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Seraphim

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Posts posted by Seraphim

  1. Seems like the limit is a bit unclear.
    A 5000 character limit was listed on their website, but I just noticed another note on a different part of it, saying "With the DeepL API Free plan, you can translate up to 500,000 characters per month for free."

    So maybe it's 500k a month and you can also only use 5k characters within a certain amount of time (which doesn't seem to be specified), so if you break either of those limits, it won't work anymore until the timer resets.

  2. Did they actually announce a release of the 18+ version of Parfait as well? I noticed that both 15+ and 18+ are listed on VNDb, but I wouldn't be surprised if the all ages version is the only one we get, considering how adamant they were about censoring the English localization of Baldr Sky - a game that didn't even have an all ages release in Japan in the first place.

  3. I was a bit excited for this, but then I was put off after reading this:

    "The script has been drastically rewritten compared to the original PC-98 release. This includes extensive revisions to the scenario, removing and cutting short some H-scenes, altering characters' personalities and physical parameters and changing endings. A lot of potentially sensitive lines were removed or softened, with the stated reason being to fit the ethics of the time and for removal of "ethically problematic parts". Examples include heavily cutting down on sexual jokes and alcohol references, and changing the endings for the heroines to be more light-hearted than the original."

    I wouldn't mind them cutting out h-scenes, but it seems like this release is quite heavily censored/altered in other regards as well, even in the 18+ version. I haven't played the original game so I wouldn't really know what it's supposed to be like and thus most likely wouldn't realize what has actually been censored/altered, but just the knowledge that it has happened kinda annoys me and makes me not want to buy the product.

  4. Playing Evenicle II right now, and to noone's surprise, it didn't take very long for the first rape scene to show up. I like Alicesoft's games in general, but I still find this and some of the other questionable content (like the mandatory prostitution minigame in Dohna Dohna) they're so adamant on including in every title quite offputting.
    They're also kinda playing down the seriousness of it all by wording it like this:

    SJ4uNF.png

    I guess that means that theft could be considered non-consensual borrowing, and murder could be non-consensual life expectancy decrease.

    They've also somehow managed to make the UI even worse than in the first game, by putting more pointless bloat (that can't be hidden) on-screen. To my knowledge, that huge picture of a house doesn't serve any purpose whatsoever; it's just there, taking up like 15% of the screen at all times. If you want to make the minimap, which is quite awful in itself, visible, an entirely new window pops up in the lower left and takes up even more space.

    I could list a bunch of other annoyances related to gameplay, but I think you kinda just have to roll with it and go into this game knowing that it's going to be a pretty horrible experience gameplay-wise.
    I just hope the story will be exciting/entertaining enough to make up for all the bad stuff.

  5. 22 hours ago, Fujoneko said:

    I might play the sequel soon

    I'd actually recommend against that, unless you're fine with then waiting several decades for the conclusion to the story (judging by the developer's current pace). Both the next part in the series and the prequel should've been out by now, but they've been delayed so many times that the developer seems to have stopped giving any estimates at this point. Furthermore, we can probably expect more sequels after those two titles, because I sincerely doubt they will be enough to conclude the story without it feeling rushed and unsatisfying.

  6. I'm generally not big on h-scenes, in part due to how they tend to play out in more or less the same way every time, so I find it a bit refreshing whenever someone breaks the norm. That said, the fact that they were high kinda ruined this scene for me. For some reason, I tend to be slightly offput whenever a heroine is influenced by something, even if it's only a matter of getting drunk or smoking a cigarette. Drinking and smoking don't bother me whatsoever IRL, so I honestly have no idea why it would when it comes to VNs.

  7. The titles I've read have seemed fine to me, but I can't really say anything about the actual accuracy of the translations since I haven't compared them to the Japanese originals.
    The only thing that annoys me somewhat is that they remove honorifics, opting instead for the use of "brother", "Mr." and such.

  8. 4 hours ago, Mr Poltroon said:

    Honestly, the real gold in this title is that because of the "harem" premise you get to see all the characters interact in every route

    Couldn't agree more! Harem Kingdom quickly became my favorite Smee title (well, actually, one of my favorite nukige altogether, to put things in a grander perspective) and this is one of the prime reasons. Another thing worth mentioning is the fact that all of the girls are or become pretty assertive, and that's always a big plus in my book.
    Lastly, I also have to praise HIkari's vulgarity, which I find equal parts funny and refreshing, since it's something we rarely see in VNs, at least to this degree.

  9. 34 minutes ago, adamstan said:

    more often than not I find the H-scenes in eroges I read a turn off

    Yeah, I get what you mean. Back when I started reading VNs, I read h-scenes in their entirety because I wouldn't want to risk missing out on anything story related, but there's usually nothing even remotely noteworthy in them so I just skip past most of them nowadays. I can imagine there being a few scenes that are worthwhile in White Album 2 though, so I might pay more attention there.

  10. Damn, it hit you hard, huh? Glad to hear you're back on track!

    I haven't started any new VNs since my last post here. I'm basically just waiting for the White Album 2 translation to finish, which should be any day now according to the project updates. I really hope there won't be any delays, since I have time off from work until the second week of January, making this the perfect time to take on a longer read.

  11. I've finished a few VNs now in November, so here are some of my thoughts.

    1.

    Bs9Ef6.png

    This wasn't anything to write home about, to put it mildly.
    The protagonist is a total creep that sexually assaults people in their sleep, the game is almost devoid of any humor, and the writing is pretty awful, both in terms of plot and wording.
    One thing that's seriously awkward is the fact that the characters, for whatever reason, mostly refer to each other and themselves as "roommate", "landlady", "neighbor" and so on instead of their actual names. They even call each other "big roommate" and "little roommate" (depending on their age differences), which is something I've never seen before.
    At one point, the landlady even refers to her husband as "his landlord" during some internal monologue, as if she's thinking through the protagonist's perspective.
    Furthermore, there's a severe lack of punctuation, leading to some... unfortunate dialogue.

    z7SZFW.png

    Honestly, I'm not sure why I even bothered to play through the whole game. I guess it's a case of me hoping the story would pick up at some point, combined with some OCD tendencies.

    2.

    NxlHyV.png

    In stark contrast to Dreams of Desire, this was actually great. The plot has some similarities to the former, but the writing here is leaps and bounds above that and the execution is just so much better overall. I also kinda like the anime-ish character design, compared to the more realistic look that VNs like this tend to go for.
    There's quite a heavy focus on humor, and it happens to align almost perfectly with my tastes, to the point where I think it's safe to say that this is now among the top 3 funniest VNs I've read; something I definitely didn't expect when I picked it up.
    One thing I really loved was that there's a ton of references to other franchises, and a bunch of cameos from well-known characters. An example:

    nQ2uOF.png

    Stuff like this definitely wouldn't be possible if this game had been released on Steam, so I'm really glad they chose to make it available for free on itch.io.
    All in all, Once in a Lifetime is probably my favorite 3D VN aside from Acting Lessons.

    3.

    C7UCJJ.png

    As a big fan of Nanairo Reincarnation, I went into this with quite high expecations, but it still managed to deliver. Just like in Nanairo Reincarnation, the story is pretty dark at its core, but it's well rounded with some lighthearted stuff as well and I think it makes for a satisfying whole. (not to be confused with "satisfying holes", which can be found during the game's animated h-scenes)
    I really don't think I need to go into any more details here. If you've played Nanairo Reincarnation and liked it, you'll almost certainly enjoy this as well. If you haven't played Nanairo Reincarnation, you should do so, and then follow up with this one.

  12. As an avid horror fan, I figured I'd give the recently released Abaddon a go, so that's what I did today.
    I love the retro look and music, and the ambience is surprisingly great in spite of the simple graphics, but man does the combat suck ass from a straw, to quote AVGN. It's completely ruining the experience for me, to the point where I've run out of patience to even continue playing. I wish there was some way to simply turn battles off, but since that isn't an option, I guess I'll have to keep my fingers crossed for someone to eventually release a trainer that'll make it possible to breeze through them.

  13. The only thing I can think of right now that might break a VN in Windows 11 is if the application uses non-ASCII registry keys, because there have been reports of such apps causing crashes. Microsoft are looking into it, though.

  14. 13 hours ago, Plk_Lesiak said:

    backwards compatibility and effectiveness of compatibility modes was only improving in latest editions of Windows

    Yeah, at the very least, I could play Moon, One and a bunch of other "problematic" VNs without any issues on Windows 10. The only thing I couldn't get to run properly on that OS was School Days and Shiny Days, which kept crashing every few minutes despite patching the games and trying out various other solutions.
    I'm pretty sure Windows 11 will run a vast majority of VNs completely hassle-free.

  15. I've been using the Insider version of Windows 11 for a while already, and everything I've tried to run on it so far, VNs and regular games alike, have all worked flawlessly. There are some things about Windows 11 that some people might not like, but when it comes to gaming, I can't make a single complaint based on my experience so far.

    That said, I have yet to try any old titles that are known to have issues on modern systems, so I can't really give any input on what those are like.

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