Now... as I said in the nostalgia post, I've been replaying a lot of games lately. The reason is fairly simple... my backlog of VNs is almost nonexistent now. I've played roughly 85% of the ones I purchased during the first days, including all but a few of those that I've purchased in the last few years. That isn't to say that there are no VNs of interest that I haven't played yet... but many of them just aren't available to purchase by download and are too expensive to obtain a physical copy of (one in particular is two hundred for an open package). What is left are some 'rainy day' VNs and a bunch of third-rate moege/charage. Well, that and a few horrible-looking gameplay VNs.
So... the games I'll be playing after this month's releases are naturally going to be replays as well. However, I'm not willing to replay any more charage, so these are my random VN plans for next month.
1. Evolimit - I've been asked to make a full assessment of this VN and blog on it by several dozen people over the last year.
2. Muramasa- Muramasa is a VN it takes a lot of energy to play, simply because it is so gloomy. As a result, I keep putting it off, even though I like it.
3. Ruitomo FD- This is a fairly low priority, simply because I found that after playing the main game, I needed a rest from that cast of characters, lol.
4. Gleam Garden no Shoujo - I really, really need to replay this. I loved it at the time, but the memory is starting to fade.
5. Sinclient- similar to the above.
6. Itsuka, Todoku, Ano Sora ni - In this case, I've long considered this to be the game I judged the most wrongly, based on my inexperience with Japanese VNs at the time. So, I feel that I need to go back and reassess this one.
7. Akatsuki no Goei series and Reminiscence series - I just love this stuff and it is great for stress relief
8. Imouto Spiral - you ask me why? it is because, while the story is... pathetic, the VN is hilarious.
9. Bradyon Veda- It is about time that my memories of the details faded enough that I'll probably be able to enjoy a full second playthrough.
10. Akeiro Kaikitan- 'Already?!' you say? I'm currently replaying Nanairo Reincarnation, so I feel a need to replay this one too.
11. Gensou no Avatar- It is wasteful that this particular doujin game has been forgotten, lol.
12. Futagoza no Paradox and Owaru Sekai to birthday- Because they don't make them like this anymore.
13. Natsu no Owari no Nirvana
14. Tenshi no Hane o Fumanaide
15. Boku ga Tenshi natta Wake
It's been a while since a single VN burned me out completely, but Silverio Trinity managed it. That VN had many of the best elements of its predecessor, while being more balanced, having added unique soundtracks, and overall creating a mostly new experience that, while it didn't completely transcend the original, still managed to stand on the same plane.
Unfortunately, it was a highly emotional experience, with a lot of excitement along the way... so I know I won't rate any VNs I play at this moment fairly, regardless of genre. As a result, I'm taking a week's break from my VN of the Month to recover my sanity, lol.
To be honest, I had great hopes for this game, based on the fact that Agobarrier wrote up the drafts for the story before his unfortunate passing. I thought I'd see the peculiar humor, the deredere-MAX heroines, and the wacky antics that I associated with the original game. I expected running jokes (frequently used as accents to various scenes), and I hoped that Navel would finally regain some of its original 'magic'.
Unfortunately, it seems that those hopes are a bit too high. Perhaps it was inevitable... the team that did this game was partly made up of the writers that have been doing the Da Capo games, which should have told me they would have a less amusing approach to things (though it saddened me that Ou Jackson didn't manage to force things into his style more often...). The loss of Agobarrier's unique style is sadly all-too-clear in this game, as, while it does channel some parts of the original, the way the most important scenes is handled is far more fumble-fingered and lacking in flare, which is just sad.
That said, there were some parts where the writing quality suddenly jumped up massively, such as in any scene where Primula was involved (for some reason). To be honest, it was that very jump in quality that illuminated just how poorly some parts of the game - in particular the prologue and large swathes of the common route - are handled.
What is truly sad is what they got perfectly right... the characterization of side characters. Primula, despite being, and all the side characters are really well-done. So it kind of amazed me that the heroines were so sloppily done. There is far more effective character development done in the common route for the side characters than the heroines (other than Lims, who has good characterization for the most part) considering their roles, which struck me as a horrible approach. Rishia in particular is a horribly awkward character from the very beginning, and while some of that comes from her character concept, more of it comes from everything from her VA to her sprite poses... not to mention an odd lack of face time in the common route. Her voice actor is a familiar and excellent one, so I can only imagine that it was the director that screwed things up...
To clarify, the heroines that had the strongest characterization in the common route go in this order Lims>Kohaku>Kirara (I hate Kirara anyway though)>Rishia>Nelia. I say this because Kohaku gets more face time due to living with Raito and Kirara's characterization is so blatantly obvious that it can't help but be effective, if annoying. Nelia has the least amount of face time in the common route (even if you pick her 'side' of things in the various choices) than the other heroines, and Rishia suffers from her initial introduction.
What is canon?
Without spoiling the important stuff:
1. It is 100 years since the end of Shuffle.
2. A great disaster happened sixty years in the past.
3. Primula is apparently an eterna-loli and is still alive and well.
4. The current King of the Gods is the son of Shia's much younger (born after Shuffle) brother.
5. All characters other than Primula from the original have long-since passed away.
7. At least some of the events in each path actually occurred.
8. Rishia was very close to her great-aunt, Shia, who passed while she was still a child.
9. Neria was very close to Nerine, who died childless and was her adoptive grandmother.
Primu- errr... I mean Limstone
Lims was the first heroine I went after. This wasn't because of any fetishes on my part (my fetishes lead me to Nelia), but simply because she had the best characterization of the non-human heroines in the common route. Her development and even her story pretty much mirrors that of Primula's, up to a point. More is revealed to the protagonist than was to Rin in his time, and the development of their relationship - up to a point - feels natural and even touching.
Unfortunately, the romance is handled... awkwardly. Considering this comes from a team known for having at least minimal skills in this area (if few others), I was awed at the way the romance in this path felt so unnatural. While this isn't a path-killer for me (because romance isn't that important to me as part of a story), it was a disappointment.
On the other hand, the drama in the last part of her path and the path up to the actual relationship formation were both excellent... too bad the ending was a little wince-worthy in terms of quality.
Nelia
Nerine's adoptive granddaughter is a seductive young woman who has horrible characterization in the common route (if you read the official character profiles and compare them to the actual heroine in the game, there are almost no similarities). She has inherited her grandmother's recipe for tamagoyaki, and her path has some eerie similarities to Nerine's in Shuffle (in a generalized sense) without having the same impact. I won't spoil the original game for you, but I had to wince at the drama used in this path.
I'll be honest, if more effort had been put into making Nelia into a real character instead of a caricature in the common route, this would have been a good path. Unfortunately, very little time was spent on Nelia in the common route relative to the other heroines, and this has an unfortunate dampening effect on the reader's emotional investment.
I have to wonder after finishing this path if they just intend to partially mirror the paths from the original game...
Rishia
Rishia's scenes in the prologue are the single most awkward introduction scenes I've seen from a heroine in a commercial VN from a major name in over ten years... no, ever. To be honest, considering that intro scenes are something most charage writers do well, I didn't expect the awkwardness I experienced. I mean, I almost dropped the game inside the first half hour, which I wasn't expecting, considering how much I loved the original. Rishia's character eventually sheds the awkwardness created by the introductions, but I thought my feelings toward her would be ruined by the introduction to the very end.
However, her actual path is a complete turnaround from my experiences in the common route. Suddenly (and jarringly) the quality of presentation goes up and Rishia goes from being a thin caricature of a heroine to an actual person. To some extent, this also happened in Nelia's path, but part of the reason this path suddenly took on depth for me was the way it tied into the story of Spiral. In fact, it feels like a direct extension of the political elements of Spiral, which is why it felt much deeper to me than it probably is if you haven't played Spiral.
That said, the impact it had was enough to overcome the awful introductory scenes... but it still needs to be noted that this game is horribly flawed, not the least of which by the difference in style between the four writers (why they combined the writers of Tsuki ni Yorisou, Otome no Sahou and that fluff-fest series - Da Capo- I'll never understand).
Conclusion
Understand, I have no interest in the human heroines in this game. Kohaku is ok, but I find Kirara to be so annoying that the idea of romance with her makes me want to vomit.
Anyway, this game's primary flaws lie in the common route, which is, to be blunt, mostly fluff. The character introduction for Rishia was botched, and there was a severe lack of face time for the two main heroines. These flaws don't make the game unplayable, but for fans of the original, it can't help but be a disappointment. Rishia's route manages to overcome most of the weaknesses of this particularly mismatched group of writers, but that is more because of the existence of Spiral than the inherent value of the story.
Also, there should have been a path for Marine and Citron.
Extra
To add to the canon above, I should note that Spiral was apparently written as a prequel to this game. It occurs a few months before Rishia's arrival in the human world, and it is centered around an agent from the Divine Realm. I originally thought it was a prequel to Shuffle, but it turns out that it was a prequel to this game, lol.
Since I'm playing Teito Hiten for VN of the Year 2014 right now, I decided to let the fans of my VN of the Month thread decide which VN I'll play first from March. These are the three I considered. One is from Saga Planets, another from Rosebleu, and the last is from Minato Soft. Since these three are companies I actually pay attention to, these were my first choices to play, from March's releases. Whichever has the most votes by the time I get done with Teito Hiten wins and will be played/reviewed first.
Now, those who remember my rave from last year will probably sigh in exasperation (or boredom) that I'm posting on Minori again. I mentioned before that I dislike most of Minori's games on a personal level, even while acknowledging the high-level art and sound in them...
My reasons were varied but all of them were pretty amorphous, probably because I was so blinded by that intense, instinctive dislike that I never really sat down and meditated on just what was driving me crazy.
I mean, Minori's VNs are visually exceptional, with generally high-level (if similar-looking) heroines and backgrounds, and in terms of sound, they use some of the best VA's in the business, to generally excellent results. Their characters are generally round, feeling like people, and the writing quality is above average.
So what is there not to like?
I seriously asked myself this question when I realized I was dragging the extra luggage of the two games I just went through and was trying to shrug them off. As I began the VN and reached the early turning point (most Minori games have a major turning point in the common route that causes the conflicts/issues later on, though there are exceptions) it came to me exactly what was driving me crazy.
It was the protagonist.
Does that sound crazy? Most Minori protagonists, for better or worse, are your average adolescent... perhaps with some strange ability, perhaps with psychological scars, but they are ultimately 'normal' adolescents with all that accompanies that (Eden* being an obvious exception).
To my horrified fascination, I realized that it was the very fact that Minori actually goes through the trouble to round out their adolescent protagonists that is driving me up the wall in each of their games. Now, for those of you who are old enough to be able to look back on adolescence with relief... perhaps you will recognize the sheer number of facepalm (or head-desk) moments you run into when dealing with an adolescent protagonist who acts exactly like an inexperienced adolescent would in the situations involved in most of Minori's games. Generally speaking, if you can think of a common mistake someone would make in a given situation at that age, a Minori protagonist will make it, usually to disastrous - or at least painful - results.
For better or worse, Minori's protagonists aren't really ciphers... and normally that would have been a reason for joy for me. Unfortunately, they happen to be round characters in a way that makes it unbelievably painful to be imagining myself in their positions (and not in a pleasant utsuge fashion). Of course, they also tend to grow a lot during the story, but the impression of the first part of a Minori game usually makes me want to slam my head into a wall... As such, can I really be blamed for having trouble fully appreciating the game as a whole? Probably, if you ask the right people. *smiles wryly*
Anyway, hopefully I'll be able to get past this issue, now that I'm aware of its root... but I am glad that, at the very least, I've managed to figure out precisely what was driving me insane, rather than just having a knee-jerk reaction to Minori's games.
Compared to 2015, this year has been an excellent one. That isn't to say that we saw a glut of first-class VNs like in 2011 or 2014, but there have nonetheless been several releases worthy of consideration for a VN of the Year award from me so far.
Candidates so Far
Inochi no Spare
Amatsutsumi
Floral Flowlove
Tokyo Necro
Akeiro Kaikitan
Close but not quite there
Koi Suru Otome to Shugo no Tate ~Bara no Seibo~ (a direct sequel, so not a potential winner)
Senren Banka
Soshite Hatsukoi ga Imouto ni Naru
Toki o Tsumugu Yakusoku
Since there were no really worthy candidates last year (I named Kikan Bakumatsu Ibun Last Cavalier the VN of the Year, but I would have preferred to leave it blank), this year is definitely the one to watch.
Understand, chuunige mostly appeal to a very core fanbase. The style, the fact that they don't translate well, and the fact that most of the action/story is so 'out there' makes the games unapproachable. The sheer amount of text means that localization costs are through the roof, which makes things worse, of course.
I'm being realistic, ignoring my inner fanboy who screams everybody should love chuunige because charage suck in comparison. However, that is the flat-out truth.
So, I decided to make a list of chuunige I believe would sell in the west/appeal more to the western brain... and not just the core fanbase. I have these ordered by the most likely to the least.
1. Bullet Butlers- I say Bullet Butlers is the most accessible precisely because it uses a lot of elements that Western audiences can easily grasp without having to be 'deep' into otaku media. Zombies, elves, dragons, and orcs. Firearms as the most common weapon type, superviolence, and a film noir atmosphere to a great deal of the game. If I were to name one chuunige that has the potential to be a hit (by VN standards), if properly advertised, it is this one.
2. Draculius- If I were to name a sort-of chuunige that is accessible to people that don't particularly like chuunige, this would be it. If you liked the best parts of Libra and hated the rest, you'll probably like this game. It has aged somewhat, but the characters are unique, the story is excellent, and the humor is recognizable on both sides of the ocean.
3. Hello, Lady- Yes, I went there. If you can enjoy Narita Shinri, you will like this game, regardless of your genre preference. Narita Shinri is a protagonist who will earn as many haters as he does lovers, and there won't be that much room in between. However, his story is very much one that is visceral and easily comprehensible for any human who has lost someone they loved.
4. Shinigami no Testament- 3rdEye's chuunige are accessible. I could put any chuunige by that company in this spot other than Bloody Rondo and say that it has the same potential for success. Even Bloody Rondo does have some appeal outside its genre (in fact, it probably has more, lol). 3rdEye is a company that I can use to brainwash newbies without overwhelming them, which is why I was happy when Sorcery Jokers got localized, lol.
5. Gekkou no Carnevale- I can guarantee someone is going to ask why I didn't mention any other Nitroplus game besides this one. However, the themes in this game are very Western, for the most part... and werewolves and murder are always guaranteed to catch the interest of a certain (surprisingly large) crowd over here. Put in living dolls and mafia connections as well, and you have a recipe for success.
I actually thought of naming some others, but when I seriously thought about it, the hurdles for a Westerner and non-chuunige addict for playing those were just too high. Anything Bakumatsu is going to be translated poorly, so Last Cavalier is out. Evolimit has potential, but I thought BB is more likely to catch hold of westerners who aren't already part of the scene. Anything like Dies Irae is almost guaranteed to flop if it isn't 100% crowd-funded (as in, all costs paid for by the crowd-funding), so Bradyon Veda and the Silverio series are out. Vermilion has similar problems. Muramasa suffers from swordsmanship infodumping that will probably cause the average reader's brain to go numb early on. Tokyo Necro has zombies, but the chances of people actually getting past the prologue are relatively low, despite the coolness of the story and setting. Izuna Zanshinken has enormous potential in the US, because of the style and the themes it tackles, but its episodic 'feeling' is a huge negative for some of us...
The Growlanser series is one of those weird, hardly known jrpg series that died out after the ps2 era (mostly because its gameplay was too traditional, but also because the transition to 2.5D sprites failed so miserably in V and VI, along with the derivative, predictable story). However, before its death, it produced four first-class games, three of them linked in a single chronology. IV, also known as Wayfarer of Time, is the exception in the series as a whole, being the only entirely standalone game.
Growlanser IV's Western release was on the PSP (also playable on the Vita and PSTV) with a modified main route and an 'evil' route that you could access on NG+. The first four Growlanser games can be said to be very attractive to those who like player agency. This is because, depending on how you fight, how you play, and what conversation choices you make (three of the four protagonists are silent ones whose) you could not only alter your own perceptions of the main character, but you could also alter the ending and even the game flow as a whole dramatically.
Growlanser IV isn't an exception to this, but in a way it is easier. One reason is that you aren't required to get the highest rating on all story missions to get access to the 'true' ending. Rather, it uses a 'fate alteration' system which allows you to take on sidequests, take various actions in combat, and make choices in conversations that alter how the game ends, who lives, and who dies. The 'Modified Route', which is pretty much the 'good' route, pretty much requires you to alter every possible character's fate in order to create the result of ten major characters still being alive past the turning point of the story and the end. With some of these characters, it is as simple as saving them in a certain story battle, with others it requires making the right choices in conversations with them in order to change how they act, thus preventing their deaths.
In this way, I came out of Growlanser IV feeling that, for the first time in a long time, that player agency actually mattered. Hell, I never thought scolding a girl about throwing things then showing her kindness would give me an opportunity to save her soul later.
The main story itself is heavy on war politics, much like all the other games in the series. In this case, it is a war story spread across about four years (my estimate) that ends up involving the whole of the known world. The protagonist, raised in a mercenary outfit, ends up getting involved with saving the world and the nations in it... but you rarely see him being treated like a 'chosen one' outside of a few of his own companions. Rather, most reactions are based in that person's standpoint and affiliation, which made both the enemies and allies feel real to me in a way few jrpgs ever manage.
This game manages to avoid the traditional pitfalls of the average jrpg. What do I mean? I mean that tendency toward hot-blooded idealism and dew-eyed innocence about human nature that ruin 90% of JRPGs storywise. I mean, a king isn't interested in saving the world... he is interested in enriching his country. Good people in the wrong position will do bad things, and bad people who can benefit from it will do good things. The characters feel like people, and I don't feel like I'm talking to carbon copies of characters from a thousand other jrpgs like I do with most mainline jrpgs.
The battle system in this game is a combination of turn-based and real-time strategy. Generally speaking, you start out at a certain point of the map, and your characters move in real time when you aren't making choices about their next action. It is possible to alter their course, and you can block enemies' routes with your warriors' bodies. Knacks (non-magic activation skills) can be used to strike hard, slow enemies' turns,or slow their chanting of magic. Magic takes a while to chant, but in exchange you can take normal actions immediately afterward, and spells can be canceled at any time just by pressing the triangle button and going to the character in question.
Perhaps the game's biggest overt weak point gameplay-wise is the way you learn skills (passives), Knacks (instant-use attack/support/debuff/buffs), and magic. They are learned by attaching spellstones to the characters' ring weapons (three to a weapon, with the level of the stone you can attach limited by the ring's slots) and killing enemies in battle. The reason why this is a problem is simple... only the character who deals the fatal blow to an enemy gains ability points for their... abilities. A warrior who can take out five enemies at once with the use of the circle strike knack is going to find it easier to learn abilities than a mage or archer that can only strike one enemy at a time (synchronize spells later on to cast area spells utilizing multiple characters... but it still can't beat the quickness of AOE knacks).
The greatest help to the player is the fact that you can buff before going into battle using spells, thus eliminating the need to tie up magic users in buffing for the first part of a battle. Considering that most story battles have time limits, this is an issue. This game rewards clever use of the systems like the arena and buff spells and will seriously sodomize you if you go through the game without thinking or preparing.
Overall, Growlanser IV was the series' peak, and it saddens me greatly that the series was killed in the PS2 era. This game is about sixty hours long for the first playthrough (successive playthroughs are easier), and it is one of the better rpg stories I've ever played, being somewhat reminiscent of Suikoden, which is funny, considering they rose to cult popularity around the same time.
In plotge of all types, whether they are chuunige, kinetic novels, horror suspense, or mysteries, infodumps are ubiquitous throughout the VN world. Infodumping in and of itself isn't a horrible thing to do to the reader (as some people claim), but it is a tool that is often abused by writers who want to expound on their beloved world and its characters.
First, the definition of an infodump is a scene with little or no dialogue where background information is provided without directly proceeding with the story. Infodumps can vary in size from as small as forty lines of narration to up to a thousand, depending on the writer and the subject matter involved. There are even multiple types, which I will describe here.
The Lump of Infodump
The Lump of Infodump (as I put it) is the most common type of infodump in VNs. In the 'Lump, a great amount of information, sometimes with brief bits and pieces of dialogue or character stream of thought, is provided in a single scene, interrupting the story. The 'Lump is the type of infodump most likely to drive people crazy, due to its tendency to create walls of uninterrupted text. When abused, it tends to interrupt and/or destroy the flow of the story, and I've encountered a number of games where a more measured approach to presenting the setting or explanations of the particulars of an event or the 'why' of an action would have been less monotonous. In fact, that is the big flaw of this type of infodump. It is almost impossible to avoid monotony with this kind of infodump, because all it is doing is literally dropping information on you. That said, infodumps often have a reason for existing that becomes clear in coming scenes, so it is not necessarily always a bad thing.
The Scattered Infodump
'Scattered Infodumps' are a technique where the writer provides the information in smaller, more digestible asides throughout the story, as it becomes relevant. This technique tends to be received with less irritation and often goes almost unnoticed by the reader, because it doesn't go on long enough to disrupt the flow of the story. Unlike the 'Lump, it is less likely to be abused, though many writers who use it get into the habit of always using it, which can be problematic for those with an allergy to non-dialogue text, lol.
The Flashback Infodump
The Flashback Infodump is just that, an infodump provided in the form of a flashback instead of an aside. These often fill in the gaps in the motivations of characters or their upbringing, and their purpose is, 90% of the time, to reveal something that would have made things less interesting if it were revealed earlier. Flashbacks are often abused, though. They are common throughout VNs, with roughly 90% of plotge having at least one and 30% of all charage (in my experience) having one. They are a convenient method of revealing a character's past, so many games also use them for character development, particularly in heroine paths.
The Prologue Infodump
This is probably the least annoying of the 'obvious' infodumping and is a sub-category of the 'Lump. Some games, rather than dumping setting and character information on you mid-story, will instead infodump immediately after you start. This has the advantage of getting around the disruption of the game's flow that is inevitable with mid-game 'Lumps and providing background information without the writer having to remember to include it strategically throughout the story. This technique is, however, rarely used. Games that use it are rare mostly because if the first thing you see when starting a VN is a wall of text, most people will drop the game right then and there. Because of this, most games that use this are directed to a very specific fanbase or niche of the VN community that already has an established interest in the game in question.
A few thoughts
The reason I decided to make this post was because of a conversation I had with @fun2novel regarding infodumping in Bradyon Veda. In Bradyon Veda, infodumping is integral to the game's battle scenes (incidentally the discussion began with me giving examples of good battle scenes to him). Because the science-fantasy techniques being used by the characters manipulate matter and physical laws, there are infodumps built into the battle scenes, explaining what they are doing. Because of this, I noted that Bradyon Veda's battle scenes were an example of positive infodumping, because it was done in such a way that it enhanced rather than disrupted the telling of the story.
Conclusion
What am I trying to get at? Nothing, really. I just thought that people give infodumps a bad rap, when they have probably been infodumped without even noticing it.
Well, the answer to the above question is simple... I saw the monster girl anime for this season's first episode and got curious about what kind of content these games had... to be honest, I was planning to drop it inside the first few hours, using it as a break from more serious content before starting Baldr Force.. but I was surprised to find just how good the writing in these games is.
That said, the early games (the Lamia and Alraune games) are nukige, as presented... and the H scenes are kind of guro in a lot of cases (to be honest, I can't get into the H in this series at all, lol). However, I was kind of stunned at how good the writing is in the ones I've played and how they created a sense of connection and continuity between all the VNs in the series. First, you have to understand that all the VNs prior to Monmusu Gakuen are written in the same general period of the setting's history and Gakuen is written in a period fifteen to twenty-five years after those (the kids from three of the VNs are heroines in Gakuen).
The most solid of the VNs as a whole is the Arachne/Harpy/Cyclops VN, which focuses on Hibiki, a guy who basically gets summoned from Earth by Ariane the Arachne on a whim... The speed with which he adjusts to his new lifestyle is a bit unreal, but the interactions between him and the heroines are endlessly amusing... and the actual story of each path is touching enough emotionally that I cried, despite the fact that I had to skip past the H to keep from being ill in some cases (you can tell that the writer is basically acting out his fetishes with enthusiasm...).
The Scylla/slime VN is the second most solid, with a somewhat... free-spirited pirate as a protagonist. The slime is a total moron who believes anything the scylla maid says... which wouldn't be so bad if the scylla's hobby wasn't making her look like an idiot. I spent most of this one just laughing... endlessly laughing. I laughed until my jaw hurt with this one. The general absurdity of the VN's premise doesn't in any way take away from the comedic character dynamic or the emotionality of the heroine paths (there is pretty much nothing emotional until you actually get on those two paths).
Monmusu Gakuen is the weakest of the three I completed (three VNs in two days) and it retains a lot of the atmosphere of the other two... but in exchange, the H is even more guro and the number of heroines kind of dilutes the emotionality of the paths in several cases. Nonetheless, it is easy to get attached to them, simply because of the protagonist's point of view as their teacher.
I came out of curiosity and stayed for the writing.
I'm just curious... why is it that some of the best VN writers are the weirdest kind of pervert?
Edit: I almost didn't write anything on these... but I felt I owed it to the people who might actually be interested in this kind of interracial romance story to at least say something about my experience. I just also felt the need to warn you that... if you have imaginings about the H, it is actually probably a bit worse than you imagined.
One thing I've noticed over the last seven years is that people frequently have subtly different opinions than I do, and I get asked frequently how I can play so many moege/charage despite the fact that it isn't my preferred genre.
The answer is relatively simple... I read about 20 times faster than most of the rest of you - with the exception of a few bibliophiles. What is a true chore, taking up tens of hours for you, might very well only be a short eight to ten hours for me. Reading that fast - whether in English or Japanese - gives me a greatly different perspective than a lot of the others here.
1. Stamina- My stamina for reading in general and reading VNs in particular is far higher than the rest of you. Fundamentally, the idea of breaking a VN up over the course of weeks or months is alien to me, since even the longest ones will only take me about thirty hours (even in a busy week, I can usually manage to squeeze that in during breaks and meals).
2. Stress- Because VNs aren't drawn out for me, I don't suffer through the slice of life and daily scenes like some of you do. I can sit back and enjoy what I'm reading without feeling any stress whatsoever from the reading itself, as long as the VN isn't too bad. In addition, even scenes too difficult to read for the average VN-player are relatively simple for me to read, so i don't get significantly stressed out by that factor either.
3. Stimulation- One of the reasons people tend to get tired of VNs is a lack of stimulation due to low reading speed. I read fast enough that a good VN's stimulation will be close to constant, whereas a slow reader will sometimes come to feel 'in-between' scenes that are meant to be short and informative as painful and long.
4. Pleasure in reading- The act of reading in itself can bring me something close to sexual pleasure if what I'm reading is interesting. The reason I like chuunige is because to me, the stimulation from a good chuunige is actually better than sex. There is always something going on and that something is usually meant to shake up the emotions or engage the intellect. Since, for me, reading something like this really does give me so much pleasure, I can honestly say that concerns about length don't bother me at all, lol.
5. Burnout- I burnout less often than you (this applies to most people so I'm saying it in general to the community, apologies to those this doesn't apply to). For me, burnout is a process that takes months, usually when there has been only charage for two to three months in a row (thus leading to insufficient stimulation to keep me sane). There is another type of burnout that I experience when I play a truly great VN... but this is something that is almost like that feeling you get after a night of good sex, so it is closer to 'pleasurable exhaustion'.
So, for those who wanted a reference for what it is like to be me when it comes to VNs, there you have it.
OK, first I am going to avoid spoilers throughout this review, so I would like those who want to comment to avoid the same, even in spoiler boxes. This is one of those games that is going to be harder to enjoy if you spoil it for those who come after, so I will personally eat anyone who spoils it. This VN is by the same writer who did Sumaga (blech), Gekkou no Carnevale (yay), and Totono (a VN a lot of people here liked). However, the style of story is much closer to that of Gekkou no Carnevale than to Sumaga, thankfully. So, those of you who have heard me bitching about Sumaga need not worry that this is going to turn into a long rant on how horrible anything by this writer is. First, I am going to give you an idea of the basic setting.
It is 2199 and the world has plunged into a new ice age (this is actually one of the hypothetical results of global warming irl, if the Greenland glacier slides into the ocean early enough). Up until a decade before the story, humanity was fighting over the warmest areas of the world, putting all their power into a war that was becoming increasingly meaningless. In that war, there were many scientific advances... but the two that are most relevant to the story are Necromancy and the zombie-killing techniques developed by the protagonists' fathers. Necromancy is undertaken by injecting a special type of nanomachines into the human brain after death, turning the individual in question into one of the Living Dead and the person who did the injecting into a Necromancer, capable of moving the undead results at will. The zombie-killing techniques central to the story are the use of one vs many weapon techniques (the basic one is two pistols with muzzle spikes, which the male protagonist uses, though the female protagonist's basic fighting style is based off of the same) in combination with the EX-Brain, an analytical computer that fits onto a person's head and allows them to notice things their subconscious recognizes but their conscious mind doesn't (details the conscious mind filters out), thus allowing the person in question to fight more effectively. Tokyo of the future is a dystopian hell, where refugees from all over the world have gathered, necromancers roam the streets with their armies of the living dead, and bounty hunters (like the protagonists) hunt them for their daily bread. The city itself is kept alive by geothermal heat spread throughout the city by water-filled 'hot pipes' passed through the hot spot underground and circulated throughout the city.
Main Characters (protagonists, heroines, and main antagonist)
Nagaoka Souun
Souun is the son of a hero of the American-Chinese War, who was killed some years ago. On the surface he doesn't show much in the way of emotion, and his fighting style is one where he uses the dual-pistols in combination with his EX-Brain to fight in the most efficient way possible, obeying the suggestions of his own subconscious like a machine. Indeed, he himself isn't really sure he has emotion, and that is one of his major internal conflicts throughout the story as he deals with his personal issues. He is a badass, to put it bluntly... the kind of guy who can re-kill thirty zombies in under a minute without taking a single scratch. His body has been trained using both conventional methods and tailor-made nano-drugs to turn it into a weapon capable of perfectly obeying the EX-Brain's suggestions.
Kibanohara Echika
Echika is in just about every way Souun's opposite. She is a rebel, preferring to use a chainsaw and shotgun and frequently ignoring her EX-Brain's suggestions in favor of her own impulses. She believes emotions should be immediately be shown on the surface and indulged, and she is more than a little hedonistic by nature. She is also a straight-out lesbian who has no hesitation going after pretty girls. Her outright hatred for her father is the most obvious cause for her rebellious nature and her unwillingness to use her EX-Brain (the horns, as opposed to the full helmet Souun version Souun uses).
Hougyou Iria
Iria is the main heroine of the story and the focus for most of the events in it. She has extreme synesthesia (look it up), though she is quite functional despite that. Her initial setting, amnesia, is one of the most obvious tropes out there, but it isn't the focus of most of the story. In a world where people are rapidly losing their emotions, both positive and negative, she is a bright, cheerful young woman whose very presence makes people feel hopeful and light-hearted. She is also an otaku.
Kijou Mitsumi
Kijou Mitsumi is Souun's 'other' potential heroine. She is, like him, a hunter of the undead. However, she uses a katana and muscle-enhancing suit, along with her talent for mapping out the actions of enemies on the battlefield, rather than the style used by Souun and partially rejected by Echika. To be honest, this is one girl who has a singular talent for getting herself into trouble... and a lot of it is caused by her somewhat single-minded personality. She is very devoted to any cause or person she latches onto, but that also means she tends to become dependent on those she attaches herself to, which is the cause of her personal conflict.
Aso Kiriri
Echika's adoptive older sister. She is the most 'normal' person amongst the main characters, ironically, despite the fact that she is a high-ranking member of the Military Police under Echika's father. She is kind-hearted and constantly worries about the broken relationship between Echika and her father, as she loves them both. She also is very idealistic, believing that her duty as an officer of the law is the protection of Tokyo's people above all other things (an idealism almost unheard of in the somewhat tyrannical Military Police organization).
Kon Su
Kon Su... is probably the straight-out weirdest character in the VN. She is a hard M (with bold and italics for emphasis), and she has casual sexual relations with both protagonists. She is a professional hacker, information broker, undead analyzer (dissects and analyzes undead bodies and brains to discover the individual styles of necromancers... sort of like forensics), and she is also one of Souun's and Echika's supporters. Unfortunately, explaining her weirdness is not really possible without spoiling the VN, so I'm just going to drop it. Incidentally, her path isn't really a straight-out heroine path, for reasons that will be obvious to anyone who completes one of the paths.
Milgram
Milgram is the charismatic leader of the Researchers, an organization of Necromancers that believe the only hope for humanity is to escape from emotion through death (extinction). He isn't your standard nihilist, but the philosophy he espouses is. This guy... is the single most powerful Necromancer in existence, which means he is also an extremely emotional person (emotion and artistic sensitivity being requirements for creating the best undead). This guy is flat-out scary, eerie, and freaky. However, in many ways he is a representative of one of the major aspects of the world the characters are living in.
The Story
For better or worse, this story has a ton of guro and is basically an action-horror story. If you can't deal with heroine deaths, torture, zombification, and occasional rape, this definitely will be hard on you. A lot of effort goes into portraying the most gruesome parts of the story in a way that will be as horrifying as possible, and the heroines don't always escape this particular treatment, so it is best to prepare yourself before jumping in. The lighter points - mostly centered around Iria - actually only serve to enhance the sheer horror and bleakness of the setting, which is basically an extension and enhancement of what this writer did in Gekkou no Carnevale.
By nature, any story as full of zombies like this one is going to be dark, and this one really does go to the extremes of the dark end at times. It is really hard to talk about this story without spoiling some of the primary elements (and because I figured out those elements too early due to certain hints, my own reactions were more ones of 'expected horror/sadness', so I'd prefer not to do that to you all). To be honest, emotionally connecting with this story was hard at some points, but as I got deeper into the characters - usually near the ends of the paths - it became a lot easier. In terms of action, this VN is full of it, but it is most emotional toward the end of the paths and in the true route.
Kon Su's route serves a purpose different from the other routes, revealing elements of her past that are important to the story as a whole while showing the steel that lies beneath the stuttering, drooling do-M surface of that character. Whereas the other routes have some element of romance, Kon Su's lacks that, and I honestly thought that was for the best (I honestly couldn't imagine any ending where she was romantically involved with either of the protagonists, as opposed to just sexually involved). Ironically, if I were to say which of the routes (other than the true one) touched me in the most positive manner, it would be this one.
I really suggest anyone avoid playing Iria's route until you've played all the other heroine routes. It feels a lot more natural if you go into the true route straight after finishing her route, as the true route is in many ways wrapped up the most intimately with hers. The other routes can probably be played in any order without a problem, but I do advise you take my suggestion above seriously.
Visuals
Normally, I don't talk about a VN's visuals that much, but because of the styles used here, it needs to be mentioned. First, I should mention the action-scene styles. The action-scenes are defined by a type of cell-shaded animation that is very similar to SMT: Digital Devil Saga on the PS2. Literally, the action scenes are animated and combined with highly-detailed battle descriptions to give a degree of depth that is pretty rare even in action VNs. I was doubtful at first, but this VN definitely benefited from using this particular technology (though it probably detonated a nuclear bomb under the budget).
The regular visuals, as seen above, are more 'classic-style' Nitroplus, so if you've played a Nitroplus game made since Muramasa, you probably noticed that it is in the same general style. As a result, there is no real need for me to discuss them... except that the way the designers used them was pretty amazing. The dystopian feel of the pipe-wrapped city of Tokyo in 2199 is pretty eerie-feeling and definitely adds to the general atmosphere of the story. The tendency to dress most of the characters in dark or harsh colors (except Iria) was probably intentional, to further add to this atmosphere. This is one of the few times in the last year when I've actually felt that a company went above and beyond when designing every visual aspect of a VN.
Audio
Musically, this game isn't really unique. The BGMs all feel 'familiar', though they are used effectively to enhance the mood, so I give this VN high ratings for its BGM use, if not for the songs themselves. Nitroplus's use of music shows a tendency to prefer unobtrusiveness and 'enhancement' as opposed to the use of music to 'define' the mood seen in a lot of other VNs (Hapymaher being one of the most extreme examples of the latter).
What really struck me is the wide variety of sound-effects, such as gunfire, cutting sounds, etc, and the use of those sound effects. To be honest, the sound of zombies being blown apart by bullets in this VN is going to linger in my ears for quite a while, as is the sound of Echika's 'Rabbit Punch' chainsaw.
Overall
Overall, this VN is pretty impressive. I can honestly recommend this... though not to just anyone. To be honest, the 'average' VN-reader who prefers moege-variants will probably not be able to stand the darkness of this game. If you don't have a reasonably high tolerance for guro and dark atmospheres, this is going to be a hard VN for you to enjoy. Zombie-lovers will probably flock to this VN by the thousands if it ever gets translated, because it really does draw in a lot of what people like about the 'zombie apocalypse' style movies and TV shows, while giving it a uniquely Japanese/otaku media flavor. However, this VN is emotionally draining, so I do recommend taking it in smaller doses than I did (every minute I wasn't working for the past four days). In my opinion, this VN can be considered a straight-out kamige, but it is also a VN that picks its readers... simply because it is so high-stress.
Some people here already know that I hurt my knee falling down the stairs a while ago... what most of you don't know is that the stuff they have me on (non-narcotic pain drugs, sleep pills, and antibiotics) in combination make me a zombie for most of the day... I sleep around twelve hours a day, am fuzzy for two to three hours more, have to do rehab exercises for another two hours, and I spend around four hours of what is remaining working.
Needless to say, this doesn't leave much time for anything else... which is why VN of the Month is so far behind. Normally, by this point I would have played through at least four or five of the month's VNs, and I would probably be considering which one - if any - was worth the VN of the month rating... as it is, it has taken me a little over seventeen days to finish just two VNs from April's releases.
I'm basically venting my frustration right now... since I lose money with every day I can't work at full capacity and I go a little more stir crazy with every day I can't go out and get some fresh air without using crutches. For the first time in almost nine years, I actually had to use up my entire pay for a month for bills and food (the medical bills being the highest, obviously).
Needless to say, I'm in a sour mood.
If I seem harsh toward the remaining VNs this month, please forgive me. It is really, really hard to concentrate outside of work right now... and I'm actually having to reconsider a lot of my plans for the rest of the year based on the costs I project for the rest of the next few months. Nothing pisses me off more than being unable to rectify everyday money problems (which is why I work so much normally)....
Anyway, that's enough moaning from me for now. The two key points are that the above are the reasons VN of the Month is so far behind and I so rarely post, despite the fact that I'm technically 'online' (I rarely if ever shut down the fuwanovel tab, lol) all the time. If I'm slow to respond, it is because I'm not myself, not because I'm not interested in doing so.
I got asked what I was doing for this blog this month just today, by several people (probably because this is the longest time I've gone without posting since I started this blog). So... I suppose I'll go ahead and tell you.
First, the two titles I'm reading on request (though I was planning on doing one anyway).
Sakura no Mori Dreamers (reading now)
Ruri no Ie (yes, it is not exactly something I would normally bother with, but he was insistent... sort of like with Maggot Baits)
The rest of the releases this month I'm considering playing:
Soshite Hatsukoi ga Imouto ni naru
Seiken Tsukai no Proposition (by a new company, might suck, might not)
Natsuiro Kokoro Log (this is by Hearts, a company infamous for producing kusoge, lol)
Tarareba (by Aries, that makes decent to horrible charage)
Personally, from what I've played, if they don't screw it up, I think Sakura no Mori Dreamers will probably end up being the best. However, my past experiences with Moonstone's rare attempts to be serious tell me that that feeling isn't really trustworthy. Clear started out good but went downhill with terrifying speed, for instance. Their single best game is Maji Suki, and that was seven years ago... though Natsu no Iro no Nostalgia was pretty good, for Moonstone.
I'm going to be straight about this game... if you liked Kamidori, you'll probably like this game, gameplay wise. It uses a nearly-identical battle and skill system, and it is all about gathering ingredients. For those unfamiliar with the battle system, you essentially summon your characters into a dungeon, which you explore and gather ingredients from while fighting off monsters. Your characters each fight one-on-one for the most part, in a battle system highly reminiscent of Fire Emblem games. The difference is that the exploration phase usually doesn't end after you kill all the monsters... for that, you have to use the green button in the upper right corner (present in most non-story maps) or wait until the turns run out. In each map, there are gathering points. Mineral gathering points (represented by boulders) can only be found and used by those with the 'mining' skill or tanryoshi skill equipped. Herbal gathering points can be found and used by anyone, on the other hand. Each map has certain materials that can be gathered there, and what you gather from those points is entirely randomly handed to you after you leave the map (perhaps the most annoying aspect of the system). Each map also has conditions under which you can win prizes called missions... usually involving getting to all the gathering points in a single playthrough of the map and controlling 100% of the map's territory or similar objectives.
Movement requires FP, which is used at a rate of 1 per space and regenerates at a rate of 1 per turn if you moved that turn (2 if you didn't). There are a number of ways to improve on this, ranging from skills and accessories to buildings and usable items. However, this is the basic element of dungeon movement.
Actual battles occur when you or your enemies initiate combat. If your speed levels are relatively even, you both get two attacks, if they are uneven, the faster one gets three, the slower two. There are four ways to define an attack other than elemental affiliation... physical or magical and ranged or melee. Only ranged attacks can retaliate against ranged attacks and only melee attacks can retaliate against melee attacks. Physical attack damage is based on a combination of elemental affinities and your phys attack stat versus their phys defense stat... you get the picture. It is a simple system to understand, easy to use, and it would be as annoying as hell if there was a bigger penalty for characters being defeated.
That said, it is functional, so I don't have any huge complaints about the battle system or the in-dungeon gameplay besides the randomness of materials-gathering and drops, though I do get tired of going back to maps for particular materials that turned out to be vital in large numbers later on.
Perhaps the most irritatingly relevant and at the same time annoyingly useless aspect of the game is the town-building aspect. If this were a grand strategy game, where building your capital actually had some kind of interesting meaning to it, I'd probably be more forgiving, but the system is annoyingly opaque, despite the values presented on the information screens. Some materials can only be gathered at higher gathering levels (mineral and plant kept separate), so you have to use facilities to get those levels up, and many buildings provide stat boosts when placed properly... However, since you essentially can get away with placing stuff as you become able to make it and have it work fine with only minor alterations, this feels like a forced, almost useless side-issue in the game.
I'm getting pretty late into the game, and it is becoming more and more obvious that the usefulness of land-based units is dropping dramatically with each area (more and more have obstacles that can only be cleared with certain movement types or flight). While super-fast ones like the beloved nekololi assassin Ioru are fast enough to make up for the limitations of a land-bound form, with the others I'm starting to feel I might have to resort to using the single - I repeat, SINGLE - accessory slot for one that grants flight (no jrpg of any sort should ever have less than two accessory slots). This is actually a flaw that existed in Kami no Rhapsody as well, since characters that couldn't ignore obstacles inevitably ended up getting eaten alive late in the game... or rendered irrelevant because they couldn't navigate the map well.
Look forward to my story assessment later.
I am a weaboo and it is good, lol.
More seriously, I started out becoming a Japan fanatic through swords, rather than through anime or games, like many others. As an adolescent, I shared the same obsession for sharp things that any number of young men in the past have had, and that eventually led me to the katana, then to the samurai, then to Japan (in that order).
I met anime and jrpgs about the same time, which only made the hunger more intense.
Like all newbie weaboos, I practically worshiped everything Japanese... I wouldn't accept criticism of anything Japanese, and I instantly thought of anything Japanese as awesome. That lasted well into my twenties, when I began to seriously study Japanese history as part of my larger hobby of studying world history and anthropology.
To be blunt, it is about this time that my views began to change, if subtly. The weaboo psychology, such as it is, is peculiar in some areas. Some weaboos continue to simply idealize everything about Japan, past and present, regardless of what information they pick up. Others become disillusioned as the faults in Japanese society (again, both past and present) become apparent. The third, and final group, tempers their adoration to a mere fondness and preference for things Japanese as they accept a more objective (relatively-speaking) viewpoint on their subject of obsession.
The first ideal that had to be broken for me was the samurai... to be blunt, reading the history of Japan puts the samurai caste into perspective in a way movies and video games just can't. The samurai ideal a lot of weaboos practically worship was born during the centuries of peace during the Edo period and is a relatively recent invention.
Once the samurai ideal was broken for me, it became a lot easier to see Japan for what it was. I still love Japan, I still love Japanese culture, and I still have a definitive preference for Japanese ideas. However, I can now admit that Japan's society is just as badly flawed in its way as my own, thus reducing my weabooism to a matter of personal taste, rather than a fanatical obsession, lol.
So what kind of weaboo are you? (not assuming you are one, whoever is reading this, lol)
First, as a fantasy anime/VN fan, one thing you'll inevitably run into are these two words... 'yuusha' (勇者) and 'eiyuu' (英雄). The problem with these two words is that they inevitably end up translated as the same thing... 'hero'. However, the nuance of each word is dramatically different, at least for those of us who actually care about nuance.
Now, 'yuusha' is a word you hear mostly in certain types of fantasy VN or anime... these include 'sent to another world' and 'classic swords and sorcery fantasy', but can include things similar to Power Rangers and games like Venus Blood. The usage of yuusha generally refers to a 'chosen' individual who is stuck with the duty/obligation to confront a force that is beyond the capacity of normal people. Demon Lords, kaijin, insane gods... you name it, it probably has a swirly target sign that only a yuusha-type hero can see on it. There are 'evil' yuusha (mostly in dark VNs), but for the most part, they are pictured as being on the side of 'good' pictured as a near-absolute concept.
'Eiyuu' is a bit different. The concept of 'yuusha' can't really be applied to a real person, because the real world is almost never unambiguous enough to allow for the term to be usable, but the concept of an 'eiyuu' can be applied to real people. War heroes, great military leaders, rulers that lead their people to victory against an impossible foe, men who turn the tide of a war, etc. fall under this term's aegis. As an example, Valzeride from Silverio Vendetta falls under the aegis of this word, as does the insane loli in Youjo Senki. It is much easier for an eiyuu to be evil, because all an eiyuu needs to be is glorious to a group of people. They don't need to be moral or upright... or even seem so.
Really, this is just a commentary on how confusing Japanese words that translate the same can be... and it might give you all a hint as to why some of us say that 'Japanese translation is an oxymoron.'
Sakura, Moyu is the latest game by Favorite, the producers of Hoshimemo and the Irotoridori series. For those who aren't yet familiar with Favorite, I should tell you that there are three things this company is known for. For one, they produce first-class 'nakige' in a unique style full of pastel colors and manipulation of visual and narrative perspectives. Second, they are known for their excellent stories and characters, regardless of which writer they have on the job. Last of all, they are known for being lolicons (lol). No, I'm not kidding. The fact that every one of their true heroines at least looks like a loli at first glance says everything, hahahaha.
Sakura, Moyu was written by Urushibara Yukito, the same writer as the Irotoridori games. As such, it should surprise no one that the setting is layered and complex and the story not at all what it seems on the surface. It should also surprise no one that there is a lot of emotionality in this game... but I don't think anyone was expecting just how emotional this game is. To be blunt, I spent roughly 80% of this game either on the verge of or in tears. Considering that the game is one of the longest games I've ever played (at least partially so because I so thoroughly relished Urushibara's writing style), that's a lot of tears... and a lot of tissues *glances at the overfull wastebasket next to his pc and the empty tissue boxes lying around it*.
However, there are some issues with this game that need to be mentioned to get them out of the way. Few games are perfect, and this one is no exception. To be specific, Urushibara has always been mediocre at the romantic elements of his games. Unless the romance exists at the end of a path full of suffering and despair or occurs in an incredibly stressful situation, he can't seem to write it very well (in other words, he is good at dramatic love but only a bit less than average at everyday love). As a result, the romance in the first two paths (Chiwa's and Hiyori's) feels abrupt and forced... not to mention the fact that the beginning of Chiwa's path is so at odds at first with the game's atmosphere that I had to put the game down for two days to get past the emotional disconnect it created. Hiyori's path is somewhat less problematic but still feels forced and abrupt, so I'm basically saying that readers who have high hopes for romance in these two paths will probably be disappointed, at least to an extent.
One other issue that always nags at you as you play the numerous paths is the treatment of Kuro, the game's true heroine... to be blunt, like all of the Favorite true heroines, the story is set up so that if you aren't on her path, she gets screwed over to one extent or another. Now, if you don't instantly fall in love with Kuro during the opening scenes, like I did, this might not be a problem for you, but one reason I spent the end of every path in tears and couldn't empathize with the characters' happiness was precisely because of this.
This game is very much a story of self-sacrifice... to the extent that it feels like every time you turn around, someone is sacrificing something for the sake of someone else. The creatures of the Night (the underworld-like dream realm the characters fought in ten years before the story's beginning) are, as is openly stated, driven to feel unconditional love for humans, and as such, their excessively kind hearts spend much of this game suffering as a result of human actions and the tendency of humans to disregard their own happiness at the oddest of times.
This is also a game full of loneliness... to a degree that 'loneliness' or 'lonely' (さみしさ and さみしい) are the two most common words in the game by an exponential level. All of the main characters in this game suffer from loneliness to one degree or another at some point. Some take it on of their own will, others have it inflicted upon them, and yet others endure it because it is their fate. As such, there are very few points outside of the relatively few standard SOL scenes (compared to the game's over length) where the game isn't somber in atmosphere.
This game is also unbelievably layered and complex... so much so that it reminds me of games like Harumade Kururu and Ever17 in retrospect. It has been a long time since a writer managed to keep me so thoroughly in the dark about so much of the game's general story for so long (the last time was Bradyon Veda), and, in that sense, I'm grateful for this game's existence.
I do, in fact, like how it all (the main story) ends, and I even liked how each of the individual paths ended, taken by themselves (If i ignore how Kuro gets screwed over). I also found myself to be completely satisfied once I finished the game... to the extent that I don't think I'll ever be able to replay this game. This game was very high stress in the sense that I was constantly being bombarded with the characters' emotions, and as such, it isn't a game that would be easy to come back to any time soon. The sheer length of the game also adds to this.
In conclusion, this is a game that is worthy of the legacy of Favorite as a company, worthy of being the first mainline project since the release of AstralAir in 2014. It has problems and the game is probably one that is emotionally stressful. However, for catharsis addicts, it is a worthy addition to their collection of nakige and utsuge, lol.
I will say it, yes, games with trap protagonists are one of my secret pleasures. While there are numerous types of this particular niche in VNs, and there are a disproportionate number of this type of game compared to ten years ago, there are some rules shared by all the greats that I thought I'd put out there.
1. A good trap protagonist is a voiced protagonist. Most trap protagonists are voiced. There are a number of reasons for this, but, regardless of the reason, almost all the 'good' trap protagonist are voiced. There are exceptions (early on) or ones where the voice was added on later (Tsuki ni Yorisou, Otome no Sahou), but they are just that, exceptions.
2. The protagonist has some kind of spectacularly high level skill or attractive point. This really is universal. In some cases it is housework (protagonist in Otome no Sahou) and in others it is physical prowess, force of personality, or artistic talent. However, regardless of what it is, no good trap protagonist is devoid of such skills.
3. There is at least one 'ojousama' heroine. While this is not universal, given the nature of this type of game and the fact that most of the schools they 'sneak into' are girls' schools, this is inevitable. Girls schools, even in Japan, are private institutions, meaning there is inevitably (or so says the kami of eroge) going to be at least one sheltered girl that comes from wealth.
4. There will be at least some drama when the protagonist is 'revealed' to the heroines. Easy transitions make for bad games. All the heroines merely accepting it as if it doesn't matter at all means that there was no weight at all to the protagonist's earlier whini- *coughs* ahem, worrying about being revealed. While this drama might be comedic, tense, or sexual in nature, it should not go without note.
5. At some point, most such protagonists will begin to react naturally as their female persona without realizing it (leading to many fans simply forgetting their original names, such as in the case with Mizuki in Koi no Canvas).
There are two major types of this type of protagonist. One is the 'forceful personality' type, and the other is the 'submissive personality' type. An example of the former would be Ojousama no Hanbun wa Ren'ai de Dekiteimasu, and an example of the latter would be Otome ga Tsumugu Koi no Canvas. In the former case, the protagonist has a clear objective in infiltrating the girls' school, and he uses his personal abilities ruthlessly and aggressively for that purpose. In the latter case, the protagonist loses himself (herself as I sometimes think of Mizuki) in his role so completely that he often catches himself reacting entirely as a female.
I like both types, and I find this particular niche tends to produce a disproportionate amount of good games compared to the rest of the VN world... but then, I'm biased.
Edit: As a side note, for those who are interested in recs involving this kind of thing, there are no truly transgender protagonists in any of these games, as far as I know. There are a few who get addicted to dressing in drag or who live as a woman of their own free will even after the story is over depending on the route (Tsuki ni Yorisou, Otome no Sahou), but as far as I know none of these have been confirmed as actually being transgender. That's not to say that none of the writers/makers have intended any of these protagonists to be such (it is a distinct possibility), but so far, in the games I've played/read, none of them have actually confirmed themselves as being such, even in their own thoughts (though again, some have edged around it or verged upon it).
Edit2: Examples of this type of game that have either a submissive or a dominant protagonist that also are top tier.
Submissive (outside of H, since most H scenes in male-oriented VNs are inevitably bed-yakuza affairs)
Tsuki ni Yorisou, Otome no Sahou
Otome ga Tsumugu Koi no Canvas
Otome Domain
Dominant
Tenshi no Hane o Fumanaide
Ojousama no Hanbun wa Ren'ai de Dekiteimasu
Otoboku (despite appearances, all three games)
Koi Suru Otome to Shugo no Tate (though this one can be borderline at times)
Hmm... there were fewer great ones than I thought... the barrage of endless Ensemble games makes me forget sometimes, lol.
Come into being, oh starlight written across the heavens... for we are a shining falling star.
Oh how foolish, you blind and ignorant master of the throne! How could you believe that you could take from my heart hope for the future with a mere prison at the bottom of the sea and an endless labyrinth?
Look within these two eyes. Know the fierce and undying flame within my gaze. I already fly far into the distant sky, seeking the solemn flame (the sun).
Even though my wings burn and melt away, there is nothing for me to fear.
Fly oh Icarus, that you might obliterate the sins. Rage, smash, and burn everything away!
Let us bring down judgment upon all that is impure as we burn in the light of victory!
Upon my fall, so shall the flames of creation arrive!
For that reason, oh all that is evil. Submit and quietly die out.
Metalnova-- MkBlaze Hyperion!
Shine brightly in the heavens, oh my guardian star, that I might raise up the iron flame.
You are so beautiful, oh treasure that stretches as far as I can see. The jewels I stole when I killed my father, the mount of gold wet with crimson... oh why do they shine as they grab hold of my heart and never let go?
Now nothing is reflected in my eyes but what shines oh so brilliantly. I won't hand it over to anyone, for it is mine! The dragon relishes his joy as he breathes poison breath upon it.
Oh steel sword that pierces and tears apart that joy.
Oh death scream that resonates through my nest. The evil creature is slain, and the epic saga begins!
Oh immortal hero who knows not fear. I acknowledge that you are true treasure of mankind, and the true form of the gold I desire! Before the solemn light, my overflowing desire brings life to my dead flesh!
For that reason, I will devour you whole. For you are mine, I will hand you over to no other!
To speak a prophecy of ruin and endings, I will thrust a sword into your back!
Metalnova--- Sigurd's Bane, Dainsleif! (Demon dragon's war story, the hero-slaying sword of ruin)
First, I should say that the last part of this game was actually worthy of Eushully in terms of dramatic flair. For those who probably think I was bashing this game out of hand, let me also say that there were lots of hints of what is best about Eushully. There are great characters/companions, some truly excellent character interactions, and even a few really stand-out scenes scattered throughout the first three fourths of the game... but the problem is that they are spaced out with a ridiculous amount of map-grinding for very small gain and a definite feeling that you are screwed by hitting maps too early (since you want to grab as many companions as you can before you hit the extra/optional ones, in most cases).
I can't help but praise the way they do their best to immerse you in the previously only hinted at animalistic demi-human races and hints of their culture, and there are also plenty of references to the ongoing themes of this particular world (such as the unending conflict between the Living Gods of Light and Darkness and the results of it amongst the mortals and not-so-mortal denizens of the world). At the same time, there is so much more that could have been done with this. Rather than wasting all those maps as story-free, they should have made an effort to add side-events specifically for those maps, filling in the gaps of why we should care about this region and what happens to it, rather than assuming that we do. This speaks to a laziness that is characteristic of many of their games outside the main IM series, in that they have a tendency to only really go into depth in games like Zero, Genrin, and Verita. I absolutely loathe place-holders for when a company just wants to milk the setting rather than really going through the effort to birth a new saga in the same world. The sheer lack of ambition that is represented by this game is a bit ridiculous, considering the amount of development cash that had to have gone into that battle system. Another three months with this, adding in more story events and expanding the cultural and religious elements, would have gone a long way to making this game feel like a worthy companion to the IM series.
Needless to say, I found this game to be a disappointment, especially considering this was put out in place of the IM2 remake I was hoping for this year. So much wasted potential in a single game... it reminds me of what I felt about Kamidori after playing Zero.
I probably won't go through a second playthrough of this anytime soon. That is primarily because of overplay-related exhaustion, though there is also a definite feeling that I'd be wasting my time if I bothered to continue, at this point.
I'm an obsessive VN player, and I doubt there are many here who could match my experience. However, there is one issue I've more or less deliberately closed my eyes to when it comes to VNs... and that is the sheer amount of anti-feminist propaganda inserted into untranslated Japanese VNs in general. There are a number of major, really obvious examples of this, and I'll go ahead and describe them for you.
1. The 'female teacher who never gets married because she acts too much like a guy' archetype. This isn't even a heroine archetype. It is just a side-character archetype... but literally the most common non-heroine, non-protagonist one in existence other than the 'idiot friend' one. How is this anti-feminist? First, it assumes women with certain qualities - hard-working, focused on their jobs - aren't attractive. Second - and more insidious - it assumes that all such women should want to get married, so it is something of a double-whammy.
2. The 'strong-willed heroine who becomes completely submissive the second she and the protagonist become lovers' archetype. This is perhaps the most insidious of the heroine archetypes when it comes to this issue. This is more or less a manifestation of the hidden widely-held Japanese male belief that even the strongest woman secretly wants to be dominated by a man. Yes, there are plenty of otherwise strong-willed women that use mild SM as stress relief, but the same can be said for men...
3. Otome games. Yes, I know some would protest this, but it is really obvious, when you play them. First, almost all otome game protagonists are easily-dominated wilting lilies or women who become so the second they meet a strong, handsome man. Second, even those that aren't spend a ridiculous amount of time being 'rescued' by men (Damsel-in-Distress Syndrome). Third... exactly how many otome games do you see that appeal to women who prefer to be dominant, in general?
There are any number of such themes, archetypes, and concepts that demonstrate this little reality, but it is something you should probably keep in mind when you think you are going a bit over the edge playing moege, thinking real women might be like those on the screen. Remember that while some women really do fill the archetypes, they are exceptions, not the rule. At the same time, assuming that they should fulfill those roles/archetypes is one habit we probably shouldn't import from Japanese otakus, despite our taste in games, lol.
Hmm... I pretty much hit what I didn't like about the story and gameplay in the other posts, so I'll try to outline what is likeable about the game as a whole.
1) The game uses a skit system similar to the Tales games, letting you have short silly conversations at certain points on the map.
2) The variety of skills available - once you've filled them out a bit - is actually really good. By the end of the game, I had a way to deal effectively with just about any situation, without brute force tactics... though healing skills were still lacking in general.
3) While HP growth slows after level 50, the growth of other stats - particularly Asta's - actually increases somewhat.
4) There is an overworld map to explore, in traditional jrpg style.
5) Most of the game has you laughing
For those of you looking to play a gameplay-VN who don't really want a terribly deep story, this is actuall a good choice... but for those looking for an IMZ-style epic, this isn't a good choice. I'd say the story is actually slightly better than most of Alice Soft's other games, as is the humor.
VN of the Month Announcement
Winner: Chrono Clock
The details of my reasoning are on the forum thread, though I think most of you would be able to guess from the posts.
These are just a few thoughts that I've had after experiencing various gameplay VNs over the years.
First, understand that I see VNs as reading material (in the same vein as manga but with the addition of voice, some animation, and detailed narration) first and games second. Second, the type of gameplay most likely to be fused to a VN (strategy or turn-based rpg) are ones I played for well over a decade before I first encountered VNs, so I have at least some qualifications to evaluate them.
First, for the gameplay... no matter how you express it, the average VN gameplay is several levels below the average console strategy game, srpg, or jrpg in terms of quality and design. Some of the best of the type - such as the Ikusa Megami series - just barely reach the same level as stuff released before the turn of the century as far as those two aspects go.
Second, balance... in a VN hybrid, having a good balance between the story and gameplay is vital. In other words, the grinding needs to be minimalized and difficulty should be adjustable. VN hybrids without adjustable difficulty levels (with an easy version that really is easy) tend to result in a VN where the story is told in snippets between long stretches of grindy gameplay (Softhouse Chara's games tend to have this flaw in excess).
Third is feature creep... a lot of hybrids have weird gameplay features that make the game confusing without really adding anything enjoyable to the game. An example of this is the recruitment system from the 'breeder' Venus Blood games. To be blunt, this game mechanic, while fitting in with the atmosphere in the story, made the games unnecessarily complicated, and not in a good way.
Fourth... story pacing. A lot of hybrids have horrible pacing. In particular, many of them start out really well, grasping the reader/player with a dramatic prologue or first few chapters... then suddenly become a complete slog or grind in the mid-game. To be honest, the most egregious offender in this case are strategy-conquest VNs, where the story won't progress significantly until you've achieved an artificial goal, like conquest of a certain region. Generally speaking, most strategy-conquest VNs (such as Sengoku Rance or Madou Koukaku) start out really well, with an interesting beginning to the story... and suddenly become devoid of story for about thirty hours if you don't act in exactly the right way. The Sengoku Hime and Sangoku Hime series are classic examples of this. Both series tend to have first-rate beginnings, but the story gets put to the wayside pretty early in the game. As a result, you essentially get stuck playing a sub-par strategy game for ten to fifteen hours before you manage to restart the plot. This is tiring and boring, to say the least.
My conclusion? Generally speaking, VN hybrids can be good, but that is only if the VN aspects don't become an adjunct for the third-rate gameplay that tends to be tacked onto them.
To be honest, the harvest for this year so far has been kind of... less than impressive, to say the least. The best VN I've played this year so far was Silverio Vendetta, and even I think it would have been much better if it had only contained Vendetta's path. I'll come straight out with it and say there aren't any solid candidates so far, even though the year is almost half-over. Last year, by this time, there were four solid candidates - though the later part of the year blew most of them out of the water, and all the candidates from 2013 were concentrated around the beginning of the year.
It is kind of worrying how little in the way of exciting VNs has been released so far this year, and while I am holding out hopes for the new game from Tigre Soft and one or two other possible releases, my experience so far this year is that all the major companies seem to be trying to spit out games that will make them a quick buck for small amounts of effort (fandiscs, shorter games than usual with fewer cgs, using newbie writers, etc). To an extent, that was true last year as well, but it has gotten worse since this year began. For someone who is basically plowing through an average of four or five new VNs every month (or six or seven, like last month), this is not just a minor issue but a real problem. While I found Silverio Vendetta in February to be immensely fun, there really hasn't been anything that blew me out of the water so far.
Understand, this isn't a case of my standards being too high (normally, I would suspect that, but looking at the ones I've played so far objectively...). Rather, it is a case of the bar being lowered overall, by the companies doing the releasing. As an example, Giga released yet another visually impressive but somewhat subpar moe-battle VN near the beginning of the year with an obvious eye toward imitating (poorly) some of Majikoi's more enjoyable aspects, combined with some from the Ikki Tousen anime's concept. Normally, this VN would have been exciting, and it did have all the elements necessary to make a good VN... put together in such a manner that it turned out to be surprisingly bland.
Sanoba Witch, which I had some rather high hopes for, also disappointed me somewhat. For all Yuzusoft's flaws, that company has always tended to understand where the line between serious and joke needs to be drawn in each of its games (ie Dracu-riot). Unfortunately, there was only one path in that game that I could unreservedly praise, and it definitely wasn't kamige material.
Combine that with a poor showing by Minato Soft and barely acceptable works by Pulltop and a few other companies, and I have to wonder exactly what is going on in the eroge business right now.
I know I sound unnecessarily condemnatory, and you would be right to say I'm being pessimistic. However, the fact remains that it hasn't been a good year so far, and six months without a kamige is downright depressing. Of course, you usually can only expect one or two kamige in a given year... but most of the best companies have been producing disappointments, so I think my pessimism is well-deserved, personally.
