adamstan
-
Posts
1806 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
51
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Blogs
Events
Posts posted by adamstan
-
-
FWIW, it turned out to be "My Most Dissappointing VN of 2019"
Let me quote myself
On 1/16/2020 at 7:19 AM, adamstan said:From the titles I read in 2019, the most disappointing one was Sisters ~Natsu no Saigo no Hi~
I think I finally never got to write my impressions in "What are you playing" thread, so might write here as well
It has pretty good production values, being almost fully animated. Also, the story had the potential for being nice nakige, but developers decided that the best use for all those animations would be to turn that "na" into "nu" 
So the story got overwhelmed with numerous long h-scenes. Overally game isn't bad, I enjoyed it (and it's pretty short), but it screams "wasted potential!" - after some of the story reveals my expectations were much higher, thus disappointment.
On the more positive note - except for few lines when we hear news from TV, it's easy enough that I could read it without the text hooking
It's nice when seen as an interactive hentai movie, but IMO falls somewhat short as a VN...
I'd say that Lovers ~Koi ni Ochitara...~ from the same developer was better, even though only H-scenes were animated in it.
But those were one of the best looking animated h-scenes I've ever seen in a (2D) VN. Hand drawn FTW!
-
It's a pity that Steam verson doesn't include japanese text
I also wonder if they include additional scenes from PSP version - some of those were really good.
If somebody (Palette?) did FHD PC port of whole PSP version (including Yutsuki's route and all extra scenes), I'd buy that in a heartbeat, but as it is now, this Shiravune release is a pass for me. (I own physical PSP edition)
(Although I have to admit that AFAIR h-scenes in this VN were not bad, and quite tasteful - except for Miu's route
)
Oh well, let's hope the TL is decent, so english-reading audience can experience this great title
-
I read it back in 2021, and I think it falls on the easier side language-wise. The only thing that threw me off sometimes were background male characters - they have no sprites and are unvoiced, so there were moments when I had to stop for a moment and check, if the line I'm currently reading is a dialogue or narration
If you managed with H2O, I think it will be no problem.
I loved this VN, and wholeheartedly recommend it. However I didn't like the h-scenes in it, so I prefer the PS3 version. It features additional route, which IMO more than makes up for those meh sex scenes - but of course YMMV
-
On 11/27/2023 at 2:44 PM, mitchhamilton said:
try true colors. i was amazed on how much i loved that game.
Thanks - I'll check it out when it goes on some kind of sale (Steam Winter Sale perhaps?) - full price is too much for me
(I guess it's still too "new" game for price drop).
-
Yay! finally it's here
There release is scheduled for tomorrow - 2023-10-26 on DLSite, DMM and Steam. And, like ATRI, it will be multi-language release.
Description from Steam page:
Quote"GINKA", Frontwing's latest visual novel, is brought to you by a talented creative team that includes Asta Konno and Yusano, the duo behind "ATRI -My Dear Moments-".
Story
Five years ago, Aoba Ryusei's childhood friend, Shinomiya Ginka, disappeared without a trace on the night of the summer festival. The superstitious islanders believed this to be an act of God, saying that she was "spirited away."
Now in high school, Ryusei decides to visit the island over summer break. He needs to know: Did Ginka ever come back? Could she be living a normal high school life?
Sadly, his faint hopes are crushed when he learns that Ginka was never seen again after that night. He dejectedly prepares to depart, but then he meets a young girl who looks exactly like his missing childhood friend― Ginka.
"Welcome back, Ryusei."
The girl doesn't know her own name. All she knows is that she loves Ryusei.
Where has she been? Why hasn't she aged? Finally reunited with his long lost friend, Ryusei vows to have the best summer vacation ever on the tranquil little island of his childhood. -
I wonder what happened... Did everyone move to one of the reddit groups?
-
Hi,
I think that getting the WAYR thread pinned actually hurts its visibility and traffic - since it alway stays in the same place, between announcements, it's easy to overlook it. Ironically, forum users often seem to pay less attention to the pinned threads - they kind of fade into the background.
So I'd like that thread to be returned to a "normal" thread status.
(Even though I'm not sure if it helps anything with current overall traffic situation...)
-
Damn, this thread is as dead as my White Album's reading
I haven't made much progress since my last post - I think that counts as "stalled" at this point
I might try to make it to the end of Yuki's route - perhaps the ending will wow me, although somehow I doubt it...
It seems that actual dating sims are simply not my thing - I feel overwhelmed by the "sandbox" vibe, and bored by repetitive "conversation" scenes... And then in this game MC doesn't work for me neither as self-insert nor an interesting character to observe
-
Somehow I cannot "get into" WHITE ALBUM. I'm really not a fan of dating-sim mechanics as used in this title a.k.a. "DIY common route"
It all feels disjointed and flat. Fureraba also used similar system, but I feel like it had some more actual story between selectable scenes - while W.A. gives you only an "event" every few days, and in between it's just boring short selectable "conversation scenes", which feel somehow like a chore to get through... (especially since it's kind of maze you have to navigate carefully - like, with a guide - to land on the route you want)
So, I guess, dating-sims are too "sandbox" for me - I prefer more "focused" experience from VN.
(I also might be having a bit of moege burnout? I never thought this would happen
)
-
5 hours ago, mikedo2007 said:
Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers
I loved it, but that's classic adventure game. While it's quite dialogue-heavy and has rich story, still it's point'n'click adventure. And what later become called Visual Novels, evolved from text adventure games - different branch I'd say.
Main difference between classic adventure game, like GK, and Visual Novel, is movement and puzzles - you have to make your character walk around and solve puzzles in order to advance the story. The one that really blurs that border is not Gabriel Knight, but YU-NO - I guess it gets classified as VN, because
1) It was made in Japan and is still primarily advanced text adventure with pictures
2) The whole final part of the game ditches adventure gameplay and becomes pure VN - and that part is quite long.So, still it seems that the main factor is the kind of gameplay the game has. For example, Bioshock series also features engaging story, but I'd never think about them as a VN's - they're definitely shooters - with a good story
Also, it's worth noting, that Visual Novel is primarily english term (even if it was coined by LEAF) - in Japan most of VN's are sold as just adventure games, so they might not care about the distinctions we make here
-
Yesterday I finished "Life Is Strange". Overally it was enjoyable and interesting (except for annoying stealth sequences in final chapter), but the endings kind of sucked.
Seriously, we need "ustuge" tag outside VN world. I guess I should expect that with this kind of setting, but still...
The ending where
Spoilerin order to save the city Max reverts all changes she made to the timeline, so that means Chloe gets killed by Nathan
is very sad, but kind of makes sense, even if it is rather fatalistic. But I'd consider it "true" end.
And the second ending, where
Spoilerthe whole city gets swept away by tornado, everyone dies, and two girls ride away into the sunset in their pickup...
it made me feel like shit, although I can imagine some people could consider it "good end" - but not me
-
WHITE ALBUM -Tsuzurareru Fuyu no Omoide- somehow fails to hook me, so I put it aside, and yesterday, 8 years late to the party, started playing Life Is Strange. I somehow missed out on this game, thinking that it was console exclusive (perhaps confusing it with Persona series), but I really like it so far.
And it seems to a bit VN-like. How to say it... Visual Novels kind of evolved from text adventure games. And LiS looks like their equivalent/counterpart for action-adventure games
Also, funny thing - just like my way to VNs was through some hentai shovelware, the title that turned my attention to Life Is Strange was its unofficial lewd spin-off called "Lust Is Stranger", which BTW looks quite promising, and can turn into nice game, but at version 0.15 it's faaar from completion. So in the meantime I decided to check out the original
-
Since recently WHITE ALBUM remake got Steam release, I started reading this. It seems to be direct port of PS3 edition, almost identical to DMMs version from 2012, but with added 1080p resolution and translations.
(I also have physical PS3 edition, but obviously PC port is more convenient)
I'm reading it in Japanese, but according to some reports, English translation seems to be decent (I might check it out later).
For now I can only say that it looks nice, I like the voice acting and lip-sync animation for sprites
-
On 7/24/2023 at 9:29 AM, adamstan said:
I'll read two remaining routes,
Okay, yesterday I finished Ano Ko wa Ore kara Hanarenai.
Aoi's route had some potential - nice fourth wall breaking, with routes and flags talk
, and I think you can make some nice story with otaku-ojousama heroine, but in this case it again got totally wasted, because it is painfully underdeveloped. Just as Haruka's route, it's a collection of loosely connected short scenes, and while there are some nice moments here and there, the pacing and flow is nonexistent. It isn't as bad as Hachigatsu no Nostalgia, which was the worst offender in that aspect so far, but close...
Momiji's route, despite her being token loli-imouto-type character, was quite nice, and, like Yuzuki's and Manami's routes, featured more coherent story, (and some ichaicha outside H-scenes) but it also felt unfinished.
Not giving any replacement for removed H-content was really bad idea - the game feels unfinished, and the scenes often end quite abruptly.
So overally it was quite a disappointment - likeable heroines and nice comedy in common route got completely wasted by lazily done underdeveloped routes. 6.5/10 from me
(If you play PC version, and H-scenes are to your liking, I guess you could add a 0.5 or even whole point to that score...)
Also, it doesn't play nicely with emulator, and kept crashing on me every 5 to 15 minutes
-
I am currently in the middle of PSVita version of Ano Ko wa Ore kara Hanarenai and it's a bit disappoiting
So far I finished 3 out of 5 routes - I'm going in the order the girls are listed at choice screen, so I've already read Yuzuki, Manami and Haruka's routes. Console version gives not-so-subtle hint about Yuzuki being main heroine, since only her route gives gold trophy, with all others being silver And I think I'm glad I did her route first. It was decent, and common route was quite funny. But then, when reading Manami's route the things started to feel quite repetitive, and the SoL in this game isn't strong enough to carry it - they're no ToneWorks, that's for sure. But at least this route had a bit of a plot.
However Haruka's route that I finished yesterday was really awfuly bland, and when it ended I was like "Wait, that's it?". I checked against PC version, and it seems that this game is one of those borderline-nukige-moeges, with the main focus being on H-scenes (four per heroine, and the routes aren't long). And it became obvious in Haruka's route, which in console version has almost no meaningful content left
GIGA went really cheap on this game - providing no extra content for console version at all. It's even bigger disappointment compared to how brilliant all-ages versions of Chocolat, Parfait and Kono Aozora ni Yakusoku o were. (But then, those three are written by Maruto, so I guess they're different league )
I don't remember now, if Aonatsu Line had additional content, but it had good enough story, that stood on its own without H content.
I'll read two remaining routes, but I start to regret buying this VN
At least I didn't pay too much, since I got it on some sale But if main body of GIGA's moege output was as bland as this title, then it's no wonder they folded
-
On 7/17/2023 at 1:56 AM, Dreamysyu said:
I feel like it's been twelve thousand years since I posted in this thread. So, I started reading Bokuten, and I hope I finish it. Actually, it's stupid that the last full-length VN I finished was in 2020. I started quite a few since then but lacked the motivation to continue.
So, does anyone know if there is some recommended route order in Bokuten? And should I use a walkthrough? I generally prefer to avoid using it, but there are some cases when necessary.
It still sits in my backlog, so I'm really looking forward to your opinion after you play it.
-
I'm feeling strong urge to reread Princess Evangile once again - that would make it fourth time
It was neither the first or the best VN I've read, but I feel some strange connection to it - it became my "Comfort VN"
On 12/16/2022 at 3:12 PM, Dreamysyu said:I think I'll stick to all-ages versions though.
Welcome to the club
BTW another confession - one of vndb mods started to add "Censored Edition" to the titles of many all-ages Steam releases (like Aokana). I really don't know why it bothers me so much, but I got quite upset about it
-
8 minutes ago, aurora said:
I'm playing Atri:my dear moments(though today is 2023/6/22)
Have fun! I was about to say that it was one of the better VNs I've read last year, but it was 3 years ago - time surely flies
Nevertheless, it's great little VN
-
Wow, over 2 months since last post in this thread
Is this forum still alive?
Anyway, yesterday I finished PSP version of Suiheisen made Nan Mile?
It took me 3 months and around 110 hours - the routes' extensions added in this edition almost double their length
What can I say - it was quite enjoyable charage - and it seems that Konosora took some inspiration from it
It had some pacing issues, but I really liked all heroines, and enjoyed their routes nevertheless.
All in all - 7.5, decent title
Now I'll probably go with Ano Ko wa Ore kara Hanarenai - one of numerous GIGA's moeges
-
17 hours ago, Plk_Lesiak said:
Aye, she definitely has a very specific sound/vibe she's going for, but I found it admirable how much it stands out when even the better parts of Japanese indie pop are usually very samey. The sound and her whisper-singing could be annoying to some ears, but it's surprisingly skillful for someone this young.
Yeah, definitely skillful. I guess whisper-singing is not my thing, if used as a default mode
And yeah, she definitely has quite "non-japanese" sound. My problem is that I actually like that "sameness" of japanese pop - their "vintage"/old fashioned melodies and chord progressions, that make it stand out from the modern mainstream euro or US scene.
-
On 5/8/2023 at 2:58 PM, Plk_Lesiak said:
This girl's compositions and arrangements got me pretty mesmerized lately~
Interesting. Perhaps a bit too, how to say it..."cold"... for my usual taste, but neverheless interesting and well played
-
I just came back from my 3 week visit to Japan
I made few visits to the shops like BookOff, Disk Union, Tower Records - and I bought a ton of music on CDs, DVDs, records and cassettes
And on Monday, when I was killing time before return flight walking around Akihabara, I happened to enter "TRADER" game shop, where I bought 5 VNs.
PSV:
1) Irotoridori No Sekai
2) Ano Ko wa Ore kara HanarenaiPSP:
3) Kokoro Connect - it was dirt cheap in a 100JPY basket, so why not
4) Clannad - I have Steam edition, but I wanted some kind of physical edition to put on the shelf
5) ~Da Capo I & II~ Plus Situation Portable
Vita version of Irotoridori No Sekai seems impossible to download, since the download edition has been pulled from PS Store around 2017, and it seems no one has made a good rip of the cartridge. Therefore my only chance to play it was to get actual physical version (and Vita of course) - and then either try to read it on Vita itself, or make a rip myself to use with emulator. So I was really happy to find two copies of it on the TRADER's shelf with a quite decent price tag of 2900 JPY
-
Now I'm encountering another weird problem when trying to enter forum at home. I can access the site from the Edge browser (as I'm doing right now), but it doesn't load in Firefox (it keeps endlessly reloading the "checking security connection" page). OTOH at work computer it works in FF too.
-
Today I started PSP version of Suiheisen Made Nan Mile?
Setting up text hooking for this was royal PITA, but unexpectedly Textractor came to the rescue (I think it's the first time I used it with PPSSPP)
As for the game itself, it looks promising. At the first glance the setting looks like a crossover between Konosora (with a bit of Miazora thrown in) and Koichoco
Also, the PSP version seems to have exclusive additional route written by Tanaka Romeo.
What are you playing?
in Visual Novel Talk
Posted · Edited by adamstan
I haven't made any progress with WHITE ALBUM since my last post in autumn, so I think it's pretty safe to say that I don't feel like finishing it
Therefore I decided to Switch
to Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai ~Library Party~ 