theboxcarracer

I haven't really been able to get back to Kira Kira due to work ramping up for the holidays, and that's frustrating. I really like what I've played so far, and am really interested to see where it's going.

It's a fun VN, set in a fun world, filled with fun characters. Majikoi just makes me feel good. I personally enjoy slice-of-life-y stuff quite a bit in a VN, but can enjoy a good intense moment every now and then too, and Majikoi is basically 80/20 that, in favor of the slice-of-life stuff, so it's a big win in my book. I also found most of the actual romances relatively believable (I didn't really enjoy Chris's route, though.) All this is coming from someone who hasn't even had a chance to read the route of their favorite heroine, (perhaps ever) Miyako. But basically, I find that Majikoi takes place in a setting I find extremely enjoyable, with characters I like being around. Playing it immerses me in a world that I find extremely endearing just due to the fact that it lines up with my personal tastes. I also like the art quite a bit, and the H-scenes are (as you said) really well-done.

Tsukihime is either the greatest or second greatest VN I've ever read. It's honestly probably the best by a long shot, as I think the only reason I like the other one I like more is because it was one of the first VNs I ever read. Tsukihime is incredible in every way. You should read that, in my opinion.

Well, honestly, I voted against H-scenes not because of my own personal feelings about their inclusion in VNs, but because I feel as though they have a pretty strong negative impact on their sales and credibility in the west. Maybe not so much in Japan (I have no idea or context for that whatsoever, honestly) but H-scenes certainly push people away from the genre over here. As long as they have the stigma of "porn games" attached to them, they will never be accepted by a larger audience over here, let alone be mainstream in any way. That said, I also feel like the damage has already been done, and no amount of English-translated, H-free games being released over here is going to convince people outside of this bubble that this genre has any value. It's sad, because there are some VNs with incredible stories that I would love to see more people experience.

Okay, I know I'm gushing about it and I'm only a single chapter in, but Kira Kira just inspired me to write a song and I've had the worst writers block and haven't written a decent song in literally months and playing Kira Kira gave me just what I needed to actually make something decent. This is seriously a fantastic VN.

Well, your description of what a band is is totally and completely accurate. That's why I found it so incredibly ridiculous that they had to look up what the damn word meant. Also, KIRA KIRA IS A FUCKING RIDICULOUS THING AND I LOVE IT. I'm sure I'm not even 10% of the way into the craziness yet, but their attempt to be punk by saying "fuck" a lot was hysterical on so many levels, and I really think they are nailing the humor in this game. EDIT: I just got to the part where and it's beautiful. It's incredibly relatable, especially the bits where he talks about his feelings of freedom, and the parts where he talks about lacking drive. This is a really fantastic experience so far.

Okay, look. I personally kind of enjoy H-scenes. That doesn't mean that I think they are good for the medium as a whole. People seem to be saying that things don't need to change because they don't care what other people think; it doesn't matter if the rest of the world looks down on them and refuses to play them because you still enjoy it. I don't think it's that simple, you know? As someone who doesn't read Japanese, I would love it if more VNs got officially translated and released in English, but that's not ever going to be a common occurrence as long as most outsiders to the medium only see VNs as porn. I also would love to have conversations about VNs with people outside this bubble, but that just isn't possible for me at the moment. I would really like to recommend games like Ever 17 to members of my family, or even to friends with no context for this sort of thing, but I can't do that because if they dig even a little bit deeper into this stuff, they'll find that 90% of the genre has pornographic content in it and be upset with me for liking this form of storytelling. It's not just a matter of "I don't care what other people think." I mean, I feel like the pornographic content (or the perception that VNs exist only for such content) is keeping VNs from being popular in the west. And I would actually like this medium to thrive out here. There are some absolutely fantastic stories that have been told this way,and people are missing out.

Yeah, I wound up getting pretty distracted from VN's for a while, then I went through this weird phase where I desperately wanted to play through Majikoi again, but I told myself I wouldn't until it's fully translated so I didn't, and then I gt a Wii U and Hyrule Warriors and Smash just came out and then I got a job for the holidays... well, yeah I guess some stuff happened. But I'm back, and I have a few VNs lined up after this one, so hopefully I wont disappear again for a while. I've gotta say, the translation of Kira Kira is pretty rough. Im having a really difficult time dealing with lines like, " What is 'Indies'? ... They're so wild. so cool, so punk, and so Indies." It's Indie. It's Indie music. ARRGGHHH. The Indies are a collection of islands off in South Asia, and the term is not music related at all. Maybe I'm nitpicking, but this weird unnecessary pluralization comes up a lot and I feel like it would have been pretty easy to catch.

Started Kira Kira. EDIT: I'm now a few minutes in, and it's already touching on an issue that has been the subject of a lot of contemplation for me right now. I think I'm going to enjoy this one.

Alright, so I just finished all that I'm going to play of Never 7. That being the five main routes (Yuka, Haruka, Saki, Kurumi, and Izumi Cure A.) It was alright, really just kind of middle of the road for me. Worth reading, sure, but there was nothing in there that really drew me in that deep. I have no idea where I should go next, though. Kamidori is still on hold as I just don't really have any drive to play that right now. What I'm really craving is playing Majikoi again, but I want to wait until the patch is out (even if its going to take awhile.) I've just had Miyako on the brain lately, and would really like to play a VN with her or an extremely similar character in it. I guess until then I'll slip back into Persona 3, it's actually been on hold for way longer than I meant it to be now. Unless I find something else that can distract me. I actually downloaded Comyu, but my antivirus was not happy with that at all. Like, it's not really ever happy with my VN habits, but this time it just straight up said there were trojan horses in there and I'm terrible with computers so it scared me off.

Really? They didn't resolve anything in the story. The good endings were both complete cliffhangers that told you nothing about the "why" of what was going on. In fact, nowhere in the game, even if you do the whole "get every bad ending and mull over every single word in the TIPS section" thing, does it explain why anything is happening. Sure, if you sit there and pick it apart, its possible to maybe infer a little bit about what was going on, but there's no solid foundation to base any of that on in the game itself. It was already a jumbled mess of complicated ideas that would have been kind of a mess even if they had executed on it properly, but they didn't do that, so it really came off as a bunch of dangling threads that didn't actually lead anywhere when you followed them all the way back. Now, I don't blame the devs, they apparently ran out of money and couldn't actually finish the game, but that in no way makes anything in Remember 11 make sense.

Oh god, my worst experience was definitely Remember 11. I came to it after wading through a few more lighthearted things because I was craving a more substantial plot, but holy shit, that game is complete bullshit. Seriously. In order to experience every ending (which is the only way to understand any of it, because the game really drops the ball when it comes to wrapping things up in the good endings alone) you have to play through one side of the game, get a specific bad ending, then play through the other side of the game to get an alternate version of the same bad ending. And there are so many of them. And the details you get from doing that are all so minuscule on their own that you're putting in a huge time investment and getting almost nothing out of it except an ever-so-slightly better view of the big picture. And even after doing that, you still know almost nothing. It's so terrible. The good endings both end with major cliffhangers that you only even sort of understand if you've gotten a whole bunch of the bad endings prior to seeing them, and even then, they're still cliffhangers that don't wrap things up at all. And I totally get the whole "it's supposed to make you feel like you're playing an infinite loop, that's why you have to play the game over and over again without learning anything new at all each time" thing, but that doesn't excuse the complete lack of resolution or explanation or story or really anything. Just because it's a unique idea doesn't make it a good one. I regret putting any time into it at all.

I just finished Kurumi's route in Never 7, and enjoyed it quite a bit. The reasoning is obvious. (Very minor spoilers for Never 7 ahead, you're probably fine to read it, but it is something they only tell you on one specific route and seem to try to hide on all the others, so some people may think of it as spoiler territory.)

Hang on. People are referring to reading Miyakos route in Majikoi. That patch isn't out yet, is it? Because if it is, I need it. On topic: Playing Never 7 with a little bit or Kamidori on the side. I've been sidetracked a little bit by my recent purchase of a Wii U (Smash is out soon!) so I haven't played as much as I would have like, but I'm getting a little bit in here and there. Never 7 is okay. It's not excellent, it's certainly not mind blowing like Ever 17, but at least it's not complete and total nonsense like Remember 11 was. I do find myself getting distracted from it pretty easily, when VNs that are great as opposed to just okay don't really do that. And as for Kamidori, it's pretty grindy, so I'm just chipping away at it slowly.

Just finished Haruka's route in Never 7 and it is so mushy and I loved it. It's definitely not a mind-blowing VN like the other KID novels are, but it's still pretty entertaining.

Playing Never 7. I still don't like the art, like, at all, but the story is pretty interesting so far. Excited to see where it goes from here.

Okay, so, I didn't actually start Never 7 when I said I would earlier. I started it now. And I'm about twelve seconds in and I already really dislike the art. This girl's eyes look like they're melting off of her face and when she stopped moving and lowered her arm down by her side, her arm looks incredibly long and terrifying, like one of the hands that comes up out of the ground at the bottom of the well in Zelda: Ocarina of Time. This is going to put a significant damper on my ability to enjoy this VN.

AGREED. Also, why is all of this talk in spoiler tags still?