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Finished Kara no Shoujo over the weekend. 

Spoiler

Okay first the general impressions, so those that couldn't stop themselves from opening the spoiler-tag won't get spoiled.

Gotta love the production values. Good music, art and high-quality sprites... Even the scaling algorithms or whatever are really good. Unlike many others, KnS actually looks really good when scaled the full-screen 1080p resolution. Well, apart from text.

The investigations and figuring out the mystery was done pretty well, and apart from certain questionable design decision I really liked that aspect of KnS. Being able to make mistakes in crime scene investigations I can still understand, but making critical information only available for certain day and certain place is just bullshit. Anyways, apart from the few pitfalls I didn't have that much problem with the mystery parts, in fact I wouldn't have minded having to speculate and make my own connections more.

Also thank god the sex is toned down from Cartagra. Although the one scene from the common route made laugh quite hard. "Oh, I guess since there's sex now I must have picked correct choices this time", was how I felt.

Then for the really spoilery parts, and for the whole game. Be aware.

Spoiler

The first case was pretty good introduction for the whole thing and really smooth experience overall. The mistakes I made were totally my fault and mystery was pretty gripping. Only thing that bothered me was how abruptly and roughly they dropped the fact that Orihime was behind Prostitution ring. I guess there might be more info on her route/ending, but from the parts I read it really felt like they didn't addressed this enough. Other than that, I really enjoyed the "Divine Comedy" allusions and detective work near the end of the chapter was in my opinion the best the game offered. Not too obvious, but it also didn't rely on too obtuse or confusing details.

And of course it doesn't end that easily. The second case was fun as well, but as some of you might have guessed, the constant skipping and being stuck on the same bad end kind hampered the experience. Doubly so when I started questioning my own conjectures after being stuck so long and making wrong choices thanks to that. But there were good parts as well. The deaths in the first chapter felt kind of distant most of the time, but thankfully(?) Tojiko's death actually fit pretty hard. Poor girl. Other than, my memories of the middle part are kind of mess because of all the skipping, but the end of that chapter and how it led to the final legs of the game were pretty interesting.

The final part really jumpstarted in a wild way and went to pretty unexpected directions. All the interweaving relationships and revelations felt pretty overwhelming at first, but also brought a sense of fulfillment when the parts finally started to fit together. Some of things and how it all ties back to the cases six years ago felt kind of unreal and little lackluster, but that didn't really hinder my enjoyment. Especially the classic "detective collects everyone involved together and explains everything"-scene in Mamiya household was pretty cool.

All in all Kara no Shoujo was really good experience. Not too long, pretty well focused and apart from few hiccups, a satisfying story to solve and experience. The ending I got was some kind of normal ending, I think, so now I'll just have to see what kind of secrets Toko's ending contains. 
 

And oh, if I had to name favorite characters, I guess Yukari would be pretty high up there. Platonic and normal little sisters are kind of rarity in VNs, so it's really nice too see a good one. The samurai-girl Ayumu also managed to catch my interest, but that might have more to do with my hopeless preference for minor side characters.  

 

 

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Been playing kimisora this weekend, really like it so far. The characters are great, the music is really nice and soothing and the art is pretty good. Matsuri and An are by far the best characters so far.

Haven't gotten too far into it, but it's been quite entertaining from the start. Kind of a unique twist to the very normal, over used school setting.

An is definitely one of my new favorite imouto characters. Kawaii! :kosame:

Spoiler

BkKzL7Z.png

 

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Playing Code Realize: ~Guardian of Rebirth~ because why not :makina: 

Misc. Thoughts/First Impressions

Spoiler

Set in the 1850s London or whatever (very, very similar overall setting as Shikkoku no Sharnoth, hell the first Chapter is called Steam London) we play as Cardia, a beautiful young lady and a typical stoic who has been living in isolation in her Father's mansion for god knows how long because he left her a note saying to do so. The (typical) twist? She only remembers the most recent two years of her life. 

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Damn amnesiac protagonists.

Oh, and apparently she's a monster. Exactly what kind of 'monster' we're talking about is to be determined, but so far we know something something her blood is poisonous and she will kill anyone by simply touching them. Hmm, sounds familiar to a certain Key heroine, anybody?  
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Yup. 100% legit Monster right here

So here we have the Royal Guard arrive at the mansion to capture Cardia for whatever heinous plots they're concocting, and after their attack dog foolishly jumps onto Cardia and bites her only to have its face melt off, they kindly ask her to accompany them.
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Rude.

And so they begin to haul her back to their evil headquarters to begin their evil plot for world domination, but they are intercepted by the poster male hero, Arsene Lupin, a chivalrous self-proclaimed thief with a heart of gold. He does some fancy aerobatics, voice impressions, and tosses a smoke grenade to put the Royal Guard into confusion and disarray, allowing him to snatch Cardia away from them. She tries to resist because she's afraid of killing him, but of course he just goes playa-style and yolo grabs her hand anyways, and the two take off.
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Where's mah H-scene >:c 

They have some short banter where Lupin, being all high and mighty on his hero mode, tells Cardia he will grant her a single wish. Her wish is, not surprisingly, a poetic one: having lived a life of isolation due to her touch-me-and-you-die nature, she simply wishes to be able to physically touch someone and form a close bond with them. Hooray for logically explained romance!
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AGAIN, WHERE'S MAH H-SCENE!?

Fast forward and we've reached infodump time: Cardia is the daughter of Isaac Beckford, some world-renowned scientist who has gone into hiding after having just created the first eternal heart- the Horologium- a heart that beats forever. And apparently it's etched onto Cardia's body- the source of her poisonous blood and amnesiac status? Probably. It's also the reason the Royal Guard wanted to take her into custody, and why Lupin himself stole her from them.
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And yes, Cardia totally strips naked when showing Lupin the Horologium. Again, damn Amnesiacs! You lost your memory, not your common sense!@#

So Lupin then kneels over and proposes to Cardia *cough* I mean asks for her help in searching for her Father and solving the mystery of the Horologium and whatnot. And we're given our first choice!
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HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

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LOL GET REKT SON!

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;-;

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And that's all folks! Shortest VN ever!

 

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Finally finished all routes of Aoishiro now. The VN was overall very well done with surprinsingly high production values. I really loved the mysterious atmosphere and the whole Japanese mythology theme. I don't remember a lot of VN's about ancient Japanese legendary creatures and Shinto gods like Bishamonten or Susanoo. The VN also had some pretty epic fights to offer that almost recalled fond memories of F/SN.

Spoiler

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Unfortunately, the biggest weakness of the VN is that most routes including the true route are very similar to each other which made them kind of repetitive to read. I still enjoyed them because I liked the characters, atmosphere and the mythologic theme of the story.

Favorite girls: Kohaku > Migiwa = Nami > Yasumi > Kaya

It was also quite refreshing to see a ninja girl who wasn't just included for horizontal business. ^_^

Overall I'd rate it a 7.5, but it could have easily gotten more if it wouldn't be for the far too similar routes.

So, next on my reading list is Tokyo Babel...

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Kara no Shoujo is coming along somewhat nicely.

Spoiler

I haven't gotten any "normal" ending yet. If I can, I want Kyoko's ending (edit: just checked the walkthrough and I think I kinda fucked up on that front lol).

Toko's pretty nice, character art overall is wonderful.

Stella best girl

I just got to the part where things have calmed down incredibly (after Tatsuhiko offs himself). I got the variation where Kazuna's uterus and leg were taken, but I did have a save and went the other way as well.

Does that choice matter much in the grand scheme of things? Which one should I pick? Just encountered an old man in the Mamiya Shinzo exhibit, how much time do I have left until I get an ending?

 

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15 hours ago, Funyarinpa said:

Kara no Shoujo is coming along somewhat nicely.

  Hide contents

I haven't gotten any "normal" ending yet. If I can, I want Kyoko's ending (edit: just checked the walkthrough and I think I kinda fucked up on that front lol).

Toko's pretty nice, character art overall is wonderful.

Stella best girl

I just got to the part where things have calmed down incredibly (after Tatsuhiko offs himself). I got the variation where Kazuna's uterus and leg were taken, but I did have a save and went the other way as well.

Does that choice matter much in the grand scheme of things? Which one should I pick? Just encountered an old man in the Mamiya Shinzo exhibit, how much time do I have left until I get an ending?

 

Glad you liked Stella, one of my favourites. ^^

Rest in spoiler:

Spoiler

Variation with chopped Kazuna is great, but you can't get a true ending with this. It only gets you as far as 'normal', if I recall correctly.

You're around 60-70% of the plot right now. Tatsuhiko death is like right in the middle.

This game suffers from it's construction. A lot of repetition only to get one of two scenes, and really convoluted choices to get ending you want. Just read, enjoy, and after your first normal end just go with a walkthrough to clear this game. It will take a few hours.

 

Did you had any h scenes with Main Toko?

Spoiler

Her hymen-breaking growl was beautifull. Not high pitched yell, but just pure growl. I loved it. :P

 

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I started Noble Works and let's just say I've made a decision to stop playing moege for a while because Noble Works' common route is one of the most difficult things I've had to get through when it comes to VNs. Stupid misunderstandings, cringey walk in scenes, "comedy," and generic heroines is how I'd describe Noble Works' common route.

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4 hours ago, Amon said:

Twinkle Crusaders. Just finished my first route (Nanaka).

The battlesystem is kinda stupid, but the comedy is good and the characters are so fluffy sweet, it's balm for the soul.

Glad to see someone playing this.  I enjoyed Princess Witches a lot, but could never quite get into Twinkle Crusaders.  It just went on and on and on...

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I saw Princess Evangile but I was afraid the premise of one guy in an all-girls school would be too generic.  While I was wrong about that, the common route really hurts me. Every single person in the school is sexist towards the MC and he's so passive.  Frankly, I have no idea how he doesn't get angry when everyone puts the blame on him for being a guy.  

I've only done Ritsuko's route but I really don't know if I can continue.

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1 minute ago, TastefulSardine said:

I saw Princess Evangile but I was afraid the premise of one guy in an all-girls school would be too generic.  While I was wrong about that, the common route really hurts me. Every single person in the school is sexist towards the MC and he's so passive.  Frankly, I have no idea how he doesn't get angry when everyone puts the blame on him for being a guy.  

I've only done Ritsuko's route but I really don't know if I can continue.

You should at least do Ayaka's route as that is the best route by a major consensus

It's something very special for a moege

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Going to start reading Chaos; Head. I tried it once already, but lost interest after ~15 hours in so this is the second try. There is one question though:

What the hell should I do with delusional triggers :/

What I mean by that... If I choose red (bad) trigger, then following scene is usually so brutal / bloody / mad it is just silly and completly destroys the mood. If I choose green (good) trigger, then folowing scene is so moe / icha-icha/ fenservice it is just silly and completly destroys the mood. If I don't choose anything then following scene is... well normal, but then I have the feeling that I'm missing part of the game and it completly destroys the mood :P

So, what should I do? I have no interested in B ending (too much of a hassle). I just want have good read and not be thrown off by weird or stupid scenes...

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4 hours ago, Zantax said:

Going to start reading Chaos; Head. I tried it once already, but lost interest after ~15 hours in so this is the second try. There is one question though:

What the hell should I do with delusional triggers :/

What I mean by that... If I choose red (bad) trigger, then following scene is usually so brutal / bloody / mad it is just silly and completly destroys the mood. If I choose green (good) trigger, then folowing scene is so moe / icha-icha/ fenservice it is just silly and completly destroys the mood. If I don't choose anything then following scene is... well normal, but then I have the feeling that I'm missing part of the game and it completly destroys the mood :P

So, what should I do? I have no interested in B ending (too much of a hassle). I just want have good read and not be thrown off by weird or stupid scenes...

If you don't like them, you don't really have to use triggers at all. I don't think they affect anything except for scenes they appear in. Might be mistaken though.

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Kara no Shoujo- quite the adventure

Spoiler

in the last 5 hours I learned that KnS has a voice acting patch, and that I had that patch downloaded but not installed, and that I'd played most of the previous stuff for nothing

Also I heard Stella say something that's pretty fucking frightening possible foreshadowing in retrospect ("I don't like fatty meat...")

 

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Wow, seriously? :D Well, voices aren't THAT important in KnS, but they're pretty great. (They're even better in KnS2, Reji is fantastic). But most important thing - you missed the awesomenes of Yukarin, voiced by miraculously verastile Mizusawa Kei. Seriously, look at her list of voices. Mindblowing. Also - Toko, Natsume and Yaginuma are very memmorable. You should post in one of the many Kara No Shoujo threads, it would be easier to discuss. ;)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

...aaaanyway, I finaly finished Route E in great I/O. Well, by 'finished' I mean that I got final ending, but still have 2 bad ends, and a lot of 'holes' to fill. Some of them are unlocked to read, some of them are still locked (I heard that route D' will unlock them).
And I have a question - should I max the endings and holes in E route before starting Prime routes, or should I read D', C', B' and A' routes and then fill up the E route? What do you think @Canicheslayer?

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I've been simultaneously reading and editing To Heart 2, first Tama-nee's route, now the twins'.

Tama-nee, or Kosaka Tamaki (if you haven't been living in the script the past few weeks like I have...) was great. In my admittedly limited experience, I've only once seen a character comparable to her. Maybe you don't see such strong (in so many ways) women in VNs very often because male dominance is too much of a turn-on for most readers, but it's not a bad thing, being dominated every now and then :wahaha:. The only similar character that comes to mind, incidentally, is Kagome from Comyu, who makes for an understandably popular stand-out character. Tama-nee is very much cut from that same cloth. So if you're a Kagome fan, or in general a fan of an overpowered onee-sama (which, I promise, can be every bit as pleasant in a moege as it is in a chuunige), maybe give this one a try; I certainly enjoyed it. You should probably technically wait a bit longer for the final patch release, but since the current beta patch has my edits for this route, don't let me discourage you too much :D

That said, the twins, man. The twins. Let me start by saying that I loathed the twins' route in KonoSora. It tried hard to ruin what was for me a very sweet game. It was everything I dislike in VNs - a pointless male fantasy with an unbelievable (in the worst possible way) plot, set amidst a bunch of (to me) quite believable, relatable stories. In sharp contrast, To Heart 2's twins' route is crushing my heart. I'm about 60% of the way through now (incidentally, having all the script files makes that really easy to estimate), even counting what appears to be an absurdly long H scene at the end which, I won't lie, I'm getting kind of excited about (until I realize I'm editing it, and then I'll probably start crying tears of blood). Compared to the only other twin route I've seen, despite extremely similar characters, the plotting is so much better and the conflicts are so much more believable that I am truly, thoroughly enjoying this. Yes, it's still a tropefest that's just going to culminate in a scene architected to appeal to a teenage male sex fantasy. I don't care. The journey there is pretty damn enjoyable, and at times it's nothing short of heartrending.

Well, at the rate I'm going, we should have a patch for the twins' route available in just a few more weeks, so if that latter one piques your interest, hold tight a bit longer...

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