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Today I finished Multi's route in ToHeart.

Well, I understand those who say she's best girl. She's moe incarnate :D You just wanna take her home ;) Route was short, but very enjoyable, with some heartwarming and a bit tearjerking moments, as well as a sweet epilogue. I'm not sure if it was the best, but certainly in the top.

Also, if I'm not mistaken she's one of the first AI/robot-girl heroines to appear in VNs? Especially of the "too human" kind.

From the VNs that I've read, both Ame from Dal Segno and Yumemi from Planetarian seem to be her descendants in some ways.
 

Edited by adamstan
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I finished the little VN 'This was for you' (a short review of it is here) which I found very charming.

Now I have unexpectedly (because it was on sale on Steam) started Grisaia no Kajitsu. I started reading it yesterday and while I have no idea where the story will be going I can already say: finally a cool MC! It's really awesome to see such a proactive MC. So far I am intrigued and looking forward to continue reading tonight. And funny how I started it even though it had been nowhere on my list.

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16 hours ago, AustriaVNFan said:

I finished the little VN 'This was for you' (a short review of it is here) which I found very charming.

Now I have unexpectedly (because it was on sale on Steam) started Grisaia no Kajitsu. I started reading it yesterday and while I have no idea where the story will be going I can already say: finally a cool MC! It's really awesome to see such a proactive MC. So far I am intrigued and looking forward to continue reading tonight. And funny how I started it even though it had been nowhere on my list.

Grisaia is a bit contradicting where Yuuji is concerned. The vn tries it damnest to tell us that he's really an average and worthless guy (self insert purposes i suppose?) but he doesn't act like it. He's as you say, really cool. 

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2 hours ago, Seraphim88 said:

I'm about to start reading ef, but I don't know if I'm supposed to choose "Original Minori's Script" or "Advance NNL's Script" in the options. What's the difference, and which one should I use?

I have the exactly same question as you.

Searching I was only able to find this very old and vague post from Mangagamer explaining the differences. Sorry, I'm also lost but at least I can share with you this.

Quote

minori/NNL Engine Styles

When we worked on ef, we made numerous tweaks pertaining to fade and scroll speed. In addition, with fan feedback, we removed control lockout in various scenes. But let’s say you’d prefer minori’s original Japanese experience. Now you can! With a simple toggle in the configuration menu, you may switch between our technical code and minori’s technical code! Text remains the same in both versions.

Source: https://mangagamer.wordpress.com/2011/10/07/ef-the-first-tale-updates/

(It's kinda fun to browse the old blog and see how much Mangagamer has grown and changed.)

I've also found at the end of the post a image of the manual in a blog that reviewed the LE of ef and say a little about the differences.

Source: https://normanicgrav.blogspot.com/2015/02/unboxing-ef-fairy-tale-of-two-limited.html

And if someone can be more specific about the changes between NNL's script and Minori's script, I would be very happy to listen. 

Edited by nekofuwafuwa
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Ah, I was under the impression that the translation differed as well. Judging by the description on the blog, it sounds like NNL is the superior option, but I would very much like some confirmation from someone with personal experience!

While I'm waiting for a definite answer, I've started reading Hoshi Ori, and I figure I'll just go ahead and alternate between that and ef.
The protagonist gives a much better impression than the one from Hatsukoi, so it seems Tone Work's learned from their mistakes (unless it all goes south later on).

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1 hour ago, nekofuwafuwa said:

I have the exactly same question as you.

Searching I was only able to find this very old and vague post from Mangagamer explaining the differences. Sorry, I'm also lost but at least I can share with you this.

Source: https://mangagamer.wordpress.com/2011/10/07/ef-the-first-tale-updates/

(It's kinda fun to browse the old blog and see how much Mangagamer has grown and changed.)

I've also found at the end of the post a image of the manual in a blog that reviewed the LE of ef and say a little about the differences.

Source: https://normanicgrav.blogspot.com/2015/02/unboxing-ef-fairy-tale-of-two-limited.html

And if someone can be more specific about the changes between NNL's script and Minori's script, I would be very happy to listen. 

I believe I am reading the NNL script of EF. I didn't know about the 2nd option. Anyway the NNL translation is good so far. 

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On 3/23/2019 at 12:15 PM, Mr Poltroon said:

Freakily Charming recently put out another game that I feel truly lives up to the brand name.
Whilst Hitomebore was a very sweet tale of dealing with 'different', and the other title has its own appeal and fanbase, Butterfly Affection, the newest title, deals with the truly creepy. It's not long at all, and takes less than an hour, so I do recommend you give it a try if you're interested in cohabitating with a Gothic horror.

Spoiler

I wonder if I missed any nightmare fuel there, because in general, this was a surprisingly wholesome experience. I really like the subtle difference between the "proper" good ending, when you commit to the relationship and the "fake" good endings, where she drugs you to make you stay after you try escaping. Subtle horror storytelling at its best. 

But maybe that's the point too. When you make your protagonist live with an eldritch abomination, the lack of gory horror twist is a twist on its own? ^^

 

Anyway, quite an excellent little game. Makes me want to try Dorei to no Seikatsu even more, even though I feel like I should wait for when it gets more or less finished. It looks like the author still pushes out major updates and the fan patches aren't exactly up-to-date...

Edited by Plk_Lesiak
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8 minutes ago, Plk_Lesiak said:

Anyway, quite an excellent little game. Makes me want to try Dorei to no Seikatsu even more, even though I feel like I should wait for when it gets more or less finished. It looks like the author still pushes out major updates and the fan patches aren't exactly up-to-date...

I think the fanpatches are up to date, right now?

That said, I do not think that game has too much to offer. Unlike the other two, that one has minimal story content besides like 4 or 5 scenes. Its continued development mostly focuses on adding more outfits/art, more H-Scenes, or trying to optimise the code.

I do hope it gets some more 'story' content someday, though.

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16 minutes ago, Mr Poltroon said:

I think the fanpatches are up to date, right now?

That said, I do not think that game has too much to offer. Unlike the other two, that one has minimal story content besides like 4 or 5 scenes. Its continued development mostly focuses on adding more outfits/art, more H-Scenes, or trying to optimise the code.

I do hope it gets some more 'story' content someday, though.

Oh, I guess there's indeed an up-to-date English version now! I guess I'll... Check it out. To see how short the story actually is if you avoid the h-content.

I was always extremely curious about the theme and if there's that little story... I can at least read it in one evening. :3

Edited by Plk_Lesiak
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Utewarerumono mask of truth

Spoiler

 

What can i say? The plotline is good and im excited to see how the war will develop. Also it has a wide range of interesting characters. What do i think about Hakuo in this though? Absolute dogshit. Plotline about protagonist transforming into someone else is shit to begin with, but actually becoming him as it goes is worse. I liked Hakuo and did not want to play the game with oshtor as main lead. Yes, i hoped he'd be found out properly or realizing how pointless and silly his decission was to transform, but alas.. how is kuon though? Shit as well. It was truly sad at the end of the last game, and i got such hopes when she realized haku is oshtor with the emotions she displayed in the scene..... But that was all discarded and she just became the typical grumpy harem member who's neither too close nor too distant. Shit is what it is.

Well, the game got a lot of faults, but it is exiting. Just not in the main characters department. Its a harem through and throuhh, even if you know who tje main girl is from the get-go.

Gameplay is fun, but could have been a bit faster. At least let us skip those slow animations.

 

 

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On 6.4.2019 at 3:33 AM, Stormwolf said:

Grisaia is a bit contradicting where Yuuji is concerned. The vn tries it damnest to tell us that he's really an average and worthless guy (self insert purposes i suppose?) but he doesn't act like it. He's as you say, really cool. 

Really? Actually I am thinking quite the opposite: that the MC is quite obviously overpowered and way above average. Surely, he is weird enough at times that you can easily see why he goes to school with these others strange pupils but other than that I can see nothing average about him. But perhaps I am just not far enough in the game yet.

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1 hour ago, AustriaVNFan said:

Really? Actually I am thinking quite the opposite: that the MC is quite obviously overpowered and way above average. Surely, he is weird enough at times that you can easily see why he goes to school with these others strange pupils but other than that I can see nothing average about him. But perhaps I am just not far enough in the game yet.

It's related to his backstory.

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10 minutes ago, Stormwolf said:

It's related to his backstory.

Well, yeah, but the game never really suggest he's average or not very capable. He would like to be average because of how messed up his life has been and he's occasionally resigned/brooding because he considers himself a murderer. I don't think these are even spoilers, it's established quite clearly early in the common route of Kajitsu, later parts only explain the details of his past and the work he does.

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55 minutes ago, Plk_Lesiak said:

Well, yeah, but the game never really suggest he's average or not very capable. He would like to be average because of how messed up his life has been and he's occasionally resigned/brooding because he considers himself a murderer. I don't think these are even spoilers, it's established quite clearly early in the common route of Kajitsu, later parts only explain the details of his past and the work he does.

It does say he's average or below average. Naturally he is capable now. But he's capable because of his training etc.

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Finished MYTH last month. Definitely improved on the third chapter, I actually enjoyed myself most of the time. Overall, the game was really interesting in terms of the themes it dealt with. However, I personally didn't enjoy the writing style, it was simply too confusing and dense at times. I would have enjoyed the story more if it were written in a more traditional fashion, revealing information and plot twists to unravel the plot gradually, as opposed to leaving the reader mostly in the dark until the end. 7/10 - interesting concept for sure but just not really what I was looking for in terms of entertainment.

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Does anyone know what the characters are saying at the end of the credits in Ef: The First Tale? I just finished it, but I'm having this reccurring issue of the credit screen being completely black, so I can't see anything. I would really like to know what they were talking about, so I'd be very grateful if someone could give me an answer. (And even more grateful if someone could help me solve the black screen issue itself, which I created a topic about here just now.)

I tried searching for a video of the ending and accidentally ended up spoiling myself because someone wrote this in a title:

Spoiler

"Yuuko's death."

 

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Reading Kira*Kira...........

........................

Spoiler

WTF game!?

Are you serious!?

WHY DO THE MOST TRAGIC THINGS ALWAYS SEEM TO HAPPEN TO THE HAPPIEST LOOKING CHARACTERS!?

 

....... it's not like she died for The Mission (like say in Muv-Luv Alternative).

...... and it's not like I'm reading a KEY VN (which at least gives you a golden true end, where you can save her, and live happily).

........ and I didn't even trigger a Bad End Flag (game just goes on to chapter 4 like nothing happened)!

 

NOPE! She's dead, seemingly for no good reason.

Seemingly because the universe hated her....

:(

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I finished Eden* last week, and man was that a trip. Despite the length, the time spent with Sion felt genuine and precious. What stood out to me was how expressive everyone was. Even if it was basic, just having animation for the characters saying their lines made them feel more alive. I remember specifically Elica and Sion having scenes where it would show them from different perspectives, not something I've seen that often.

Spoiler

eden*.full.76424.jpgeden*.full.76065.jpgImage result for eden visual novel elica

I swear it's the music that makes these kind of games get to you. I enjoyed the soundtrack, and would get misty eyed with a couple songs in particular. This track in particular hit hard. Sion's theme fit so well, and felt bittersweet in so many ways. It's a shame that the ost was a bit hard to find, considering the quality.

I enjoyed it overall, and recommend it to anyone interested in reading a short yet high quality end of the world love story. Just be careful with those feels though.

 

 

On another note, I've been rereading The Fruit of Grisaia from the very beginning for the second time since MangaGamer released the unrated version not too long ago.

I forgot most of what happened in the common route, and have been enjoying it my second time through. I know it's the MangaGamer version for sure since there's some scenes that caught me off guard when I read them, thinking "wait there's no way this was in the steam version lol". It's interesting to read again having completed most of the routes. Plenty of foreshadowing, and an altogether different perspective. There's been a couple times where I've turned off the in-game music, and can see that scene in a completely different light. It's all so good. I'm taking it pretty slow to let it all seep in naturally instead of rushing through it all at once like I did when I first read it.

Funny enough, I'm planning to follow the same route format I did the first time around
Yumiko > Michiru > Sachi > Amane > Makina

My reason for reading it again:

Spoiler

0YJLwSy.png

 

Edited by dwaif
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Just finished Utewarerumono mask of truth 

Spoiler

 

Ohh boy was this a giant mixed bag of feelings. The character design, the way the story was told it was all top notch. It made me engrossed in the experience, but i enjoyed the gameplay as well, the little we got of it. But the story it told was just not as good. Up until the war was over it was amazing, yes, but i never liked this protagonist being someone else trope. Anyway, after the war ended it slowly devolved into a typical cliche anime storyline with the over the top villain who is evil for no reason, and somehow that gets solved as well, but he does evil things anyway! Need that final god'ish fight to be a proper jrpg! Well, that's what makes jrpg's bad, at least during their endings if you ask me. And to top it all we have the kamikaze protagonist again who's more or less looking for a reason to sacrifice his own life for the cause. At some point he stops looking for ways which will include him surviving and just taking the easy way, which ends his life. Again, sick stuff which is seemingly "romantic" in japan, for who knows what reason.

All in all, it was not worth the 60 hours i spent on it. It would have been better if it ended at the halfway point or if they sliced away the, i'll be brutally honest, fucking stupid ending sequence. Not to mention ending a trilogy on a open ended note. That's terrible in it's own right.

 

 

Edited by Stormwolf
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13 hours ago, Stormwolf said:

Just finished Utewarerumono mask of truth 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Ohh boy was this a giant mixed bag of feelings. The character design, the way the story was told it was all top notch. It made me engrossed in the experience, but i enjoyed the gameplay as well, the little we got of it. But the story it told was just not as good. Up until the war was over it was amazing, yes, but i never liked this protagonist being someone else trope. Anyway, after the war ended it slowly devolved into a typical cliche anime storyline with the over the top villain who is evil for no reason, and somehow that gets solved as well, but he does evil things anyway! Need that final god'ish fight to be a proper jrpg! Well, that's what makes jrpg's bad, at least during their endings if you ask me. And to top it all we have the kamikaze protagonist again who's more or less looking for a reason to sacrifice his own life for the cause. At some point he stops looking for ways which will include him surviving and just taking the easy way, which ends his life. Again, sick stuff which is seemingly "romantic" in japan, for who knows what reason.

All in all, it was not worth the 60 hours i spent on it. It would have been better if it ended at the halfway point or if they sliced away the, i'll be brutally honest, fucking stupid ending sequence. Not to mention ending a trilogy on a open ended note. That's terrible in it's own right.

 

 

Mostly agree.

Spoiler

I also hated how the game forced that entire last segment; it feels like you've "won", but the antagonist pulls some crap out of his ass because the game wants some epic final showdown of the heroes against impossible odds. And, of course, it uses the romanticised heroic sacrifice of the MC suiciding to defend his friends. I hate kamikaze endings every bit as much as you.

However, I disagree on the final notion. I didn't like how they did the ending, but the game wasn't ruined for me. I still loved it a lot and it's been an amazing saga to play. It's a bittersweet feeling due to a bad ending scene, but it hardly negates the many hours of great game, for me.

 

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5 hours ago, Jun Inoue said:

Mostly agree.

  Hide contents

I also hated how the game forced that entire last segment; it feels like you've "won", but the antagonist pulls some crap out of his ass because the game wants some epic final showdown of the heroes against impossible odds. And, of course, it uses the romanticised heroic sacrifice of the MC suiciding to defend his friends. I hate kamikaze endings every bit as much as you.

However, I disagree on the final notion. I didn't like how they did the ending, but the game wasn't ruined for me. I still loved it a lot and it's been an amazing saga to play. It's a bittersweet feeling due to a bad ending scene, but it hardly negates the many hours of great game, for me.

 

Spoiler

 

But the ending was so incomplete and straight up silly. Haku was pushed back from "heaven" and still wasn't really there, then why? Kuon kept looking for him, and finally seemed to find him, but as what? Something intangible or with physical form?

Why didn't they give at least some of those girls a guy, now they're all looking for Haku as some harem member... WHY? Atuy at least should have been matched with that prince, and similarly with others so that Kuon ended up as the true heroine without a shadow of a doubt, even though she is, which makes everything just weird and straight up unnecessary.

There is much to like about this game, but there is much senselessness as well. Let's say i'd never end a saga on such a vague, albeit mostly happy note.

 

 

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32703.jpg

So, I finally finished Midori no Umi after having it stalled for a while. The wannabe translation taken aside, this was still a rather bizarre experience. The VN somehow tries to be a simple moege while bombarding you with bad endings non-stop. It did manage to keep things interesting for a while though, the whole idea of the lost mansion in the woods certainly had potential. Unfortunately the execution was quite lacking.

Plot based VN's take a certain responsibility to handle characters and events at least with a minimum of maturity and credibility, or the story will fall flat on its face. But at times I was just flabbergasted about the lack of common sense characters were showing. Let's take Sara for example, even if she was probably my favorite character, when thinking things through, she might even be one of the worst.

Spoiler

In contrast to the other characters, she had pretty much all possibilities to change things. Not even considering that she was almost a mixture of James Bond, Ethan Hunt and Bruce Lee with tremendous physical capabilities, the simple reason that she always had a connection to the outside made me question why the heck she just didn't call the fu**ing police?! They'd have a field party to get an organization busted that literally specializes in child murder and captivity. As much as I liked her, she was certainly not the brightest light. :amane:

And the way how people go crazy at this place (including yourself) was just out of this world. Considering that they had literally everything they need for a comfortable living, including nice and helpful people around them, it was just bizarre.

Spoiler

I actually thought for a good while, that the place was actually located in a meta or dream world. And I wish it would. The whole killings would have made more sense if you have to 'die' to wake up or get back. It was even hard to blame Michiru, considering that she was manipulated by that adult woman (i've forgotten her name) and the people there actually DID go crazy at a ridiculous pace. Though I'm pretty sure that Tsumugi just wanted to get rid of everyone she found annoying - speaking of 'return of the killer loli's'. :P

Overall, I think this VN would have been better if they just made it a simple moege in a unique setting. The VN has very high production values, with good visuals and some very captivating sound tracks. It's a real pity that they were wasted for such a poorly written story.

Heroine ranking: Sara > Chisha > Haina > Michiru > Tsumugi > Rikuno = Sorane

Overall rating: 5.5/10 (I would have given a 6, but I've substracted half a grade for the translation)

Edited by ChaosRaven
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