Clephas
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Posts posted by Clephas
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Tokyo Babel (no H-content)
Fate/Stay Night
Sorcery Jokers
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The reason why I observed that the collapse began in 2018 was because that was the point where the absolute number of non-nukige VNs began to decrease significantly. Even before that, even as far back as 2015, there was a sharp drop in quality in the 'mainstay' genres of JVNs (Charage/moege) as well as a gradual drop in quantity. However, this is something that was only noticeable if you were consuming as many as I was at the time. Not only that, but it was at that point that a number of companies that had previously been exclusively charage/moege focused began to produce plotge (story-focused) VNs, testing the waters for reasons that are obvious in retrospect. To put it simply, there was an economic downturn in the demographic for consumers of the mainstay JVNs and JVNs in general. With less money in hand, they were less likely to spend on the figurines and other goods that tended to make up for any shortfalls in game sales, so it became more difficult just to break even when producing a standard-quality moege/charage (this also hit the other genres to a lesser extent).
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The collapse of the VN industry in Japan actually began back in 2018, but it is true that Covid has trashed the industry pretty thoroughly. The main reason why is that the consumers of VNs have less spare cash these days, thus making production of high end VNs risky. Moreover, charage/moege in particular are dying because the sheer number of fanboys necessary to keep the industry going simply aren't around. Right now, it is actually common for only one or two non-nukige to be released each month, whereas six or seven was the norm prior to 2018. This is directly proportionate to the economic downturn amongst the fanboy demographic.
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3 hours ago, Vampire Alexander said:
It is very popular to finger-point at Croats, Germans, and Japanese as the worst monsters in the world. Aside from the 77-year long tantrum, it is also needed to point out that those finger-pointing victors and their created offspring, are far from the perfect and god-given people they believe themselves to be.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_war_crimes_during_World_War_II
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_war_crimes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_war_crimes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabra_and_Shatila_massacre
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ethnic_Cleansing_of_Palestine
https://unfsoars.domains.unf.edu/2021/posters/israels-ethnic-cleansing-of-palestinians/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:1948_massacres_of_Palestinians
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Massacres_committed_by_IsraelJust the bombings of cities during the campaign to liberate Europe are nightmarish if you think about it objectively. It's hard for someone who wasn't alive back then to really understand how horrific things were. The reason that the Germans and Japanese are the focus of such sentiments is because 1)They were the invaders, 2)Germany systematically murdered anyone who didn't fit their visible genetic archetype, 3)The Japanese created a massive number of sex slaves in the conquered territories, 4)Neither the Germans nor the Japanese ever got around to establishing even a facsimile of law and order in occupied territory despite holding some areas for years (basically, they were incompetent at anything other than invading, slaughtering civilians, and making weapons).
Also, by its very nature, war brings out both the best and worst in people, forcing them to extremes. That's why no one should be surprised if they hear about their country's soldiers doing horrible things to the locals when they occupy an area or are hunting insurgents. People often find it difficult or impossible to consider those outside their affiliated group to be people in any case.
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Amatsutsumi (future release in English)
Haruka ni Aogi, Uruwashi no (future FTL release)
Unfortunately, the rest of my suggestions are all untranslated.
Natsuiro Recipe
Izayoi no Fortuna
Tasogare no Sinsemilla
Koko Kara Natsu no Innocence
Sakura, Sakimashita
1/2 Summer
Toppara
Tamayura Mirai
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8 hours ago, Stormwolf said:
Because of their loss no doubt
That and a mix of other motives. The nationalists don't like to talk about it because it messes with their message; the average person doesn't like to think about it because of the horrible things Japan did to the conquered populaces; and the politicians keep trying to whitewash the history books.
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Generally speaking, WWII is a huge sore spot with the Japanese. Mostly, they try to pretend it never happened.
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4 hours ago, GXOALMD said:
Kuon is Rinné from the Winter arc. Rinne from the Summer arc is the daughter of Kuon and Setsuna. Fun little piece they put in btw, Setsuna lists his acceptable age range for a partner as 13-37 and Kuon is 13 in Winter and
3736 in Summer. As for the ending, it's somewhat open to interpretation, but I've always believed it to mean that the Summer and Winter arcs have been occurring in a cycle long term and Setsuna had been unable to escape the cycle because his memory never survived cold sleep/time travel until now. Now that he's able to maintain those memories he plans to use the next cycle to forge a better future for the Island.As for my review of it, the first time I read it I actually felt largely neutral towards it due to the fact that I started right after finishing Grisaia and was kinda upset that it was absolutely nothing like Grisaia (I was trying to fill the void in my heart that Labyrinth/Eden/Phantom Trigger never could). I recently reread it on account of a friend reading it for the first time and now that I no longer had such an unreasonable expectation of it I must say that I am quite fond of it and would even just barely place it in my top 10 favorite VNs.
For other VNs by Frontwing that've been translated, you can probably check VNDB. For other VNs with time travel (or equivalent) unfortunately any I'd recommend I actually cannot recommend because knowing about time travel going in would be a spoiler. That said, I believe Steins;gate is about time travel and was very well received (haven't read it myself tho).
This is more or less correct.
SpoilerThe way the writer tried to portray it was that the events of the story were repeating themselves eternally over a massive period of time rather than an actual time loop. To be honest, that was one of the reasons I diss this VN every chance I get. It really is stretching the suspension of disbelief, even by my standards.
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15 hours ago, Assistance said:
Yeah i didn't hate it either but i don't like the fact that i had to wait through most of the story to you know get to the good stuff only to be disappointed after the moon route since terra was pretty mediocre in writing due the ups and downs with kotarou's ability and it not being handled well. Like how he could buff his strength up to 8x of a normal human and just not want to do it in one route. It had alot of inconsistency up until akane's route and lucia's and that's what i disliked. I liked the music and the characters as well as the plot but it wasn't handled well at all and it makes me sad.
They tried too hard to channel 'the Earth is Angry' fantasy sub-genre that was popular back in the nineties. I felt like I was looking at a weakened half-assed comedy version of X sometimes.
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People who think Rewrite is crap rarely talk about Rewrite, whereas the ignora- *coughs* Ahem, fanboys who think anything Key is automatically gold praise it up one side and down the other. I didn't hate Rewrite... but as someone who plays most of the games from the same genre, I can tell you it is on the lower end in terms of overall quality, with the last routes being the exception. Within the same genre, Tokyo Babel and Dies Irae are much higher quality (incomparably higher quality).
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Tokyo Babel
Tokyo Necro
Bradyon Veda
Komorebi no Nostalgica (It is after a massive world war between sentient humanoid AIs and humanity that concluded with humanity's defeat and a peace agreement. Things have settled in the wake and society has been rebuilt, but problems remain. It is primarily a nakige.) Edit: To clarify, this is not a 'wasteland' style post-apocalypse. Rather, what was lost was history and culture, as a major hack destroyed the internet archives which had become responsible for retaining most of human culture and history from the late nineteenth through the twenty-first century.
Sousei Kitan Aerial (Muv-luv alternative type situation)
Hotel
Venus Blood Hypno/Hollow
Shuumatsu Shoujo Gensou Alicematic
Any and all of the Soleil games by Skyfish
Baldr Sky
Fake Azure Arcology and Re:Birth Colony (games based long after a massive apocalypse, both based in arcologies)
Owaru Sekai to Birthday
Reminiscence (centuries post-apocalypse, underground arcology)
Sorceress Alive
Strawberry Feels
Harumade, Kururu
Natsukumo Yururu
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https://seiya-saiga.com/game/sukerasparo/kudannofolklore.html
Link to the Japanese walkthrough. Even if you can't understand Japanese, this gives you access to the knowledge of where the vital splits are, so you can ctrl-skip to get it right. It looks like the branch-off occurs three choices before the Koto ending (under the first column). You will essentially choose 'Because I love her' instead of the original choice that would have been taken there, with the rest of the choices following either resulting in a continuation of the story or a bad end.
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Despite it being a confusing mess, Air had incredible production values and really powerful tear-jerking scenes. The problem with it was that, like many anime based off of VNs early on, it mashed all the routes together into an amalgamation. As such, it felt like the heroine routes' high points were strung together in a row.
Honestly, the anime that came from a VN I thought was the most enjoyable was Shuffle. Shuffle's anime, similar to Air's, also mashes the heroine routes together, but it handles it slightly better. It also massively enhances Kaede's yandere side.
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9 hours ago, Zalor said:
Exactly this. I feel like VNs are filled with these meaningless choices since by having them, it allows them to market the VN as a "game" and not a kinetic novel. But it also makes sense since it's really easy to deal with from the developer side of things. Instead of each choice leading to a different branching direction, all you have to do is write one story and temporarily branch out with these illusory choices that ultimately just funnel you back into the same direction. It's lazy, and imo a mockery of choice mechanics. You would be better off just not even having choices, or better yet, only including choices when they actually matter.
Thankfully, this bad habit mostly died down over the years, though a few companies - like Minato/Candy Soft, Hook Soft, and Navel - still indulge at times. That said, the reverse phenomena, of choices that have profound meaning and effect everything, is also incredibly rare these days.
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Crystalia's science fantasy series that began with this one involves training for intense sword combat competitions: https://vndb.org/v21465
There is some pretty brutal combat training in Tokyo Babel, depending on the path...
Hatsuru Koto naki Mirai yori's protagonist brutally trains the dragons under his command how to fly better.
Hime, the protagonist of the Tiny Dungeon series, practically spends half his life training.
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Tokyo Babel. Basically, a bunch of angels and demons are guiding humans through Purgatory in an attempt to gain mercy from God before it squishes all the parallel universes like empty soda cans. No ero content. Available on Steam.
Ayakashibito- Same writer as Tokyo Babel, less action focused. A version of Japan where people begin displaying habits and powers of youkai and are persecuted for it. A solid mix of SOL, action, and plot. Has ero content, but it isn't a major focus.
Dies Irae- Over the top fantasy action with crazy antagonists and a brooding protagonist. Makes Fate look tame. Basic version has no ero. Available on Steam.
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2 hours ago, ztrepzilius said:
Opposite of Redemption Arcs. I'm looking for protagonists started as an average Joe or Heroic Guy. They become more evil as the story progress.
Ironically, your best choice is probably the Venus Blood series... to be more specific, Empire, Frontier, and Hypno. The main characters aren't virtuous (considering the series' theme it is inevitable that they won't be), but if you pick the Chaos paths, they are about as corrupted as you could want.
Madou Koukaku- In this game, how you play the effort to conquer the region the game takes place in determines whether the protagonist is a virtuous ruler or a corrupt monster or something in between.
Draculius- This isn't precisely a 'corruption arc', but the true path of Draculius has the protagonist's values change dramatically during the route from a relatively normal young man to a vampire capable of being ruthless to protect his family.
Phantom of Inferno- The protagonist starts out as a normal guy but gets retrained into an assassin after being memory-wiped.
Ryakudatsusha no In'en- I'm going to be blunt... this game is probably the most guro-rapey on my list of recs, and I only really recommend it because the protagonist redeems himself in its sequel, Ryuukishi Bloody Saga. This game is full of the worst kind of depravity and atrocities you can think of, so I honestly recommend that most people avoid it, despite the high quality of the storytelling.
Suisei Ginka- one of the bad ending has the protagonist fall into corruption.
Yurikago yori Tenshi Made-
SpoilerIn one path, the protagonist goes insane and sets out to kill god.
Ayakashibito- Touko path, however redemption follows, so it might not be what you want.
Semiramis no Tenbin- Mild corruption from the beginning, mostly a shifting of moral values regarding sex (he doesn't become a rapist though) and manipulating people.
Abyss Homicide Club- Degree of corruption/madness depends on the path.
Blade x Bullet- really, the protagonist is evil from the beginning, but it is a great corrupt fallen world.
Akeiro Kaikitan- Might not be what you want, but in Youko's path
Spoilerthe protagonist loses his humanity and becomes a ghost-eating monster who takes pleasure in devouring lost souls.
Most of the Soleil games by Skyfish have at least one corruption arc/bad ending.
Psychologic Love Comedy- Corruption and madness in the little sister's path.
Edit: Muramasa
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It is true that common routes are often better than the heroine routes in slice-of-life/charage. It is the period when you are getting to know the characters and enjoying the group dynamics the most. Sadly, a lot of slice-of-life VNs tend to be weaker in the individual routes due to what I call the 'character balloon deflation', where all of the sudden most of the characters other than the heroine you have chosen suddenly stop having personalities that don't adjust to aid in moving the romance forward. Heck, in the case of Ensemble and Navel, it isn't uncommon for the protagonist's personality to dramatically alter or him to suddenly become stupid or incompetent to make the heroine shine.
New to the medium, looking for action-packed visual novel with a male protagonist.
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Since you liked Tsukihime, I assumed you would enjoy Fate, at the very least...