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TexasDice

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    [EDIT: Polls added!] Fureraba ~Friend To Lover~ released on Nutaku! (notable feature: Uncensored adult CGs)

    in Visual Novel Talk

    Posted · Edited by TexasDice

    Easy explanation: The less french the better. :Kappa:

    10 hours ago, Mr Poltroon said:

    It's not exactly a secret, and I think her name gets mentioned early on, but I thought it'd be pretty cool to leave her sprite mysterious like they do in-game.

    I think they only mention her surname prior to chasing her, but I also agree that it's more fun to keep her face hidden. Not a meaningful revelation, but why not play along with the game?

    [EDIT: Polls added!] Fureraba ~Friend To Lover~ released on Nutaku! (notable feature: Uncensored adult CGs)

    in Visual Novel Talk

    Posted · Edited by TexasDice

    Okay, I finally slogged through this waist-high puddle of rainbow colored puke and happiness, so I feel like a proper sloppy write up from me is in order. If only because I haven't done it for a while. :Keepo:

     

    Fureraba is... Thoroughly enjoyable! As others have alluded to, it's a competent hybrid between a moege and a dating sim, which drops the two most common and also most annoying parts of both genres; The melodrama and on-screen numbers respectively. Fureraba pretty much nails what it what it wants to be, which makes recommending it pretty easy: Are you interested in hours of flutty girlfriend fantasy and are you okay with not much substance outside of that? If yes, dive in and if not, never touch it. Pretty easy, as I said. The few writing things that I will point out is the humor/language. I found the humor mostly chuckle worthy with a fair share of good ol' knee slappers. But a few times, the language was really... eh... blunt, which turned me off sometimes (especially that opening scene, oh my god did I cringe). Expect to be hit by "youthful" words like a sledgehammer. No comments on translation-faithfulness, because I don't know shit about that.

     

    Can't think of a clever segue, so let me get the technical stuff over with: The font "bug" is annoying, especially because it translates to other font choices, so it might take some eye-adjusting to get used to. I recommend turning the window transparency lower than you might be used to, because it makes non-bordered lines easier to read. As far as the other options go, it's what you would expect from a semi-modern VN, I can't think of any particular option I am missing, but I'm personally not into settings. Gimme volume scales and an "always inside" option and I'm good. Oh, that I might be missing. 

     

    Speaking of getting graphic, the art. Yada, yada, art is subjective, yada yada yada, check the screenshots whether you like it or not. :reeee: For me, the sprites are passable, the CGs are fine (give me very strong moonstone vibes for some reason) and the backgrounds are good. What brings me to even talking about this subject, is the "customization" I mentioned previously. 3 of the 4 girls can have their hairstyle adjusted and will wear a multitude of different outfits through the reading experience, which is actually hella neat. That shows that somebody, somewhere in the production cared enough to commission extra art. Which isn't free, because even "swapping" a hairstyle from a CG takes consideration in terms of layers, lighting and having the foresight to draw a CG considering different hair placements. 

     

    More customization is found in the soundtrack. For usual purposes, there's enough tracks in this soundtrack and they are decent. People who like lyrical OSTs will be disappointed, not a lot of voice work in the music. The thing I wanted to point out, is that all the heroines have a [friend] and a [love] version of their individual themes. Which I think is pretty neat, the friend version are more upbeat and the love versions more sparkly. (Except for Rina, who for some reason gets a sick bass when falling in love. :illya: )

     

    The spoilers window will talk very briefly about the characters. Rating the routes is almost pointless, because all of them have basically the exact same structure and there isn't a complex story anywhere either, so I primarily focus on the girls. liked Misaki the most, followed by Rina, Yuzuyuzuyuzuyzuyu at third and Himari at lowest. They're all good girls.

    Anyway, nothing really important to spoil in here, but I recommend „uncovering“ the fourth girl yourself rather than looking her up, because the setup for that is fun.

    Spoiler

    The protagonist

    He is a dork, but I appreciate the rare sight of a Japanese male willing to reproduce prior to getting a girl for a change. Aforementioned "sledgehammer-lines" can be cringy, but some of them are just so blunt and dry that I got floored real good.

     

    Himari:

    4quSoxs.jpg

    The childhood friend. Himari is the funniest girl in terms of delivering straight-up funny lines, while Misaki is the funniest girl in terms of how she makes the other characters react to her. Anyway, Himari is cutesy, highly pouty (also known as :T) and her rare, vengeful little moments are good too. I like that she doesn't have the role of the best friend despite being the childhood friend (and that she probably watches RedLetterMedia and shits all over Marvel Movies on image boards :Teeku:).

     

    The girl of the many u's:

    9O0P8yG.jpg

    yUWUzu's 9001% pure, unadulterated dere. She's surprisingly bad tsundere trash for the tsun-connoisseurs, because she loses that trait very quickly and I actually forgot how "mean" she was for a good 3 chapters until she stomped the male-side character-friend into the floor. Uyuzuyu is the choice if you don't want your fuzzy dere behind a layer and just inhale it straight up. Like coccain.

     

    Rina:

    VzlDPyl.jpg

    Rina is the bro. Dating your bro is fun times. Her traits are being friendly, girly, smug as fuck and the most clingy after you hook up with her. This is the shortest I have written, but that really is all that needs to be said, Rina is just great. I also feel like the game makers had her as a clear favorite, because they gave her the most CGs and the most H. 

     

    Misaki:

    pxa1PCW.jpg

    Misaki is a precious cutiepie and needs to be cared for dearly. She's the quiet, shy girl, so a lot of her interactions happen over the protagonist and the narration, which makes the times she does say something have more impact. She is also the funniest girl in terms of indirect gags and shenanigans. Misaki has the strongest ":T"-game and the whole setup for her character is actually really funny when you really think about it. Misaki plays the best off-of the Protagonist in my opinion and has the best theme music.

     


    That's it. Why did I waste my time writing this instead of reading more "pretend to not be lonely and sad for 10 hours"-porn games on my computer?

    [EDIT: Polls added!] Fureraba ~Friend To Lover~ released on Nutaku! (notable feature: Uncensored adult CGs)

    in Visual Novel Talk

    Posted · Edited by TexasDice
    waifu acquired

    Yuzuyuzuyuzuyuzuyuzuyuzuyuz's "big backstory"-moment was kind of weird. Like, there was no setup for 

    Spoiler

    the bullying at all and the "little brother and family" thing which I assumed was "her thing", didn't go anywhere and was dropped

    Yeah, that was kind of strange, especially when in Rina's story all of that flowed way more natural. But in the end, it's one 10 minute scene after 8 hours of lovey-dovey sugary romance so I won't remember that as a big dealbreaker. 

     

    Also, I have to give Smee credit for what I call "putting all the money on screen". Giving you the choice of hairstyle for multiple characters and having them swap outfits for every date, while applying those customizations to the CGs too is not cheap and not easy to do.

    I vividly remember how Sakura Spirit couldn't even bother to make new sprites for the kimono-festival scene (I'm not sure if it was, but I wouldn't be surprised if that scene was actually called "kimono-festival"-scene in the script), leading to the main characters holding invisible weapons.

    Paying artists (or a sweatshop full with children) ain't cheap, so probs to Fureraba. :mare:

    EDIT: Misaki is a precious cinnamon bun and needs to be loved.

    Your Daughter Brings Home Her First Boyfriend Home For The Holidays

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by TexasDice
    I'm pointless I guess wheee (/x ω x)/

    This seems accurate: https://en.rocketnews24.com/2017/12/14/japanese-dad-challenges-daughters-boyfriend-to-video-game-grudge-match-gets-kicked-out-of-house/

    EDIT: Damn, @Huang Ling Yin found it too.

    22 hours ago, Kiriririri said:

    But I am my daughter's boyfriend

    I can't believe you stole my meme. I'll remember this.

    Chrono Clock Discussion!!

    in Visual Novel Talk

    Posted

    This is pretty fun so far. The effective usage of the clock for comedic purposes impressed me and so far, the SDs are really great. 

     

    I beat the prologue and before making my route choice, I will attempt to use my time-travel trope knowledge to throw some predictions out. Let's see how many of them stick and how many fall down:

    Spoiler

    1. Groundhog day time loop.
    2. Child of a character from the future/past.
    3. One of more characters accidentally stranding in a different time.
    4. Someone else is able to travel through time / has intimate knowledge of the ability to do so.
    5. Invader/force/existence from the future tries to rewrite history.
    6. Character from another time turns out to be the older/younger version of an established character.
    7. The occurrence of a tragic event that can't be changed no matter how many times the time traveler tries. 

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