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adamstan

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  1. Thanks
    adamstan reacted to Stormwolf in I have lost faith in VN   
    If that makes him happy right now it can make him crushingly depressed later in life when he realizes that he's all alone.
    If you have good friends then nurture those relationships as good as you can. They are your friends and they know you and are your friends despite your circumstances. Throw away thoughts about them feeling pitty or sympathy as they are counterintuitive. No one stays your friend just because of pitty or sympathy for long. 
    I firmly believe that only a small percentage of people would handle being utterly alone as they grow older, so treasuring friendships and sacrificing an evening of gaming or what have you, now and then is important. 
  2. Like
    adamstan reacted to Plk_Lesiak in I have lost faith in VN   
    Basically what @Dreamysyu said, although I believe that a piece of fiction can change someone's life in the right circumstances, both for better and for worse. Everything we come in contact with leave a mark and I personally find both anime and VNs very stimulating, emotionally and intellectually.
    Still, I don't see a reason to consider VNs THAT special in this regard. I really like the formula and consider it much less mindrending than gameplay-focused video games, but it's still just a form of leisure. I devote my time to VNs because I enjoy them, not because I see some higher purpose to their existance. You can always hope for certain VNs to positively influence someone, but you shouldn't expect it on a regular basis - most of them are just 2D waifu games anyways, they're made to entertain you, not to give you life lessons or coach you into being a better person. 
  3. Haha
    adamstan reacted to Yuuko in Sanoba Witch Discussion   
  4. Like
    adamstan got a reaction from Plk_Lesiak in Sanoba Witch Discussion   
    Great, that's how all "censored" versions should be. So more "+17" than "all-ages" Based on your description, I can go without H-patch.
  5. Like
    adamstan reacted to Decay in Sanoba Witch Discussion   
    Yeah, there are a fair number of h-scenes. They're mostly rather porny and separated from the plot. Usually just the knowledge that they had sex is what's most important. In the all-ages version we don't censor anything outside of the h-scenes. We've even kept any instances of nudity outside of the h-scenes. Since there's technically an h-scene right at the beginning of the game that is very important to the story (a masturbation scene), we've kept that intact but zoomed in on the girl's face so nothing naughty is shown.
    It will be $30 on steam with a 10% launch discount, so $27. Same price as everywhere else.
  6. Thanks
    adamstan got a reaction from ciel_yuri in Kara no Shoujo is now available on Steam!   
    As promised, I checked all my Steam VNs. Here's the list of the ones that worked without Steam client:
    Chrono Clock
    Dal Segno
    Enigma
    Fureraba
    Himawari
    IMHHW/Konosora (with Retranslation patch)
    Koi ni kanmi wo Soete (Love sweet garnish)
    Princess Evangile W Happiness (base Princess Evangile didn't work)
    SakuSaku
    Grisaia Trilogy (Kajitsu, Meikyuu, Rakuen)
    I suppose that Retranslation patch for Konosora replaces game's executable file, as other Pulltop titles refused to run steamless.
  7. Like
    adamstan reacted to ittaku in Fan Translations Are Nearly Dead?   
    Doubt it. In every art form there is always a notion that the past was better than the present, but it's my firm belief that this is universally the effect of time making people remember only the better releases and forgetting how much other shit was released at the same time. A classic only becomes a classic because it's stood the test of time. A modern work cannot, by definition, be a classic till it has become old. We only remember the classics of the past and compare them to the broad landscape of the present.
  8. Like
  9. Like
    adamstan got a reaction from Kei kun in Good Romance VNs?   
    And (if my memory is correct) with very nice animated opening, rarely found even in newer titles.
    Also +1 on KoiChoco and KonoSora. Clannad, while not being strictly romance VN, has many romance elements, and is simply very good VN.
    As for Hatsukoi - yeah, protag's behaviour in Ruuna's and especially Yukino's route was really frustrating at times, but I still enjoyed that VN (rated it 8). That frustration was part of the story for me - as the MC was frustrated too. And while from reader's position it's easy to shout at him "You idiot! You should..." - I know that when faced with similar situation IRL I wouldn't do any better. If everybody always acted reasonably, life would be much easier, but we all know that this isn't the case.
     
    BTW - if one strongly dislikes "hopeless" protagonists, then some routes of ToHeart2 may be annoying for them too.
  10. Like
    adamstan reacted to littleshogun in Good Romance VNs?   
    Yuuma did definitely have some issue, but from what I knew it's only in both of Runa's and Yukino's route in which coincidentally both of theme were childhood friends character. Otherwise, I think he did fine in the rest of other three routes, although since Runa was the longest route (The line count for Runa's route was covering 21% of overall HatsuKoi line count if you curious) it mean that HatsuKoi was already infamous because of that so much that the developer need to formally apologized. Of course like all of the failure story tone work's decided to improve their own writing, and the result was Hoshiori in which the translation for that was currently ongoing. As for Yuma's sins in HatsuKoi, from what I remember he'd grown too spoiled in Yukino's route causing Yukino to break up with him temporarily, and in Runa's route he didn't realize that Runa was already falling for him and decided to goes out with Yukino.
    Back to the topic. Other than HatsuKoi, I think for other recommendation here I could recommend Hoshiori although since that the translation project was still unfinished obviously it's still not in English, although if you satisfied with one route only then you can wait until Marika's patch released later (Should be at November beginning if all goes well). In case you want to wait for Hoshiori full patch (Understandable), then I could recommend you some other VNs like Yoake, Noble Works, Princess Evangile, Dracu Riot, and Tsujidou. Oh, and you also could try Sanoba in which it'll be released two days later. I hope that my recommendations here would be helpful to you.
  11. Like
    adamstan got a reaction from Kei kun in I have a question for the people here living with their girlfriend/wife   
    I've never had a GF, so what could I know... (maybe that's why I'm reading VNs )
    Nevertheless - I think almost everybody would agree, that communication is essential for good relationship. Also, sneaking/hiding won't work forever. So you two should definitely talk it over. You don't want to spend all your time pretending - that's exhausting.
  12. Like
    adamstan reacted to ittaku in How many people cares for physical copies?   
    Just for reference, the question is mostly rhetorical, to make the religious collectors think more about what they're doing. I've been playing VNs for 20 years now, am happily married with a wife of 23 years, and 2 teenage kids. I don't have a single physical copy of any VN on the shelf, and yes I've bought many many games.
  13. Like
    adamstan reacted to snowbell55 in What are you playing?   
    Despite what my signature says, I'm... Well, I'm rereading To Heart 2 - the Tama-nee route, and it's kind of ironic as I'd planned to reread it at some point, but definitely not now, but have been yanked despite myself into doing so . I kind of feel like I *should* be focusing on reading something I haven't read before, but, well, I paused Grisaia to read eden*, and I've somehow paused eden* to read To Heart 2. I'm not entirely sure why that happened, but I'm really enjoying rereading the route. It's one of my to favorites from the VN (the other being Konomi's) and the character is hilarious, but also really sweet, and it helps to have a great VA as well. It's amazing how much foreshadowing I'm picking up on now that I know how things'll turn out. Plus, I'm a sucker for childhood friend routes of most varieties, and I just realized that Tama-nee would count as one. 
    I really like it though, and think it's To Heart 2 at its best: comforting, relaxing, and easy to read while inviting you to do so and making you not notice the time go by. I think I've said so before but that last portion IMO isn't always the case, so I appreciate it whenever it is. I keep laughing and smiling at the hijinks going on (Yuuji vs Tama-nee especially). I'll most likely polish off eden* soon, and then go back to The Fruit of Grisaia, but for now this is a fun and welcomed detour.
  14. Like
    adamstan reacted to Nandemonai in Someone on /r/visualnovels ran a contest to determine the most desired VN English translation in the community.   
    No, it's the most under rated thing among the apologists for low quality work
    I am convinced that Recettear took off because its localization is one of the best I've ever seen.  There were other, better, quirky Japanese games that could have been the one that opened the floodgates.  Why Recettear?  Because someone at Valve saw the demo and was immediately taken by it.  Well, why did that happen?  Recettear is a low budget game and even its merchant sim mechanics aren't THAT special.
    Indeed, Recettear being a smash hit in the West surprised everybody; Japanese sales were so-so.  Why is that?  I'm pretty sure it's because Recettear's localized script is better than the Japanese script.  I haven't actually checked, but I'll bet Recettear in Japanese is a fine script, but nothing spectacular.  The English version, in comparison, cranks everything up to 11 and is a laugh riot.
    I've been thinking about this for quite awhile.  When I look back at what I consider the best games I've ever played, there is a very high correlation with the best localization work I've ever seen.  Nearly all the best translated RPGs and VNs have really good localization work.  I have a very hard time thinking of any I'd hold up as an example of best-in-class despite having a bad localization.  Because a bad localization kills the script.
    Many RPGs that I ultimately wasn't impressed with have bad localizations.  Some are probably just... bad games.  But I'm now convinced many would have ranked much higher had they been translated by competent folks who knew what they were doing, rather than by inept companies that didn't give a rat's ass.  The Atelier series, for instance, has consistently awful localizations, which - combined with the already-fairly-weak plots - really hurts the games.  I checked out entirely: I quit halfway through Atelier Shallie because I just didn't care, and haven't bothered looking at any released since.  I have it on fairly good authority the Ar Tonelico series is good in Japanese; I couldn't get more than a few hours into either of the ones I tried because the writing was so. awful.
    RPGFan makes the point better than I ever could:  Here is a review of the Japanese PSP version of Legend of Heroes: Prophecy of the Moonlight Witch.  And here, of the English version.
    Notice how every aspect of the game scored lower?  That's not only because it's a different reviewer.  That's because a good story does more than just hold your interest during the story segments.  It doesn't make the whole game better, but it makes it feel better.  It subconsciously makes people more willing to overlook flaws in the game as a whole.  People recognize this effect for graphics; they call it bling.  But they don't seem to acknowledge it's true for the text, as well.
    Bad localizations destroy games.  They do it so effectively people don't even understand what happened, just that 'they didn't like the game'.  They think 'that game sucked' when the real problem was 'that game was translated by a company that cares so little that when one of its employees thought it would be funny to change a character's name to Esty Dee, they just left it in the game'.
  15. Like
    adamstan got a reaction from ciel_yuri in I have a question for the people here living with their girlfriend/wife   
    I've never had a GF, so what could I know... (maybe that's why I'm reading VNs )
    Nevertheless - I think almost everybody would agree, that communication is essential for good relationship. Also, sneaking/hiding won't work forever. So you two should definitely talk it over. You don't want to spend all your time pretending - that's exhausting.
  16. Like
    adamstan got a reaction from snowbell55 in Is it worth waiting for Rewrite+ or should I just read the original?   
    I'm waiting for the official one. My backlog is long enough
    Maybe my impressions are wrong, but I'm wary of Ixrec's translations, cause, from what I gathered, he seems to, ekhm, rewrite a lot.

    OTOH - Clannad was better translation-wise.
  17. Like
    adamstan got a reaction from ittaku in What Anime are you watching now?   
    I just finished Maison Ikkoku few minutes ago.
    It was amazing. Don't know if it is the best romance anime, since it's only second I watched (after Toradora), but it was amazing indeed. Also, if it truly was one of the first, then not only did it provide tropes for the shows coming afterwards, but for many VNs as well*.
    Some episodes were really frustrating, but in the end it made great romance story. And the ending certainly belongs to the "ultimately satisfying endings" list - it was absoultely sweet, amazing and whatever.
    Kyoko was great heroine. After first few episodes I wouldn't think she would be such classic tsundere Two other girls that were interested in Godai - Ibuki and Kozue - were great characters too. It would actually make pretty nice VN, with additional routes for these two Also, I was able to symphatize with Godai, as I'm even more hopeless...
    I really liked the setting (meaning, the '80s, and lots of trains ). 
    *side note: I don't know if it's because locations were modeled after real ones, but so many scenes looked almost exactly like the places I've seen in many VNs. The playground in the park looks almost exactly like the one in ToHeart2. We have seen similar steep-sloped streets in TH2 and SakuSaku, the uphill road to the girl's highschool looks suspiciously like in Clannad etc etc.
    Overally - I'm really glad that I watched it. Truly great show - 9/10
  18. Like
    adamstan got a reaction from ittaku in Anime with ultimately satisfying endings   
    I don't know if it has been mentioned in this thread or not, but if it wasn't - add Maison Ikkoku to the list. The show was frustrating sometimes, but the ending was great and ultimately satisfying indeed.
  19. Like
    adamstan reacted to sanahtlig in [POLL] What's your translation quality cutoff?   
    If I wanted to study the issue systematically, I'd probably break down the issue into its components and individually assess these.  For example:
    Literal accuracy (Is that what this line means?) Contextual accuracy (Was the context correctly conveyed?  Did the translator understand the source material, inspiration, or cultural references?) Flow (Do sentences read well to an English native?  Do the words and ideas trip over each other, confusing the reader or encouraging the reader to skim rather than read?  Does the writing avoid useless repetition?) Style (Does the writing style match the setting?  Are character quirks captured well?  Are honorifics deployed in accordance with the user's expectations?) Spelling/grammar You'll probably find that readers have different tolerances for shortcomings in each component.  In some cases, users may actually have opposing ideas on what is even "best".
  20. Like
    adamstan reacted to Plk_Lesiak in How many people cares for physical copies?   
    Aye, similar case here, minus the laws (they're not as strict and no one enforces them). I couldn't possibly afford buying physical copies most of the time and I have no space for them whatsoever. Plus there are actually very few VN for which I could possibly want them (just Flowers and Yurirei probably). In general, I'm very happy with the conveniences of digital releases and would quite likely keep everything on Steam if I could, neetly sorted, reviewed etc. 
  21. Thanks
    adamstan got a reaction from Dark_blade64 in Visual novel, or games unofficial patch/mod (Help)   
    Yes, because you applied it only locally. If you install game from steam on different computer, it will install basic version.
    That's for unofficial patches, like Konosora retranslation patch. Maybe it's different if mod is on steam itself, but if it's 3rd party, then you have to apply it manually each time.
  22. Like
    adamstan got a reaction from Dreamysyu in SakuraGame ruins another title from Cabbit this time it is Kimi e Okuru, Sora no Hana   
    Yeah, but then they should stick with just CN translations - like Hikari Field did.
  23. Like
    adamstan got a reaction from MarcomiX in A sky Full of stars. Recomended?   
    Saya's route is good. Unfortunately Orihime and Korona both suffer from having different writer, and feel more like "side routes". They have some good moments, but IMO overally were weaker than Saya's and Hikari's.
  24. Like
    adamstan reacted to MarcomiX in VN with a well developed childhood friend heroine   
    Definitely play Saku Saku: an underestimated (and, at times, even hated ) VN, but with a very cute Osananajimi heroine with a slightly psicological route.
  25. Like
    adamstan got a reaction from snowbell55 in VN with a well developed childhood friend heroine   
    Now if only Sekai would be so nice to finally fix its broken release :/
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