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Chronopolis

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Posts posted by Chronopolis

    Miniature Garden

    in Visual Novel Talk

    Posted · Edited by Chronopolis

    Playing the trial. There's quite a bit to get used to, thank god the game reminds me you where you need to go. The combat system is close to real time, pretty interesting design.

    I usually have a hard time getting into rpg's that don't have a strong atmosphere or art. Trying to go into it blind as Mephisto recommended, so I guess I'll have to just wait to see what the story is about. From the start, the game's clearly going have to do something with the different races.

    What are you playing?

    in Visual Novel Talk

    Posted · Edited by Chronopolis

    Playing Hello Lady! and its actually such a great game.

    Reading the vndb description, I thought that this game was supposed to be a game full of Oujo-sama's but its actually about superpowers. Who would have known.

    Thought the exact same thing.

     

    Played through Princess Sacrifice over the last three days. It's a nukige rpg/vn hybrid.

    Princess Sacrifice reminds me of games like one-way heroics and Elona. It's set in the same middle-of-the-road fantasy. The big difference is the story, and the ero. The story is decent, nothing special, but what was nice was how they layed out the scenes and exposition. It's shortish for an rpg, and yet they managed to pack in a lot of dynamic scenes and varied maps. You even got a cool build up at the end. Just a very well produced game, and the it's sales reflect that. On dl-Site it's the 8th highest selling game of all time with a whopping 23k downloads.

    The story was, while not particularly twisted, was consistently dark and kinda melancholic. There was some funny comedic moments, but the ero kind of (understandably) gives the work a gloomy feel. Feena, the main character, is caring, diligent, while still remaining a bit cheerful, but you remember her most for her dedication. She and many others get the short end of the stick (no pun intended). One of those things were you look back and wince in retrospect. Of course, if this doesn't concern you, than the game merely ends up being the funnest ero/rpg ever.

    I sort of wish there was more dialogue with the main character...the characters feel sort of distant because, compared to normal VN's, you have much less time to see them talk. But that's just how the game was designed, and any more would have disrupted the balance. Most of the text is devoted towards advancing the rpg plot (comes along with a lot of non-MC H-scenes), and explaining the lore of the kugihime (the sacrifical princesses) and the world. There's also a lot of world exposition tucked away in the defeated H-scenes for the various monsters. It's kind of a miracle how they balanced so much H into a story without wrecking the story.

    In conclusion, Princess Sacrifice is a gem of it's type. Short and sweet, and with ero everywhere.

     

    What are you playing?

    in Visual Novel Talk

    Posted · Edited by Chronopolis

    Playing Utawaremono.

    Leaf has a thing with likeable (ie. undoubtedly good and pure) heriones. Yuzuha is my favourite.
    I like the tile-based cutscenes. The graphics fit well and they easily become an extension of the story.
    The plot is kinda new to me. It's like they took elements of a grand hero-rising war story, but cut away most of the character and setting detail. The result is a face-paced, albeit sparse, storyline. I hope the plot or character develops more in the future...I was intrigued near the start by the kenomimi villagers, but now it just feels like its in full tactics rpg conquest mode. The strategy part of the game is not bad. I just hate how you automatically lose if the MC dies, it's like a game of keeping the enemy away from him and your healer.
    Are there equipable items in the PC version? I hear them mentioned in the PS2 version.

    Edit: played a bit more, got a welcome slice of life and now things have gotten a bunch more interesting. This is fun!

    The real Tsukihime anime (not that fake one)

    in The Coliseum of Chatter

    Posted · Edited by Chronopolis

    I'm more surprised that I understood about half of all these conversations due to context clues and my minimal understanding of overly common japanese phrases.

    For me, understanding the Japanese makes the inaccurate subtitles even funnier.

    At first they got in the way, but then everything clicked and it was gut-bustingly hilarious. It's like subtitles for subtext!

    Characters or story - Whats more important?

    in Visual Novel Talk

    Posted

    I agree that a lot of story comes from characters and vice versa. You got to break things apart a bit finer.

    Looking some odd cases: there are stories with unique/cool characters, who get developed and act consistently during the novel. However those novels may have problems, like many plot holes, pacing, not dramatic enough, nothing really happened.

    Those are the stories I would call good characters, bad story.

    Good story, bad characters would be...the plot has good twists, or the dramaticness/writing/pacing/development is really good, but the characters are annoyingly shallow or stupid at times.

    If we are talking about character development and events whose significance hinges on the character's nature, then yeah, character/story it's either both or none. But there are other areas that fall under the blanket of "story".

    Characters or story - Whats more important?

    in Visual Novel Talk

    Posted · Edited by Chronopolis

    i take the stance of a modern western vn-customer & say pretty visuals are the most important here, rest doesnt matter at all, if it happens to be blessed with a good story too, then so be it, otherwise its okay and i wont be disappointed :/

    expectations are the most important. I can usually enjoy both as long as I know before hand and am expecting it.

    It's a really good question and a tough call. I would normally say characters, but there's a lot of things that need to be a VN to make it quite enjoyable even if the story is soso.

     

    If the story is bad but the VN has moments which can make me go absolutely adore the characters, then it's all good. Although it's quite disappointing if you know the character or story would benefit from a stronger plot.

    If the story is good, but characters are shallow, as long as they are likable, it's OK. But this would imply the interestingness of the story is outside the characters and is something about the twists or setting (really?) of the VN. So it's a different kind of enjoyment. But if the characters are likeable I can overlook that.

    Best Vanilla Hentai

    in Anime/Manga Talk

    Posted · Edited by Chronopolis

    You know you just ruined the purity and sweetness I associated with the word vanilla, right ?

    Relevant:

    Not a fan of vanilla hentai to begin with, so there's no way for me to be actually useful in this thread. Just felt like posting this. I'll go ban myself now, byebye.

    I never read this. I never read this!!! ARGGGGGGGG

    Which VN character(s) have your favorite character development?

    in Visual Novel Talk

    Posted

    Minami from Soshite Ashita no Sekai Yori (Not sure if it was that much character development, but she goes from carefree to crushed to overcoming that which was a cool drama to watch)
    Caim's development in Aiyoku no Eustia (particularly in the chapters other than the last).

    Maimi (the MC) from Mugen Renkan ~Chijoku ni Mamireshi Fushiki no Rinbu~ . Just a staggering amount of character growth. The whole VN is centered around her story, after all.

    VN Idea Dump thread!

    in Creative Corner

    Posted

    One Last Time

    Protag and a few friends (3~4?) wake up to find themselves in another world, where they must work together to survive and overcome hardships while searching for a way to return to their own world. With their teamwork, they easily surmount the various challenges presented against them, finally reaching their destination. However, they are told only one of them can return at a time. The rest will have to do it again from the start. You choose one of the characters to send back.

    Protag and a few friends (minus the one sent back last time) wake up in the same world, with no knowledge of the previous loop. Once again, they work through the same hardships, though a little more difficult this time, and reach their destination once again. There, they're met with the same decision: choose a character to send back.

    This keeps on going, with each loop becoming more difficult than the last as their numbers dwindle. In the end, with only two left, they barely make it to their destination. Both the protag and the remaining characters know that neither will be able to complete the quest on their next loop. The protag sends the last remaining friend home.

    The protagonist wakes up alone, with no knowledge of past loops. He must brave the hardships one last time, but this time, there is no one to help him along the way.

    I like that. Simple, but room for an heartfelt friendship and eventful events, and dramatic. It's kind of like the inverse of last man standing, but this seems interesting. I wonder what would you talk about in the "last run"? There wouldn't be much to narrate with just one character. The way you told it, it seems like everything, including all the thoughts of the characters, are all settled by the last loop. Maybe an epilogue showing his final thoughts, or maybe his success against impossible odds.

    Finding time in life

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Chronopolis

    There are things that feel urgent but actually aren't important in the long run. There likely is time you're spending each day doing stuff you actually don't care about. For me it's browsing reddit and facebook (when I'm unmotivated) or playing random games. You can make an effort to pull time from there.

    If after that you still have a list of things that are kinda important to you, it's up to you to decide which ones are more important to you. If VN's are your "me time" then by all means take some.

    You could also try and look for ways to keep doing both activities, but trying to get the most out of the time.

     

    Why is Baldr Sky Dive not translated?

    in Fan Translation Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Chronopolis

    Bayesian rating makes sense for rankings.  It makes less sense if you're looking for hidden gems or games that haven't gotten much buzz in the English community.  EGS doesn't use Bayesian ratings, and their rankings are very unreliable as a result, with 1 -5 vote doujin games making it into the top tiers.

    Also, im pretty sure I have heard that Giga has no intention of bringing their games overseas.

    There were negotiations with JAST about 6 years ago, but they fell through because the English release would've been mosaiced.  So no, GIGA was interested in the English market.

    The threshold is just a bit high given the sample set. You could basiean weight up to a total of 5-10 votes instead of 50 votes.

    Edit: err scratch that. What I'm trying to say is they could make the basiean scaling less strong, that is, stop affecting the scores of vns at 15 votes or so.

    Recent (Japanese) Things You Have Purchased

    in Members' Lounge

    Posted · Edited by Chronopolis

    As for me, I ordered my first hard copy VN: Minato Gensou. I'll bet you my right shoe that you've never heard of this title: it's so obscure that I added the vndb entry myself. It seems to have fallen off the face of the internet, but surprisingly some used stores and also Amazon had it for pretty cheap. It's a small VN with the art done from the the guy who did Yume Miru Kusuri and Index. I'm quite fond of his old art style.

    VN arrived in the mail: 

     

    photo 20151113_214100_zps3d5fey37.jpg

    As someone who virtually never buys merchandise, my reaction was "Woaaah, VN's really exist in the real world!"

    (Klaipedia server) Tree of Savior (Korean MMORPG) 2nd Beta

    in Gaming Talk

    Posted · Edited by Chronopolis

    Fedimian has a NPC that sells group-based quests, I've heard O:

    Oh neat. Which server are you guys playing on? I started on Lamia.

    The refinement system is even more hard core than RO. +15 gahaha. Hardcore players, meet my friend 'overwhelmingly slim odds'.

    I'm on Lamia, too! o:

    What's your Steam name? Btw, did you get anything to +15? Jocking, right? Must be impossible, +6 is already such a risk xD

    It's Chronopolize, made it visible now.

    http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198067114890/

     

    null

    in Introduce Yourself

    Posted · Edited by Chronopolis

    Hello there. I'm Shimo, also known as "Hatsushimo" or "Makudomi" on other sites. I've been a fan of VNs for a long time and in September began a project of my own, a decision which has led me to a richer appreciation for the writing medium on whole.

    Wow, that's really cool. It's pretty cool when steps you take turn out to be rewarding ones.

    I can also attest to having gotten interested in 'story writing/structure' from VN's, to try and answer the question: "What are VN's? What the heck is this medium I like so much?". It doesn't exactly work to write a text story modeled after VN's, since they also got graphics (creates/demands a scene in of itself), audio (creates the atmosphere instantly), and voice acting working for them. But at the core, if not presentation, the storytelling and characters are shared between VN's and novels, which makes writing the latter perfectly good enough for me. But there are some areas where it might be hard to match the experience of a VN's.

    I'm wondering, what do you like about VN's? Did you have the idea of wanting to make a VN from the get go, or did you feel the story you come up with was made to be presented as VN?

    Good luck on your project. Hope it keeps going well for your project, looking forward to the demo. Welcome to Fuwa, btw!

    EVE Online

    in Gaming Talk

    Posted

    I'm the kind of guy that loves discovery and researching stuff. With EVE, I spend about as much time studying this game as I do actually playing it. I appreciate the change in pace from the usual 'go in and blow stuff up' that most other MMOs go for. With EVE, you're given a lot of freedom in what you do and the direction you want to go in. You start off building yourself up with your career of choice, and you invest time, effort, and finances into improving yourself at it. It's realistic in a sense that you benefit more from long-term planning than just simply winging it. There's also a pretty solid learning curve that not only serves to develop your career proficiency, but also comes with a great feeling of accomplishment whenever you complete difficult tasks.

    I've also liked that aspect of games, where player knowledge is very powerful. Though the game also has to be compelling, enough freedom and incentive to implement your ideas to justify spending the time learning the mechanics. Pretty sure Eve suceeds in spades there.

    Eve really is a cool game, I'm happy it exists. But too much of a time investment atm. It would take a lot of effort to get a good enough understanding to see what exists out there and what's possible, and then even if I succeeded at that, I'd get really addicted ^_^.

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