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Larxe1

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Larxe1 last won the day on November 11 2021

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About Larxe1

  • Birthday August 27

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  1. Tenshi no Inai 12-Gatsu Decided to come back to reading VN's again and chose this depressing classic. Fits perfectly to the type of VN's I love reading. A storyline that is grounded in reality, with characters written well with their own flaws and problems. This visual novel puts the characters flaws and problems as the main story. It is a character-driven work and there are possibly no good people here aside from Toko (I didn't do her route but she seems the nicest out of all of the characters. The start of the plot begins with Toko offering herself to the MC. It was some form of transactional sex with Toko getting permission from the MC to escape her own hell to his place. The MC is unique, in the sense that many asshole main characters are written to have a heart of gold hidden under all that attitude, but the MC is kind of an asshole 80% of the time. I actually found this refreshing as it is rare to see a genuine asshole as a main character, and seeing him uncharacteristically act nice in some scenes was fun to read. I only read Shinobu's route, and Shinobu is Toko's best friend that seems to be overly protective of Toko. The start of her route is on par with the theme of the novel, very depressing and there's a sense of despair on every scene. Shinobu's traumas are on full display, and the MC isn't some magical main character from romcom's who manage to cure the traumas of his heroines. The MC is as fucked up as she is and their relationship is equally bad. They aren't lovers in their route, neither sex friends or friends either. Their relationship is something unique to the two of them that came about from their own unique circumstances, and their relationship makes them feel safe from the demons that haunt them. As I read from the other reviews, I agree with their sentiments that usually the endings aren't very satisfying. You don't fully find out what happened with the MC and why he's such as asshole, you don't know what happened in the past for Shinobu to become so broken. She shows clues of what her possible traumas are. They aren't fully explored, heck they aren't even mentioned again later on. Just writing about it frustrates me as I was actually invested to know more but the game is really short. The game ends on a weirdly hopeful and depressing note. The game ends without really solving any of their problems, but their strange and warped relationship comforts them. The game ends with the feeling of that their problems may never really be solved. It doesn't matter to them, they didn't enter into their relationship with the goal of being exactly happy or having their partner solve their traumas for them. The traumas and problems that they carry aren't solvable, as solving them doesn't really matter. They just want to atone for their sins or run from their traumas. Self-harm and depression and sometimes suicide is a topic that heavily plays into the story which is a rare topic for visual novels to actually dive deeply into. Usually in some other VN's they get better but with Tenshi no Inai, they just learn to live with it. It is hard to recommend this VN to others as the story is not for everyone but for those who like this kind of stories, it is hella good.
  2. Playing Futama Renai from Asa Project, It's been so long since I read another VN lol since I lost the energy to read. Picked a random recent release and I played this game. Another game from Asa Project, Renai Karichaimashita, I liked because of its change to the typical setting which is being a rental bf, while I absolutely did not like Renai X Royale because it was too average, Most of their games are average to good in quality but I was looking for romcoms with different settings no more "loser protagonist gets with school idol/childhood friend etc etc. Rental boyfriend setting was kinda new and Futama Renai was kind of new to with the setting being the protagonist is a cheating bastard while he has a reason why he two-times, he still knows he was trash on choosing to two time. This was a college setting so there isn't a lot of school-life shown so far (only few hours) and that already made me happy. So far, I was surprised that the jokes are kinda toned down unlike the typical Asa project game. They got the slight change of setting from Renai Karichaimashita without the usage of tons of jokes as usual form Asa Project. It just seemed kinda like a normal VN with possible drama ( I don't know if they will actually pursue that drama or do it badly since this is an Asa project game). I'm interested in the story so far and hopefully they don't drop the ball too hard or avoid the drama they set-up and answer it with jokes
  3. Played Your Diary + H It's the newer version of Your Diary with new routes for that one senpai character and Kaho, the best friend character and wingwoman in the original game. Surprisingly, I didn't like much of the characters here enough to pursue a route except for Kaho which is the additional route. I didn't expect that as normally additional routes kinda suck and feel padded on for new content but surprisingly I liked Kaho's route a lot and probably due to me liking Kaho's character type a lot. I usually love best friend or very cheerful kind of characters as seeing the gap of them being light-hearted and always joking around and the contrast of them being embarassed and having a hard time in romance is kinda cute. Kaho's route kinda tries to get into that awkward stuff and as she is the wingwoman of the childhood friend who likes the MC, as expected one of the main dramas that they do is with the kind of love triangle? It's hard to say because there isn't much drama of the love triangle present. The drama is focused on Kaho just not wanting to be honest to her feelings due to not wanting to hurt the childhood friend. The drama of that is solved well, very lightly like a very light romcom way of dealing with the problem that is kinda laughable but it's not that bad. The route all in all is kinda fine, not bad is what I would rate it. I thought of making a review on in vndb but I literally only played the common route and 3/4 of Kaho's and skipped a lot so I thought I shouldn't write a review for a game I didn't technically finish. All in all, it is a fairly high quality game. I loved Kaho's route and some people may enjoy the game too.
  4. Natsu no Ame - MC is a popular football player in their school, untranslated though Swallowtail - A bit of a polarizing work, personally I liked it. The MC is extremely popular and referred to as handsome by the school, has a lot of ex-relationships with some heroines. Also untranslated Kind of hard to find vn's with a handsome or popular MC, usually it's just "average" mc
  5. Playing Hello, Goodbye, the english translated ver. I can kinda understand the main criticisms of the game which is the setting has a lot of potential and even could be a good plotge but kinda fizzles out, its a solid charage but contrary to its story-heavy setting it is character-focused. Although yeah I am still at chapter 1 lol after the prologue but I could see the signs. The prologue is kinda weak at the start but there is a really amazing hook at the end which could be the start of something great but after that, you would expect an explosive follow up from that amazing hook but nothing, it just kinda returns to the same old wacky everyday school life. Also I'm just gonna play Natsume and stop since Natsume is the heroine I usually like and what people consider the best one Edit: Okay I actually finished it that was short as hell. It really is a charage which while I like charages the setting could have been used more since espionage and civil wars really interest me but alas they weren't really the focus, it wasn't much used as a setting. It doesn't help that the MC doesn't do any espionage work, he is just practically a student practically in everything. If you look at it just as a charage it is pretty satisfying but not amazing, Natsume is an extremely cute heroine that I'm gonna remember for some time, with i guess okay drama? It doesn't help that one of the main dramas of Natsume isn't actually fully explained as they obviously try to put most of the details in the true route. All in all a pretty fine game, yes I'm done with the game with just Natsume i'm not interested in any of the other heroines so I have a lot of unanswered questions but im fine with it
  6. Trying to start on reading on good old VN's starting with Duelist x Engage. https://vndb.org/v6334 Read Clephas' review first and the one thing he mentions that I really agree with is the setting is crazy weird that you have to suspend your disbelief a lot. Crazy settings are fine when the game plays it off but it was actually used quite seriously in the game. An example of the crazy stuff background setting is the existence of mithril. Mithril seems to be an exclusive resource on the main heroine's country. It is apparently an extremely strong metal that her forefathers wore riding cavalry charges against machine gun barrages, seriously? A lot of some serious stuff is hooked into that mithril stuff too so you really have to suspend your disbelief a lot. The backstory of the country to is kinda iffy but yeah people shouldn't try to think too much about the setting and enjoy it for what it is and a charage not an amazing world-building vn. Also is it just me, or oldie VN's have more donkan protagonists. While there are donkan protagonists in recent VN's it seems that they're starting to be replaced by more less dense but still dense. Yukito in this VN fucking grinds my gears a lot, he is pretty much a symbol of what I hate about donkan protagonists, naive and dumb. A child would have noticed how much the girls liked him but he just kinda doesn't notice. It doesn't help that he is dumb too being manipulated all the time and just kinda being swept by the story, Yukito doesn't have much agency aside from what he does in the ending. He's just kinda there like a walking plot device attracting flags. While I have a lot of negative things to say, I did like the game for what it does which is having a coherent story structure and attractive heroines. I liked Violetta and Tsubaki a lot. They're character archetypes I like a lot and there is a lot of plot in their routes which makes it compelling but I do admit I skipped some text here and there on some parts I found tedious. Game isn't like the usual charages which there isn't a speck of plot to be found. This charage has a coherent plot that doesn't get forgotten and is compelling in of itself. 8/10 Thinking of starting moshimo ashita ga hare naraba next
  7. Reading Sousaku Kanojo, https://vndb.org/v31136 I actually wrote a long review for this but I accidentally deleted it and it is now lost in history, and I don't want to type it again since i'm lazy and there are a lot of reviews for it out there considering it is a hyped game i guess with its production values. It was enjoyable but ironically for a game about "creators" or writers and the author making fun of cliche otaku developments, they do the same cliche otaku developments in the routes. The aspect that makes this vn for me good is Kiriha, which should have been the main heroine since there was a lot of Kiriha content in the common route even moreso than Ayase the main heroine. A lot of things happen to the mc due to kiriha and kiriha is in turn changed which is good but bad for the main heroine Ayase since she's a bit overshadowed and if you headover to vndb reviews a lot of them just tell you to read Kiriha's route which is what I would say too. She's a modern tsundere and sometimes an asshole but a cold and pragmatic person which is not the kind of tsundere you usually see in charages. Usually in charages, tsunderes are emotionally driven but Kiriha is pragmatic and calculating in achieving dream, this aspect isn't totally lost in her route too. Also the game really likes to shove the word "creator" on you. It's always "This is what a creater will do" or "as a creator" and the plot does sometimes touch upon the theme it is trying to say which is "How much are you willing to sacrifice to be a creator" which is a weird theme to be trying to do since it is out of place in this rather happy go lucky but sometimes melodramatic vn. Meikei no Lupercalia did that sacrifice thing a lot better since the game really took it seriously and built on it but it felt kinda cheap in Sousaku no Kanojo where the serious stuff it's trying to do is not given too much attention making it look like the writer trying to make a story that is out of his depth. I say a lof of shit about sousaku but I did enjoy it a lot it has a strong common route, and entertaining cast of heroines, but this is just a high quality (production-wise) charage, there's no tragic depth here or something. There is tragedy but it felt cheap.
  8. https://vndb.org/v31262 Reading Monkeys! It's a very lighthearted story, I'm still in the first few hours of the game and the presentation does kinda stand out from other vn's, There is early on a large amount of cg's but it is mostly in the form of a manga, so basically its like reading a voiced manga sometimes while coming back to the VN format again. It has both a trap protagonist and an outrageous setting. Usually I dislike trap games, because well, I'm not really into traps but more on that I dislike the common trope of trap protagonists being a mixture of extremely kind, and girlish. Like trap protagonists are usually the same just like how self insert protagonists in random moeges are the same. The trap protagonist here Saruyoshi is kinda a fresh take on it since I don't think I have read a trap VN before where the protagonist was a delinquent, but yeah idk I don't read trap vn's a lot. The setting is outrageous in the sense that it is fun but just dont think about it too deeply lol, I was able to notice a lot of weird holes in the setting but I think that I nor future readers should take this setting a bit too seriously just suspend your disbelief. I'm still early on so I can't say if its good but it did pass the test of me not dropping it within the first hour, I drop a lot of VN's in the first hour if it doesn't hold my attention but Monkeys is a standard lighthearted vn so far with good execution and a unique presentation for me. Also Karasu's VA is new but her voice is very nice, looking forward to her career in the future
  9. Yeah it seemed to work because it was rather self-aware in what it's trying to be. Sora and Kakeru's banter felt real and also extremely funny to me lol, Tanezaki Atsumi's voice elevates their banter to another level or maybe it's just because I'm biased as hell because Tanezaki Atsumi is my favorite voice actor. Who's your favorite heroine and episode? Although I feel like your favorite heroine is already Sora though lol
  10. Wow lol, I tried to read 9-nine in one go, I actually played the original one with Miyako but got bored of it right after the plot twist, I then just skipped to Sora's and well I read the whole saga in a week and its really good. 9-Nine as a series is good in the sense that it doesn't have some insane character depth or central plot element, it's just that it does every standard trope really well and sometimes does it spectacularly. Most of the characters are the usual character stereotypes, without much depth to them, but I liked reading their dialogues and stories anyway since they're well executed. To be more specific, the characters felt very unreal, they didn't have any sense of realness to them in the sense that their traits don't feel real, it rather feels instead that they had specific traits in mind to appeal to each otaku fetish, and made a character around them. While this may be a harsh thing to say, it was still enjoyable in its own way. 9-nine's last game around Noa was probably one of the best last games in episodic stories like this, where every information in the past games are used and everything led to that moment but its hard to say much about it without being spoiler-ish. I'm not gonna make a review about this since there has been a ton of reviews about 9-nine already, I only make reviews on games without reviews. Spoilerish thoughts:
  11. Okay finally finished, I now know why some people say the ending is vague. While this maybe a spoiler, if people are gonna read this it would be important to know that this down-to-earth story has a sci-fi element to it that felt tacked on which was essential to the ending. Its hard to say much without spoiling others too but, the 80% of the game was amazing with extremely good character interactions and atmosphere for me but the last 20% may be polarizing for some people since it went into sci-fi territory. 80% of the game was about moving on from the past (which was Yuna's sudden disappearance). Each route helped Shou grow to be a better person to face his traumas but the last 20% vexed me in that I did like it but it was a big downgrade from the amazing experience I had. Some people would probably like that aspect but personally I would have preferred if it remained down to earth and realistic about moving on from the past instead of engaging in sci-fi stuff, the sci-fi stuff felt tacked on and worked something like KEY magic if you read clannad. Spoiler thoughts: if anyone is curious for a review, I have on up in the vndb page later
  12. Just finished the third route, Imozawa Erina. I rarely read alot of routes in a VN due to me quickly losing interest due to the atmosphere of the game and such. Unexpectedly I really loved this game's story and all the routes, I don't think I had a moment where I was bored because I really loved the atmosphere of it being very adult-like, or something like the atmosphere of a college life with problems being encountered by young adults and not the teenagers normally in stories. Imozawa Erina is the genki girl that I usually am not interested in but there is a very interesting contrast to be had with Erina. Erina is the closest friend of Yuna, Shou's original girlfriend who randomly disappeared. Erina lost Yuna, and then she also lost her mother, she grieved and in contrast to her natural genki and friendly character, she became thorny and pushed people away. What's interesting to me about it is that normally, in stories the thorny side becomes the main personality, but in Erina, her thorny side was simply a facade because she was grieving and pushed everything away because she blamed herself for everything, it was easy to break through her thorny side because she was always seeking help and Shou gave that to her. Her route is really interesting in that the progress of their relationship felt natural without like a big moment that dragged them into a relationship but something very natural like they just naturally had fun together and helped each other in their weakness, naturally this ended with them asking each other out. The ending was good but unsatisfying because I did want to read more, I felt like there should have been more, but in the end their route indeed solved most of their character problems by supporting each other, I just wanted to see more casual romantic stuff because I really liked their pairing. This is one of the rare VN's where i feel bummed out when I finish a game because I wanted more of their character and dialogue but alas, its not a pretty long game. Going to my next route now, and the mystery of Yuna's disappearance isn't given much clues to in the first three routes but it seems like there will be something in the next route of Kasumi.
  13. Just finished my 2nd route in the game. Its a ladder type of story which I admittedly dislike because sometimes it feels like it cheapens the route, like when you diverge from the ladder by choosing a route early on, you miss out on the true story, and that respective heroine's end is not the proper path to play on, but Swallowtail tries to solve this problem by making viewing each part of the ladder by making the routes themselves have their own contribution to the story. I am writing this yet again while sleepy since I basically read this novel the whole night and finished Yuka's route which was amazing for me. Yuka's route hits all the buttons for a heroine for me by being something like a coodere like Kazusa from WA2 but also being highly aggressive of what she wants and being upfront while also being very shy. What truly makes this route amazing for me is it is important to give the context for the story and the route which is as I referred to earlier, Yuna is Shou's ex which suddenly disappeared and she shares the same looks and a lot of same personality traits with Yuka but they both have very obvious differences once you get to know them better. The route is obviously also centered around this shared commonality, as Yuna is a trauma and an obsession for Shou, and Yuka is something like a living reminder of his past that he wants to forget that still continues to haunt him even up to today. The story of the route actually progressed very neatly and felt very adult-ish. I mean that in the way that Highschool romances that dominate the vn genre right now feel very immature and sometimes in a fairytale kind of way but the romance progression in this game felt very real and something that may actually happen IRL except the vanishing part. I don't want to spoil too much about it but the route is very fulfilling. Also what I hate about this ladder style of route is that sometimes the ladder is structured around rejecting the girls and If you really get in to the story it is kinda hard to do it. I skipped the 1st route which was Saeko, Shou's ex and IMO they wrote her well with her being still in love with Shou and regretting her decision to break up with him. It wasn't explained why they broke up so you have to play her route but I didn't like her well enough to play her route but that is simply because she is not the kind of heroine I like. Rejecting Yuka which I really really liked was kind of hard but it wasn't much of a rejection of a confession per se, but rather rejecting the crucial step that will start their eventual relationship. Yuka on the other hand, which is the 2nd route, has you also going through the same problem as Shou. It is easy to sympathize with him because most of the drama is centered around him still not fully getting over Yuna, and as he falls in love with Yuka, he begins to doubt his own feelings about Yuna and it is interesting since the player too will probably be confused about the two but eventually get over the problem the same way as Shou as you also begin to notice how different they are.
  14. https://vndb.org/v23205 After flip-flopping from a lot of different VN's I finally settled on Swallowtail. I didn't expect to be immersed in the story considering it felt very rough, both in writing and system but it was unique enough to stand out for me to gain my interest. There is actually is established relationships between the protag and the heroines, which is interesting, the story starts with you already going out with one of the childhood friends Rie, and shows flashbacks from the past also focused on Yuuna, which I think is the true heroine. Yuuna was originally Shou's (The main character) girlfriend but she randomly disappeared in the festival which is the main focal point of the mystery of the game I guess. The prologue was hella long though I think I was in 5-10 hours before I saw the opening. Saeko is also one of the Ex's of Shou so you could expect that the MC isn't a donkan or hetare, but he's actually a competent and fairly popular guy, albeit a bit bland himself but it made him stand out in the sea of eroge protagonists who sometimes act like idiots or losers. Shou is actually a charismatic guy which made me like him. The game alternates 50/50 between the past and the present, which is fairly unique but sometimes presented in the interface badly. This is the kind of game I like which seems down to earth with characters not acting like caricatures. I'll make a review when I'm done with this
  15. https://vndb.org/v31125 Looked up one of the monthly releases and played some random game that doesn't take much commitment and played Hooksoft's Aikoi. Looks like a childhood group kind of story with the mc leaving his friend group in his childhood and then returning for some reason. Hooksoft games are a hit or miss for me and I only played through the prologue right now and I skipped so many texts due to it presenting the prologue from the perspective of the MC in his childhood. I skipped for I think 10-20 mins and that is a lot of content if I actually read it. I really don't like children-focused dialogues, while I may understand the intent behind it, being that it tries to introduce the childhood group organically and have them grow up to serve as a contrast later on, it is a risky move that requires the writer to be competent in handling children's dialogue and making it engaging and for me I wasn't really engaged much. I read some random dialogues here and there just so I can get the gist and head on the reunion part. I don't like skipping much and maybe this will be a miss from me, but I'll continue reading anyway until I get really bored out of it. Also tried reading Muramasa and its amazing albeit with a lot of unnecessary rape scenes, haven't finished it yet due to Tales of Arise
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