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adamstan

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  1. Like
    adamstan reacted to Eclipsed in What are you playing?   
    Okay so, hear me out, there's been a long ass drought of Ace Attorney, and so you should totally checkout Tyrion Cuthbert: Attorney of the Arcane. It's a heavily inspired Ace Attorney indie VN that'll make you feel right at home. Kinda pricey at 20 bucks, but you get the standard 5 case Ace Attorney experience with all the fun point and click exploration/investigations and climactic cross examinations with moderatos and allegros and slightly over the top characters you could ask for. And yes Arcane is in the title because there's also magic. Like, this 'dumbass noble mage totally used the magicks to commit this crime' type of magic 💀
    ^This clown here's Nick- I mean uhh Tyrion Cuthbert (Teer-ee-on? Ty-ry-on? Cooth-bert???). Yo Idk dafuq kinda name the devs were going for, but at least he got the desk slams like Nick.
     

    ^This cutie here is Maya Fey. She's a mage named Celeste this time around, and Tyr's actually competent sidekick/bodyguard. Btw Tyr has his own built in Athena Cyke's Mood Matrix via his "Eye of Horus" where he can involuntarily pick up on people's thoughts and emotions (yellow text + purple/blue emojiis above). Kind of makes him overpowered at times with the level of omniscience he can get but it's cool. Not every day you get a protag who can Maximillion Pegasus Millenium Eye these fools
     
    ^This hottie's Aria Steelwind. The female Miles Edgeworth I guess. She's cool. Ice princess type.
     
    There's also romance, if you care for that LOL!
     

    Go play it
  2. Like
    adamstan reacted to Clephas in Shiravune acquired Mashiro-iro Symphony   
    Mashiro-Iro Symphony is often mentioned as being the peak of the company's moege/charage era games.  It was made during the latter-stages of the 'golden age of JVNs', in 2009 (The 'golden age' is generally seen as being from 2005 or 2006 to 2011 or 2012, depending on who you ask), and it was an example of quality in a time when VNs had only just branched out into distinctive genres and sub-genres but before the templates had been set in stone.  
    As games of the type go, it is an excellent choice for localization.  
  3. Like
    adamstan reacted to Eclipsed in What are you playing?   
    Frontwing is totally doubling down on the whole cute young poster heroine in an oceanic setting lol. Finished Ginka and currently reading ATRI


    "I'm something of a Ginka-lover myself"
  4. Like
    adamstan reacted to Larxe1 in What are you playing?   
    Playing Aonatsu Line. Giga games rarely surprise me but aonatsu line surprised me by just being normally good and pulling off tropes i normally see. What I really am surprised about Aonatsu Line is the male side character Chihiro, IT IS INCREDIBLY RARE AS HELL FOR ANY school life romcoms in VN to have cool and reliable male side characters that fulfill the typical best friend roles ( while also having a sprite). Its a big positive thing for me if a male side character in a school life romcom vn is not incredibly perverted, exist only to make the protag look better in comparison, and doesn't really have any redeeming qualities and is used only for laughs.
    Im only a few hours in but color me surprised
  5. Like
    adamstan got a reaction from Kosakyun in What are you listening to right now?   
    Please forgive my spam, but I really have to share it with you (and I'm actually listening to it on repeat for a last few days )
    Recently I did a cover of "Yume no Tsubasa" (a song written by Yuki Kajiura, originally from "Tsubasa Chronicle" anime). I love this song, and wanted to do it for a long time, but it absolutely needs a female singer. And some time ago Yoko Matsuura (japanese local singer-songwriter from Otsu, whom I befriended thanks to very unexpected chain of events) invited me to do a collaboration video - so I suggested doing cover of this song together, and here's the result:
    I played the keyboards and did all the programming and editing, while Yoko played piano - and we're both singing of course
     
  6. Yes
    adamstan got a reaction from mitchhamilton in What Video Games Are You Playing Right Now?   
    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).
  7. Like
    adamstan reacted to mitchhamilton in What Video Games Are You Playing Right Now?   
    yeaah, i think the first one has a ton of problems and the endings being one of the biggest issue.
     
    try true colors. i was amazed on how much i loved that game.
  8. Like
    adamstan reacted to Eclipsed in What are you playing?   
    Yaho, time for another one of my sporadic shilling of the few VNs that I've read over the past few months.
    SHINRAI -broken beyond despair- it was an alright Halloween Party murder mystery between 10 middle school friends. What's great about it is that you can have totally logically sound but incorrect deductions at the very end as to who the master mind is and you'll feel like a total dumbass afterwards when the protagonist realizes her mistake. 7/10

    "Remember, these are a buncha middle schoolers lol."
     
    Fragment's Note+ & Fragment's Note 2+ This was apparently a mobile-VN made 10 years ago, remade for the Switch recently as + versions. Gee, wonder how their sales went lol. Anyways Fragments Note is a standard charamoege high school slice of life, with the twist being that in the first game the protagonist's future daughter travels to his time in order to prevent a tragic fate that would befall him if she were to not intervene. That's pretty much the only thing that kept me interested in this VN, cuz I just can't with HS SoL nowadays lol. 7/10

    "Guys I'm not a Lolicon I swear lol, but Miu is just too cute."
     
    Fragment's Note 2 is an indirect sequel taking place 1 year later at the same high school, but with a different protagonist. What I found particularly interesting is that this protagonist was only briefly mentioned in the first game, and now he has his own story! Talk about Ascended Extra. I'm a sucker for these types of continuity in stories. Even better, one of the unromanceable heroines from the first game (because plot) is actually romanceable this time around hehehe. Unfortunately, most of the plot is wasted on the protagonist's trauma, because a core theme of this VN is to conquer your inner demons and move on type of deal. 7.5/10

    "^This here's Ayame. And hori shi she might just be my most guilty pleasure character ever lol. She's the doting gentle older sister type. Totally gives my pink-haired heroine bias a run for its money"
     
    Paranormasight: Hoh boy, if you are ever looking for a supernatural battle of wits murder mystery, look no further. Paranormasight's gotchu covered. Simple premise. 7* Mysteries of Honjo, 7* Curse Bearers with relics/kill methods based on those mysteries, and you're in for a good time. Only gripe is the whole deathnote-style kill or be killed thriller gameplay is literally reserved only for the PROLOGUE, yes only the PROLOGUE, and the rest of the game after that is piecing together the mystery/lore/character motivations and does away with the climactic character confrontations. Also kind of short, clocking in only 10-15 hours. 8/10

    "Give me a 30hr VN that's purely more about these type of character confrontations sizing each other up before going for the killing blow and you'd have a masterpiece lol"
     
    Yurukill: Four pairs of "Prisoners" and "Executioners" are taken to a 'theme park' Yurukill Land and the winning pair that makes it through all the 'attractions' will get the Prisoner exonerated from their crime, with the Executioner having any wish of theirs granted. This VN seriously doesn't know what it wants to be, murder mystery, escape game, Danganronpa logic puzzles, bullet hell shoot 'em up... it implements all of these mechanics, so like a jack of all trades but master of none. Fun enough though. 7/10

    "Totally unrelated comment, but Rina totally looks like someone who would appear in like Fata Morgana or something LOL"
     
    Suhoshin: Another short (~5-7hrs) murder mystery VN (see a trend here?) this time taking place in a more medieval setting. Interesting, up until you get to a certain midway point and get one of those infodumps that totally ruins the intrigue because the characters just know too much about what they are dealing with at that point. 7/10

    "Oh yes, you'll totally always frustratingly be one step behind the killer lol -_____-"
     
    Currently reading: Kunado Kokuki Gee, Purple Software really liked the Kotodama gimmick that they made in Amatsutsumi didn't they >.>. I didn't get very far in Amatsu before I got bored of the high school SoL as usual, but Kunado Kokuki is set in post apocalyptic man vs machine setting and the Kotodama gimmick is quite intriguing there.

    "And let's be real, Haruhime (center) is a God-tier heroine lol. Ruler of the nation, gorgeous as fuh, and has the same exclusive Kotodama powers as the protagonist. It's a match made in heaven."
  9. Like
    adamstan got a reaction from Ray-Out in What Video Games Are You Playing Right Now?   
    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
    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
    it made me feel like shit, although I can imagine some people could consider it "good end" - but not me 😕
  10. Like
    adamstan reacted to Dreamysyu in So now Fuwa is really dead?   
    @HataVNI Honestly, I'd recommend at least creating discussion threads for the content posted on the main site. I believe it used to be the norm in the past. The discussions were often pretty interesting, and it would make the main site more visible for those of us who mostly visit forums.
  11. Love
    adamstan reacted to Zalor in So now Fuwa is really dead?   
    One thing that has always baffled me is why Discord is more popular than traditional forums. As a medium of communication I much prefer the forum format. Not to mention that information is much better stored and searchable via web browsers when it's on a forum as opposed to a Discord server. There are also certain topics and conversations that work better when you can write out a thought out reply rather than a series of instant messages
  12. Like
    adamstan reacted to alpacaman in What are you playing?   
    Started reading Cross Channel after @AmelieDoree's glowing review using the Amaterasu TL since it's supposed to be the only out of the three that's at least attempting to be somewhat accurate. I really like the game so far, but the TL notes are killing me sometimes.
    Like what the hell is this? 1) "My stomach bug" is not a personification. 2) English has a metaphor with the identical meaning: "my stomach growls". It's even comparing the noise to one an animal makes. 3) The phrase "stomach bug" also exists in English, and means something different.
    I'm usually quite lenient when it comes to TL quality, at least as long as there is some basic flow to the translated text, but when it's making me read three lines of text consisting of a wrong translation accompanied by a wrong TL note to explain a three word Japanese phrase that has an accurate three word English translation, it takes me out of the scene. So much so I decided to interrupt my read through and rant on the internet about it.
     
    Edit: the next line is "like a beast". Goddamnit.
  13. Sad
    adamstan reacted to Dreamysyu in So now Fuwa is really dead?   
    forum ded
  14. Like
    adamstan reacted to Dergonu in Un-pinning the "What are you playing" thread   
    Makes sense to me. I'll go ahead an unpin it, and we'll see how that goes. I doubt it would get buried fast anyways rn with the... lack of activity in other threads.
  15. Like
    adamstan got a reaction from Dreamysyu in Un-pinning the "What are you playing" thread   
    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...)
  16. Like
    adamstan reacted to TexasDice in What are you playing?   
    I'm done with Clover Days. That was fun. Very cutesy.
  17. Like
    adamstan reacted to Dreamysyu in How do you feel about usage of AI in VN development?   
    I once asked ChatGPT to write me a short story. It was very bland. Honestly, it wasn't even a story in the usual sense of this world, it felt more like a bad retelling. However, when I read it, I suddenly realized that I had played several human-made VNs whose stories were even worse.
  18. Like
    adamstan reacted to Dreamysyu in What are you playing?   
    So, Bokuten. Had to pause playing for a few weeks, since I was either on a trip or busy, but I'm mostly done with Minamo's route. There's still the second ending left, but I doubt it changes much. And, well...
    The common route was truly amazing. Honestly, compared to many other vns where it's just a complete filler, here each chapter of the common route tells its own complete story, and I believe it's a very good idea. Minamo's route, however, is simply boring. Honestly, it's just your cliche VN stuff without much substance. These types of stories is exactly why I don't really play many VNs anymore. I'd usually recommend to skip this route, but the true route is locked before you finish everything else, so it's not an option.
  19. Like
    adamstan got a reaction from Dreamysyu in What are you playing?   
    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 😕
  20. Like
    adamstan reacted to Dreamysyu in What are you playing?   
    So, I guess I'm almost done with Bokuten common route. Well, that was something. Quite often, even in good VNs, common routes feel like a waste of time. I like SOL when it serves a purpose in the story, but I hate it when it's used as useless filler. However, the common route in Bokuten is nothing like that. Basically, every chapter tells its own finished story. And the choices it gives are often pretty difficult. Almost every option comes don't to whether you let a couple of lovers fall apart or let them come together despite all the complications it will bring them. I decided to follow a walkthrough since there seems to be a recommended route order, but now I wonder which route I'd end up at if I chose what I believed was right.
  21. Like
    adamstan reacted to Dreamysyu in What are you playing?   
    Well, I tried not to read them in too much detail since I didn't want to be spoiled. It's entirely possible that things will go in the wrong direction later, and it totally happens with VNs sometimes. Hapymaher, for example, had excellent first few chapters, but later things got very weird. However, so far the writing in Bokuten seems pretty good, and while it does feel a bit cheesy from time to time, I can kind of relate to the characters. And the MC seems pretty good, which is rare for VNs. I think some people may find him annoying, but I somewhat understand where he's coming from. And yeah, he's quite obviously severely depressed.
    So, I guess, I'll try not to have too big expectations, but I hope everything turns out well.
  22. Like
    adamstan reacted to littleshogun in What are you playing?   
    According to the localisation staffs, the route order are Minamo, Yuri, and Naruko before finally proceeding to Aine's route (aka the true route). As for using walkthrough, the choices are simple enough, although you may as well check the spoiler free walkthrough if you want to be sure.
    For Bokuten, well, to me one of the route is like soap opera. Still, have fun on playing Bokuten if you didn't mind some sad story.
  23. Like
    adamstan reacted to Dreamysyu in What are you playing?   
    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.
  24. Like
    adamstan reacted to Eclipsed in What are you playing?   
    I've red a handful of VNs over the past few months but never got around to really doing one of my usual misc. thoughts/comments 😅
    A Clockwork Ley-Line: good if you're still into SoL high school setting, except make it in a magic school setting. There's not really heavy emphasis on the magic itself ie. no classroom infodumps about magic and/or students learning about magic and battling each other sorcerer vs witches style, just mainly protagonist Koga Michiru and friends from the Bureau of Investigation club running around trying to capture rogue magical artifacts that cause supernatural shenanigans to occur in the school, with an overarching mystery regarding the school itself. Trilogy, so you have plenty of time to get attached to the cast and watch the blossoming romance between Michiru and main heroine Shishigatani Ushio. Now that I think about it, I actually didn't finish this lol, stopped early on in the last episode because life so I'll pick it up #soon. 7/10

    "Ya, the Bureau totally works for the sake of the school and aren't a part of any sketchy conspiracies "
     
    Corpse Factory: randomly tried this OELVN, yes you read that right OEL, ENGLISH VN, and surprisingly had a pretty good time with it. The English voice cast was decent enough that I actually listened to most of the lines fully instead of my usual half-listen-but-then-move-onto-next-line-before-audio-finishes for regular JVNs. Plot was alright, was mostly intrigued by the characters themselves and how messed up in the head they can be. 8/10.

    "Yeah... I've never actually watched DEATH NOTE (i know, blasphemy, sue me), but I'd imagine there's some inspiration taken from it..?"
     
    Process of Elimination: The Detective Alliance consists of 100 super detectives that have a particular special ability and they are trying to capture "The Quartering Duke" a criminal mastermind who's been on a killing spree. 14 of the detectives get isolated trapped at their very own Detective Alliance Headquarters, murders start happening, and chances are the mastermind is among the 14...Yup it's a Danganronpa offbrand isolated murder mystery setting type with a quirky cast each with specializations, but hey you have technically 14 Ultimate Detectives this time around so how hard could it be to find out who's the mastermind ?
    The "investigation" and eureka! segments are played out as strategy RPG gameplay where you turn based move characters to points of interest and analyze evidence. Not as flashy as Danganronpa's classroom trials, and overall most of the murders and cases are pretty meh and ultimately the confrontation with the big bad totally falls flat and totally cannot hold a candle to Danganronpa's Hope vs Despair shenanigans, but it was fun enough. 7/10

    "^This here's 'Ideal Detective', and yeah, they totally made her such an ideal type lol. Btw the protagonist is known as 'Incompetent Detective'"
     
    Umineko: When the Seagulls Cry: Sigh, yes, I finally got around to reading the masterpiece that is Umineko. I red someone say that Umineko's mass 10/10 ratings is from survivor bias- this thing is LONG, like probably the longest VN I've ever read, and took me like 1-1.5months on and off casual reading to take down lol. The 75hr length estimate on VNDB is no joke. And that's just for Ep 1-4, with 5-8 also being another 70+hr estimate!!! And so the people that did manage to finish were the ones that thoroughly enjoyed and thus were able to make it to the end.
    Umineko's very good. Especially for its time. It's basically a murder mystery with an emphasis on battle of wits on whether it was done via a witch/supernatural or whether everything could be logic'd out and the culprit was human with realistic methods. It unfortunately kinda... devolves and drags later on, but I enjoyed my time with it. 8/10
    "^If you don't get absolutely hooked on this VN by the time you reach the end of Episode One and hear this BGM, just drop the VN."
     
    Master Detective Archives: Rain Code. Spike Chunsoft's latest Danganronpa x Al: Somnium Files had a baby. Technically not a pure VN since they have enough adventure game aspects so this game got the Zero Time Dilemma treatment on VNDB but yeah. 

    "If you enjoyed Danganronpa's Classroom Trials this game implements some of that, and if you enjoyed Al Somnium Files' quirky female companion or the Somniums this game also implements some of that via Shinigami and the Mystery Labyrinths. Play it."
     
  25. Thanks
    adamstan got a reaction from Dreamysyu in Fuwanovel Confessions   
    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"
    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

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