OdaNova

Edit: Double posted =x

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.

I finished the 'original' recently. It was alright, some fun moments, but it got fairly tiring towards the end. Not sure it's worth getting gold though.

(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;

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.

I finished two this week; Euphoria Synergia Not sure what I'll read next tbh. Hopefully something that clicks and gets me some happy fuzzy feelings.

Reddit mostly. When it's not raging about politics in my country's subreddits, it is raging about games on gaming subs apparently. I have a gander over on the Visual Novel sub sometimes, but it seldom seems to have much going for it thesedays.

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!

Fairly open I guess? If I can be open to Japanese protagonists why wouldn't I be open to black protagonists mind?

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.

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?

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

Finished Chuuostu! First Graduation Time after Time today;

Ah, that's a shame. I'll just make do with the PC copy for now.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. Gentle reminder to turn off comments on reviews in future I suppose.

I have that on my wishlist as I stumbled upon it. Do you recommend it?

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.

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.

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?

The more you know!