a pretty rare condition that the researchers were for some reason (it has nothing to do with their research field but whatever) were interested in. The cult leader went on and kidnapped a kid from the hospital on the surface and raped him, and that kid turned out to be Keisuke. Why did she do that? I don't know, but they are depicted as crazed cultists and she wanted to resemble the Assumption, so I guess that it's not that big of a stretch to assume that she somehow thought that raping a child could give birth to a Messiah or something like that. Then, as for what happened to make Rinne into a girl, this is just my interpretation, but I believe they extracted the genome from the zygote in her womb and somehow altered the DNA of Rinne with it. Then they converted her in a spare part for the paradise project, who knows why. Though if one of the conditions for creating a sleeping beauty is to first make her fed up with the real world, I guess Rinne has more than enough reasons, what with the shit life she had. Euphoria has not the most consistent plot ever, that must be said. If you start scrutinizing it too much it'll fall apart eventually... But I hope at least what I said refreshed your memory on some points.

Hmm I've heard that VNs and even anime are not a good medium for terror a lot, and yeah, I agree to a certain degree, but I think it also depends on how you are to define "terror". There's also the fact that what is scary or not obviously is a completely subjective experience, so I can only speak for myself. Honestly I don't think I've ever consumed any form of media or literature that I found genuinely scary. Fear is a very strong emotional response to a threat or danger, and there's no way in hell I'm gonna feel threatened reading some piece of fiction. That's not to say that I can't feel uneasy and uncomfortable on my seat reading something that is meant to be scary. In that sense, I can't see why VNs can't be as effective as your typical novel. Anime is different in my opinion. One reason people often give for its uneffectiveness in terror is that the animation makes it easier to separate between reality and fiction, and I tend to agree. VNs however don't have that constraint since they can decide what to show at any moment and what to leave in the dark or up to the descriptive narrative. The only thing that isn't really available to VNs are obviously the freaking jumpscares you see in Hollywood movies, but yeah, that's a very cheap and shabby way to scare people. There's absolutely no merit in that. So TL;DR, as for me a piece of fiction can only make me uneasy, and both VNs and books have accomplished that, I can't really understand where people are coming from when they say they don't get the same reaction from VNs compared to other mediums. Another different matter is the fact that there are not many terror VNs (translated, at least) in comparison to other genres like fantasy, sci-fi or romance, but I don't know if it's necessarily because the medium is less suited for terror

Well, most of my favorite animes were based off VNs (all the Key stuff, Higurashi, Steins;Gate...) so it's only natural to eventually check out the original material, isn't it? Even though I didn't started with any of those, but with Katawa Shoujo, as many other people. It's free and easy to find, plus people said it was good and at the time everyone was uploading let's plays on YouTube so I said "why not, let's try this VN stuff". Then, after seeing it was something I could enjoy, I moved onto those VNs whose anime adaptations I'd already seen, and eventually onto completely new stuff.

I read Sono hanabira ni kuchizuke wo, the first game, which is both my first yuri eroge ever and my first nukige (that I played to completion, at least) The only other nukige I tried was Nekopara and couldn't get past the first half (is Nekopara a nukige? I mean, it must be right? I can't fathom why else people would play it). Welp, since Sonohana is very short this time I managed to finish it in not much more than 2 hours. I went in with zero expectations aside from some cute yuri scenes, but I'm not even the biggest yuri fan, so not even that factor could've made it more appealing for me. Verdict? Wow, it's actually not terrible! Of course I wouldn't expect full-fledged characterization in a 2 hour long game, 1 hour being exclusively dedicated to h-scenes, but the relationship between Yuna and Nanami had some interesting aspects. Honestly, the fact that I went back and forth between feeling conflicted by the nature of their relationship (you know, emotional blackmail) and seconds later I understood that as some sort of game they both enjoyed is a pretty amazing feat for this kind of game. I can definitely see why it's considered top quality within the yuri eroge world. Not the kind of thing I'm used to reading, but now and then it's good to try new stuff

For what it's worth, Yumiko's route was also my least favorite. I liked her character, but her route was for me, as you said, pretty uninteresting. My favorite routes were definitely Sachi's and Amane's. Without spoilers, Sachi is a big hit or miss and I ended up loving it (it might be totally different for you though), while Amane's route is the most generally considered "solid route overall", and it's many people's favorite. Makina is also pretty interesting... as long as loli stuff doesn't weird you out And as you've already experienced during the common route, her lines are gold, so you ain't getting bored. She was my first Grisaia heroine btw, being the order I followed Makina -> Sachi -> Amane -> Michiru -> Yumiko. It's often suggested as a starter route because it provides a little more insight into Yuuji's character, which is appreciated when it comes to understanding his interactions in the other routes down the line. Michiru... I adore her, but her route doesn't harmonize at all with the rest. Really, if you feel like taking a break from Grisaia, reading Michiru's route can ironically have a similar effect

So I just read the sinopsis of Newton and the apple tree. I had heard of this VN before, but I thought the title was just symbolism for something, I didn't expected it to be literally about Newton. My reaction to this: DID THEY REALLY LOLIFY FREAKING SIR ISAAC NEWTOOOOOON? And I thought after F/SN that I'd seen everything... Now, as a physics student, I think I need to play this for the memes. How good is it? The rating is decent enough in vndb

As others have said, I'll read whatever happens to catch my attention, without looking at its procedence. It might as well be made by some bushmen in the Kalahari desert for all I care. It just so happens that, let's be honest, JVNs usually outdo EVNs in pretty much every aspect. It's not a fair comparison of course, as they as supported by big companies with huge budgets, but the world is not fair That said, any indie developer can have a great idea for a great story, and even if they don't have the resources to make it shiny and appealing, that alone can perfectly make it worth the read by its own merits.

So they finally got it approved huh. Well, that's sad. Let's just hope it gets rejected in January. If, heaven forbid, this directive became effective, it's ultimately going to be a pain in the ass. No, I don't quite believe censorship would reign supreme and the internet as we know it would disappear; the net would just rearrange itself to adapt to the changes, as always. The only way to really destroy the internet would be to shut it down This is literally a war they will never win, but yeah... unfortunately they can still give us some headaches.

I mean, it's more of a description than a classification, so you know what you can expect from it, and in that sense it's useful. Ofc only the trashiest of the trashy VNs can be described by only one tag (the tag being "industrial dogshit" ), so it's intended only as an initial overview approximation.

As I understand the terms: -Moege: cute girls doing cute things. The situations presented are mostly of the slice of life style, and heavy themes are avoided. As a consequence, you won't usually find tremendously complex characters either, since there is a limit as to how much development they can undergo if the topics and situations are very limited. -Charage: a less limited moege. The main focus is still cute girls doing cute things for the most part, but sometimes it dabbles into heavier themes, allowing for extra characterization. -Nukige: porn. Normally any scene that is not pornographic is only there as a bridge to the next h-scene. If it happens to have some extra plot and character development, these parts are usually undistiguishable from a moege (aside from some more over the top innuendos and jokes). -Nakige: technically any VN with the main goal of making you cry, a lot. Obviously any scene from any VN can resonate with you in a special fashion and accomplish the same, so it's more a matter of intentions rather than results. Since one would think that some heavier themes are required to trigger an emotional response in the average reader, nakige and moege/nukige seem to be incompatible.

Oh that's actually a very fair point... It's really stupid, because stating that a depiction of an illegal sexual relationship is a crime is equivalent to saying that a depiction of a murder should be illegal. Then let's ban pretty much every video game ever. There are far more concerning topics that should be addressed instead of persecuting fiction... but yeah, we unfortunately live in a very absurd world, otherwise we wouldn't even be talking about this. Damn, now you actually got me concerned as well.

What do you mean? As a company, allowing VNs with adult content, considering they are for better or worse the majority of them, is hardly a bad business decision. They were missing on a ton of very popular VNs, and even if they offered a censored version many people would get their copy from another site just because censorship IS annoying, even for people like me who don't really care about h-scenes that much. I'm also a born pessimist myself but I fail to see any negative impact on the VN enterprise in the west. If anything, this should make for great profit, which translates in more advertising and VNs becoming more popular. Hmm probably not, if it's too obvious it's straight up a nukige, which makes sense, in the same way porno movies are not shown in a conventional movie theater. Some games might be kind of in the gray zone though, where they have a solid plot but also a huge number of h-scenes. I don't know how they'd deal with those.

Well I for one see this as a step in the right direction and I'm happy about it. It made no sense their apprehension towards sexual content while violence runs amok. Make love, not war Plus this also means that maybe we won't have to worry anymore about other content being toned down unnecessarily, such as in Kono Oozora's case and shit like that. Hopefully.

Welcome welcome~ don't worry, we don't bite. Generally. Well, there was actually a case of a guy who ended up losing an arm but... Jokes aside, I hope you enjoy your stay!

That's definitely some really good advice. Since that's just how I go about any VN I didn't think about it earlier, but @snowbell55 please pay heed to his wise words; if you read 5mins of it a day eden* is worthless. It's a VN that relies heavily on the atmosphere to make an emotional connection, all the plot being just a shameless excuse for that. It's funny how we both had a similar experience with Narcissu. I read it during a week of vacation while I was supposed to be enjoying myself. Not only that, but after Narcissu I didn't know better than start watching the anime Plastic Memories. By the end of it all I swear I felt physically ill.

Pretty accurate I would say. I believe for me it took even less time, around 5-6 hours, finishing it in just one night. However here https://howlongtobeat.com/game.php?id=25902 it says the average is around 11h, so what do I know

Eeee... I guess it's considered an utsuge, so yes, it's "depressing", but for me it's depressing in a good way, as weird as it may sound. Depressing but satisfying and heart-warming you could say maybe. Definitely not for you to read at the moment if you are no up for a feels trip though.

You can say that again. Literally every time I'm speaking in any context or environment I stumble a lot looking for words, expressions or idioms in my freaking own language that have a similar meaning to English ones. It's like I'm not a native speaker anymore -.-" And I think it's not exactly a matter of forgetting your mother tongue. What's happening here is that every language has a pool of very common words and expressions that is quite different from other languages, so from your being in frequent contact with it you are just more likely to start expressing yourself using those. It's actually kinda similar to subliminal stuff I also think that's the reason why many bilingual people report "changes in personality" when switching from one language to another. It's not that the language changes the way you think or the content itself, but rather the way the content comes across, if I'm making any sense. Yeah I guess, as long as I'm writing stuff for 6-year-old kids it's ok It'd be kind of embarrasing to share those though. And thank you! Agree. They are just two different beasts. Academic writing, which I still do for uni, is all about conveying information in the most concise and unambiguous way possible. Fictional writing, on the other hand, hinges on your ability to make the text immersive for the reader. Any unnatural character interaction or poor scenary or sensory/cognitive depiction can totally ruin it. And it's very, very hard to be as natural as possible in a language that's not your own. It's not even a matter of huge vocabulary or the skill to play with the language syntax: leave that to poets; In my opinion the trademark of a good writer is the ability to manipulate the reader through their writing.

Eden* is quite an experience. It's arguably more "(audio)visual" than it is "novel", and I've seen a lot of discrepancy in people's opinions, but I'm glad you are enjoying it. Really, every time I take a look at your vndb profile I stay dumbfounded for a while. I know I wouldn't be able to read that stuff even if that's the only thing I had to do during an entire month of diarrhea, so respect. Also I can't help but wonder how bad must be the lowest rated game in your list, "Legends of Talia: Arcadia". It may well go beyond the limits known by mankind