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Chronopolis

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Posts posted by Chronopolis

  1. Just noting some questions I had trouble answering.

    17. Do you talk to other people about visual novels?
    This should be a multi-answer question. I use a mix of forums, reddit, skype (=chatrooms?), discord (chatroom).

    25. At what level do you speak Japanese?
    Like most people who learned Japanese by and/or for reading VN's, my reading ability is much higher than my speaking proficiency. This should be kept in mind.
     

    The whole culture transfer thing is quite interesting. I'm not sure where to begin to look for what kind of an effect the Japanese media has had on this part of western culture. Looking forward to seeing your work :)

  2. The OP makes some statements about the trend in eroges being made, which are correct, but he also says things which could be taken as derisive statements against various types of eroge readers. And then everyone (myself included) feels inclined to put those people down, or put themselves down. That's human nature for you :angry:.

    Just do what you like, and don't be ashamed of yourself. There's not a huge difference between wish-fulfillment in fiction, challenges in fiction, and challenges in the real world. It just comes down to what you want.

  3. I know the feeling of when things are clearly aimed at someone different from you. I usually settle for stories where the journey that leads up to the two being together is long and varied, and most importantly, feels like it's theirs. Can't think of any VN that includes "the approach" though.

  4. 8 hours ago, Ike said:

    You know this cliche'd girls who are young or even loli but are actually very intelligent? I have a weak spot for sharp-minded characters with a cute side. If they turn out to be only part human and 100+ years old that's actually a plus.

    Kids or are very good or very sharp (none of the stupid, kid stuff) are awesome. There's nothing like complementing angelicness or wit/intelligence with varying amounts of childishness.

  5. Started playing Kikan Bakumatsu Ibun Last Cavalier recently.

    Thing's a friggin' textbook on the Bakumatsu Era. Here's part of the list of terms I looked up. And those were just the pages I bookmarked.

    But the art and music is good, and ofc, the dialogue and setting is quite interesting. I'm really enjoying it and I want to play more, but it's such an exhausting read I can only concentrate on it for a few hours a day. Made it to the first choice...it seems fairly important. Ahh, what to do what to do. I do want to make sure I follow the true history routes first, but I don't want to use a walk-through.

    I also want to complain about being spoiled by wikipedia and vndb summaries (of other games). When you are playing a game that follows history...spoilers are kinda of inevitable.

  6. 15 hours ago, CeruleanGamer said:

    That one time where my boyfriend enters the room wanting to have sex because he was hearing moaning from my room only to find out I was just playing nukige. Laughed hysterically at his disappointed face.

    LOL. It's like a gag in an otaku-anime, but in real life.

    Back when I first started playing VN's, my older sister saw me playing Saya no Uta and got curious. Didn't even know that VN's had H in them at the time. When I ran in to the first H-scene I was like wut? She was like "yeahh...so it like that in it." She played the game (seperately) up until the really nasty part (with the neighbor) and noped the fuck out. I think that ruined VN's for her.
     

  7. 58 minutes ago, OriginalRen said:

    You are given the opportunity to be the opposite gender for 3 days. You get to choose how you look and everything about yourself. For those 3 days, everyone in the world is tricked into believing that was your gender since you were born. Once the 3 days are finished, everything goes back to normal and there are no downsides.

    The catch? After those 3 days you are not allowed to use or make anyone else use for you any form of internet on any device whatsoever for exactly 60 days. Would you do it?

    I'd fail my classes...so no. If internet was strictly allowed for academics, or equivalent offline material was available, sure I would.

    I would blow a thousand dollars or so and go have fun cosplaying or photoshooting or something. Have fun doing karaoke (with my lovely voice :D).  Even if you don't make the best use out of the time, it'd be awesome just knowing that you spent X days with a different appearance. Even regular cosplay (or make up) can be liberating like that.

  8. According to my VNDB:
    29 VN's Finished, 15 of which are full-length titles in Japanese, 10 of which of I played in English back in 2011.
    34 VN's Stalled
    17 VN's Dropped
    Total: ~80 VN's Tried.

    About 100 other titles which I am decently interested in, and about another 100 mildly so.

    So ATM, I've only finished about 1/4 of the VNs I've tried recently, dropping a 1/4 and not finishing the other 1/2 for now. I wonder if other people's reading tendencies are similiar.

  9. I played it as my second VN. I played up to 1 or two different endings, didn't really understand what was going on though.

    It reads like a flowery novel. It's hard but not crushingly hard. The art is quite nice.

    I'm kind of interested in the main mystery and some of the scenes you can see in on the vndb page. It's probably a decent work, but not especially satisfying to read compared to how long it is. I heard complaints in japanese that there are too many ending, some which only differ slightly.

    Just read it as long as you feel like it.

  10. Still playing Kokuzai wo Ukerubeki mono. Seriously, the author has a penchant for utsuge developments. I'm feeling pretty sick to my stomach. If the VN didn't have it's own charm, genuineness, and impression-lasting characters, I would have called bullshit and quit already.

    Edit: Finished the game (Kokuzai wo Ukerubeki Mono)

    Honestly, I should have known from the opening chapter where this was headed. Oh, the thought passed by mind. But I think I took for granted the structure this VN would take.

    "Maybe this game is about giving someone something and then slowly taking it away from them, in the most painful way possible."

    "Ohh, the protagonist is going to get it?"

    Those ideas I had jokingly were very wrong, but also correct in a way. What I wasn't prepared for was how painful and sick this game would make me feel.

    I thought I liked dark things. No, I just like sorrow, melancholy, gentleness, stoicness, and catharsis. This is like the first part of Saya no Uta, except without the excitement of horror. You're like "WHY is this happening?". And there is no answer. At least no answer that will answer your question.

    Plot twists that revolve around some iron law, already sit pretty sinkingly in my stomach. But this didn't use that. It, while not directly, was thematically bound to that, all over, which some how made things much much worse.

    The characters, even the ones you want to adore, weren't my favorite characters of all time, not by a longshot. I wouldn't even call them my favourites. Most of the characters here were rough around the edges, lacking the polish and focus that you see in most characters. Basically they had all these human like moments which normally would be superfluous in a normal story. But they all had moments were you could acknowledge them, or even be moved by them. The cast of characters was something the VN did well, even if I'm left wondering if it had any meaning in the end.

    The plot progression. You can't really predict what will happen next. You probably can't, and if you can, I doubt it's the kind of story where you'd gain any satisfaction from doing so. While the cause and effect is decently explained, the plot is kinda forced and railroaded at times, though it does pass through a number of memorable moments and countless semi-memorable (also semi-weird) moments.

    As a fantasy story, this story doesn't exist. Even though there's a somewhat of a world, and worldy events. If you take it as such, you'll be extremely frustrated come the end. One should read it as seeing a cast of characters, with their own views, positions, and personalities.

    Notably, Kokuzai wo Ukerubeki Mono, relative to any other VN I've played, was fucking torture. The first half was balanced, if not kinda jagged and severe, but the second half was ridiculous. Even the really well-closed out ending and it's catharsis was not enough to hold at bay the frustration and anger of "what the fuck was the point of that?" of the last third. (The ending was great. I cried buckets.) Who the fuck enjoys this? How do you expect me to feel the rush of valor at some character's last moments when I'm too busy vomiting internally and being empty from what's happened in the last couple chapters. It's like trying to enjoy your favourite comfort food while swishing a mouthful of hot sauce. I'm numb, I'm in pain!


    In any case, the doujin artist is an otome writer, and their preferred pairing is younger woman with older men. So you get some pretty odd and somewhat unsettling (probably as unsettling as typical moe eroge relationships to a normal person) relational undertones. And so the tactic of surviving utusge by periodically gazing at the moe doesn't work at all here. It was a very bitter VN to read. I don't regret it...but, that doesn't change the fact that the last third was torture.

    I respect what the author's created and acknowledge their skill in certain areas (like pulling one in to the story, and the characters), but I'm not touching any of their utsuge works with a twenty foot pole. Even though the premises catch my eye... Never.

  11. Do you mean the original one that is dead or the almost FSG2?  (We still do help with Japanese and learn there sometimes)

    should we make even ANOTHER group maybe lol.

    one that actually focuses on japanese learning and japanese vns in general? :P

    Yeah, it doesn't have to be the most active room in the world, but just have it so it isn't flooded by other chatter.

  12. I'd say it takes about 2 hours a day for about 6 months (about 360 hours of study) to get to a decent place to try starting reading VN's. This is focusing on grammar and reading (not conversation or writing). A few people actually get through this in 6 months, but most kind of wind through it in 1-1.5 years. Another reason why the start takes longer is that its the part where you have to get used to studying Japanese, and also figure out what you should be studying about. It's very disorienting for the first while since you'll have no idea how close you are to being able to read.

    After that, about 1000 hours of reading and another 200 hours of grammar/vocab study (this part is very important, don't stop studying completely once you've started reading) and you'll be able to read 95% of VN's comfortably with dictionary assistance. This part probably takes another 1-1.5 years.

    Add another 1000 hours of reading and 200 hours of grammar/vocab study, and you can read most VN's without dictionary assistance without looking up too many words.

    I don't like to say "you can read VN's if you study for 5 years." It's more like, if you study for X amount of hours (with a non-silly study method), there's no way you won't make substantial progress towards your goal.

  13. Would any one know a way to properly insert the script files from Aiyoku no Eustia? The Engine's BGI.

    I tried using BGITools (http://tlwiki.org/index.php?title=Tools) and Crass. Everything seems to unpack and repack fine, but when I put the new encoded extensionless script files into the game directory and run the game, only the names are translated.

    Never mind, it works now. Looks like the problem was I copy-pasted just the the bgitools python files into another folder and tried to use them, while there were in fact a few other files the program needed. And also the the program can't re-encode certain some set of special characters, like M-dashes ('—'), you can use the shorter dash that the Japanese version uses, though.

  14. Small question (if anyone is able to help me...)

    How difficult Hapymaher is (compared to Irotoridori no Sekai / Astralair / Little Busters / Ichiban janakya dame desu ka [stuff I already read in japanese]). I'm asking this because I started reading Hapymaher, but found it quite troublesome to understand in some parts. I'm wondering if that's just my rusty skills, of that VN is just more difficult...

    Hapymaher is a little bit prosy. I had quite some difficulty reading it when I tried reading it last year. I have it rated as Moderate for vocabulary and a Moderate+ for prose. Where as the stuff you mentioned might be in the Novice or Novice+/Moderate- range.

  15. Favourite Visual Novels of 2015

    Kami no ue no Mahoutsukai (Kisaki and the twists and turns made for a really different experience. The text was pretty good too)
    SC2VN (It was a pleasure to read)
    Mugen Renkan (literally bought this blind from dlsite. Best expectations fulfilled ever.)
    Princess Sacrifice (Had no idea a doujin ero rpg could be this good.)

    Honourable mention: Semiramis no Tenbin (changing the way how you look at things) and Hotel Ergriffen (away to dream land~)

    Favourite re-visit: Aiyoku no Eustia (holy shit that vn is magical. Every moment is lively)

    Huh, out of these, SC2VN is the only one released in 2015, with Kami no ue having came out last December. They're also mostly pretty dark VN's (*shivers*). Now that I think about it, people have been playing a lot of dark vns these last 6 months.

    Favourite VN hype thread of the year: Maggot baits. Who would have thought I would get that hyped up for a VN only to go "nope" at the content. It was silly but the best kind of silly.
    Favourite VN reviews/suggestions: xReaper in "what are you playing", clephas's enduring blog, and decay's euphoria review.

    Even though there were some good VN's I don't think they were my highlight of the year. Met more people, did some blog posts, became a savage vn hunter on vndb, starting buying vns on dlsite. I guess my favorite part of the year was meeting more of you guys and talking about vns. You guys rock.

    And we got Euphoria and now Gahkthun released this year. It's good to see VN's and fuwanovel flourishing.

     

  16. Playing 酷罪を受けるべき者 (vndb). It's...unique. A lot of eccentric characters, but those characters are quite the focus.

    It's a doujin work where a high school girl (a pretty bad mannered one at that) gets vanished away to a quasi-fantasy world. Also there's guro and other horrible things happen, but the VN has a way of pulling you in. The tone isn't always dark, and the characters are really... not straightforward? Anyways, will continue reading.

  17. I think this is the first time I saw a non-English patch being released before anything else (except Chinese, those guys always have a patch for every game).

    Well, shame I know nothing about Finnish because the game does look kind of interesting.

    Unavoidable heroine rape.. I think it sounds bad tbh. Typical crap where it tries to teach you that the best way to captivate a young maidens heart is through a good old fashioned raping. 

    Yeah, that made me drop the VN pretty fast.

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