Seraphim

The title basically says it all. What are your favorite funny moments/scenes in visual novels? I think my own top 3 are: 1. A certain music video in Rewrite. This masterpiece made me laugh so hard, I cried a little. 2. During Kappei's route in Clannad, when 3. During Yumiko's after story in Grisaia no Meikyuu, when

I'm getting seriously fed up with Himeo, to the point where I'm considering dropping her route, which I'm currently on. I've never done that in any VN before, so that should say something about how awful I think she is. I get that she's "good at heart" or whatever and that she'll probably start acting kinder eventually, but I find it hard to believe that anything she can do at this point will redeem the fact that she's been acting like a total bitch, especially towards Osamu, for the entirety of the game so far.

Just finished Ciguatera, and I think the ending was quite disappointing.

I'm five chapters in and so far I'd say Kaya has made the best impression on me. I find it very hard to like Mitoko. She's constantly being condecending towards Osamu and brushing it off as jokes (despite him obviously finding it more hurtful than funny due to his life situation), she's violent, extremely jealous and has a tendency to meddle in affairs that are none of her business. She reminds me a lot of Chisato from Koi to Senkyo to Chocolate, who is one of the most dislikeable VN heroines I have ever encountered. I'm sure my opinion will change over the course of the story, but as of this moment, I'd rate the heroines as follows: Kaya - No issues Asami - Tolerable Mitoko - Almost intolerable Himeo - Just plain awful

Just finished Lise's ending in Symphonic Rain, and I'm a little bit confused.

I'm interested in either reading the VN or watching the anime, but I don't know which I should pick. I could watch the anime right away if I choose to do so, but I've heard that people generally think it's too short, with lack of backstories and whatnot. Is that issue addressed in the VN? I heard it has new content, but I didn't find much information about what that content actually is. I also read that the story in the VN only goes up to episode 9 of the anime series, which means that the last 30-or-so percent of the main story is missing? Since it's called "1st beat", I'm guessing they plan to follow it up with "2nd beat" later on, but it's already been four years since 1st beat was released and it seems like they haven't made any announcements regarding a sequel yet. Another downside to choosing the VN would be the fact that I'd have to wait until either my Japanese has improved to the point where I can read it in the original language, or until the English version is released sometime in the future. Should I just go ahead and watch the anime now, or would I have a better experience if I wait and read the VN when I am able to do so?

Finished Hoshi Ori Yume Mirai today. All in all, it feels like it would have benefited from being a shorter, more focused experience. There were way too many h-scenes, and the story itself was a bit dragged out and repetitive, with a lot of scenes being similar to scenes in other routes. Basically, a lot of time was spent on not much happening. What little drama was in the VN was utterly uninteresting, to the point where I think I actually enjoyed Hatsukoi more, despite the protagonist being annoying more often than not. They probably decided to play it a bit more safe in Hoshi Ori, but it ends up kinda tame as a result. I don't regret reading it, but I doubt I'll ever reread it. Anyway, I have now moved on to Symphonic Rain. My first impressions, a few hours into it, are that the UI is ugly, the music is amazing, and the overall atmosphere reminds me of Katawa Shoujo, although I'm not quite sure why. I think I'm going to enjoy this.

There aren't any h-scenes in the Japanese version of the remake either, so there won't be any cut content unless Sony demands censorship due to Sony reasons.

This made me wish they had added some more elaborate easter eggs. It would have been pretty funny if Kyou herself actually showed up at some point to deliver pizza, and maybe the Hoshi Ori characters would start comparing her and Natsuki, since they're pretty similar in both character design and attitude. Yeah, a few scenes with different positions would have been much better than a whole bunch of h scenes with one position and a ton of filler text. I might have agreed with you if it wasn't for the fact that Fureraba's protagonist is waaay too hyper and annoys me to no end because of that. He needs to get some treatment for that ADHD and chill out.

One thing I find even more annoying than open endings is when you reach the end of a long story and they wrap everything up with marriage, time leap and whatnot in like a single chapter. This problem is especially apparent in manga, where it can take years to reach the conclusion. If they spend so much time building up towards that ending, why can't they put some more effort into it and make it more memorable by showing more of what happens later? I've lost count of the amount of manga that I liked at first but was ultimately disappointed by because the ending felt rushed.

Went into Misa's route today, and I'm finding it kinda hard to enjoy it. It sounds like she's deliberately speaking in an unnaturally high voice (as in high-pitched, not loud), which is pretty annoying to listen to. I've been able to tolerate it until now since she didn't talk that much during the common route or any of the other heroine routes I've done, but having to hear it so much in her own route is a completely different experience. I can only imagine the horrific banshee wails she's going to make during h scenes.

I appreciate the input! I've been in Japan two times before, but I didn't understand the language at all back then and thus never interacted with people in Japanese. On my next trip, I'm expecting my Japanese to be at a level where everyday conversation is actually possible, so I'm looking forward to seeing what that's like!

I'm just pulling this out of my ass, but I imagine one of the reasons Japanese people are generally bad at English could be because it's probably almost as hard for them to learn as Japanese is for English speakers. I'm guessing most Japanese people aren't very interested in consuming English media or in living abroad, and it might feel like a waste of time to put so much effort into further developing their English if all they're going to use it for is the occasional vacation. That's pretty much how I see the French language nowadays, after studying it for four years. I never have any use for it in my home country, and that has ultimately made me forget most of what I've learned. I now wish I'd spent those four years studying Japanese instead, since that is such a big part of my life today. Anyway, here's a question for you: Do you, as a foreigner, make sure to use the appropriate level of politeness in terms of bowing, using name suffixes and whatnot? I've heard that Japanese people generally are more accepting of casual speak from foreigners, but I have no idea to what degree. I imagine casual speak wouldn't be very well received in job interviews and such, even if you're a foreigner.

I'm pretty sure you've got the Amaterasu translation, then. It's supposed to be the least awful one, as far as I know. It's most likely the version I'll end up reading when I'm done with all the VNs that interest me more, unless a fourth, better translation is released for whatever reason. Either that, or I'll wait until my Japanese is at a good enough level to read it in the original language, but that'll probably take quite a while if Cross Channel is actually as hard to read as they say in the text you quoted.

I've been wanting to read that as well, but I've been continuously put off because all the translations are supposed to be pretty awful. From what I've heard, one is by an insane person who writes whatever he feels like, one is way too literal, and one is from one of the most infamous localization companies out there. I would love to know why people seem to be having so much trouble translating this particular VN.

I just remembered something else right after posting that! It could be a codec issue, if there's an intro movie in Kikokugai. (I don't remember if there is) Start Windows up in Safe Mode and see if the VN boots normally there. If so, it might be a codec issue. That was the case for me in Ef: A Fairytale of the Two. The ending movie refused to play, but I could watch it just fine in Safe Mode. There's no sound available in Safe Mode, so you can't actually play the VN normally there, but it might help pinpointing the issue. If it works in Safe Mode, try installing K-Lite Codec Pack or something similar to see if that helps.

Can't think of anything else off the top of my head, but I'll let you know if I do. Having to troubleshoot when all you want to do is start reading, is a real pain in the ass. I know that feeling all too well.

Kikokugai is well worth reading even if you're not a sci-fi fan. I really enjoyed it, at least. Try Windows key + R, write "msconfig" and press Enter. Go to the Services tab, check the "hide Microsoft services" box and then deactivate everything that's left. Restart your computer and see if that helps. If it does, you can try reactivating stuff one at a time until you narrow down what's causing this issue, or just play the VN with everything turned off and reactivate it all once you're done.

Try setting your system locale to Japanese too, if you haven't already. Some VNs refuse to boot with any other setting. The Steam version of Hoshizora no Memoria wouldn't boot for me unless I used Japanese locale, despite the entire game being in English.

Have you tried all the compatibility options or just one that was suggested? Forcing 640 x 480 resolution or disabling fullscreen optimization might help, if you haven't already tried those. Make sure all your drivers, especially your graphics driver, is up to date, since some strange problems can occur if they're not. There could be some issue with the newest drivers too, though. If you're already running the latest version, you could try reverting to an older one and see if the problem persists. You could also try disconnecting any secondary display you might be using. I've noticed that some VN's have trouble with a multiple monitor setup even if you only have a single one set as active in Windows, so you have to physically disconnect the other ones to bypass this issue. Antivirus and other security software also have a tendency to clash with certain applications, so you could try turning those off.

Plot twist: Protagonist is actually blind

I wonder what the reactions would have been like if it was a young male in a relationship with an older female instead. I have the impression that people don't consider that as bad for some reason.

Just a word of warning: You'll need to finish every route and complete every single quest in order to reach the oppai ending. It's definitely an entertaining ending, but I still think it's kinda underwhelming considering everything you have to do to reach it. If your main reason for picking up Rewrite is to see that, perhaps you should consider watching it on YouTube or something instead. (You'd miss all the character building that way, though.) Anyway, this isn't really the place to discuss Rewrite, so I'll make this my last post in this thread about that particular topic.

Yeah, I wasn't serious in my previous post! I actually agree with what you wrote. I can only think of one VN off the top of my head that decided to go with a "true ending" (it isn't officially one afaik) as a forced first route, and that is Koi to Senkyo to Chocolate.

I have no personal experience here, but @Emi has previously replied to another topic in regards to this. I'll paste the text in a spoiler box below, since it's pretty long. (I took the liberty of adjusting spacing and making some of the text bold or underlined in order to make it somewhat easier to distinguish the different parts.)