Nerathim

People saying that h-scenes don't matter or are a good element in VN...well you never tried to recommend a VN to your uninitiated friends huh ? I can't count how many times I saw people looking for videogames with good plots and were always reluctant to read a VN not because of the absence of gameplay but because of h-scenes, maybe that's them being close-minded but it's definitely understandable, I am particulary fond of books and without 07th Expansion to dive me into VNs I would probably never tried one and I know a lot of people are like that. If you're used to pure litterature (or even an average videogame player who wants to see a scenario as much thrilling as Planescape Torment for instance) you will probably never be appealed by a generic character-design (95% of VNs) and even less the "weeaboo shit" (pardon the expression) such as the hentai and sexually weird humor. The best answer you could get from someone like that is a : "If I have time" (meaning that it's not a priority at all lol). This is sad because I'm sure VNs like G-Senjou No Maou, Tsukihime, Yu-No... could please anybody who has at least seen one anime in his life, but because of the sexual content it's another story...

What is shocking are not the h-scenes themselves but the way they are written.

LEAVE ME ALONE The developer claims that Kiyota and Huelbeck have already composed some pieces, while Shinji Hosoe has clearly responded positively to the project. We should get a foretaste in the future, I think.

For your questions, wait for the Kickstarter. They're not blindly taking risks, the odds of this campaign being successful are fairly high (just look at the composers, I know a lot of people who would kill to get another soundtrack from Manami Kiyota), the only thing that is unsure is if it will be enough for Zero Escape 3 (but then again, who can know?) but it's guaranteed that the assistance provided to the series will be non-negligible. They're taking a bet with good rewards in any case, the game will surely reach its stretch goal and a lot of rewards are promised to the most important backers, such as your presence in the game with a sprite designed accordingly (140$~ if I'm not wrong), a piece created specially for you from one of the composer, etc. Don't underestimate the ZE fanbase and the power that an amazing soundtrack may have, same thing for the promising plot. And the guy is definitely not inconscious he knows how the videogame industry works and would definitely not do something illegal, that's a serious project not a vaporware started by a teenager. Now it's just me saying things that nobody can verify and telling people to wait for the website and the campaign but I find this pessimism far too hasty. Edit : Look at the twitter now

From here (french source) http://www.jeuxvideo.com/forums/1-36-23320383-1-0-1-0-gdc-le-jeu-project-ace-le-bfge.htm but also from some random talk threads on the same forum, nothing was announced "officially" but let's not be too picky about this we're talking about a independant game and once the official site shows up it will be clearer for everybody.

The developer's main goal is to finance Zero Escape, the emphasis on the 50% is justified. Adrift in Cobalt Eternity is a sort of "prologue" or just a little spin-off of a much bigger VN that will be written by the same guy. If this Kickstarter works he plans to launch another campaign that will be needing a lot more funds than this one but with the hype of being one of the principal actors in the release of ZE3 and a good mystery writer it will be easier. (that's not only politics hey, the guy himself is a hardcore fan of Uchikoshi's works.)

My favorite soundtrack from any visual novel (or videogame) is definitely Umineko, nothing even comes close to it imo, more than a hundred of bgms from good to god-like. But my favorite piece isn't in it, "Our Round Table" (Coµ) is the only composition ever that I can listen to again and again without getting tired of it and that always give me chills : (shitty youtube quality here, it doesn't retranscribe it properly...)

Do you really think that it will be a vulgar copy/paste ? It's a MYSTERY novel, not a story based on zero escape the only thing similar is the atmosphere. I dare say that creating a good and complex mystery is even harder than a good story. You need to be extremely careful when writing it, inconsistencies aren't allowed at all, you must use a whole lot of tricks that aren't overused in the genre and also believable if you don't want to be laughed at, a perfect and solid structure.To puke on it is like wishing for the death of OELVNs, this one has ambition and will propose a good riddle in an interesting setting.

No problems but you don't even want to know the voices of the characters beforehand (FHA) ? It's definitely not understandable for us mere mortals. You can go with the Rance games too, I don't see any of them on your list.

Fate/Hollow Ataraxia, Tsukihime, Kagetsu Tohya, 07th Expansion works.

I was planning to make a topic about it once the official website is online but good job for creating it. Anyways, you can add the development team if you want : I know the guy personally and I can guarantee that he really knows how to write a good mystery, given that he's highly unsatisfied of the genre in general (be it books or VN) he has worked a lot on it.

I would say longer, because no matter how good the VN is, if it's too short sadly it will not left much of an impact on me. I need to be immersed in a good story for a while, no less than G-Senjou's length. Time investment isn't a problem, I'm not a compulsive reader nor at death's door, a story takes as long as it takes, no more no less.

The Coµnet is more of a pretext to include messages about human relationships, society and psychology than a really interesting concept. I think it's good that Hino hasn't focused too much on it, confronting the Coµnet with the real world, creating a mini-society with all the problems that it entails was good enough. (and we already know a bunch of things about the round table and Caesar's legion) It kinda reminds me of Ayakashibito and the city of Jinyous, developing it more would have been useless by taking account of the VN's purpose.

Benio's route is freaking good, why is everyone forgetting Gasai ? Who gives a damn about Benio when you have you have one of the most charismatic antagonist with amazing scenes ? Fanservice aside this route is also essential because it's introducing a lot of informations about Rondo and that's necessary for the true route. Besides, it doesn't drag too much and there's always something unsolved which incites the reader to continue to read. And again, Comyu isn't a standard VN, there is no point in criticizing Hisoka's route for not having enough Hisoka, that's juste a name, we're reading a chuuni story here, not a date-sim. She doesn't have much screentime but what about it ? That doesn't make the route bad at all and it develops interesting elements nonetheless. (and I found it to be far more consistent than Benio route).

The pacing is pretty much perfect imo, there are always enough tension and plot knowledge given to the reader to make him want more. Most of the scenes are never shorter or longer than they should be.

more indulgence please

Too bad for you but both options are unforgivable and deserve a proper whipping. (just by reading "Sachi shrine" my heart has skipped a beat)

You'll not get away with that, I guarantee it.

I wouldn't say I'm that type given the fact that obvious cheating from the protagonist can make me laugh and playing another route straight on doesn't bug me at all. But I had that kind of feeling once, in Lucia's route (Rewrite). Dammit I never felt so involved, affected by a heroine than Lucia, her character is soo genuine that I can't possibly forget it, her past is astonishing and her development during the route turned me upside down to the point I didn't even took the time to play my usual role of sneaky bastard trying to pick minor flaws to criticize it just for the sake of it later (very mature of me indeed). Now Lucia is my favorite heroine ever and I remember stalling Rewrite for a week after her route. I guess my answer is yes and no.

Kishima Kouma is really powerful too, Nasu mentioned him as one of the very few characters being able to fight on par with servants, sadly he hasn't much screentime in Kagetsu Tohya.

I think Aoko can do something similar to time travel, though.

Other than servants... Aoko ? She's good at nothing except destruction, and damn what a level of destruction she has. Not to mention fifth magic.

My thoughts exactly! I often see people criticizing Souichi for being too "shonen" and as much dumb as Shirou but that's not the case at all, I really started to like him when

Anyone played Unlimited Codes ? I find it to be good for the fanservice but a lot less nervous and skilled than Melty Blood, not to mention the relatively small choices in characters, they could have put other servants from Zero... (That's a shame, Fate's casting is far more suited to be in a fighting game)

This chair is an eyesore.