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Funnerific

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Posts posted by Funnerific

    What are you reading? Untranslated edition

    in Visual Novel Talk

    Posted

    Finished AQUA by SORAHANE.

    I suppose I overestimated my tolerance for sci-fi. :komari:

    It's a story set in future Japan and technological advancements have brought about floating terminals and such but above all holograms with mass. Frankly there's probably much more that could've been made with that kind of technology, but we've got what we've got.

    The VN is heavy on slice of life scenes, throwing in some plot from time to time. In fact, all of the initial three routes didn't leave any impact on me since the game reveals very little at that time. The reason for that is the presence of a central story in the game, where it will finally move from the countless SoL to the long-awaited explanations and developments... after some more SoL, they know you want more of that.

    Don't get me wrong though, there is quite a lot of plot in this game and the last thing you want to do is open those spoilers on VNDB if you're at least somewhat interested. What is my biggest issue with it, you might ask? It can in fact be pretty well described by none other than one of the game's characters (possible spoilers).

    Spoiler

    mUyzVkA.png

    Let's just say it's nowhere near hard science fiction.

     

    The soundtrack is good and fitting in a nakige title. Here's a sample.

    And now for the biggest drawback: no route (or H) for the best girl. Not only is she hands-down the most interesting and lovable character in the game, she actually has a huge amount of screen time, CGs and is practically at the center of the plot. It was a major disappointment.

    If you're interested in SORAHANE's works, I can personally recommend Haruka Kanata. It is much more down-to-earth and believable than this game. In fact there are many reasons for suggesting it, but I'd rather not spoil any of it for you. Just make sure you install the right patch, as it is unplayable without one due to all the bugs and crashing.

    P.S. Maybe I should write these in a fuwablog instead? :rimu:

    Key

    in Recommendations

    Posted

    Rewrite, obviously.

    The routes vary in quality due to the game having several writers though, with the true route potentially holding the most value. Or you could end up hating it, it depends.

    Lack of antiheros/evil protag

    in Visual Novel Talk

    Posted

    20 minutes ago, Tyrosyn said:

    Just the kind of anti-hero changed over the years.

    Which brings me back to my original point, that being the fact that in 21th century eroge

    On 01.03.2016 at 7:45 AM, Funnerific said:

    Most of the protagonists presented as "anti-heroes" will almost certainly break their character soon enough, and not just once.

     

    Lack of antiheros/evil protag

    in Visual Novel Talk

    Posted

    1 hour ago, Tyrosyn said:

    It wasn't actually an eroge law. There was a ban on Eien to Natta Rusuban  which was the first time an eroge was prohibited since Saori if I recall correctly. It wasn't actually a big matter, they could sell the game again after they modified a character description in the booklet (booklet stated the main character is 12 and they just revised the age to unknown). But this incident kinda left a mark and developer got more careful about these matters. Nobody wanted a second Saori-incident where people actually got into jail because they went to far with this game.

    Some years later the Rapelay incidence happened and well, the rest we all know. Today the law is much stricter than it was before thanks to the new Loli laws from year before last.
    If I recall correctly, they also passed some new child porn laws in Japan in the early 00s. (This is to what I was referring.) And that's probably also why there was never a game like Eien to Natta Rusuban again. The game is pretty much a child abusing torturing simulator and the protagonist is the most evil bastard one can think of. He's not even remotely comparable with the watered-down Lolicon protagonists we have today. Starting with 2004, there were never again non-doujin eroge with this kind of pure evil main characters.

    Excuse me, weren't we talking about anti-hero protagonists? What you're describing is outright villainy and a different topic entirely. Also all of these regulations are about loli characters, placing no limitations on games with more or less grown-up looking girls.

    Lack of antiheros/evil protag

    in Visual Novel Talk

    Posted · Edited by Funnerific

    19 minutes ago, Tyrosyn said:

    Why do you want to discard nukige? Is a nukige any less VN than a charage/moege? The average nukige has probably better writing and more developed characters than the average moege and nobody ever questions that moege are VNs, so I really don't understand why people always hate on nukige as if they are in any way lesser works of art.

    It's not a fact. It's simply not true.

    Anti-heroes are an integral part of the second generation of Japanese otaku entertainment. 80s anime are full of them. Edgy badass protagonists who only care about themselves. The same is true for when the first eroge were made in the late 80s. In most cases you had the same type of self-centered badass/pervert as the main character because the first eroge oftentimes were just like anime stories in this regard. This got even "worse" in the late 90s when many protagonists were getting even eviler, pushing the limits of what's acceptable and what's not, until there were some laws made in the mid-00s forcing eroge developer to step a bit down and lighten up their evil main characters a bit. This is something which is still true today. There are no pure evil protagonists anymore in non-doujin games, just like XReaper said. It's no coincidence that a company like Black Cyc had their golden age in the early to mid-00s.

    Although today we have an excess of bland moege/charage, the fact that anti-heroes and evil protagonists are essential in the evolution of eroge is undeniable, just like with anime and manga. You guys certainly didn't consume enough Japanese fiction if you think otherwise. Or maybe darker stories aren't your thing? But then, please don't spread such nonsense like Japanese entertainment consists mainly of good and idealistic characters. It's not true. That's only a certain trope of a specific genre of this entertainment industry.

    By the way, I also don't think that VNs have many really good guys as main characters to be honest. The characters who are not evil or anti-heroish are most of the time just ... bland. I would feel like insulting actual good people if I call hetare characters "good".

     

    The Japanese are certainly escapistic, but not idealistic, at least not anymore. 70s anime were full of patriotic and idealistic characters, but today we only see these character types in Shounen anime anymore. The escapism of the new generation of otaku are edgy and rebellious chuunibyous like Lelouch. It's no wonder this character type is so common nowadays and it fits the modern definition of anti-hero just fine.

    I admit I missed all the 20th century otaku content. Had no idea there was a law forcing eroge devs to make protagonists lighter, can you give the source on that?

    Darker stories are my thing, I just try to avoid "dark" protagonists if I can help it. It's good if the darkness of the plot comes from outside.

    Yes, nukige are the lesser VNs and by no means works of art. A game is a nukige when whatever story there is exists only to support the sexual content and can't have more plot than any moege. If there actually is good writing and plot, it's just a VN with high sexual content, please don't confuse the two.

    Steam Greenlight for Debonosu's Action-RPG "A dragon girl looks up at the endless sky."

    in Visual Novel Talk

    Posted

    10 minutes ago, sanahtlig said:

    The title is literally "Looking up at the clouds high in the sky".  It's supposed to symbolize Mint's growth during the course of their journey.  The English title attempts a literal translation of that and fails horribly.

    I'd probably go with the title "To Raise a Dragon Girl".  That more or less captures the theme of the first half of the game without being overly verbose or obtuse.

    How about "How to Train Your Dragonness"? Assuming it's okay from a legal standpoint, that is.

    はじめまして、こんにちはー。Hello!

    in Introduce Yourself

    Posted

    改めてはじめまして。

    この前チャットで少しだけ話したことがあったので、その時はやっぱり凄いなーって思ってさ。いくらアニメやVNで日本の生活と文化を見かけても、正真正銘の日本人に聞くよりいい事はないだろう。本サイトに大量の人は日本が気になっているため貴方のような人がいると結構助かります。

    もちろん、かくちゅさんにも聞きたいことがあったら遠慮なく。

    そしてようこそ。

    Spoiler

    日本語があまりにも下手すぎてごめんなさい。:vinty:

    どこかでタメ口が出ている気がします。未訳VNを読む（機械翻訳なし）経験は結構ありますが、その割には喋ったことがほとんどない。

     

    Lack of antiheros/evil protag

    in Visual Novel Talk

    Posted

    4 hours ago, Tyrosyn said:

    There is no lack of antiheroes or evil protagonists. I would even say they are far more common than good guys.

    Anti-heroes are extremely rare in both VNs and anime and that's a fact. The Japanese are typically simply too idealistic and escapist to have them. Most of the protagonists presented as "anti-heroes" will almost certainly break their character soon enough, and not just once.

    japanese is so hard

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I spent two weeks learning hiragana & katakana by writing them, adding 5-15 new ones every day while also revising the previous ones. Only after that did I realise it could've been done much faster. Can't even write kana now because I never practiced since then, but it may have upped my reading speed.

    I know people who ended up remembering Japanese words by the way they look instead of actually reading kana, so don't jump into vocabulary just yet.

    Culture Gap in VNs

    in Visual Novel Talk

    Posted

    It's huge and frankly it bothers me more often than not. They do so much stuff you would never see in the west and vice versa.

    Another thing is the meaning of "responsibility" in Japanese culture. It just doesn't resonate with me at all.

    How it is Tokyo School Life?

    in Visual Novel Talk

    Posted

    38 minutes ago, Dark_blade64 said:

    I will just do that. I mean the reason I wasn't too convinced in getting this game was because I did read go go nippon and I found the story to not making any sense and this game looked more of the same. I think I got tired of the plot and the retarded murica trope.

    It's pretty different from Go Go Nippon, actually.

    So last night I lost my entire best squad in a mission on X-Com 2

    in Gaming Talk

    Posted

    1) Get soldiers stuck in the air on a collapsed roof with no cover. While it's not difficulty-related, I never got it the first time I played through the game.

    2) Have your soldier eat a crit from a muton at max sight range while hunkering down in full cover on the same level (so no high ground bonus). Why did they remove the crit immunity, again?

    3) Four soldiers miss 75-80% shots at one turn, and during the enemy turn a new enemy pack strolls into my line of sight. Meanwhile a muton knocks out one of my guys, in trying to save him I waste the entire turn taking 60-70% shots at the muton and missing, then pretty much lose my entire team the next time the aliens make a move.

    And that was just the commander difficulty.

    Sekai Project's new licenses

    in Visual Novel Talk

    Posted

    5 minutes ago, CeruleanGamer said:

    But the only difference is, these guys are do-ers, not people just waiting for something to happen. They don't care what we think, what other haters think, and just execute. It's something I admire from Sekai Project even if what they are doing is destroying the loyalty and trust they built with their long time fans and VN fans in general. 

    And that's exactly why people call Sekai the Hitler of visual novels.

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