Jump to content

Chronopolis

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    838

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    4

 Content Type 

Blog Comments posted by Chronopolis

    Darbury

    Posted

    I agreed with the definition, every point. Such nuance!

    I had this idea of a NVL-format VN, but with no graphics, just voice acting and a character icon sprite beside each line of dialogue.
    This would fail point 4. I wonder what you'd call it. Kinetic novel sounds silly, since from the name you'd picture graphical effects. Probably the term Japanese people used to use: "Sound Novel"

    Clephas

    Posted

    With over 1000+ hours in SC1, 2000+ hours in SC2, and 500+ hours in osu, I think I know the flavours of addiction. I played Starcraft 1 and Starcraft 2 all the time for about a year and two years respectively, quitting mostly just before I went into Uni. Also was addicted to osu in streaks. Now I'm more sensitive to whether or not I'm actually enjoying the game, and I can put in perspective the gratification I'm getting from it.

    Also, about MMorpg's, when I came back and tried MMOrpg's I was suprised at how weak the player to player interaction is by default. Couldn't stand it.

    1 hour ago, Kenshin_sama said:

    Thanks for posting this. Reading your article and typing about my experience helped me realize how much of a hole I've dug myself into with online games. I don't know if it'll last long (it probably will), but right now I'm convinced that I shouldn't be playing these anymore.

    Glad you realized that. From someone who's gone through this... don't be too hard on yourself if it takes time to get off the game. It's still an activity that you are very used to. Especially for people who have used games as a diversion from real world tasks, important to recognize that failing in real world stuff (like trying to do X, and failing) isn't the end of the world, nor something to be afraid of, you just have to learn from it and try again. RL stuff relies on strategy and skill, and takes time to figure out, just like games.

    Clephas

    Posted

    2 hours ago, Bolverk said:

    I'd like you to try out  Mahou Shoujo as well. 

     I am guessing you just wrote wrong. Shoujo-tachi (Takahiro)?. Takahiro? Did you mean Tanaka Romeo.

    Romeo...wrote it, but he had his hands tied by Takahiro who was directing or so I hear. The premise didn't interest me either, but I was still mildly curious until I heard the news.

    Clephas

    Posted

    18 hours ago, starlessn1ght said:

    If you read any books, and if it pleases you (I mean to post not to read), please post your impressions.

    Mm that would be good aside from VN's. I liked that review you had of that one book that was about a really shitty political situation or something.

    Quote

    I'm sometimes surprised at how intolerant I can be of this kind of stuff... but it doesn't really help that the writer is making it out to be a huge mystery when what is going on is blatantly obvious to anyone who has read a little bit of history and surrealist fantasy. 

    Oh, that's how Jeanne already turned out. Aww, that's a bit unfortunate...When you surreal I think of Kusarihime, not sure if that's surreal or just a mindfuck.

    Clephas

    Posted

    You should try Mahou Shoujo. Out of the things on your list, I guess it would be most relatable to Houkago the best (fighting against monsters, seriousness). But instead of purely being an emotional ride, it's a uniquely depicted large-character cast game. (The author's rather good at it, it's his 4th game in the style of depicting large casts). Plus unlike Houkago it actually gets around to fucking explaining the setting.

    There's a lot of TPRG gameplay, which ultimately isn't so difficult, still playable though. Plenty of dialogue during and around battles was great.

    I heard Kouya was a wash, even Romeo fans had to admit that. Jeanne looks interesting, different setting, it's not Sakurai either (not that that's a bad thing).

    Clephas

    Posted

    Spoiler

    He is one of those 'metsuki warui' protagonists who appear frightening naturally, and his power makes him even more frightening, especially since he had the bad taste to get into a battle with Sofia, the most powerful being in the world (and bring her to a draw) on her first day at school.  As such, he is somewhat isolated. 

    Oh, well, that can't be helped. Might be pretty entertaining actually.

    Quote

    He is also unbelievably dense (standard VN protagonist quality) and kind-hearted, lol.

    Spoiler

    9061b951143012556368948087_700wa_0_zpsiw

    Are they trying to tell me to ENJOY THE HERIONES!!!?

     

    Quote

    This one is based in a world where five different parallel Earths merged into one.  One was the human world, a second was the Goumakai (demon world), the third was the world of the divine (angels and gods), the fourth was the world of the beastpeople, and the fifth and last was the world of machines. 

    Seem's pretty interesting actually. This setting is pretty まとも, and good non-human heriones are coool. Only that, have a hopeless record when it comes to getting through charages. I would quote my fantastic taste, but it's more like with plot games, you can hardly not finish it, the VN kinda makes that choice for you. I'll add this the list of good charage+ 's for a rainy day.

    Clephas

    Posted

    I posted this somewhere a year ago, but I think it's relevant here. I don't like it when people mis-guidedly think utsuge's are just anything that ends badly. That can be, and often is an utsuge, but an utsuge is not 'that.' Games with happy ends can still be utsuges.

    ---

    Utsu elements in Utsuge.

    Currently, the term is thought to mean "a game that depresses the player", or "a game which has no good ends". I'm not fond of this, as it says nothing about what the nature of and focus of the story is on. If you take all the games which are depressing and look at the main themes/happenings in each of them, they cover many different things.

    Lamentation. Characters lamenting the horrible state of the world, fate, a lifetime's worth of regrets or mistakes, or something terrible happening to their lover, bad things happening to good people, etc. Taken meta-ly, the reader may lament the scarce and harsh life the characters live and wish they had it better, even if the characters themselves don't recognize it.

    Melancholy. As opposed to lamenting something specfic or as a direct result of something, just a general gloomy, empty, or lonely state of mind. Nihilism.

    Regret. It isn't simply a story that ends in a bad end where the protagonists fail in their objective. When the story focuses on the characters as they fail and live on with the regret, then it becomes a utsuge-element.

    Anguish & Despair: When an absurd, irrational force continues to destroy a character's life and they are powerless. When much effort and sacrifices were made, all for naught. When characters are suffering, for some reason.

    Differences between Grim-dark and horror: This is different from grim-dark in that the focus is not on the drastic measures people take, but the terrible fates they meet, and how they react in their last days. In contrast to utsuge, in grim-dark, the characters face off against the horrible reality and the focus is on surviving, finding solutions. Grim-dark is practical or shocking or riveting, utsugeness is more emotional and contemplative. Horror involves fear of the underlying truth, unknown beings, and breakdown of characters, where as utsu usually deals with mostly known circumstances.

    ---

    The reason why people sometimes say something is almost but not quite an utsuge, is that you can have an utsuge starting with and ordinary plot, if the outcome/progression is awful enough for the protagonist or other characters, and the story actually focuses on what its like for those characters.

     

    Clephas

    Posted

    5 minutes ago, Clephas said:

    You didn't finish Komorebi no Nostalgica? 

    Just Flourite's route.  Flourite so likable :D. It was cool in that there were a lot of moments where you discovered something new. Actually Cinema got me very interested in AI for a while, such as imagining exactly what components would be needed to replicate level of functionality/awareness she, and then Flourite, demonstrates. But the slice of life segments and other characters were only lukewarm interesting for me. In this respect Bakumatsu's is a huge improvement.

    Clephas

    Posted

    46 minutes ago, Clephas said:

    It makes sense after you finish one of the paths... it is about the protagonist, more than the heroines, lol.

    Also, I'm surprised you haven't played Toppara, Kaminoyu, or Meguri Megureba Meguru Toki!? if you like iyashikei with non-human heroines, lol.

    Lol thanks for the reccs. I'm fond of them, I guess I just don't find them besides OP's and positive and specific reviews. Those two titles wouldn't stand out to me looking from the vndb screenshots or ratings. The OP atmosphere is a really big indicator for me. Not that the art isn't nice, but if the OP vocal was different it probably wouldn't have caught my attention.

    Clephas

    Posted

    Quote

    You see, when I say this, people are actually generally nice and try to hold a conversation, so they keep going with questions like "what's your favorite?" or something, and this is where my grave starts being dug, because I've watched so many anime, I probably would just name obscure stuff most people didn't watch, and then they just back off when I don't answer with Naruto or DBZ.

    Ugh, I feel the same pain. I think the problem is this question. "What is your favourite" only works when the probable set of answers falls within the knowledge of both parties. So they either implicitly think that most anime are the ones they know, or that your favorite ought to be one of the ones they know. Gotta start shallow and then test the waters.

    Zalor

    Posted

    I love it when the visuals or audio style of the VN complement it or define it's own unique identity (doesn't have to be a unique style). From my experience as well, VN's that utilize the audio and visual aspects draw me in a lot quicker than normal novels. This is even if the base story or depiction is comparable.

    As I found out from Subahibi, Dempa's not really my thing, but maybe I'll come back to this VN. Even though I kinda know what is happening in the VN, somehow getting a hint as how to interpret the (what would normally be) madness makes the VN a more agreeable read. I quite like the observations you made: they're clear and relevant, interesting, and not presuming.

    Clephas

    Posted

    So there's a war pilot, zombies, dragons, solid char development, darkness, and moe? Wow...that's one hell of a mix mash.

    You have to keep in mind that most of this VN is solid story and character development, with relatively little side-tracking that isn't meaningful to the events in the story in general.

    I'm interested. With the fantasy elements in the trailer, I'm kinda curious what kind of outlook the story has on the world. Maybe it's just a setting without too much additional thought, but I haven't seen enough of these to tell the difference.

×
×
  • Create New...