Seraphim

Is there any reason to wait for the finalization of the JAST version of Majikoi rather than pick up the existing translation right now? I've been putting off reading it for quite a while, but I'm really itching to read it and it seems kinda pointless to wait since the new version is supposedly done by the same team.

The side stories were actually far more enjoyable than the main game. The ones you mention, as well as Imogirisou, are my personal favorites. I can see myself rereading some of the sidestories at some point, but I sincerely doubt I'll ever feel like going through the main story again.

Just figure I should mention that there's an InvertMouse bundle on sale at Indiegala.com right now, if anyone's interested. Without Within 2 and 3 (the first one is already free), Unhack 1 and 2, The Last Birdling and Cursed Sight, for a total of $3.99. Digital artbooks are included for all titles as well (although that doesn't really interest me). Out of the batch, I've only read the Without Within series so far, but I really like them. 1 and 2 are mostly lighthearted and cute, while the third one has a more serious and emotionally engaging story. Since I purchased the bundle but already own Without Within 2 and 3, I can gift the keys for those to anyone who wants one. I'll give one each to two people, so tell me which one you want.

I'm done with Tsukihime and Kagetsu Tohya now. I really liked Tsukihime for the most part, but it got pretty repetitive at times. You know about the backstory, relationships and true nature of certain characters after playing through one route, but then you have to wait around for it to be revealed in every other route as well just because Shiki hasn't learned about it yet in them. I would have preferred if they had put all that stuff in a shared common route instead, since it's boring being fed information you already know over and over again. It's also pretty stupid how some major elements of the story randomly changes depending on which route you go down, although the prerequisites are the same. Another annoyance was when the game decided to go crazy with random nonsense just to seem deep/disturbing/whatever. It just looks stupid to me. One example: As for Kagetsu Tohya, it sucked. The story was utterly uninteresting, and not even the comedy stuff, that the VN relies quite heavily on, was very entertaining. I might reread Tsukihime someday (especially if the remake is ever released), but Kagetsu Tohya won't be a part of that deal.

It would probably be a better fit for PlayStation 4 then, considering how Sony has censored a ton of stuff lately that is left intact in the Switch versions. (Not taking 18+ content into account, obviously.)

I'm reading Kagetsu Tohya at the moment and just saw this: "Kuk" is the Swedish word for "cock" (not the animal), so that entire passage is unintentionally funny to me!

Since it's going to be a minimal effort release and most likely only digital, I doubt it will cost them much. I don't think they'd have to sell many copies to make a profit.

Do NOT buy it. This is most definitely based on the butchered PC version that required a fanmade retranslation patch to fix MoeNovel's fuckups.

I'm not a big fan of h-scenes overall and I mostly agree with you, but the scene when was the thing that disturbed me most in the entire VN and it would probably lose a lot of impact in a censored version. Since they most likely don't have any replacement CGs, I guess they'd have to either show some random background during the scene, or remove it altogether. I don't know if Steam would even allow them to keep a scene like that in text form. (Is there some way to mark something as spoiler without having to use a huge spoiler box in the middle of the sentence?)

Haha, I took a screenshot of this CG from the same scene when I was reading Hoshi Ori, just because I thought it looked stupid.

Hoshi Ori is nice, but it's too long. There's not that much going on in the story, so I don't get why it has to be so massive. For me, it just resulted in it starting to feel repetitive after a while. There are way too many h scenes as well. Rather than adding a ton of scenes with like one CG and miles of filler text, I'd prefer if they had just a couple of scenes per heroine and used more CGs in each one.

I think I'll try to endure then, since the final chapter probably won't be out for quite a while. From what I've heard, it's more or less finished already, but I doubt Mangagamer will release it this year even if that's the case.

Thanks! Another question: Are the Higurashi chapters somewhat standalone, or is there a cliffhanger at the end of chapter 7? I'm trying to determine how painful the wait for chapter 8 will be if I decide to read chapter 1-7 now.

This isn’t really related to this topic, but I’ll ask here anyway since I don’t think it warrants the creation of a new one. To those of you who have read Higurashi and Umineko: I’ve been putting off reading Umineko for a really long time since it’s apparently supposed to spoil some plot devices and whatnot in Higurashi. I’m kinda sick of waiting by now, so rather than wait another year or so for chapter 8 of Higurashi, I’m considering reading chapter 1-7 followed by Umineko as soon as I’m done with Tsukihime. How far into Higurashi is the stuff that Umineko supposedly spoils? Will I find it out if I read chapter 1-7, or is there something in chapter 8 that will be spoiled if I read Umineko before reading that final chapter of Higurashi?

I encountered a seriously annoying bug in Tsukihime today. There was a clock ticking in one of the scenes, and for whatever reason, it didn't stop in the next one... or the next one... or the next one. Basically, that clock just continued ticking constantly in every single scene from then on. Not only that, but it also somehow became tied to my save file, because although the sound stopped when I went back to the main menu or restarted the game, the ticking resumed as soon as I loaded the save. To solve the issue, I had to start the game over again and skip through everything I'd already done during my previous playthrough.

True. That's closer, but still clearly a different design. I guess it's just a matter of a whole bunch of things getting jumbled in my head to give me a flawed recollection. Either that, or...

Wow, the extent to which my memory fails me in this case is equal parts baffling and scary. There really aren't many similarities at all, so I honestly have no idea where I got the feeling that "I've seen this before". It really goes to show that memories can't be fully trusted.

I'm currently a few hours into Tsukihime. Does it by any chance share assets with Fate? Some of the backgrounds seem identical to me, like the sitting room in the mansion vs the one in Hollow Ataraxia (where Bazett and Avenger hang out). Then again, I haven't read Fate in quite a while and my memory has always been kinda wonky, so maybe they're simply similar and nothing more.

Yup, I've done them all! And yeah, her route was definitely the worst. I didn't find it bad it per se, but it paled in comparison to the other ones.

Done with Little Busters! I finished it off by winning the baseball match, which was surprisingly easy after clearing all routes. When I tried it during my first playthrough, I got my ass handed to me, but now I won without the opposing team scoring a single point. The baseball minigame itself feels like wasted potential. It's fun at its core, but there are two things that ruin it for me: 1. The damn cats. Don't get me wrong, I find it kinda funny how they mess around on the field, but I hate how the gameplay pauses every time one of the cats are hit by a ball, because Rin has to make a comment about it. Considering how often it happens, it gets repetitive really fast and wastes a lot of time. 2. The fact that they use separate windows for the field and where your character is. It can be pretty hard to get the swing timing right, since the ball reaches you basically at the same moment it becomes visible in the character window, and you can't really use the field window as a reference when trying to hit the ball either, due to how zoomed out it is. If they just addressed these things, it would be much more enjoyable. It could actually make for a pretty decent mobile game. Aaanyway... This is most definitely one of my best VN experiences so far. Despite the extensive play time, it managed to keep me entertained for the entirety of the VN, unlike Grisaia no Kajitsu, which I also consider one of my favorite VNs but still frequently lost interest in during the common route. I'm feeling a bit ambiguous about the true ending, though.

This is generally what it's like for me as well. The school life depicted in visual novels gives me a nostalgic feeling, although it isn't even remotely similar to what it was like when I was still a student, due to cultural differences, glamorization for the sake of entertainment and whatnot. School was was extremely boring to me, so I guess this might be a case of me wishing to mentally replace that monochrome image with one that seems more colorful.

Unless my memory fails me, you need to finish all other routes before you can do Mitoko's.

It can be kinda annoying when games and VNs do that, but you can always skip it with a click of the mouse button if you don't feel like watching it! I think I only watched the entire thing once during my playthrough.

Oh, I had no idea the stats were shared, but I guess that makes sense since I can't remember ever getting a stat increase from the fighting game. Anyway, I'll probably skip the minigames for now then. It kinda feels like wasted effort to struggle with it now if it'll become easier later on, especially considering the randomness of the fighting.