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Clephas

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Blog Comments posted by Clephas

    Clephas

    Posted

    22 minutes ago, littleshogun said:

    Nice to see some recommendations of translated VNs from the mod here, seeing that usually you like to recommended Japanese VNs. I didn't say it was wrong though if you keep recommended Japanese VNs, but at least we can see translated VN that match your taste here. As for the list here, I agree with most of those so what I can say is that the list is pretty good.

    If I may add some recommedation here, perhaps Hoshi Ori Yume Mirai because I remember that you did praise it back at the time of the release albeit hesitant at that because of some of your pet peeve such as renameable MC. That said, I would say to the people that Hoshiori here is worth reading, if only for some calming story and the romance development between the heroine and the MC, and don't forget the detailed after story. As for the estimated release, I would say that it's big chance that Tsurezure here will release it first before Sekai managed to work on all of your recommended VNs (ie Baldr Sky, Senren Banka) and Hatsumira as well. Of course I would recommend Hoshiori here as charage/moege, in which it should be obvious. Other than Hoshiori, I would say that Evenicle here is could be added here although perhaps you disliked some of it's aspect. Not that I didn't have any problem with the list though, since The Sword of Eternity duology here is pretty good gameply hybrif VN, even though Seinarukana's story was more light compared to Eien no Aselia.

    As for Sekai announcement here, let's just say that currently only Nanairo that have closest chance to be released in near future. We still don't know what happen to Senren Banka work there, but at least we have Bladr Sky was at halfway translated even though it's not clear whether they'll have 18+ scenes or not (If not perhaps we can say that it's like Force here lol). As for Dracu Riot while I understand the circumstances behind the 'nonentity floating current patch', personally I would say that I'll leave it to each of their own here whether they want to try the patch first or decided to waiting for Sekai to thaw Dracu Riot, and of course if the people find that it would be better to wait for Sekai even after read the patch then it's okay as well. I don't know whether FW did work on Hatsumira translation or not, but perhaps it could be one of FW's secret project. As for Bokuten, the release time should be in near future considering that it's already in beta testing, along with Damekoi as well in which it should be in your plotge recommendation seeing that you liked it despite the ladder style system.

    Well even with I'm saying this much, I would say that overall this is a good list. Also I agree that it's too bad that some of Eushully VNs were either machine translated (Soukoku no Arterial, Madou Koukaku) or still in progress (Amayui, Rhapsody), and that I've been looking forward to HGB release by Nekonyan (Hopefully at December if they still want Winter 2018 release).

    It is worth waiting for the official Dracu-riot release.  Even the revised patch that briefly entered circulation was a pale imitation of what was done later.  The sheer number of idiot errors (simply mistaking which character was doing what and why) was ridiculous and took nearly six months to fix them all after that patch was released (in error).

    Clephas

    Posted

    11 hours ago, littleshogun said:

    That's sounds like an interesting RPG there, although I'm not quite sure that I can play it considering that I didn't have PSP and that I can't activated the emulator for that lol. Good review by the way.

    get a pstv... it is cheap and lets you connect what amounts to a combo vita/psp/psone classic player to your television.  Stick your ps3 controller in, and you are good.  As soon as it came out, I got it... as long as you aren't doing it on a super big screen it doesn't look too bad, lol.

     

     

    Clephas

    Posted

    9 hours ago, ciel_yuri said:

    I got stuck on a late game mission, got mad, decided to take a break, and just never came back to it. I wish I did though. It was an excellent game, so I'll definitely give it another try someday. The art in it is so good. (I wanna give the Langrisser series a shot too.)

    One more thing... cycle up and invisible.  Have them on the main and the character you are using besides him.  Cycle up and buff before going in (attack up and cycle up are really all you need) and invisible upon entry.  Whenever cycle up runs out, immediately recast (keep your backup character charging cycle up) then immediately recast invisible, since it lasts only a little longer than cycle up.  Since none of the enemies in the 2 vs 2 contest use area attacks on you, they won't be able to target you, and you will be able to one-sidedly slaughter them.  Unfortunately, I do suggest you be at least level forty before challenging this contest, and make sure the protag has attack power boosting stones on, or he won't be able to shave a few of the nastier enemies down.

    Clephas

    Posted

    9 hours ago, ciel_yuri said:

    I got stuck on a late game mission, got mad, decided to take a break, and just never came back to it. I wish I did though. It was an excellent game, so I'll definitely give it another try someday. The art in it is so good. (I wanna give the Langrisser series a shot too.)

    Blessing bells in the arena are your friend.  Win through the 2 vs 2 matches until you reach the championship, then repeat it until you have eight of them.  Then you can use them to take two characters into the single digit levels with all their stats intact.   Attach dex, int, and str up stones to their ring, then go to the highest level enemy area with the densest population of enemies possible and start a fight.  Rack up the kills and watch them hit level 20 in one battle (late game) with an extra hundred or so of each stat.  By the time you get them back into the forties (I used the Well Lady's dungeon before the last battle to make the final touches) they'll have maxed their attack and almost no one will be able to hit them.  I recommend this strategy for someone who doesn't want to struggle with the final battle (fatigue in games like this is a serious danger).  Maxing out the Arena nets you spellstones that let you learn all knacks, all skills, and all magic but blast from a single stone each... which means NG+ gets immensely less stressful.

    Clephas

    Posted

    On 10/16/2018 at 4:03 PM, vladlazlo said:

    Honestly I got interested in this because the MC looks a lot like Ryuuji Takasu from Toradora...

    Does it end like Tayutama (you mentioned you ended up crying)..

    Also does her disease get cured??
     

    I only play eroge with "Only virgin heroines" tag, which seems to be missing in this (hopefully due to lack of information)... Which is why I would like to get spoilers related to that before playing any game... I also dislike rape blackmailing, netori and netorare.. 

    Could you enlighten me with some spoilers?

    Spoiler

    It's been a few years, but I'm pretty sure the older sister reverse-raped him at some point in the past, which is probably the reason...

     

    Clephas

    Posted

    17 hours ago, Fred the Barber said:

    Incidentally, your "hour and a half" seems kinda skewed; I know you take pride in your reading speed and all, but it makes throwing out numbers like that deceptive for other people. I'm pretty sure it took me over four hours to read each installment in this series.

    Mmm... it was just frustrating.  I got the first two as a bundle and I was more or less satisfied, but since three and four I've been getting more frustrated with each new entry.

    Clephas

    Posted

    12 hours ago, ChaosRaven said:
    Spoiler

    I'm really happy that they included an alternative ending for Sheren and Meirin. That alone already makes it worth playing for me. :mare:

    Though, if I understand it right, those are just alternative extra scenarios that open up when the main route was finished, so they are not integrated in the main story itself. I would have preferred the latter to have some meaningful branching choice in the game, but I can live with it. What matters is that it's there.

     

    The extra ending is actually about an hour and a half of text with significant story developments, so you needn't feel totally gypped... it just isn't an extended campaign of warfare like the main story is, lol.

    Clephas

    Posted

    10 hours ago, ChaosRaven said:

    Well, an alternative Gaiden end would be at least better than nothing. :sleep:

    Still, I've read the first Koihime three times and two routes of SKM, so that's five times roughly the same story. I therefore do hope the new routes bring some fresh air with them. Not sure if just more details will compensate for what an alternative route with a new story development would have brought. On the other hand, better one rich and detailed route that two half assed ones.

    At least there are some new characters that interest me like Rian and Suirei. Though the character designs of the new Raika and Pao aren't really my cup of tea. I hope they are better written than they look. <_<

    Spoiler

    I've gotten up to the point where Sheren/Hakufu and the others have just defeated Enjutsu/Miyu and retaken Go.  Up to this point, the degree to which the game was different is so dramatic there is only a faint resemblance... and the detail up to this point is so great that I can honestly say the portion from the beginning, through the Yellow Turbans and Dong Zhuo is about seven times as long as the original's was. 

    Part of this is because it starts from Son Bundai/Sun Jian's era.  A lot of the 'death flags' you see for Hakufu in the original Shin Koihime pop for her (the constant references to handing things over to a successor and retiring, for instants) instead, and Kazuto himself practically grows before your eyes during these early stages. 

    The battle at the gates in the Dong Zhuo chapter is so different that it isn't even comparable, really.  The battles are more complex, the struggles feel more real, and it feels a lot less like they are 'just getting it over with'.  It helps that the new antagonist is so much more evil than any of the other characters in the game previously...

    The parts about recruiting Kannei and Tashiji are detailed and actually involve emotional and real struggles, as opposed to 'c'mon over and join us' 'Ok!!!' that was the recruiting pattern for most characters in the original game for all three routes. 

     

     

    Clephas

    Posted

    32 minutes ago, ChaosRaven said:

    Does the Go path has separate routes? Judging by this screenshot, at least the first game about Gi seems to have had routes, so I would have expected the same for the second one too. And a route where you can save Sheren would have been the most logical conclusion for me, and I would actually be a tiny little bit disappointed if there wouldn't be one.

    I mean, did they just copy/paste the original SKM Go route with just some slight differences? A history lesson is nice, but having the possibility to 'change' history is what really makes it interesting (as every Civ or Total War player would certainly agree). And Koihime is certainly not a piece of literature I'd expect 100% historic accuracy of.

    I actually found the various faction paths in the original Kohime and SKM too similar anyway, with always the same battles and events just from different perspectives, so some fresh air with different routes in the remakes would have been nice.

    No, it looks like there are 'gaiden' scenes that are accessible after playing each route, but the routes themselves don't have alternate endings. 

    Compared to the SKM, a lot of events have been either redone or added in.  In the Gi path, a lot of stuff was added on in the 'build up to becoming a power' stage, whereas in the original version, that stuff was only the prologue.  I'd say the actual length of the paths is about 1.4 times greater without counting heroine stuff.  Go seems to have gone down a similar road, at least so far.  You actually get to see how Shuu Tai, Taishiji, and Ryoumou get recruited, and those scenes are major events that are part of the main story.  There are also lively villains/antagonists who didn't exist in the original story except as peripheral mentions, but in this one they are actual characters with a decent amount of screen time (the Empress, her sister, the 'eunuchs', and the Empress consort and her sister, for instance). 

    Edit: by the walkthrough, it looks like an alternate ending was included in the 'gaiden' section for go, but there wasn't one for Gi.

    Clephas

    Posted · Edited by Clephas

    9 hours ago, Norleas said:

     

    That game dropped in my ranks basically because of the Circus syndrome that is affecting BaseSon, after 5 or 6 other Shin Koihime i can't see this game in a good light.

    I'm playing it right now... and the opening of the game is completely and utterly different from the original Go path in Shin Koihime... but if it follows the pattern of Souten no Haou, the most important events probably won't change. 

    Spoiler

    I'm guessing that the mother and Hakufu both end up dead anyway, but I haven't gotten that far yet.  Cao Cao's path ended exactly the same way, though there were a lot of divergences from the original stuff throughout the game.

    Edit:

    Spoiler

    Yep, it looks like things are going the way I predicted.  Since I love Shelen/Hakufu, I want her to live, but this path is predicated on her death with tons of foreshadowing, so I guess I shouldn't expect things to change just because I want them to.

    There are some major improvements to the presentation of Kazuto's character in the Go route.  While he was something of a tactician apprentice in the original version, he gets more down into the dirt and blood in this one than the original route.  As a result, he makes a much better impression than the original version.  However, the actual character events between chapters involving previously-existing characters haven't changed significantly... so I suggest focusing only on the most central characters (the Son family) and the new characters for the best enjoyment factor for people who played the original version.  The mother is a pretty interesting/funny character, though her harshness makes Karen/Cao Cao seem mild.

    Clephas

    Posted

    For those who are interested, my favorite ending, which I picked after my fifth playthrough, his Shizuku Ending 1, followed by Rydia and Aqua's threesome. 

    The reasons are [major spoilers] (I don't recommend anyone who has not finished these endings read this):

     

     

     

    Spoiler

    Shizuku's ending one involves Shiranui choosing to remain behind in order to preserve Kokoro.  While the 2 and 3 endings have a really strong emotional pull because of the scene with the deceased Calamity Monkeys and Kokoro and Kou's reunification, this ending was the one I liked the most in retrospect.  The reason is it shows off the depth of Shiranui's caring for Shizuku on a grand scale, as he sits in the Box of Akasha for over one hundred million years, waiting for her return. 

    I like the threesome ending in Rydia's path for a different set of reasons.  In the Rydia single ending Shiranui, in order to save Rydia, gives up Kokoro in order to become a Sun Seed, and the ending shows off his inhumanity compared to Hekatoncheir's sudden humanity.  The reason I like the threesome ending better because it allows Shiranui to retain his humanity, allows the reader to grieve for Hekatoncheir's death along with Rydia and Shiranui, and Shiranui and Kou manage to become friends once again without Kou dying in the process.  This is an occurrence unique to this particular ending, and it is the reason why I consider this one the game's 'happiest' ending. 

     

    Clephas

    Posted

    10 hours ago, Akshay said:

    the point was, does this mean that they will keep getting tortured until they confess, meaning they are basically predetermined guilty. 

    Yes and no.  For victimless crimes (drug use or ownership of an illegal weapon, for instance) it usually doesn't even go to the level of asking for an Inquisitor (Inquisitors are rare, so mostly they are called out for violent crimes, rebellion, sedition, collaboration, smuggling, conspiracy, etc).  Guilt is assumed if one has been taken to an Inquisitor, so yes, torture (at the level authorized or ordered) goes on until the individual in question has confessed.  Once that has occurred, if the crime requires a Level Seven or above, the criminal in question is tortured until they die, though in this case no effort is made to keep them alive except for ones that require a Level Nine or Ten (Ten being the most horrific), in which case they are kept alive through medical intervention until all levels of the punishment have been inflicted.  In the case of rebels, information is also sought, so it is desirable to keep them in a state where they can respond until the information is extracted. 

    A lot of discretion is given to the Inquisitor, when it comes to this.  Most Inquisitors are washouts or borderline as surgeons, so the accused often die at lower levels as a result...but the system has rotted so much at this point that few care.  The protagonist, being a surgical master and genius at interrogation, is scarily good at getting what he's after without destroying his victims outright... though he often ends up doing so as part of the punishment, in any case.  Commanding officers can often order specific levels of interrogation, and an Inquisitor can do so as well, if he finds evidence of a crime requiring it during a low-level interrogation or when interrogating another.

    Edit: It should be noted that one of the most dystopian aspects of this series' setting is that so many people have the authority to order the use of an Inquisitor with relatively little cause.  The Inquisitor himself (in possession of the Writ), a Judge, a military officer of Captain or above, etc...

     

    Clephas

    Posted

    On 7/3/2018 at 2:51 PM, Akshay said:

    "it is actually carried out by licensed medical professionals trained to inflict the maximum amount of pain to gain confessions of crimes (regardless of how heavy the evidence is)"

    I'm not sure I understand this.

    @ClephasAre you saying, that suspects are tortured to get confessions regardless of how heavy the evidence is? Which means if you have low pain tolerance you will most likely be found guilty regardless of innocence.  Which means you can accuse any one you don't like of a random crime and he will be tortured until he confesses?

    If the appropriate authorities determine that there is a possibility of criminality based on even the slightest of circumstantial or physical evidence.  However, it is always an individual with rank in the military or the judiciary that determines that a crime has been committed and sends the criminal to the Inquisitor.  Lower crimes can be limited to the first few levels, such as flogging and the use of confession drugs (the flogging/whipping usually a convenient part of the punishment) but the higher the crime, the higher the level of torture the Inquisitor is required to undertake.  Confessions are expected long before they reach the fifth or sixth level (very few people can deny Koscuisko anything past the fourth level), so the rest is usually punishment, save for a few individuals with stronger wills.

    Clephas

    Posted

    7 hours ago, Plk_Lesiak said:

    Just a quick question - is it like throughout the whole thing, or just briefly after the protag is turned? This may affect my desition whether to buy it after they finish fixing the translation. ;]

    The protagonist hates being a vampire for all of the common route (though he enjoys some of the perks, like getting to indulge in his sexual fantasies) and he resents having to drink blood through a lot of the heroine routes. 

    Clephas

    Posted

    14 hours ago, Plk_Lesiak said:

    The "violent urges" part is more important than you made it seem though, in most mythos vampire's thirst is something that has to be always kept in check and can turn you into a mindless beast if not taken care of properly. A Vampire in this sense is akin to a drug addict, who constantly struggles to keep any semblance of normalcy and stability in his life and know that failing will probably cost him his life. Plus, depending on the setting, there might be a danger of even losing your human form and the ability to mingle with the human society.

    But TBH, I've seen very few depictions of vampires where becoming one didn't seem like a pretty good deal from my perspective. Not sure what this says about me. :P

    I can see your viewpoint on the violent urges.  In particular, seeing bloodlust as being similar to drug addiction is a comparison often made... though not wholly accurate.  From what I've seen, it is an issue of how fast a vampire falls into a starvation state (the state where the need to feed completely overwhelms the ability to think).  In Western literature, this tends to be a few days to a week (often varying either mildly or drastically from individual to individual), and in Japanese literature it tends to vary from 'every night' to 'once a month' (a much wider variation, depending on the setting, than you generally see in the West, but most tend to edge toward the 'every once in a while' end outside of horror or chuuni stuff).  The issue here is whether the individual in question is intelligent/clever enough and strong enough of will (a questionable idea, I know, considering current understanding) to feed quietly and with restraint or is a messy glutton.  A glutton who leaves drained corpses in sewer drains is going to get himself killed fast, whereas a man who sips from a dozen different people in the shadows or uses a ruse to become alone with a target is more likely to survive.  Most settings where vampires look less human the more they feed are ones where this happens with age, rather than as a 'youth'.  You generally won't see that in a Japanese-made VN (exception is a few individuals in ones like Vermilion, who don't bother to hide what they are since they only show themselves to their own kind), but in the West's literature and media, that is more likely.  Older vampires don't seem to age precisely in most settings... it is more that their body language alters drastically and they become less capable of hiding their true nature behind a facade. 

    No, it makes perfect sense that you would feel that way.  Even if you logically understand the downsides, the fact is that humans learn their lessons most effectively from experience, not from intellectual/rational understanding.  I understand that I would probably come to hate the limitations in a rational sense, but my gut thinks it looks like a great deal.  I am pretty sure why I feel that way (I don't like people in the first place, so...)

    @PalasI can also see where you are coming from... but the fact is, when it comes to these issues, people don't think rationally or philosophically.  There are plenty of people out there that would reject the idea purely on religious or moral grounds, outside of fiction (the greater majority, probably).   However, a lot of modern humans don't think that way anymore... at all.  I never really considered vampires to be an 'evolution'... more like a mutated predator whose existence is entirely reliant on a much larger population of herd beasts (lol).  I also don't necessarily see anything wrong with vampires exalting or even being envious of humankind...  aesthetically, if you don't look at us on a macro scale, humans can be beautiful in some ways.  However, that seems to me to be something that would come up after you'd been one a while.  I can see one like Toshirou, who saw his beloved become a victim then became one to be at her side, hating/despising vampires and exalting humans (though in his case, it is more a denial of vampiric transcendence).  It makes a lot of sense... but it makes little sense to bewail your own survival to the extent a lot of protagonists do (since most are of the type that would have been dead otherwise).  Or rather, I dislike the way they start bewailing it immediately in so many cases.  In the case of the protagonist of Vampyr (the video game), it makes sense because he has to kill any human he drinks from, and it also makes sense to resent it in the anime Shiki, because they are basically a vampiric swarm of locusts mass-producing their own kind.  However, these are extreme examples... and it makes less sense in the examples that are less extreme (such as Yaneura no Kanojo, where the protagonist would have been dead otherwise, blood-thirst is relatively infrequent and doesn't require killing, and vampiric reproduction requires an act of will). 

    My objections are more focused on those less extreme examples... in fact, entirely so.  In VNs, the ones that bothered me the most were Libra and the aforementioned Yaneura no Kanojo, where the protagonist in both refuses to recognize the inevitability of his own needs and obsesses over returning to a humanity that is most likely never coming back for reasons that make very little sense.  In Western literature, I've encountered dozens of examples of urban fantasy settings where the vampire protagonist is either young and self-hating or old and self-hating.  Some of those were well-justified (SM Stirling's Shadows series, considering the vampires were inherently and actively sadistic as well as predatory) and others were less so. 

    I suppose, looking over what i just wrote, what bothers me most is holes in even the gut-level emotional reactions of characters in these situations.   The chain of reasoning and emotion is often full of massive holes.  Also, I hate being behind the eyes of whiners.  I especially hate vicariously experiencing someone who spends most of the story whining on one level or another...

    Clephas

    Posted

    49 minutes ago, ChaosRaven said:

    Does this game have romance? I didn't see any tags for it, though judging by the cover Rin seems to play a more prominent role.

    And if this title has routes, are those heroine routes or just routes with different plot developments?

    Romance... romance in extreme situations?  Liar-soft doesn't do soft romance, so all the relationships are under stress or are twisted in some way (there are a lot of non-protagonist h-scenes in this game). 

    Edit: As for the routes, I have no idea.  I know there are other routes because there are blank spots in the gallery and certain characters just vanished from the stage after the first chapter with nothing happening to them.  I know you are supposed to get to other routes by picking different historical events to fill in the blank spots in the intermission.  However, since there are three of those choices in each intermission and there is no 'skip to the next choice in an instant' or flowchart function in this game, I am not in the mood to go off and create a walkthrough for myself.

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