Jump to content

OdaNova

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    31

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Posts posted by OdaNova

    What are you playing?

    in Visual Novel Talk

    Posted

     

    My Visual novel reading has taken off recently.

     

    I finished off Tuition Academia (https://vndb.org/v33905)

     

    Not the greatest of games, not the greatest of stories either. I liked the concept of the roleplaying being an utter slut, but they didn't really take advantage of it. Also that hidden ending didn't really work for me, at all.

     

    I've completed; The Great Ace Attorney (both) (https://vndb.org/v15125)

     

    I really liked it, I thought they pretty much nailed a lot of the British memes/cultural call outs, though it did get trying at times and they might have been able to trim some of the dialogue ~ I really didn't need hints for the 99th time we go through the deduction mechanic for example.

     

    I also started and finished Doki Doki Literature Club (https://vndb.org/v21905)

     

    I thought the concept was very clever, unique and somewhat interesting, though the ending was diminished partially because Academia kinda pinched it as well. I didn't think this story went far enough with the concepts, it was too short and too quick. I would like to see this kind of plot point dragged out over an in-depth story where you're constantly gaslit, and it would really tick the boxes for me.

    So, I didn't really see the hype from the casual fans I guess.

     

    I bought and completed Paranormasight (https://vndb.org/v42561)

     

    Now, that was a treat! I thoroughly enjoyed it. Having a smart little story that connects well and some well written dialogue and characters worked for me. The main ending did fluff its lines and go into melodrama mode though, but I liked the concept and I thought it was just generally smart, didn't disrespect the reader's time or intelligence. I really liked how they incorporated gameplay elements into the story (saving for example), that was neat.

     

    I have just bought on the JAST Halloween sale, three VNs;

     

    1. Gore Screaming Show (https://vndb.org/v933) 

     

    Really sounds interesting, and is my 'horror' pick for Halloween I guess. 

     

    2. Hanachirasu (https://vndb.org/v430)

     

    Not sure what to make of this one, but I'm up for something different.

     

    3.  Study and Steady (https://vndb.org/v24689)

     

    I don't know what has drawn me to this one, but it sounded interesting and maybe a little conventional from the previous two I just nabbed. And sometimes comfort food is okay. So we'll see how I get on with these.

    Can someone help me work out the timeline in Spirit Hunter NG? (Spoilers)

    in Visual Novel Talk

    Posted

    (I hope this is the correct forum to put this in. Also, please don't mind my atrocious spelling of the names of characters, I'm terrible at remembering them.)

     

    I bought and played Spirit Hunter NG, because I liked the original Death Mark game.

    At first I breezed through with the bad ending, which was fantastic, and then I replayed for the Normal ending (nice) and the rather lacklustre Golden End.

     

    Along the way, my wires appear to have been crossed, so I'm seeking help clarifying whether I'm right/wrong on this.

    So here's my understanding of the story;


     

    Spoiler

     

    Long ago an evil spirit called Kaguya gets sealed in a mirror. Her MO is to play games with people until she wins, whereupon she discards/destroys the person in question. The person who sealed her away passes on the responsibility to their descendants, as the seal must be renewed every ten years. The seal is renewed by giving her a doll to play with basically.

    Eventually Mirokyu (the author) is handed the responsibility of maintaining the seals. He suffers an accident that destroys his spiritual powers. So he devises the NG, to turn humans into dolls and seal Kaguya.

    (This is information from Ban and the Screaming Author case)

    30 years ago - He abducts and changes Hana Manabe

    20 years ago - He abducts Ai Mishima

    10 years ago - He abducts Sachi Kishima

    6 months ago - Tubasa Aoi goes missing and we surmise she is changed into a crane, which dies and eventually becomes the "Screaming author" spirit

     

    I'm with it up to this point, but then in the later case, the store fire is suggested to happen 10 years ago, and Murasami (I think) is said to be suffering from Kaguya's game. 

    How can this be the case, if the seals are still in place 10 years ago?  Shouldn't Kaguya be stuck in the mirror unable to cross over at that point? I understand that she might be able to 'listen in' due to the weakening seals but nothing suggested she could come out of it/do her curses at that point.

    From what we saw, it is Tubasa's 'seal' that sets off Kaguya, because Tubasa is an 'adult', Kaguya becomes more interested in adults, so she goes after Mirokyu - who we find dead. Kaguya says he refused to play, and died quickly.  And from this point, Kaguya goes on her rampage.

     

    So, my questions would be;

     

    1. How could Kaguya escape to do her games 10 years ago when she should be sealed? (From what we see, when she's sealed, she can't even keep people in a coma/cursed.)

    2. How and Why did the Tubasa seal fail and how did it fail so quickly? Surely, even if they're an adult, the seal should have stayed for 10 years and then Kaguya should have done her rampage at that point?

     

    I feel like either I've missed some information on the Tubasa case, or I've missed something somewhere else? I'm pretty sure Ban says Tubasa went missing "half a year ago" at the start of the Screaming Author case, and I'm pretty sure Tubasa is the trigger for Kaguya's interest in adults and her newfound desire to get out and ruin the days of her 'daddies' as she says, but it seems like the timelines don't sync up, so I need the information I've missed basically. :)

     

    Any help, much appreciated. 

     

     

    What are you playing?

    in Visual Novel Talk

    Posted

    Just finished How to Date a Magical Girl.

     

    The two plot twists were fairly obvious, though I didn't get the exact nature of the second twist down to a T. I thought the nature of the second plot twist led to the whole story being somewhat pointless as everything got hand waved away, nothing really mattered and none of the interesting plot hooks ever got resolved.

    Also, the life attribute levelling nonsense really dragged out what was clearly a short novel spread fairly thin thanks to the stat padding.

    What are you playing?

    in Visual Novel Talk

    Posted

    I finished two this week;

     

    Euphoria 

    Spoiler

    I'm split on this, it's just an 'extreme' nukige, so whoop de doo with some god awful writing, and atrocious eroge scenes 'ourghe!!! DICK MILK AND BABY BATTAH!" is just pure cringe. And then, it launches that really good mind-screw of a plot if you get into the bad/true routes, like wow, the whole concept was superb. And the other half of this VN just drags it down. I kind of wish they scrapped the god awful nukige and put 100% of the effort into that storyline, because it has so much potential IMO. So I finished with mixed feelings and a lot of empathy for Nemu. ;_;

     

    Synergia

    Spoiler

    One of the most dull written sci-fi VN's I've had the displeasure of reading, I could only get halfway through before I had to quit to be honest. The writing is mediocre, but it's also dumping too much text in one text box at a time, so you get complete mood-whiplash as subjects change in the same text box. It feels like it needs another editing pass. Also, there's dry subject matter and there's Synergia dry - the writing was sending me to sleep with how tedious it was.

     

    Not sure what I'll read next tbh. Hopefully something that clicks and gets me some happy fuzzy feelings.

    What are you playing?

    in Visual Novel Talk

    Posted

    On 5/5/2021 at 10:29 PM, OdaNova said:

    Onto the D route at the moment.

    Finished it tonight, all endings, all CG's, all music, all everything except TIPS and the Xtend scenes.

    I tried some of the Xtend scenes and some of them rehash old information, but it doesn't register as already read for the skip function... I cba going through all of these. 

     

    What a fun novel though, translation issues aside my only complaints were B route's parapsychology techno-babble being very boring and D route taking forever and a day for the main cast to realise  N's identity, even though it is so obvious from ten thousand chapters prior... So that part dragged painfully, but they got there in the end I guess. 

    I like the nod to the player with the allusion to the spirit though, nice touch. 

     

    Think I'll look for a fairly basic, vanilla novel for my next read! 

    Small details that make you drop a VN

    in Visual Novel Talk

    Posted

    Things that make me drop a VN...

    Horny protagonists. Excessively horny protagonists.

     

    I've dropped one where the story started off pretty neat, and I was getting into it and then whilst he was level-headed and reasonably mature in the main plot, anytime we went into a side story he would just turn into this idiot "MY DICK IS SUPER ENGORGED! LETS PENETRATE SOME LADIES!" *nosebleed*

     

    Not quite that bad, but you get the gist of it. I couldn't really put up with the disconnect from the somewhat interesting main plot to him being this absolute moron ruled by his bollocks anywhere else in the story.

    What are you playing?

    in Visual Novel Talk

    Posted

    I've finished A, B and C routes for Root Double as of this evening. Onto the D route at the moment.

     

    I really enjoy the mystery elements of A route, and the slice of life of B route - though, the exposition dumps became an absolute snooze fest for me, I quite frankly switched off with the lectures on parapsychology and all the gibberish words they were spewing. (The blind spot test was a treat though.)

     

    I wonder if anyone feels the same way I do about the translation? It really grates on me at the moment, there are two horrific Americanisms in the translation which are getting on my nerves;

     

    Infrequent use of the term 'off of'. I hate the usage of that term because it feels clumsy, and rarely does better than simply saying 'off the' or 'off x' so, "I took it off him" or "I took it off the table" is a lot better to me than "I took it off of him" and "I took it off of the table"

     

    Very frequent use of the word "gotten" - this one is winding me up because it is used in place of better words, such as 'received' "I had received the information from them" is a lot better than "I had gotten the information from them" or "I became involved with this" rather than "I had gotten involved" and so on, it seems every other conversation this pops up and it drives me potty.

     

    Who were the translators, so I may slap them for these issues? :P 

    I'm looking forward to concluding Route D's multiple endings, there seems to be eight normal, good and true endings,  on top of all the bad endings. Seriously, so many bad endings in route A, it was mad.

    I'm not convinced the SSS mechanic is better than conventional dialogue or A/B choices though, even glancing at guides it seems to be a complex way of just picking min/max/neutral if that makes sense?

    What are you playing?

    in Visual Novel Talk

    Posted

    Just started up Koihime Musou, which I picked up with the Easter Egg code sale on Mangagamer.

    A 'timeslip' sends the protagonist into the Three Kingdoms era where all the famous generals are now women. Whey! 

    I like it so far, only two minor issues;

    Spoiler

    1. The translation for the names are in Japanese-English. I'm so used to the names being Chinese-English (I'm not sure if I have the right terminology here). So, I'm used to say "Guan Yu" and "Zhuge Liang" or "Lu Bu" but in this novel they're in Japanese form so; "Kan'u" and "Shokatsryou" or "Ryofu" etc. The game does provide a pdf with the translation for the major characters, but not for the minor ones, so I have to play with a wikipedia page open to cross-reference the characters.

    That's kind of slowing my progress a bit and sometimes confuses me when they talk about 3-4 characters all at once, lol. (I would have thought the translation should have gone chinese-english since most material on the Three Kingdoms uses that style for the names etc?)

     

    2. The hero seems pretty level-headed, until the Hulao gate part of the game, suddenly he's starting to be more of the stereotypical 'raging boner', flirt-with-the-ladies type. It is a bit of a disconnect for me because initially he's presented as a kendo student, with a good head and kind heart. His friend is the one who is a slut for the ladies, and it feels like they were like "ah, shit, we need him to be attracted to the cute girls we have on offer..."

    I'm also somewhat disappointed that initially they implied he'd be useful due to his knowledge of the history of the TK era, yet, so far he's been pretty oblivious to it except for the occasional "oh I know this person". I was genuinely expecting more of a reaction from him re: the Anti-Dong Zhuo alliance, or for him to try and get ahead with his knowledge at that stage, at least until Hulao gate when we get the reveal that history isn't applying strictly to this world.

    I'm not sure I fully understand the battle system, the tutorial was fairly sparse about it. Am I supposed to go defensive when the enemy uses an attacking formation and vice versa? It's what I've been doing in any case, but I might be misunderstanding some finer point to the system?

    I'm not that far in yet though; 

    Spoiler

    I just beat Yuan Shao, the 'princess'

    but I'm looking forward to continuing with it, it's enjoyable all the same.

    What are you playing?

    in Visual Novel Talk

    Posted

    Finished Chuuostu! First Graduation Time after Time today;

     

    Spoiler

    Did not expect the 'legal child prostitute' twist... at... all. Yikes.

     

    I thought it was good overall, if you can get beyond the zany writing. 

     

    Really interesting concept about the P3 Law - that everyone is given a compatible job etc upon. However... I felt the VN didn't make use of its 'Chuuostu' = unemployed and therefore thick as bricks premise to its full extent, and in fact, was pretty much ignoring that whole concept, because the three girls were churning out some fairly intelligent discussion for people too thick to understand what they're talking about... 

     

    Not sure if I'll continue with the sequels, but I enjoyed it in anycase.

     

    What are you playing?

    in Visual Novel Talk

    Posted

    I just finished up two of the Fruitbat giveaway VN's;

     

    Magical Eyes - Red is for Anguish.

    I liked it, but it felt unfinished and undercooked.

     

    Miniature Garden

    Started off okay, but faltered big time as it went along. Felt like they tried to be too clever and couldn't pull the story together in the end. I also didn't really like the translation, or perhaps it was just the dialogue full stop. On the bright side, at least it was a short one.

     

    Not sure which order I'll read the other three titles they gave away; I'm probably going to go The Graduation - > SeaBed -> Enigma. 

    What are you playing?

    in Visual Novel Talk

    Posted

    I'm playing Magical Eyes - Red is for Anguish.

     

    Bit of a wonky start, and I think the translation/writing is over-done at times, but it's enjoyable thus far. 

    Is it bad translation if a scene is like: "Exposition/description that makes sense followed by stupidly obvious 'in other words'; 'summing up of exactly what was just said'" ?

    Surely, good writing would make sense in the first description and wouldn't feel the need to treat the reader like an idiot with a follow up tl:dr.

    Well, whatever the case I quite like it, I'm at the part where the two kids were introduced and they were brilliant characters thus far. 

    Winter Sale Recommendations

    in Recommendations

    Posted

    On 20/12/2019 at 8:30 PM, GXOALMD said:

    Tokyo Babel and Fata Morgana have both been on my radar for a while, thanks for letting me know they've got a decent sale going on.

    If you only get one, get Fata Morgana.

     

    Tokyo Babel felt like it was suffering an identity crisis, the way it flip-flopped from comedy to serious fantasy at times. It just didn't work for me.

    Are they really over 18?

    in Visual Novel Talk

    Posted

    On 04/12/2019 at 10:41 PM, Ruberick said:

    but since the age of consent is 13 in japan, all of the high school and most of the middle school stuff is pretty much save from every angle.

    I always thought it was in that grey area anyway depending on where you are for age of consent.

    Like, for example, even if it was just 'high school' (or college for the UK, ergo ages 15-19), in the UK the age of consent is 16, so characters being around that age getting into relationships and sexual exploration isn't exactly that far-fetched, and I don't think it is something as horrific as some cultures make it out to be. Then again, I don't really like reading stuff where some of the romancable characters are clearly at the age of 10-13 or younger, and no, the whole 'it's a vampire, they're 2,000 years old' thing doesn't work if after 2,000 years they still act emotionally and otherwise like an 11 year old.

    What are you playing?

    in Visual Novel Talk

    Posted

    I'm reading The House in Fata Morgana and I think it's been excellent so far. The music has been superb as well. I'm at, chapter five, where we're starting to get some answers. I'm not doing a very good job predicting how the plot is going though... I've come close at times but the plot twists always seem to one-up my guesses. 

    Anyway, it's great, I can't put it down at the moment.

    What are you playing?

    in Visual Novel Talk

    Posted

    The next VN I'm hoping to start is the House in Fata Morgana, though, I might prioritise Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma first so I can finish that trilogy -it has been a bit of an up and down journey so far with that series, but I'm glad I've given it a go. :)

     

    I just got (rudely) reminded of an old VN. Got a notification on Steam about Notch: The Innocent Luna Eclipsed Sinners (bit of a mouthful), was pretty fun to see someone leaving an xenophobic comment on my review because it was negative. :rolleyes: Gentle reminder to turn off comments on reviews in future I suppose.

    What are you playing?

    in Visual Novel Talk

    Posted

    On 04/07/2019 at 7:01 PM, OdaNova said:

    Just got round to starting Virtue's Last Reward. 

    I finished 999 last month.

    Early days yet but VLR looks pretty interesting, similar games different concept. I've finished one route so far, guess I have 8 more to go. :o

     

    I'm still on this, hitting almost 25-30 hours now and it is getting exhausting. I like the concept but jumping around the different routes to unlock them gets tiring, especially as there are only so many different ways you can explain something I already know before it gets boring. (Text skip doesn't work in every instance of repeated explanations unfortunately.)

    I'm on the supposed final route now, and that means I've done 8 routes just to get to this point. :o

    Spoiler

    I think it is pretty lame that if you 'win' the game, everyone conspires to restrain or do harm against you (for the bad ends), yet when others win they're mostly passive observers that wilt in the face of adversity. 

    I would have appreciated if in one or two of the bad ends he gets out and 'wins', a Pyrrhic victory or whatever - I know he can escape in Dio's route, but it is only ever with other people.

     

    Another issue I have is that sometimes character personalities do a complete 180 depending on the route. Sometimes, I can absolutely understand the logic or motivation behind it, or I can identify an event that would cause them to act that way, but sometimes I feel they're just being dicks for the sake of it. 

    Alice route for example, most of the game presents her as smart, capable and friendly and she goes Ally in I think every single route, but exclusively for her route she's getting on her high horse being a bit cruel saying anyone voting ally is an idiot etc. I get that it fit with the purpose of that arc's point, but it still made me a bit iffy about it. Tenmyouji was a bit similar, starts out quite likeable but going down his route he's a nasty piece of work.

    I do like all the characters and their motivations so far though, though Dio really needs to die more. Really looking forward to the reveals in the last route (Phi) and I genuinely do enjoy the story and the mystery, I just think there are so many routes that it becomes exhausting to get through them at times...

     

    I'm just waiting to find out what the whole 22 year old guy looks like an OAP reveal is going to be, since conveniently the game doesn't seem to have any mirrors and Phi in particular seems pretty mean about his face... Even Quark is terribly formal with him in some routes, but I can't figure it out.

     

    What are you playing?

    in Visual Novel Talk

    Posted

    Just got round to starting Virtue's Last Reward. 

    I finished 999 last month.

    Early days yet but VLR looks pretty interesting, similar games different concept. I've finished one route so far, guess I have 8 more to go. :o

    Visual Novel Steam Sales Declining?

    in Visual Novel Talk

    Posted

    On 08/05/2019 at 5:14 PM, Freestyle80 said:

    Steam sales might be down but more people probably buy outside of steam due to them being so anal about everything 

    Yep. I buy the all ages version of visual novels on Steam if it is available there, but otherwise if it is an 18+ title, I'll grab it elsewhere unless the free patch is also available.

    Can never quite tell what they're going to permit or ban. I thought it was great when they let Kara no Shoujo onto the store, but apparently they haven't approved KnS2? 

×
×
  • Create New...