babiker
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Introductions:-
You can skip this part, it's a personal rant on reviews, so it has nothing to do with the VN in questionSpoilerI have always been a great fan of video reviews. I've probably watched more anime reviews than anime series, and that feels a little... Odd to me. What is it that I enjoy so much in these videos? Well... On one hand, I really enjoy listening to people's opinions on different matters, even if they're not the same as mine. Reviews give us a good summary of the work that is being reviewed, why one should experience it or why they shouldn't. They teach us how to be critical about something. They're also usually rather entertaining in and of themselves.
I've watched so much reviews in fact that at the end of every anime/VN/watevs the first thing I think about is what particular reviewers would say about the work, who would praise it and who would rage about it.
Despite that, I've never felt like reviewing something. Well, it's more like I've never gotten the guts to review something myself. Whenever I want to say something about a work, it's either already been talked about to oblivion, or something I don't know enough about and I fear coming off as an idiot. There is also the problem that reviews make you a lot more critical towards media, to the point where you can barely enjoy anything anymore.
... And yet, here I am, about to review a VN I never thought I would play in the first place. I chose to review this particular VN because well, this isn't a very well known VN even among the VN community. Monster Girl Quest has filled me with so much questions I have to ask, so much things I have to say, that I simply had to talk about it. Since no one I know has played it, the only way I could satisfy myself is with making this review. So, without further ado, on to the actual review
About za game:-
Among the more respectable VN forums, Monster Girl Quest is looked down upon as a joke of a game that can't be taken seriously, but that's mostly because what it seems like at first sight. MGQ is a "nukige": A game that's allegedly designed to make you... Well, fap. (Or at least that's what people tell me it is, as VNDB doesn't really tell you if it's a nukige or not... But eh, I trust in the people!) If you add to that the fact that it's a nukige were you get raped by monster girls... Well, let's just say that alone is enough to turn away most people, and to be quite frank I myself would never have touched this game if that was my first impression of it. Fortunately (or unfortunately), the first time I heard about this game was through a review made by an amazing reviewer by the name of Aaox. I'll leave a link to his video at the end of this review.
Spoiler
Anywho, from my own experience the "nukige" element in this game is questionable at best, and nonexistent at worst. The art, which I'll expand on later, isn't really something most people would call "h-scene material", nor is their much build up to those scenes. So if you're looking for a nukige, Monster Girl Quest is probably not the best option.
"Whom is it for then, sir Babiker?"
Well, that's what you're supposed to figure out by the end of this review, no? Have some patience, dear reader. I'll go over what this game is all about from the story and characters to the art and music. So enough intros, let's do dis!
Story and Characters:-
MGQ is set in a fantasy-ish world, mainly populated by monsters and humans. The monsters are introduced as the bad guys, and the humans as the good guys. However, monsters don't actually kill humans, they just... well, rape them. From a normal human perspective this doesn't sound that bad, right? Particularly if you have a thing for monster girls... However the goddess of humans, Ilias, forbids having sex with monsters.We start with our young hero luka, a seemingly cheerful young boy who has a strong belief that monsters and humans should "coexist". On the day when he's supposed to receive the baptism of heroes, he hears news of a monster attacking his village so he goes out to protect his land. Luka successfully defeats the monster (unless you really want to get raped), and on his way back he finds an unconscious strong looking monster. Rather than killing the monster like a normal human, Luka tries to wake her up and tell her to leave before the humans get here, which she eventually does. However, Luka returns to the village too late for his baptism. Afterwards he meets up with the monster girl he had found sleeping earlier who goes by the name of Alice and they decide to go on an adventure, despite Luka not receiving the baptism that is required for being a hero.
SpoilerLuka's first encounter with the Alice
From there on, Luka goes on many adventures through out the world, meeting all kinds of monsters and humans. As he comes to understand the monster side of the world more he begins to question his own beliefs that he had been taught since birth. Monsters can only ever be female, so isn't the law of the goddess Ilias forcing monsters to resort to rape in order to stay alive? Think about it for a sec: Female monsters can only reproduce by sleeping with males, who are human, and yet male humans are forbidden to do so from the goddess Ilias.
SpoilerThe goddess Ilias, encouraging the hero Luka to "defeat the Monster lord" in a dream
As silly as that setup sounds, this is, in my opinion, where MGQ shines best: Luka's struggle for world peace and coexistence isn't the kind of childish struggle of beating the bad guy that we've gotten so use to in most media. It's a realistic, heart breaking and very relatable battle that Luka wages against everyone around him as much himself. We see him struggle with his contradicting beliefs, his own personal biases towards monsters. While he starts his journey as a typical hero who "wants to defeat the monster lord", it becomes very clear very fast that things aren't that simple, and we see him develop into a very understanding and broad minded gentlemen.
SpoilerLuka is a very good protagonist that develops pretty well
I know I'm already taking too long with this, and I can't go on more without delving into spoilers, but I'm just so bewildered by how amazingly good the story of MGQ is. It's not just good, it's really, really good. Definitely not something you'd expect from the silly nukige it appears to be on the surface. You have terrorist organizations, human and monster kings and queens and the elite 4 whom you must defeat to finish the game-Ehrm, I mean the four heavenly knights... But yeah, you get the point. Fantastic characters with flaws and motivations, an epic plot with political and religious themes, and it still manages to be equally ridiculous and comedic... Not a single fault can I find with it.
Spoiler
But that's enough of that, onto the not-so-gud parts of this game...
Gameplay:-
MGQ is also an RPG along with everything else, as if it needed any more categorizing complications... Anyways, the gameplay in this game is over all very basic rpg stuff. You have your basic attack, special moves that take SP, and a few other choices you can see right here:
There's a considerable amount of strategy involved that must not be overlooked, some opponents require you to guard at a specific time, in other encounters you must use a particular special move, etc. While the strategy does increase in complexity the more you go into the game, at some point towards the end you're mostly going to be pushing aside enemies with little to no effort, since you know what moves work against what, and enemies that require even the smallest bit of thinking will be very few and far between.
On the other hand, there are a few battles, particularly at the start that are pretty damn hard to beat unless you just talk to Ilias. Oh btw, did I mention that at death, you have the option to ask your goddess how to beat the enemy? Yeah, it's technically cheating, but useful against super hard opponents or when you're just not in the mood for a fight. Fights also have a considerable luck element in a few, especially if you choose a higher difficulty. Then there's the fact that if you lose you'll be...
Spoiler
Yeah
Art:-
SpoilerSuch consistency. Much difference. Wow
In my opinion, the art is by far the worst part of MGQ. Since I'd rather refrain from sharing most of them with ya'll (for your eyes), here's a tutorial on how to draw your average monster girl:
First, pick a random animal, fruit or vegetable.
Add a vaguely female looking face somewhere on it.
Add female body parts randomly across the body, and remember: There's no limit to the amount of boobs you can add
Congratulations! You now have your very own unique and probably disgusting monster girl.
Yeah... Unfortunately a very good amount of the art is either that or just outright bad quality, like. Some of these sprites seem to be drawn by children... There is some good art here and there, in fact the difference in quality is very off putting at times, especially when the sprites are talking right next to each other. But in general, you're going to find yourself looking away from the monster girl you're facing. I would talk about backgrounds but honestly who cares about those. Now, let us move on:-Music:-
The music is a ok I guess. You have a considerable amount of meh, just your average game music, and a few really bad tracks, but on the other hand you have quite a lot of really good tracks, with a few being noticeably outstanding. Do note that this game is very long, even tho VNDB says its length is average that's only one part of MGQ, which has 3 parts, so in total it's around 70-90 hours-ish. With that considered, this VN surprisingly has the largest amount of tracks I've ever seen, 90 in total, so you're never really bored of listening to one track over and over again. Achieving that alone in such a long VN is enough for the music to get a pass from me.
SpoilerBy far the best track of MGQ.
Conclusion:-This is where a reviewer usually either puts a misleading number that's supposed to show how he or she evaluates the game, or decides for you if the VN in question is worth your time or not. However, in my honest opinion that kind of takes away the value of the review itself: I've given you what I think are this VN's main strengths and weaknesses, it's for you to decide whether the pros outweigh the cons. If your art standards are well, even a little high, then you probably won't go for MGQ(Except you Ten, go read it nao). Then you have the h-scenes... And yeah, I'd understand where you're coming if you don't even consider touching MGQ solely because of those... However, if those two aren't a big deal for you, then there's a lot to be had in MGQ. This is the only VN where I almost never felt bored, for God's sake there's technically no common route at all, which for me is fantastic.
I did say that by the end of this review you should figure out who this VN is for, and I hope you have because I quite honestly have not...
I find MGQ's choice of story to be ironic, to say the least. It's about a young man fighting the prejudice against monsters, yet this very game will probably never get over people's prejudice against itself, nukige, and eroge in general for the matter. I can't really recommend it to most people myself. If MGQ where to ever receive something akin to F/SN's realta nua version, improving the art and removing the h-scenes, something like a steam release, then I'd be more than willing to support and spread it. But as it is right now... It's, just as the great commentator of the visual arts Aaox put it, "We have a game that is, despite itself, surprisingly, well crafted. It is surprisingly, emotional. It is, surprisingly, good. And that's... Well, surprisingly sad."
Aaox's review:
SpoilerFor those OELVN devs out there, please learn from Monster Girl Quest's example. If you have an epic story with epic characters and all that good stuff, invest in everything else that makes a Visual Novel what it is. Try to make it as accessible to everyone as possible. I can't stand to see another epic tale that denies itself from getting the recognition it deserves... Well, that took quite a while, if you read all of that than you have my dearest thanks, and I beg you to share you opinion on this VN.
TL;DR:
SpoilerPros:-
-Epic story with lots of unexpected twists and turns.
-A large cast of very likable characters, protagonists and antagonists.
-A... Let's say, "unique" setting and world.
Oks(?):-
-Ok Music. Nothing too special.
-Ok gameplay. Never really holds the story back while not being too great on its own
Cons:-
-Very bad art for the most part
-A massive amount of badly drawn H-scenes (well, if you lose... ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°))
-Very long? This is kinda subjective w
- Fred the Barber, akaritan, Tenkuru and 1 other
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4
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Tbh, the entire "Your VN is an RPG, not a VN." is kind of a redundant argument. There's no clearly visible line between the two. There have been games that were on VNDB and then taken off because people thought they were "Not VN enough, too RPG-ish". I've played the demo of the original game, and while I know a lot is going to change and a lot of RPG elements are going to be added, I can safely say Black Sands knows what a VN is and is clearly planing on making one, he doesn't need someone to define the medium for him (the original game was in Ren'Py for crying out loud).
Also @Lumaria, there's a difference between giving helpful critique/suggestions, and pushing your own views and opinions of what a "glorious genre redefining VN" is down people's throats. So you have a great idea, nice. Suggesting it to people is fine, but almost ordering them to follow your vision, and belittling them if they decide otherwise? Not so nice. If you think your idea is so great please make this VN yourself. As the guys from Extra Credits once said, "Ideas are cheap. Everyone has a good idea or two".
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4 hours ago, Valmore said:
Maybe it's me, but I think the outlook for a lot of people tends to shift as the years go by. When you're younger, you tend to look forward to what the future will bring. When you're older, you tend to look back and remember things you've done fondly. Imagine it like a road, at the beginning there's so much road ahead of you that can't help but look forward; but as you keep driving and you realize the road doesn't last forever and there's more road behind you then ahead, you start to reflect and try to downshift to finish the ride slower.
This was very well put, I applaud such an accurate example.
As for myself, I think I've reached the point where I prefer going back to places I've already been to than to check out new places. Sure, there are a few places I've never been to that I'd like to visit, but I think I've moved around way too much in my early life. My family has never stayed in one place more than 3 years, we keep moving, usually because of my dad getting better job opportunities. I've barely entered university and I've already decently lived in 3 countries in dozens of different cities, not counting ones I've visited briefly. Just keeping up with my friends and family and happenings in these countries is already a huge chore, getting any more would just about make me explode
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This is one thing I think we sorely need. The most genre I love in Western Novels is Historical Fiction. Books like Percy Jackson, the Kane Chronicles, etc are what I enjoy the most, and what I would love to see in Visual Novel format. The black community also needs to be educated on its own history, so by doing this you're really hitting two birds (at least) with one stone. I've never supported a VN through kickstarter before, but I think I'll be changing that in regards to this very VN. You have all my support, really looking forward to the completion of your project
I recommend you check out the Kane Chronicles in particular as it's based around Egyptian mythology.
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1-Rewrite
2-Rewrite
3-Rewrite
4-Rewrite
5-Rewrite
SpoilerSpoilerSpoilerSpoilerSpoilerSpoilerObjective speaking ofc
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11 hours ago, OriginalRen said:
Key protagonists are the literal definition of not doing anything and being super useless (but nice) and getting every single woman to fall in love with you. Every Key protagonist also has the bumbling idiot friend who makes them look so much cooler than they actually are. They are the protagonists that never act on sex (because if men do that it's evil), thus showing ladies how it's done and then watching them become horny and proceed to consistently have sex until drama sets in.
When drama comes up in a woman's life, they stand there pretending they can actually solve something. In the end, they do literally nothing and merely wait for the right opportunity to have an epic speech reminding their girlfriend that they will and have always loved them even though they [the woman] are insecure about themselves and don't believe it's possible to have such an awesome boyfriend. At this point, time leaps occur and some magic is sprinkled on and everything is perfect.
The end.
Looks like someone hasn't read Rewrite. I suggest you hold off from ignorant generalizations, dealing with Firecat is more than enough
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Rewrite's protaganist, Kotarou, fit's the role, but only in some very specific routes, mainly towards the end. In the others he can feel very powerless, especially at the start. Another one would be Comyu's protag, he's not the most influential/powerful around but he's decent in both, and also the other characters and plot of both of those VNs are ten/10 stuffs, so yeah. :>
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18 minutes ago, CeruleanGamer said:
If you live in the USA or United Kingdom and don't know English after a year of living there, you should be deported. It should be mandatory to learn it if you want to survive in these countries. No need for another non-English language to be subtitled just because you are lazy to learn English, which is actually one of the easiest languages to learn according to all my foreign friends who don't have English as their first language. inb4CGisaracistmotherfucker
This is about as relevant as your post w
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I'm very interested in this. I'll be sure to give it a read later, but I'll leave you with a few suggestions for now:
It's very odd that you're choosing to voice a fan made VN. If the voice acting isn't good, it'd simply be unbearable and people will silence it and it'd just be waisted effort. You should either do it well or not at all. I'm talking professional level stuff
Secondly, I'd recommend making an actual summary of the plot, what you already have is a little too long and detailed. What is this Akasha you keep mentioning in the plot?
(Gilgamesh's image doesn't appear for me. and you also mention that you only have 3 members, yet your website says you have 5 :p)
The characters and basis of the plot look very interesting, it's very simple yet solid and there's a lot of room for adding characters/subplots. Good luck with this endeavor, and I'm looking forward to checking this out
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Now that I remember, my very first topic on the forums I wanted to basically say this, but worded things... Poorly, to say the least
First, I must say that this is a wonderful thread Lumaria. I've always had this idea of yours, yet I was more or less unsure of how to organize my thoughts into a thread like this one... That, and I'm a little scared of opening the subject lol.
Scared? How exactly is this scary?
Change. Change is a very scary thing, and as you've exactly described, the culture of Japanese VNs has become a part of what VNs are to most people here. Fuwanovel, as a community, glorifies and tries to spread translated Japanese VNs, while the OELVN scene is still ridiculed and made fun of here. That ridicule is partly justified, because most OELVNs are just shitty attempts to make something as close as possible to Japanese VNs, or outright jokes like Sakura Spirit.
You see, as a VN developer, I can make a cute little Japanese-copy-pasta VN and at least get a guaranteed small audience that is the current VN customers. Or I can make something new, that has the chance of getting like, no sales at all. It's simply riskier.
There are quite a few new promising OELVNs out there, but really how many aren't set in high school? How many don't have anime art style? Not much, the only one I can think of off the top of my head is Black Sands. There was also "over the hills and far away" and to a lesser extent Cursed Sight a while back. How much are those talked about around here?
Is it sad? Yes, the VN medium can reach much more people if we would simply make suitable VNs for those people. But can you really demand developers take that path? It's a very, very tough decision to make as a developer. You're basically starting at 0. It's brave, it's good, from almost every point of view I can think of it's the right decision to make. I hope the VN I plan to make in the future will be unique and and actually good lol, but things rarely go that easily...
You can still suggest this path to developers, sure. But you can't really blame them for taking the easy route either. That, and some people just want to make a Japanese copy-pasta VN lol, this very culture that's a barrier to some is the main attraction to others. It's definitely not wrong to do so. With all that in mind, make watevs VN you want man. If you want to make something new and unique, go for it, just know the risks. Want to make another HighSchool moe blob VN? Go for it too, just try to make it good pls... Want to make another Sakura spirit game?
kill yourself w -
I don't really get the point of this thread. It feels like you're just trying really, really hard to make Steam look bad. If being the most popular pc game store doesn't make Steam "special" to you, then that's you're own opinion, but it's a well known fact and really the main reason anyone of us is on there. All of your other points are off topic.
If you're trying to make some other websites more well known, I advise focusing more on why I should go there, rather than bashing Steam.
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Well that was... Intense. A lot shorter than the other ones, and no new characters, but I guess we got some pretty decent plot w.
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Greetings lads. It was a long time since my first thread about Fate/History, so I thought it would be fitting to make a new one. The concept is simple, I take a character from the Fate Franchise and compare them to their historical/mythical counterparts. This is my 3rd episode thus far, and ofc, spoilers (like duh). Comments and critique are apreciated, have fun watching~
And may your swords stay sharp!
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I'd still give Umaru-Chan a perfect 5/7 score.
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Took me a while, but finally got around to reading it. This chapter sure felt like the seriousness went up like ten times lol, looking forward to what comes next.
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I had that same problem when getting windows 10. After messing around with fonts, I figured that different ones work with different games
This one works in Fate/Hollow Ataraxia for example
So I figure you have to mess around with fonts until one works
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I'll contribute on the topic by saying that, appart from creating the peace movement, Ghandi was kind of a horrible human being; a bad father, husband, and a racist, among others.
I'm interested in why exactly you think he's a racist in particular. His death was mainly due to his belief that all Indians were a part of India, including Muslims, which makes me think of him as a rather... Not racist man
Gandhi is known to have said (and pretty sure there are still the original quotes and letters and such) that it was natural for the white man to dominate the black people of Africa, a "race of lazy and unproductive people". He said quite a lot of pretty extreme things, although later in his life he tried to tidy it up a bit since it could "mud" his name quite a lot. He did believe in equality... as long as it was about the Indian people. HIS people. Here are a few quotes.
I'll say that later, much later, in his life, he did rectify some of the things he said. But if you dig a bit about the not-so-perfect side of Gandhi, you'll find some pretty horrifying things, like how he let his wife die cuz "he personally did not belief in western medicine" or how he banished his Muslim son from his house and forbid anyone related to him from ever helping him or even acknowledging his existence.
Huh, interesting stuff. I'll add Ghandi to my list of people I need to look up more about then
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I'll contribute on the topic by saying that, appart from creating the peace movement, Ghandi was kind of a horrible human being; a bad father, husband, and a racist, among others.
I'm interested in why exactly you think he's a racist in particular. His death was mainly due to his belief that all Indians were a part of India, including Muslims, which makes me think of him as a rather... Not racist man
Napoleon may have been a rather good strategist, he was a horrible emperor who ruined France.
I'd probably second this, he was a pretty hardcore military colonialist, but in the long run I can see why people would still like him
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Is freeze priest a viable deck?
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This sounds interesting, if you do go through with it be sure to catch the panel on camera, we'd like to see every bit of it
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I-I-I I remember posting here, where'd my post go
Anyways, I know it's far too late by now, but if there's anyway I can get squeezed into the story I'd appreciate it (preferably not as a cute gal)
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Don't mean to be a prick about this, but there is no way that Ashadow reviews is the "founding father of VN video reviews", when PhatomZwei has been doing Youtube video reviews of VNs since 2006. His second oldest video is a review of Kana Little Sister and that was uploaded 9 years ago. So I think the title belongs to him. Furthermore, of all the VN video reviews I've seen, his stuff is probably the best. His reviews are organized, well edited, and do a great job of describing the successes and faults of a VN without delving into spoilers. His only fault really is that he rarely uploads.
Shit, actually never heard of the guy. Well, thanks for pointing that out, another reviewer to follow
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