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5 hours ago, Dreamysyu said:

Finished Planetarian.

Thoughts at the beginning: "Well, it's nice, but I've seen all these ideas implemented better."

Thoughts at the end: "Why, Key? Why? :cry:"

I was already seriously considering Planetarian in the sale.

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A Clockwork Ley-Line: The Borderline of Dusk. End of the Chapter 2. the "classic" magic school setting is pleasant, the story is ok, all the girls are cute/interesting and the art is globally awesome. one minor problem, though : Kotaro is a bland character (design, personality, behavior) :salt:

Edit : and before I forget : Koga Michiru is a pretty cool protagonist :sachi:

Edited by Canicheslayer
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Finished playing Love Ribbon and it was pretty decent and oftentimes vaguely uncomfortable (You know the whole incest thing) I thought they handled it in a good enough manner and there were some sweet moments.

One thing that really annoyed me is that so many times they would do something or say something only to be interrupted by a third party (this happened like four fucking times)

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2 minutes ago, Ibitz said:

Finally getting around to playing "Cinderella Phenomenon". 32 Hours in (slow reader and had to replay Karma's route, cause I love that dude <3) and almost done with Waltz's route. Got one more to go and then I'll be done. 

So, what do you think about it? I've planned to play through it during the winter break, but decided to postpone it and focus on clearing all the super-short VNs I have in queue instead. I'm still pretty excited about reading it though. :3

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1 minute ago, Plk_Lesiak said:

So, what do you think about it? I've planned to play through it during the winter break, but decided to postpone it and focus on clearing all the super-short VNs I have in queue instead. I'm still pretty excited about reading it though. :3

It's actually very good. I've basically non-stopped played it since I started, like a week ago. The story is intriguing and they do a good job with character growth. There's a good mix of silliness and sadness and seriousness in it. It's free to play, which is a plus, and has amazing characters. The music is really soothing to listen to and I love the art style. I would definitely suggest it, especially if you like magic and fairytales. And, if you do play it, I would suggest playing Rumple, Rod, and Karma first, before playing Fritz and Waltz (the two characters that unlock after you play the others). And, if you do play those two, play Waltz last, because his route is definitely spoiler-heavy and seems to be the main cannon route for the story. 

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Just finished Kara no Shoujo 2 and it was preeeety damn fantastic. Now, I had quite a few problems with the first game and found it to be somewhat forgettable, but the opposite was true here. The new characters were great, and I found myself liking the old ones more than before (though, I can't really say why myself). Giving Reiji a sprite and voice worked wonders for giving him a presence in the game, and he was just as fleshed-out and likable as the other characters. It's a very well constructed game, and the story is intricate without necessarily being confusing. The settings, 60's(?) Tokyo and a rural Japanese village, mesh together far better than they have any right to. KnS2 is incredibly atmospheric to boot- the art has an ethereal appeal to it, and the score is lovely. It did a good job alternating between grimdark and relatively peaceful, and I can't say I ever really felt bored. The ending delivers a rhetorical punch to the gut, and it leaves you craving for more while still answering most questions. I'm sorry if this is all ranty and incoherent, it's early morning for me and I stayed up very late playing this Chinese slideshow.

Spoiler

Basically, all-my-friends-are-dead/10, Ayako best girl, and KnS3 never.

I also played DDLC and sorta hated it, but that's been discussed to death so I won't go into it too much. Basically, it's only real selling points aren't that impressive at all (and slightly overdone), and the characters are all either boring or unlikable. Also, it makes me a tad upset that out of all of the wonderful and powerful stories in VNs, this one is the one that gets the most recognition. But these things, especially the latter two, are subjective and there was certainly a lot of love and energy put into the production and scripting, so I will give it that.

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is it possible to hate a girl in a vn but love hero story? Midori is bae tho, Midori is love, Midori is life, almost as lovable as Kud... almost

Spoiler

I would have liked there to be a small nod to midori like her appearing as a translucent figure besides mio and riki in one of the last CG's but well you can't have it all can you

now all I have to do is Rin's route and then we hit the mysterious refrain, I have a bad feeling about leaving rin's route to last but whatever

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Currently I am playing Campus Notes- Forget Me Not

And so far I am really liking it the characters are all pretty great and endearing, the dialogue is smart and funny and the mystery is keeping me invested.

The best part about it though is the fact that it is not set in a high school! It's actually set in a University! FINALLY

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I think im just bored or just reached a really, really nasty trough regarding my weeb hobbies but i for the love of gawd just cannot commit to many of my JP activities- games, animes, VNs, for this second half of 2017. Though i did technically read S;G 0 and Danganronpa V3 in the past couple months but I'd say those are exceptions since I'm a mad loyalist of those series.

By some miracle though I have managed to pick up Koisuru Natsu no Last Resort of all things, but I'm literally only slogging through at 1 hour / day LOL. Just can't make the grind for these high school non-fantasy SoLs anymore. But it's k, 1 hour a day of cute grills is all that's needed :makina:

Umi's great. She has a docileness that's very endearing and some great dynamics with the protag. Sango Riho and Maki are all pretty whatevers atm, and with my limited reading capabilities i might just read Umi's route and call it a day.

 

~~
On a side note, i do have that recently released A Clockwork Leyline lined up to read as well,  I usually have good luck committing to things that I start up on a whim, let's see how that goes.. 

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1 hour ago, Eclipsed said:

literally only slogging through at 1 hour / day LO

Well, one hour per day is my normal reading routine recently, and unless you deal with 50+ hour giants, it's not that bad, really. On the other hand, I remember when I was reading Eden, I had particularly little free time and energy for doing something at least somewhat productive, and I could only manage about one hour per week. :chaika: Honestly, I should've stalled it back then because this reading style definitely didn't give it justice, and by the end of the second month of reading I only wanted for it to finally end.

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Finished playing Campus Notes and...

I enjoyed it! Very much so!

It was a solid Visual Novel it wasn't the best I have ever played but it is definitely worth checking out. The heroines were so unique and interesting I loved all of their interactions. I didn't even mind that much when Kaen kept referring to herself in the third person (I usually really really hate that) The dialogue is really well written and I laughed quite a bit at many of the lines.

There were only two real problems that I had with it.

1. There are all these cameo characters from different vns that 4th cluster made. That would be cool if I knew or cared about these characters but since these games aren't translated I did not. It kind of took me out of the story a bit when out of the blue completely rando characters show up say a couple of lines and totally disappear.

2. There just isn't enough cg. I don't really know quite why maybe it was a budget thing but there is only 8 different cgs in the entire visual novel. The main girls only get 2 apiece. That was a real shame because there are many moments in this VN that ought to have a cg dedicated to it but they're not there.

Still for a pretty short visual novel I really enjoyed my time with it.

Edited by Ranzo
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29 minutes ago, akaritan said:

good luck

Damn, should I be afraid? :michiru: 

For now all I can tell, being like 2 hours into it, is that I really enjoy the poems. I think it's a great innovative resource to get to know the characters in depth, and I really revel in figuring out the meaning or at least trying to work out an interpretation. 

I must say that I'm going into it completely blind. The only thing I'm aware of is that it's supposed to be pretty messed up, and that at some point shit hits the fan. Before starting to read I thought it might be something like Higurashi, that started out looking cute and fluffy, but then it progressively builds up into a more sinister and dark atmosphere, until indeed shit gets real, but for the time being the only sinister tone I could grasp is built in the poems. Some of them definitely have a weird shade, and some even creep me out.

Well, we'll see~

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55 minutes ago, Thyndd said:

Damn, should I be afraid? :michiru: 

For now all I can tell, being like 2 hours into it, is that I really enjoy the poems. I think it's a great innovative resource to get to know the characters in depth, and I really revel in figuring out the meaning or at least trying to work out an interpretation. 

I must say that I'm going into it completely blind. The only thing I'm aware of is that it's supposed to be pretty messed up, and that at some point shit hits the fan. Before starting to read I thought it might be something like Higurashi, that started out looking cute and fluffy, but then it progressively builds up into a more sinister and dark atmosphere, until indeed shit gets real, but for the time being the only sinister tone I could grasp is built in the poems. Some of them definitely have a weird shade, and some even creep me out.

Well, we'll see~

As much as I dislike DDLC, the poem mechanic was very nice and I haven't seen anything else like it in a VN. Best girl?

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3 hours ago, akaritan said:

Best girl?

As for now, probably Sayori. I feel like there's more to her than meets the eye. Monika is also really interesting, and her poems hit me pretty hard.

EDIT: Oh, ok...

fourth wall huh? Hilarious :makina:

Edited by Thyndd
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Given that there was a steam sale going, I had ten dollars in my wallet, and I'm on break, I decided to buy and read some cheap OELVNs that I've been interested in a while. The games in question were Aviary Attorney, and Sweetest Monster. Now, in retrospect, I should have played Aviary Attorney second, because I certainly could use a pick-me-up after Sweetest Monster, ahaha.

Aviary was like Phoenix Wright, except with birds and more puns (if you can even believe it). While I like Ace Attorney more, Aviary certainly stands on its own merits. The production is relatively good, and there's nothing quite like it in VNs. The 19th century France setting was a relatively unusual one, and it was really refreshing. The characters are likable, and while they aren't complex, they did everything they needed to in a game like this. The gameplay was similar to Phoenix Wright, but there were a few differences. Most notably, you can fail entirely to collect all of the evidence beforehand, thus screwing yourself over before the trial even begins.

Spoiler

In the first chapter, the defendant having been the murderer the whole time was also really surprising. It personally hit me way harder than anything in a game about bird lawyers has any right to.

Aviary Attorney is a great way to spend an afternoon, especially for it's current ~$3.70 price.

Sweetest Monster, on the other hand, was my first ebi-hime VN. And if this is a good indicator of her work's quality, then I need to pick up more. It follows a man who meets a catgirl in the midst of marital problems, to grossly oversimplify. Frankly, I shouldn't say much about the plot of a 2 hour game at all. The atmosphere was incredibly uncomfortable without coming off as too heavy, and as adorable as the catgirl Belle is, while reading this game you can't quite shake the feeling that something is off. There's a sort of creeping unease that develops as you slowly start to realize the implications of the game's events. But it's definitely a good experience and I have quite a bit to say about it, so I'm throwing that in the spoiler tag.

Spoiler

In the author's notes, ebi's description of her characterization work makes it clear that she was walking a very fine line between "human fuck-up", and "still a good person as a whole". I think it works quite well, and the characters can be hard to hate, as much as you want to- well, maybe barring Bell, who ultimately deals great harm to the family. The subversion of fanservice and sexuality to be something unpleasant in context is not something that's new, but this one is far more subtle about it than most VNs that pull that, which was a breath of fresh air. Instead of overly explicit h-scenes, the game is more concerned over character impact. And I always get a bit irritated over games with the "dating sims are bad because they take agency away from the heroine" message. They come off as moralizing and judgmental to me, but Sweetest Monster never seemed to be going for that. In the long run it was a sort of deconstruction of games like Nekopara (as ebi says in her notes), but instead of a hard critique of the genre, it felt like it was playing off its tropes for the sole purpose of affecting the viewer. The ending was unsettling to say the least, and while I had a hunch that something to that effect was going on, the foreshadowing was never overbearing, and just sort of understated. 

Thank you for making such a wonderful game, ebi-hime!

So in short, Aviary Attorney was good and fun and Sweetest Monster was fantastic, and they're both good choices, especially given their current price tag. And thanks to anyone who devoted their time to reading this ungodly text wall, ahaha. :wahaha:

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21 minutes ago, akaritan said:

Given that there was a steam sale going, I had ten dollars in my wallet, and I'm on break, I decided to buy and read some cheap OELVNs that I've been interested in a while. The games in question were Aviary Attorney, and Sweetest Monster. Now, in retrospect, I should have played Aviary Attorney second, because I certainly could use a pick-me-up after Sweetest Monster, ahaha.

Aviary was like Phoenix Wright, except with birds and more puns (if you can even believe it). While I like Ace Attorney more, Aviary certainly stands on its own merits. The production is relatively good, and there's nothing quite like it in VNs. The 19th century France setting was a relatively unusual one, and it was really refreshing. The characters are likable, and while they aren't complex, they did everything they needed to in a game like this. The gameplay was similar to Phoenix Wright, but there were a few differences. Most notably, you can fail entirely to collect all of the evidence beforehand, thus screwing yourself over before the trial even begins.

  Reveal hidden contents

In the first chapter, the defendant having been the murderer the whole time was also really surprising. It personally hit me way harder than anything in a game about bird lawyers has any right to.

Aviary Attorney is a great way to spend an afternoon, especially for it's current ~$3.70 price.

Sweetest Monster, on the other hand, was my first ebi-hime VN. And if this is a good indicator of her work's quality, then I need to pick up more. It follows a man who meets a catgirl in the midst of marital problems, to grossly oversimplify. Frankly, I shouldn't say much about the plot of a 2 hour game at all. The atmosphere was incredibly uncomfortable without coming off as too heavy, and as adorable as the catgirl Belle is, while reading this game you can't quite shake the feeling that something is off. There's a sort of creeping unease that develops as you slowly start to realize the implications of the game's events. But it's definitely a good experience and I have quite a bit to say about it, so I'm throwing that in the spoiler tag.

  Reveal hidden contents

In the author's notes, ebi's description of her characterization work makes it clear that she was walking a very fine line between "human fuck-up", and "still a good person as a whole". I think it works quite well, and the characters can be hard to hate, as much as you want to- well, maybe barring Bell, who ultimately deals great harm to the family. The subversion of fanservice and sexuality to be something unpleasant in context is not something that's new, but this one is far more subtle about it than most VNs that pull that, which was a breath of fresh air. Instead of overly explicit h-scenes, the game is more concerned over character impact. And I always get a bit irritated over games with the "dating sims are bad because they take agency away from the heroine" message. They come off as moralizing and judgmental to me, but Sweetest Monster never seemed to be going for that. In the long run it was a sort of deconstruction of games like Nekopara (as ebi says in her notes), but instead of a hard critique of the genre, it felt like it was playing off its tropes for the sole purpose of affecting the viewer. The ending was unsettling to say the least, and while I had a hunch that something to that effect was going on, the foreshadowing was never overbearing, and just sort of understated. 

Thank you for making such a wonderful game, ebi-hime!

So in short, Aviary Attorney was good and fun and Sweetest Monster was fantastic, and they're both good choices, especially given their current price tag. And thanks to anyone who devoted their time to reading this ungodly text wall, ahaha. :wahaha:

Oh nice! Sweetest Monster had mine eye I'll have to make it the next VN I play

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Welp... Doki doki finished. It was definitely fun, totally different from any VN I've played. I think you have to view it from the right angle in order to appreciate it, since it's a NOVEL whose focus is not the story nor the characters. It's actually so different that I don't think it'd be crazy to set it apart as something else, a whole different genre or type of fictional work. 

If it were longer it would've probably turned out tedious, but as it is, I consider it to be an experience worth playing.

Also, the memes, god they are good. Example: 

 

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