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Posts posted by Chronopolis
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There is very little professional criticism in Japan in general. I was curious about this actually, and from what I gathered from my friends: it appears the notion itself is something Japanese feel culturally opposed to.
The only professional thing dealing with criticism I know here is Famitsu, so unless it starts covering VNs one day; no, there's likely no professional sources of VN criticism in Japan. Your best bet is to surf erogamescape if you want opinions; some people over there treat their work very professionally actually.
Yea some of the blogs/reviews delve very satisfyingly deep.
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"I know there's thousands of starving artists out there, but this one *insert name* in particular has been facing a really rough trot lately.
The sad truth : |
Well the Japanese fundraiser was a success, raising $26,000 of the 12,000 they were aiming for. I suppose it's not a bad thing, giving people a chance (negative speaking: appealing to their generosity) to support someone involved in the works they enjoyed. Not sure about VN's but AFAIK, many artists in the anime field are getting payed really poorly.
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Midori no Umi's entire BGM. Praise the composer MANYO. Good for going to sleep to, also like the only OST which can listen to the whole thing and have it not be too distracting, while still enjoying it a lot.
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Each post should contain the following elements:
1. Discuss something in Japanese.
2. Translate the post above your's from Japanese to English.
3. (Optional) Point out an error in the Japanese or English translation of another post, or clarify a misunderstanding resulting from one of your posts if you can't address it in Japanese.
俺はsanahtligです。英語の字は面倒ですから、サナもいいです。俺の名前の古事来歴を知りたいですか?gilthanasの逆走です。とてもオリジナルですから、ウェブけんさくには便利です、SEOもいいです。
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OH yea, that reminds me, I like this song quite a lot.... it's melancholic yet still has some momentum. The speed ups and slowing downs make it feel like the path one walks is uncertain with fears and doubts, yet one still manages to find solace and small comfort along the way.
Hane Tsuki (跳ね月) from Gin'iro
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm20876902
http://www.mediafire.com/view/4x33c10idlht7t3/%E8%B7%B3%E3%81%AD%E6%9C%88__%28finished%29.pdf
The sheets are based off the live playing.
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Kara no Shoujo
http://www.gangqinpu.com/fullread.asp?id=16460
Edit: Oh yeah this guy has lot of good stuff:
http://www.thaynebohman.com/sheets
Particularly "Answer" from G-senjou...I can't play it properly but its a very fun song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiMgfEUJaE4
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Finishing up Semiramis no Senbin (it's the one of a kind societal dissection, debate and drama). and starting Gurenka (it's a supernatural chuuni with soft artwork and a lot of atmospheric tracks).
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You can say that it can be possible that the population is losing interest in stories that only words can describe (even if it includes a few animations).
I think this really hits the nail on the head..
To be honest, I've never been able to comprehend the thought processes of the illiterate, except as one would understand the mind of a dog or a cat...
Lol nicely put.
A tangent, but w/e I think it's relevant to the perspective of a literate but a beginner in regards to understanding fiction. As a child, I used to dislike fiction reading, because it felt like each story was so different and I had trouble wrapping my head around each new story. Also, for the less analytical and experienced (having experience gives you associations or helps you react to unfamiliar characters you couldn't have imagined yourself) past me, I couldn't entertain myself from on all but the most main story details, so only stories with one or two main plot lines and exciting/tense to follow were rewarding to me. I read a decent amount, but lots of that was rereading. I think it was that I had seen an aspect or plot event that I liked in ones of those stories and, even not knowing exactly what it was, wanted to experience it again. I felt there was a impassible wall between me and people able to dissect stories. Doing so felt very arbitrary. Even in high school, a fair bit of anime confused me because I wasn't flexible or perceptive enough to see the story just from the scenes. Or, perhaps, I didn't know where to start looking from or what to compared it to.
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You don't...Some games you can enjoy and at the same time reasonably objectively evaluate them, while others are completely hopeless. Depends on your experience.
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Utsuge are meant to depress you. Konata yori Kanata Made is cleansing by nature, but it still depresses you. Houkago no Futekikakusha has so much despair to it that you could almost lick it off like whipped cream.
You know, for Futekikakasha I loved the characters' friendship with each other so much that it filled me up with happiness/admiration/adoration. Because the threat they faced wasn't developed, it didn't sink in as real just felt like a part of the plot to me. But it did surprise me near the end that made me dismay.
Konakana didn't really hit me emotionally, though it was interesting enough to experience the utsuge (it's kinda different).
Muramasa didn't strike home, but it still was depressing in parts. More noteworthy where the couple times were I found myself swallowing bile in horror/disgust.
As my first VN, Saya no Uta had me depressed for 2 weeks. Can say I wasn't ready for it and didn't even realize what was happening for a while. Just felt empty and like a veil of heavy gloom was always weighing down above my eyes.
Gin'iro still comes off as the best depressing work I have played: specifically the first story and it's special "pair" story you see near the end of the novel. The premise sets it up to utsuge-like at a high level already, and then the actual story is the right length (shortish), memorable in it's text, and has a number of lasting-impression scenes which convey the emotions well. ...And then the pair story. If the first was the tragic mournful moon, the god, this is a glimpse of its dark side.
There's also Gore Screaming Show, which has pretty damn heavy routes in ADDITION to a gloomy common route. I almost felt like crying in Kiika's route, I couldn't take it. Some of the depressingness comes from VN's down to earthness: the characters and the description both reference real life more than most stories).
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Going outside of the friend aspect, my mom is a huge fan of F/SN. Her first contact was when I was explaining the whole setting of the game for my Cousin, and as a huge fan of fantasy, she got interested and decided to listen to my whole explanation. We watched Fate/Zero together and now we're currently watching the Unlimited Blade Works adaptation. Before UBW, she made me read and translate the Fate route with her since she can't understand english. I feel like there's no better VN to recommend to newcomers, I prefer to go on case-by-case style and suggest something that would get the person more interested in the game itself, possibly leading him/her to become more interested in the genre as a whole.
I do agree that some VNs are solid all-around and are a good choice for beginners, but if I tried recommending her Katawa Shoujo - which was the first for many of us, I think she would have given up before reaching any of the routes. She's not against the idea of the game nor anything, but she prefers plot development over characters as the main focus, so the likes of Clannad or KonoSora would not be a good choice as well.
Your mom is awesome.
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It is interesting you mention the fact that you would like the term "visual novel" to become more popular for players, yet Japan doesn't even know what that term means and instead calls VNs PC games. In fact, when a western audience thinks of a PC game, they might think of games you can find on Steam or the like.
What are you opinions about this specifically? When or where do you think the term visual novel became the norm outside of Japan? Along that note, do you feel visual novels can only encompass the Japanese style of writing and culture?
Japan might actually have a similiar problem, in that many people will have an idea of what eroge is, but probably only those in the know understand that the story and chars is the dominating factor. Using eroge in english is terrible outside the established community because it requires an explanation (ero+game), and then another (well, but there's a lot of ones with really good stories as well!). Plus, the term visual novel is conveniently a lot closer to the medium's technical definition.
As for what the medium is capable, of course the format can support english language and story structure. As for naming conventions, I would go for: Visual novel (mostly thinking about Japanese VN's, but can also be them as a whole), and western visual novel (with the explanation that visual novels first became a thing in Japan).
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Firstly, thanks Ren for making the thread. Encourage and making accessible more discussion is never a bad thing.
Five questions
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The local paper has better articles.
[June 16, 2014]
I think the sentencing was reasonable.
If canada stance is to per-emptively ban possession (of lolicon as well as CP), then they are merely enforcing that. (I agree that possession of CP should be an offense, because possession encourages distribution and production.) It might have the defense's lawyers maneuverings (silly trial system), but the judge's sentencing seemed like it was made in consideration of the fact that he already has a fair chunk of his life ruined. (being forced to live separately from foster children, etc. It's a one-size-fits-all precaution, but probably with this type of risk, it's far too late after the fact; in addition, the public wouldn't tolerate the government not doing this if such an incident broke out.) The counselling is probably a good thing.
That being said, having let it be found by a student leading to being fired, is not so strange: the usb could have contained a number of other comprising details and still resultant in termination.
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VNs don't really do the whole self-insert thing well. [...]
Ah that makes sense.
I've actually had a fair amount of experience reading CYOA's from the touhou fandom (there are choices after most updates, and the readers vote. People reading after the fact (like me) just read the resultant story.). If the story is light/comedic with a high degree of freedom, the presence of choice gives the CYOA a game-like feel: you pick what seems fun and interesting.
In a serious story...if details about the protagonist are provided, the presence of choices IMO just gives a sense of agency: the MC's confusion and dilemma's are yours, but the MC still is a person if their own.
To really be good self-insert, I think you need a reasonably serious situation (to avoid the game-feel), choices, and a narrative that always emphasizes that it's *you* in the position. Ie. second-person is mandatory.
Gamebooks are a thing and are pretty much what I described: http://www.reddit.com/r/gamebooks .
I'm not sure how immersive table-top role playing is in practice...there's probably some strong parts (constant high degree of freedom, environment can react profoundly). If you get into the scenario and your character, RP is probably one of the most immersive setups.
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1. I didn't go into the story as focused on characters.2. The way I felt about the protagonist was vastly different.I felt really protective towards the protagonist and wanted to see her through the story safely and happy. I wasn't actively trying to romance some character, which meant that emotional development that happened later felt better because I was looking it more objectively. It was more like feeling content watching from the sidelines when the protagonist finds happiness, rather than being happy as the protagonist. There's less personal involvement from my part which makes reading about the romance much more enjoyable.
I have felt this in novels, (but also in some VNs) anywhere where the characters importance/ties to each other are heavier then their appeal to me the reader. Basically anywhere where I've been attached to the characters but not blindly doting one of them.
Of course it's difficult to appreciate a romance of two people if you are just being attracted to the character in question. Recently, my impression of self-insert VNs has been that they are too bland. (To really self-insert I feel like I would have to actually write my own identity / struggles into the narrative, which is obviously impossible). I rather have a real protagonist with their own struggles. You can still get very close to the protagonist's position if you feel their emotions and irritation, and make an effort to look at their struggles from their vantage-point. It would be less likely though if you couldn't relate to or be convinced by the protagonist.
When I think of an otome game, while I do feel a bit protective of a female protagonist, I also am interested in the male cast. Because they are emphasized, I hope they are strong characters, or interesting in some ways. Things that are cliches unfourtantely are still cliches, but there probably are some things to be enjoyed from the different structure of the cast (group of characters).
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A fantasy setting is very common in VNs with gameplay, which happen to be somewhat rare in English.
Actually, NTR games tend to have self-insert characters. As for wish fulfillment...well...
Hmm, indeed there are a lot of gameplay VN's in the fantasy setting. How many are heavily-story focused though?
For wish fufillment, I meant like LN's with a powerful protagonist who just is cool and wins, like SAO, or a lot of others. Not the romantic or sexual aspect of wish fulfillment.
RE: NTR: Ah, I see. That makes sense, kinda.
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I've mostly forgotten what it's like being new to vns (though I'm not veteran by any means)... I think when I first played VN's I loved it when each VN would suck me in, and I wished for each story to have a huge payoff at the end (be it emotionally (katawa shoujo), or plot wise (ever-17, steins gate, g-senjou no maou). Now, besides for enjoyment, I play to see what VNs are "about". If it's a simple concept, then how the scenes and characters are layed out. If it's a complex subject matter, then that itself.
Saya no Uta is oddly enough a good starter VN for anyone who can tolerate the material, because it's has a very strong impact on the reader (who is unlikely to have encountered the combination of music, sfx voice, and text)
One thing I've noticed about VNs as a genre is that there are extremely few fantasy novels. Also, the premise of a self-insert character/wish-fufillment oddly, seems to be uniquely a LN feature.
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Find why you read VN's and then find a VN which you know interests you enough. Then deal with procrastination and inertia and read it. I reccomend Midori no Umi. Easy read which doesn't take much effort, but different enough setting to be somewhat novel and interesting. Also has some atmosphere, a VN staple.
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The game looks interesting. What about the reading difficulty?
It's on the easy end. You could read it as your first VN, about N3 grammar and you should be set.
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Soshite Ashita no sekai Yori is my wholehearted req for VN's depicting a protag-parent relationship, but it's lacking a translation
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So, I come to my main point. I enjoy visual novels quite a bit and I'm glad that I can be one of very few people to experience this niche medium but I wonder...why do I enjoy them? Is there something intrinsic to the medium which allows it to engage an audience in a way that no other medium can?
You can look at someone's face. Hear them speak. Feel that they are looking towards you (the MC, but even without self-insert it's a similiar perspective). Gape in shock at a scene, while at the same time having lines of inner narrative passing by.
[Poll]Fuwa Blogs
in Community Coordination and Feedback
Posted
After some thought using them for a few weeks, I've concluded that really like the blogs.
As it is a blog that's on fuwa, it's less completely a personal blog, meaning the audience and content is focused on fuwa-related topics. This might be a good thing since a large portion of blogs will at least be tangentially of interest to the random reader.
You can post content and invite discussion that you couldn't really keep opening threads for, on your own terms. Stuff doesn't get buried.
It's like a mix between an expanded profile page (because the posts remain attached to that user over time) and an alternative outlet for content and interaction. I love it