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Chronopolis

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Posts posted by Chronopolis

  1. GAREJ

    GAAAAREJ

    WHERE YOU AT

    ITS HAPPENING

    ddbb9a4eb7.jpg

    HYPE HYPE HYPE. Welcome aboard. Still only half-way through Kanae's route though.

    Wow, Hurry up and get your masada goodness, Plebian.

    I should probably take a break from hard shit myself. I just tried Oretsuba and it stomped on me so hard I had to go to something easier like Muramasa. ;)

    Lol. Well at least Muramasa explains it's own morality explcitly. Is Jackson's writing really that difficult to read though?

  2. This game is an oddball and hard to describe but I like it, so I thought I'd randomly talk about this game, Gin'iro.

     

    Each of the stories touches on one or a few themes, while also having a connection to the Gin'iro (The Silver Thread). Of the five stories, 3 of them take place a few hundred years ago, while 2 of them take place in modern times. The two stories don't really utilize the modern setting and are more of hurtful emotional and interpersonal drama. One of the themes that is touched upon are the lives of people, which go unrecorded in the annals of history. Lastly, two of the five stories cover the circumstance behind the creation of the Gin'iro.

     

    Being an utsuge through and through, Gin'iro is a for-everyone game. Furthermore, being broken up into 5 stories, it's not so great if you want to be interested by the same character all game long. It's also devoid of moe. Some of the characters were quite remarkable (not sure if likeable is the right word...), while others were hard to look at at times.

     

    I have troubling telling how strong the individual stories are, how cohesive the stories are, or how the themes hold everything together, which makes it hard to score the game, and leaves me with an empty feeling at times (beyond the ustu, lol). They might be mediocre, good, or great, I don't know. Except the first story, which I strongly believe is beautiful and equally special in concept and execution.

     

    For those interested in an unorthodox game with a lot of sobering circumstances and thematic substance, Gin'iro might be worth a try.

  3. Play whatever you want, I'll still read your posts. To be honest, I've always been a little perplexed at how you (and some other power-readers on vndb) can trudge through so much banality. I would find it just as or more interesting if you did more in-depth articles about a few VN's you played and liked. The collective reader base will sort through the good and the bad, not nearly as fast as the Clephas Express, but eventually.

     

    Edit. One way I found the beneficial, other than the obvious identification of odd gems, is it gave a different perspective of VN's, slicing mainly from the structural angle. But I think the thread you've built up is pretty much a sufficient survey size to fulfill this purpose. Not really a huge need to continue.
     

  4. IMO, if you looked this hard for redeeming points, you'd find it tons of other vns.

     

    This is an utsuge through and through, because you WILL feel awful by the time it's over.

    Some of the scenes from Clocktop seem so silly that I can't take the rest of the game seriously without "disregarding" what happens in the H-scene. From what I've seen in Euphoria, they could have kept all the same themes and hid most of the h-scenes. Even showing them, there would have been many ways to utilize them rather than making them brainless. I was curious and checked it out...and after getting an idea of what can and is done with the premise, that curiosity is sated. I'm not going to sicken and bore myself and feel bad for any more than a bit short of a masterpiece.

  5. Lol this brings back memories. Kanon was my first VN. After I finally got it to work and I discovered the option to change names I totally did. I had fun with that for a good 10 minutes. Then I installed the voice patch and it completely killed the novelty. I changed the name back to his original and have never used that feature in any VN since. That was years ago, I actually only remembered about that recently. 

    Don't hate on him and just enjoy.

  6. I see. Well then no use going through it if it's not worth it. I shall continue with そして明日の世界より――

    A very nice and warm SoL if any one Is interested.

    Minami Route! No seriously, I came to like the slice of life, maybe because the novel also feels very down to earth. One of the only VN's where I enjoyed it from start to finish "as a slice of life + route" VN.

  7. Tokyo Babel (http://vndb.org/v9205) I like the voices and the character interaction is not bad. There's interesting things all around, but not knowing how to approach the chuuni makes me uneasy.

    Kitto, Sumiwataru Asairo Yori mo (http://vndb.org/v1483) Woahhhh that OP video. It had all the atmosphere the game had so far, with motion!

    Izayoi no Fortuna (http://vndb.org/v9913) The protagonist is a bum, but after overlooking that I have relatively few quibbles and it's roughly enjoyable.

  8. It's not that impressive. There's tons of places where I don't know the precise meaning, but it's just hidden under fluffy English. There are many easier-looking things that are in fact harder, I think. Ok not these two lines, these were seriously hard.

     

    3. 英知を持つを知らぬ者こそが、真の智者であることはすでに過去の智者が語るところである

    It is exactly because a person lacks wisdom that they can already speak about the true wisdom of the past.

    It is precisely those who have not known wisdom (lit: have not experienced holding wisdom) who are truly sages. This is something which sages of the past have already spoke of.         (I think.)

     

    5. 知るを知るとなし、知らざるを知らずとなす。これ知るなり

    To know is not to know, Not knowing not to know. Becomes knowing.
    To be aware of what one knows, of what one knows not, this is "to know".   (なり is an archaic thing that means です or だ 。)   

    (I couldn't understand the line directly, but the second half of the line turns out to be a proverb, and so from that you can more or less infer the first half.)

     

    Oh, this is from steins gate!

  9. 時間は流転し、死へ臨む存在とともに生まれ消えてゆく。有限 Time constantly changes, things that wish for death are born then disappear. Finite.

    Times flows, and alongside mortal beings ("those who face death") it is born and fades away.

     

    一方で時間は過去から未来へと移ろいゆくのではなく、超自然的に悠然とただそこに在る。無限 On the one hand, time flows from past to future and is not transient, on the other it seems to be just supernaturally sedate. Infinity.

    Conversely (or "other the other hand"), time does not move from the past towards the future, rather, it supernaturally and calmly, merely exists. Infinite.

     

    智を知る者は智に溺れ、智を知らぬ者は泳ぐ術を知らず The person who knows too much drowns in knowledge. The person who doesn't have knowledge doesn't know how to swim.

    Thou who knows drowns in knowledge. Thou who is ignorant knows not how to swim.

     

    知らぬことを知らぬと認めることこそが、神へと近づく第一歩となる──

    To find out that you don't know what you don't know is like becoming one step closer to god.

    To accept that one does not know what one does not know, that is the first step towards approaching god.  (I dunno if being closer to is being closer to god faith-wise, or the if this is the first step to becoming a god-like being ie. ascending)

  10. To turn Fuwa into "a cool place to talk about our hobbies" would make no sense at all, I came here mostly because I wanted to talk about VNs, but what really caught my interest in this place was it's goal. Piracy aside, Fuwa contribution is basically existing to host discussions and talks, it's great and all but it doesn't seem to accomplish much. Basically, I believe that there's a lack of content to actually make visual novels popular.

    This is probably why the western touhou community has reached out to more people (especially online) while they both started out at the same place. It just enjoys a wider stream of incoming content across multiple mediums. That and everyone is on the same page. There can't be flagship VN (maybe Katawa Shoujo is the scout frigate), there isn't even a group of 10 flagship vns.

     

    Putting that aside, what content should fans make or come together to make, and share? The precedent is all there in other fanbases such as touhou, anime, and MLP. Art, Music remixes, Card/Board games, Youtube MAD's, Cosplay, Fanfiction,  etc. (particularly the bold ones)

    There's a definite lack of the above content, and a place to share it on this forum. To be honest, I had a vague feeling that something was different (their being oddly nothing to do), but only did I put my finger on it. In any case, content which is creatable by individuals is going to see a lot more creation than content that needs an entire group's dedicated effort.

     

    I think there's a bit of a disconnect between being a fan of VN's and wanting to make VNs. It's not the most natural "fan content" to make, and yet people point to it like it almost is. To put it another way, it's like urging people who want to celebrate Harry Potter to work on writing their own fantasy book with wizards.

     

    I can cover OELVNs, but I can't do Japanese news. I don't speak Japanese and most news comes from Japanese news sites.

    I didn't know you were up to date in that circle. Neat. I've been thinking about taking a dip into what OELVN has: it's always interesting familiarizing oneself with a community that revolves around creative production has to offer.

  11. I'm talking to any one concerned about piracy, sales models, and how things "should be". Particularly:

    2. Piracy vs Sharing

    The whole word "Piracy" is just wrongly used since the beginning of the internet.
    If you imagine piracy in a pirate movie, they invade a ship and deprive people off their possessions.
    But in the case of games, movies, music - that is never the case. "Piracy" on the internet just stands for "Sharing", but people for some reason needed a word that sounds evil.
    Instead of taking away possessions of someone else, you are being offered a shared copy of what someone already has. You are being offered a flower seed out of unlimited supply to grow your own flower and ultimately build your love for flowers to the point you want to support the people who originally imported these flowers from different parts of the world.
    .... (omitted)

    I think there's a coherent, consistence stance that would lead into this sort of essay being written, but think what's written here is disjointed rhetoric, filled with anecdotal evidence.

     

    Let me define two models for selling products:

    Conventional Model:

    I make hats, and sell them.

    I make VN's, and sell them online. 

    I perform and host a concert and sell tickets to it.

     

    Gratitude Model: Free version (through piracy or public release) are always available, people who want to support the game buy it.

    I play music in the streets and people who enjoy it pay me money.

     

    Now, the main difference between the two is that VN's are software, which are copyable.

     

    Now what I'm saying is I don't necessarily agree with is "just because of that fact that copying a product is technologically possible and economically feasible, the maker should lose the ability to sell them conventionally, and that they should absolutely switch to the gratitude model":

     

    ----

    As a premise, I believe sellers should be able to include conditions in their sales of physical or digital objects (you can think of a contract as a more generalized thing, which includes all sales), and if that contract is, "thou shall not copy or share this product with anyone", then they should be allowed to.

     

    Let's say you bought a game which came with the conditions "you cannot resell or share this game". Let's say you were a typical person and shared the game with your friends anyways, after you were finished playing with it. The discrepancy here isn't the maker putting "you cannot resell of share this game" in the conditions, it's the fact that the maker lacks the means to enforce this contract.

     

    So if a purchaser uploads the a game, then they are breaking their contract they made bought the game. The person who downloads this game, well, technically they aren't bound by any contracts to the maker, so they aren't "breaking" anything per se. (I'm going to ignore any national laws for now, since god I have no clue)

     

    The conclusion I draw is that for people who torrent, there is a conflict here between:

    (I want the game but don't have the money, don't want to prioritize the money, don't want to spend the money) aka. Pragmatic reasons  versus Respecting the maker's (of a product that can be copied effortlessly) ability to sell the game using the conventional model.

     

    Obviously if you think that a maker shouldn't be able to sell a copyable product using the conventional model, then there's no contest at all.

    Edit:  Honestly, after working out this post, I think I understand a part of Aaeru's stance. Precisely because something is copyable, as to benefit the most amount of people possible, it should be shared. So she (they) reject the conventional model. She also says that it's reasonably possible to change what you sell into something that isn't pirate-able. Whereas other people point out that it's not so simple to change what you sell into something non-pirateable, for example, if you develop vn's digitally.

  12. http://vndb.org/v9913

     

    Izayoi Fortuna is the latest entry from my backlog.  Despite the tags, I don't really think this game could be called a nakige, though it does have its cathartic moments.  The protagonist is a homeless traveler who arrives in Gojou, only to collapse and wake up to find his head resting on the lap of a young girl in a nun's habit.

    This is actually looks like something I want to try. Being looking for a something lighter-hearted but with substance, and Grisia isn't meshing well with me at the moment.

  13. Feel free not to be bound by the questions, as they were really only meant as suggested questions to ask yourself before posting, lol.

    It's a good thing you provided them, it's hard to think of things off that bat since protagonists often are unemphasized and boring. Amd then the exceptional ones are, well, exceptional and I'm not sure if I could generalize to say I like their traits.

     

    Practical Romantic Realistic with secondary ideals. Yeah. That's not asking too much is it?

  14. Everyone has their preferred protagonist personality traits... but have you ever considered what kind of situation you prefer the protagonist to be living in?

    Ok wall, go.

     

    Do you want your protagonists to have siblings?  If so, how many and what is his relationship with them like?

    There was one setup I liked where: sister (who is a bit of a brocon but completely platonic) died from some bullshit event, and the protagonist, being a magician (necromancer in this case) took his sister's soul into his mind as a stopgap while he searches for a way to bring him back.

     

    Now the last part already specifies a plot line, but putting that aside, elements of this setup that I like are:

    A mental connection: Words are fun, but a big part of serious dialogue is what the words collectively represent: someone's mental state, emotion and intent/conviction. A mental connection lets this happens constantly and as a matter of fact (as opposed to mainly in dramatic voiced scenes). AND as well you can touch on topics which a character would normally not talk out loud about. Also, there are fun shenanigans to prod at with this setup

    A relationship where one side or both sides understand each other in and out: Good comedy and interplay can come from this. One of a kind drama can also come from these kind of relationships. Of course, to really utilize this trope you need decent characters.  (Either a somewhat straightforward personality, dotted with a number of minor idiosyncrasies OR a more complex personality.)

     

    What about his parents?  Are they living, are they dead?  How is his/her relationship with them?

    Usually out of the picture unless you know what you are doing as the author. In which case parent figures can be used to good effect. Basically, use if they are important for plot or for effecting the main character.

     

    Do you prefer fantasy or sci-fi like add-ons to your protagonist's personal issues?  Do you prefer your protagonist to be mundane?

    Considering the add-on as abilities, either is fine though I prefer fantasy. I like it when the protag is well versed in his abilities and can describe the in and outs of how it functions and reacts with other stuff. It's also interesting to see what they think about their abilities: is it a necessity, a prized possession, just a tool, a part of them (like a third hand.)

     

    Protagonist cannot be mundane. A mundane protagonist basically scream "Ok, screw 2/3rds of the character interaction, now just focus your attention at the girls -- or the art -- or the plot." There are times which there is a good reason and that's precisely what you want to do, but almost never in a vn. God bleeping normality in Japanese culture. Then again, I suppose a bunch of MC's made to be unique but ultimately shallow would grate on the reader in exactly the same way.

    The journey from ordinary to extraordinary protagonist, is something I'm reasonably open to (not sure if I've seen that before, perhaps Okabe Rintarou fits here a bit). But the extraordinary has to be the protagonist's conviction, motivations, thoughts, not just their powers.

     

    Do you prefer him to be poor or rich?  Do you just want him to be normal?

    Poor or rich on their own just changes the setting, which I'm fine with either way. If it ends up defining a part of the MC, and the their thoughts interact with the rest of the novel, I approve. (e.g. Caim in Eustia.)

     

    Is he free to move about, or is he somehow restricted by circumstance?

    Sometimes when characters are extremely restricted, the narrative becomes very unlike normal thought (e.g. MC of Saya). You can explore options or build notions which are normally don't' exist or aren't worth considering under normal premises. Probably not the best for use on a MC, but these things can define characters. (off topic, but this game has this as a key pillar: http://store.steampowered.com/app/290770/  )

     

    Being trapped by responsibility, is alright too, but duty is a bit of a straight forward emotion. Guilt, less so, since it probably boils down to subjective morality.

    How does society see him?   Is he the child of a criminal or maybe that of a brilliant scientist?

    Doesn't matter. Unless the story is crafted so that you are supposed to understand in and out "society' or demographic of "people" maybe sympathize with them (e.g, Eustia's Rougoku), the public's opinion doesn't matter. Sometimes heroines in stories are introduced as well-regarded and accomplished people, so personally I might go with the opposite: people who are despised, ignored, feared, etc. Bonus points if they still manage not to be that cynical. This is referring to both main heroines and MC's.

  15. At first it was the increased immersion (how it places you in the shoes of MC, especially for getting used to someone else's life), sense of agency (choices), ability for multiple explored possibilities (branches), and because enjoyed really getting invested in characters. I like how it has an large anime influence, and yet still is largely presented in words.

  16. I'm playing Mahoyo as well, through the french translation and I agree with you, Aoko is a really good heroine, not the best imo but damn, looking at her chara-design it's undoubtedly the best I've ever seen in any VN or anime, she's really stylish, especially before the fifth magic. (Alice is amazing too)

    What do people specifically refer to when they say character design...?

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