Seraphim
-
Posts
699 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
30
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Blogs
Events
Posts posted by Seraphim
-
-
-
I just finished Muramasa, and, well, it was a worthwhile experience, but not much more than that. It's definitely on the good end of the spectrum; it simply fell short of my, admittedly high, expectations. To say it in clearer terms, I wouldn't place it among my top 10 VNs, as suggested on VNDb; maybe not even my top 30.
To name a few things I disliked about it:
- The protagonist. Yeah, he's pretty much the definition of an antihero and he's expected to grow on you over time, but I still think you'd need to be able to symphathize with him somewhat from the getgo to truly immerse yourself in the story. Sadly, that is something I was unable to do for a good part of the game. I realized there was probably some reason for his actions, but not knowing those, I could only judge him based on the information I had been fed. This made me not really care one way or another whether he lived or died, which made battles, among other things, lose a lot of impact. Speaking of...
- The fight scenes. They're probably my biggest issue with Muramasa, considering the fact that they make up such a large part of the game. Basically, I found them too long and over the top for my tastes. I could accept the premise of "Okay, foe, in order to beat you, I will unleash my ultimate attack, which cannot be avoided. <1 second later> Damn, he avoided it. Let's boost my power although I was already at the maximum and try again. Rinse and repeat." back in the days when I was watching Dragonball or Naruto, but I've kinda grown past that by now and don't find it nearly as entertaining or exciting as I used to. (This also happens to be one of the reasons I haven't read Dies Irae yet.)
- The rape scenes. I can't recall a single one that was actually relevant to story progression in the grand scheme of things, meaning they were all just there either for cheap shock value or to cater to the tastes of the people who actually enjoy that stuff.
- The info-dumping. I realize that many people might want to know every little detail about every little thing, but to me, it just felt tedious and bothersome. At one point, it caused me to literally start nodding off on the couch, so I ended up skipping past that part of the game just so I wouldn't get completely bored out of my mind. I think this is actually the first VN where I've skipped something that wasn't an h-scene, which should speak volumes about how disinterested I was.
- The true ending. This came so out of the blue, I had to take a moment just to realize what had happened. I was entirely convinced I was on one of the regular routes and would later end up on some true route revolving around
SpoilerHikaru,
but then it just ended and all I was left with were a few missing CGs from earlier choices and the knowledge that all the stuff I thought were just a bunch of sidenotes in pursuit of something greater were actually what canonically happened in the story. It was a cocktail of confusion and unfulfillment.
To not end this post on a negative note, I'd like to mention that one thing that Muramsa deserves praise for is its translation. I remember seeing one person making a comment about this being the new golden standard for localizations, and while I can't attest to the accuracy compared to the Japanese original, which I haven't read, this is without a doubt one of the best VNs I've read in terms of prose.
- Dreamysyu, ChaosRaven and adamstan
-
2
-
1
-
The common route dragged on for way too long, but I thought the heroine routes were great. That said, Grisaia was one of my first VNs, so I have no idea what I'd think about it today. At the very least, my tolerance for various VN/anime tropes is significantly lower than it used to be, after being fed them over and over more times than I can count.
-
-
From what I've heard, they're in the process of a server migration and old accounts won't be available until they've been transferred. For me personally, I could neither log in or recover my password, so I made a new account and then talked to a guy on their Discord and got him to add my games to the new account. There's no rush though, because as soon as the server migration is finished, the old account and the new one will automatically merge as long as your e-mail address is the same.
-
Reading Making Lovers, and...
People who have read Bokuten be like:
People who haven't read Bokuten be like:
-
I looked into it a bit as well and it seems like there are some added scenes and CGs in this version, so that should definitely make up for any censored content, to the point where I'm deliberating rereading the VN myself. It's one of my personal favorites, but the h-scenes were awful and way too long (and this was back in the days when I used to sit through the entire scenes to make sure I didn't miss anything plot-related). We're talking a huge time investment though, so I dunno when I'd find the time, considering my current backlog and all the other stuff that's being released.
-
Didn't they censor even dialogue outside of h-scenes in that version? Or maybe I've got it confused with some other VN.
-
-
-
Man, Magpie is awesome.
I just started reading Making Lovers and was slightly annoyed by how blurry everything looked compared to the delightful 1440p of Kinkoi, which I finished a few days ago. (It turned out to be a great read; especially the final route. Can't go into any details without spoiling it though, so I'll just leave it at that.)
Aaanyway, the whole "blurry" situation was easily remedied thanks to this wondrous app. I don't know how it works from a technical standpoint, but it basically lets you sharpen the image through upscaling. If you haven't tried it out already, I highly recommend doing so. You can pick it up here, and then you just boot it up, choose which filter to use (Anime4K has some serious sharpening, but I think I prefer the slightly less defined ACNet option), launch whichever VN you want to use it in and hit Alt + F11 when you're in windowed mode.
Unfortunately, the upscaling forces the game into fullscreen, so I think you're out of luck if you prefer playing in windowed mode. For me personally, I always play in fullscreen anyway, so that part doesn't bother me.
In any case, here's a comparison shot of the original image and one with the Anime4K filter I mentioned above.
Original:
Anime4K:
I suggest you open the images in separate tabs and switch between them, as that makes the difference a lot clearer. Also, it's obviously much more apparent on a large screen. I dunno how much of a difference it makes on a laptop or the like. -
Currently enjoying Kinkoi, but the following dialogue went completely over my head. Does anyone have any idea what it's a reference to?
In any case, it's one of the better VNs I've read lately, although there's a weird (and somewhat creepy) bug that causes face sprites to show up separated from the heads, but it doesn't happen too often. Here's an example:
(I might've added some additional text. *cough*)
-
-
-
18 minutes ago, Stormwolf said:
There is no extra pressure with engagements and no reason to break them unless decided they're not gonna be together.
This. I'm pretty sure they ended their relationship altogether. The whole point of breaking off the engagement was because they wanted to focus on the band and not have personal issues interfere with that, so staying in the relationship would be kinda counterproductive.
-
EXTRA2 has already been confirmed to be an after story for Misaki, so I doubt they'll put any other heroine routes in that one. I think the only way it'd happen would be if sprite decides to start working on the previously cancelled Aokana sequel again.
-
-
First off, let me just say that I love reading your posts. They actually serve as a great recap for me, as a person who tends to forget a lot of details from VNs I haven't read in a while.
As for Island, I enjoyed it a lot back when I read it, and I'm glad to see it getting some more appreciation. The only thing I wasn't entirely satisfied with was howSpoilerSetsuna left at the end. I get why he did it and that it's probably the right thing to do in the grand scheme of things, but if anything goes wrong, it would just mean him leaving Rinné behind once more with no way of ever seeing her again. I'm a sucker for romance, so I kinda wish he'd just stayed with her after they were finally able to reunite.
- Mr Poltroon and Eclipsed
-
1
-
1
-
Glad to see there's no geoblocking this time! (Or at least, not in my region.)
-
I was a bit confused by that as well, but since I hadn't made any choices yet, I figured it was just an introduction of sorts. In any case, the VN seems promising. I find the protagonist a bit annoying and immature at times, like when he said this to a waitress he just met, but at least he doesn't seem quite as hyper as the guy from Fureraba. I like all the heroines and the animated art is really nice, so I expect this will be a good read.
-
5 hours ago, TexasDice said:
One of the hardest hitters in my opinion, was the fact that a lot of scenes in that route have no BGM. Subtle, but it's rough.
Yeah, maybe I should've phrased it as "music or lack thereof". In any case, it adds more weight to the route and feels like a suitable representation of
Spoilerthe protagonist's downward spiral.
1 minute ago, NowItsAngeTime said:Well if it helps, there's a poster of Riho very early on in common route:
Nice find! Never noticed that one myself.
-
On 4/24/2021 at 4:06 PM, Fujoneko said:Spoiler
Also, fuck Kaneda. I don't care if that's just his character, he is insufferable and I can't stand him
SpoilerSame here. He had a few decent moments here and there, but I mostly just found him annoying throughout the entire VN.
On 4/24/2021 at 4:06 PM, Fujoneko said:SpoilerI'm a little sad he abandoned the guitar and followed that path
SpoilerFor me, it's the other way around. I actually found it refreshing that he strayed from the beaten path that you know the rest of the VN is going to follow.
Usually, in this type of story, you know the protagonist is going to end up being pushed towards a certain goal in one way or another just because it's "something they should do", or "it's their destiny" or whatever. There aren't that many cases where they just decide to do something else entirely.On 4/24/2021 at 4:06 PM, Fujoneko said:SpoilerI wonder if Ozaki would end up alone if he had followed his music career and toured a lot...
SpoilerIt can obviously vary from person to person, but I think it's safe to say she'd most likely be pretty lonely. It'd be like in KiraKira, where
SpoilerKirari goes off to tour the world while Shikanosuke stays back at home working a regular job, only meeting up once every 6 months or so. At the end of the day, I doubt he finds that very satisfactory from a romantic viewpoint.
(Wow, that's a lot of spoiler tags.)
On 4/24/2021 at 4:06 PM, Fujoneko said:I sure hope this is the weakest route
It is. Or at the very least, it was for me.
-
I finished Musicus last night and I figure I should write something about it.
First off, for any of you who want to know, I can give a clear answer regarding that spoiler you were discussing earlier on in the thread.SpoilerYes, there are breakups in the game. I don't know why warnerro said there isn't, but it might have been referring to the "previous partners galore" as well, which there is none of.
If anyone wants to know more, here's a more detailed description, with actual spoilers:
SpoilerIn Mikazuki's route, which isn't marked as a "true route" but can probably be considered the main one since you enter it from the final choice in the game and it continues the story of the band, she and the protagonist gets engaged while the band is on hiatus after Mikazuki lost the ability to sing as a consequence of an event that made her develop PTSD. She eventually manages to overcome it and regain her voice, which then leads to her and the protagonist breaking off their engagement and relationship because they don't want it to inferfere with the band moving forward. I guess it makes sense as a way to avoid any personal drama being brought into the band, but it was a major disappointment from a romantic perspective.
That said, their feelings towards each other were still the same, so maybe they'll continue where they left off at some point.
The story as a whole is kind of what you're expecting, with a band starting from nothing and gradually moving forward to bigger venues, and while that part didn't really interest me that much since it's been done several times before, I realize it's a mandatory part of a VN such as this and it works out well thanks to a great cast of characters. They (along with the awesome soundtrack) are what really makes Musicus worthwhile, with all their individual quirks, banter and whatnot.
If I were to list any cons, these are the ones that I can think of off the top of my head:
1. No cameos from the characters of KiraKira or Deardrops. I was sure that this, being Overdrive's last VN, would bring them all together in the end, but that never happens. Kirari is briefly mentioned in dialogue, but other than that, there's nothing at all.
2. Romance is almost non-existent in all routes. They either contain little or none of it, or the route ends basically as soon as the protagonist and the girl gets together. I kinda expected it, based on previous titles and this being a music VN first and all, but I was hoping they'd focus a little more on it than in Deardrops and KiraKira.
3. A bit heavy on the drama side in one particular route. (Yes, the one I've mentioned before.) It felt a bit forced, like they really wanted to push sadness on us so they just went all out.
Musicus is no masterpiece by any means, but when it shines, it's great, and it's definitely a suitable sendoff for Overdrive. To be honest, I felt a bit empty inside once I saw the credits rolling, knowing the only way I'll get to experience this from now on is by replaying one of their older titles. -
What are you playing?
in Visual Novel Talk
Posted
Don't worry, most of it is written in a more normal manner! From what I've heard, the Japanese original could feel quite pretentious at times, so I assume that they just wanted to stay true to that with the localization.