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20 minutes ago, GXOALMD said:
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I really like how even though the first bunch of Alternative is reliving the events of Unlimited, that segment is still more different from Unlimited than Unlimited was from Extra.

 

Yep, that's true. When I started reading it, it felt like it was written by different authors or something like that.

It will be interesting to see what you will think about Unlimited after finishing Alternative. I'd love to talk about why Unlimited is written the way it is written, but that would be a bit spolery right now.

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1 hour ago, Dreamysyu said:

Yep, that's true. When I started reading it, it felt like it was written by different authors or something like that.

It will be interesting to see what you will think about Unlimited after finishing Alternative. I'd love to talk about why Unlimited is written the way it is written, but that would be a bit spolery right now.

Without spoiling anything, is it intentional that the jokes get progressively less obnoxious?  Like in Extra they bordered on physically painful to read, but now that I'm in Alternative there are a small handful of jokes that are actually vaguely funny.

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43 minutes ago, GXOALMD said:

Without spoiling anything, is it intentional that the jokes get progressively less obnoxious?  Like in Extra they bordered on physically painful to read, but now that I'm in Alternative there are a small handful of jokes that are actually vaguely funny.

Well, surprisingly, it kind of is intentional in some way? :vanilla: I mean, I doubt that they intentionally made the jokes in Unlimited more obnoxious, but these types of jokes are pretty standard for a generic shounen, and that is probably intentional.

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Anyone got any input to share on Chrono Clock? I'm currently reading Hapymaher and think it's one of the more entertaining VNs I've read lately, so I figured I'd look into something else from the same studio. I dunno if I had Chrono Clock confused with some other title or something, because I've been under the impression that it's mediocre at best, but it turns out it actually has the same rating as Hapymaher on VNDb. The story seems pretty interesting based on the description there.

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38 minutes ago, Dreamysyu said:

Well, surprisingly, it kind of is intentional in some way? :vanilla: I mean, I doubt that they intentionally made the jokes in Unlimited more obnoxious, but these types of jokes are pretty standard for a generic shounen, and that is probably intentional.

I think so as well. Extra's cliches and humour were terrible to a degree where the game bordered on being a parody of the rom-com genre. Unlimited is all about Takeru maturing out of that world so it makes sense that the humour would do the same. I'm not a fan of Unlimited either as it still employs some of the same storytelling tropes as Extra. Going this route still makes a lot of sense if you look at Takeru's character arc over the trilogy, so the creators probably knew very well what they were doing.

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37 minutes ago, Seraphim88 said:

Anyone got any input to share on Chrono Clock? I'm currently reading Hapymaher and think it's one of the more entertaining VNs I've read lately, so I figured I'd look into something else from the same studio. I dunno if I had Chrono Clock confused with some other title or something, because I've been under the impression that it's mediocre at best, but it turns out it actually has the same rating as Hapymaher on VNDb. The story seems pretty interesting based on the description there.

Well, I enjoyed Chrono Clock very much, however, after reading some posts about Hapymaher decided to pass on it. CC seems to be much more lighthearted than Hapymaher, although still has its emotional moments.

While both games are from the same studio, they have completely different writers, so I wouldn't expect too much similarities between them.

Edited by adamstan
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Yeah, there are plenty of funny and weird things happening in Hapymaher, but the underlying story is pretty serious so things can get kinda depressing at times. I'm still only near the end (I think) of the first heroine route, though.
In any case, I think it's probably just a good thing if Chrono Clock is a bit more lighthearted, as a contrast to all the sad and/or intense VNs I've read lately.

Edited by Seraphim88
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I don't think I'll ever get why some developers feel the need to add weird upskirt shots in scenes where it's completely uncalled for. I just saw a godawful example in Hapymaher. If anyone's interested, this is the one:
(note that it can be considered a spoiler, but I don't think it says much for someone who isn't reading the VN)

Spoiler

YZdV3I.png

It's one of the most serious moments in the VN so far, but this CG really ruins the atmosphere and the impact that the scene is supposed to have.

Edited by Seraphim88
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@Seraphim88 By the way, when you finish the first route in Hapymaher, if you restart the game from the very beginning, there will be a new choice close to the beginning of the common route. One of the options, For some reason, I saw a blue sky,  is needed to reach the true ending. I highly recommend choosing a different option before you actually aim to reach the true ending, or the very next scene will most likely spoil a certain plot point that's you probably shouldn't spoil at this point. That happened to me while I was playing it.

Edited by Dreamysyu
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4 hours ago, Seraphim88 said:

Anyone got any input to share on Chrono Clock? I'm currently reading Hapymaher and think it's one of the more entertaining VNs I've read lately, so I figured I'd look into something else from the same studio. I dunno if I had Chrono Clock confused with some other title or something, because I've been under the impression that it's mediocre at best, but it turns out it actually has the same rating as Hapymaher on VNDb. The story seems pretty interesting based on the description there.

Gave Chrono Clock a 8.5/10 recently, I liked it a lot, it had some unique spins to common tropes/heroine types and a cast of very lively and likeable heroines, definitely more of an easy-going, lighthearted VN with a pick me up atmosphere most of the time, but still touching upon some meaningful topics in an accessible way. A lot of "witty banter" going on, for lack of better words.

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A question for someone (@Dreamysyu perhaps?) who has finished Hapymaher:

I'm done with Saki's, Yayoi's and Keiko's routes and got started on Alice's a couple of hours ago, but I noticed in the guide I'm following that she has two endings; one of which is labeled "True Ending".
Is this the actual true ending of the VN or is it just referring to the true ending of Alice's route? Maia's route is listed after Alice's in the walkthrough, which makes me a bit uncertain, since true routes tend to come last.

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55 minutes ago, Seraphim88 said:

I'm done with Saki's, Yayoi's and Keiko's routes and got started on Alice's a couple of hours ago, but I noticed in the guide I'm following that she has two endings; one of which is labeled "True Ending".
Is this the actual true ending of the VN or is it just referring to the true ending of Alice's route? Maia's route is listed after Alice's in the walkthrough, which makes me a bit uncertain, since true routes tend to come last.

Save Alice's true ending for last I'd say. Maia's isn't a full route so maybe that's why the guide put her last. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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13 hours ago, Seraphim88 said:

A question for someone (@Dreamysyu perhaps?) who has finished Hapymaher:

I'm done with Saki's, Yayoi's and Keiko's routes and got started on Alice's a couple of hours ago, but I noticed in the guide I'm following that she has two endings; one of which is labeled "True Ending".
Is this the actual true ending of the VN or is it just referring to the true ending of Alice's route? Maia's route is listed after Alice's in the walkthrough, which makes me a bit uncertain, since true routes tend to come last.

Sorry for the late reply. I wasn't online.

Well, it's been a while, but do you, perhaps, need to play the true route first to understand what happens in Maia's ending? Still, like @ArgentstR said, I'd recommend to play Alice's true ending last simply because it's a lot better place to finish the whole VN.

Here's my old post about route order in this VN from the walkthrough thread that never got accepted.

On 8/2/2018 at 10:37 PM, Dreamysyu said:

So, yeah. Finished this today, and I confirm two things I said before:

  1. The choice leading to the true ending unlocks after finishing one arbitrary route, but don't choose "For some reason, I saw a blue sky" before you are actually ready to read the true route, or you will be spoiled almost instantly! I believe, it should be added to the walkthrough, it's pretty important.
  2. Also, if you don't read Alice's normal ending, the true ending won't make any sense. Don't worry, you won't have to replay the whole route to reach it, the normal ending appears almost instantly after you finish the common route, and only the true end has an actual character route leading to it.

Overall, I suggest the following route order: Saki->Yayoi->Keiko->Maia->Alice normal-> Alice true. The bad and the normal endings are not very important and can be skipped, though both of them contain unique CGs. On the other hand, the bad ending is very short and easy to get to. The normal end, if someone is interested, is basically this (chapter 7 spoilers):

  Reveal hidden contents

the protagonist doesn't have sex with anybody at the end of the common route, and remains a girl.

 

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I just finished the true route, because I wasn't able to put it off once I went through Alice's normal route. I did the first three routes in the same order mentioned above (Saki->Yayoi->Keiko), but now I'm kinda questioning if that was really the best way to do it.

Spoiler

In Saki's route, there's a flashback scene where you see Tohru briefly interact with a girl in a hospital room. I don't think there was any name mentioned at this point, but the fact that she looked like Alice and had the same text color as her in the dialogue was more or less a dead giveaway. I suspected from early on in the story that the reason Alice couldn't remember being awake was because she actually never was (due to either being in a coma, very ill or maybe even stuck in some sort of limbo on her deathbed), and that she might be the one controlling the dream, either consciously or unconsciously. That one scene pretty much confirmed all my suspicions, in a route where there really was no reason for me to learn it. I honestly don't see the purpose of putting that scene in that route, but since it's there, I'm thinking it might have been better to read it just before Alice's route rather than first of all.

 

Edited by Seraphim88
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1 hour ago, Seraphim88 said:

I just finished the true route, because I wasn't able to put it off once I went through Alice's normal route. I did the first three routes in the same order mentioned above (Saki->Yayoi->Keiko), but now I'm kinda questioning if that was really the best way to do it.

  Hide contents

In Saki's route, there's a flashback scene where you see Tohru briefly interact with a girl in a hospital room. I don't think there was any name mentioned at this point, but the fact that she looked like Alice and had the same text color as her in the dialogue was more or less a dead giveaway. I suspected from early on in the story that the reason Alice couldn't remember being awake was because she actually never was (due to either being in a coma, very ill or maybe even stuck in some sort of limbo on her deathbed), and that she might be the one controlling the dream, either consciously or unconsciously. That one scene pretty much confirmed all my suspicions, in a route where there really was no reason for me to learn it. I honestly don't see the purpose of putting that scene in that route, but since it's there, I'm thinking it might have been better to read it just before Alice's route rather than first of all.

 

Well, I don't really remember anymore why exactly I recommended this route order, but, overall, I think, Saki's route may just set the overall tone of the VN better, and, I also find her route the best in the whole VN, even if I didn't really like her character that much. I personally started with Yayoi, and I personally found her route very underwhelming compared to the other two routes.

Also,

Spoiler

did this particular spoiler affect your enjoyment of the VN that much? I mean, I realized that the whole VN takes place in one giant dream after I accidentally chose the option leading to the true route, and that definitely lowered the impact of the other endings. On the other hand, even if you know some of Alice's backstory right away, what does it change, really? Even if you play this route right before you get to Alice's, you will still know that when you actually start her route, so this doesn't really change anything in the end. Also, it's a pretty common cliche in these kinds of stories, so it's probably possible to make a good guess even without that scene. You may even consider it as some sort of foreshadowing, and I personally believe that main plot points should be foreshadowed early on, since they may feel completely random and out of place later. Though, I guess, they probably should've made this particular foreshadowing a bit less obvious.

By the way, it didn't really matter to me, since I've already seen screenshots of Arisu even before I started, so I already had some idea of who she was.

Also, I'd say, in the end the only thing that really matters that much is that you play Maia's and Alice's routes in the end.

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26 minutes ago, Dreamysyu said:

I personally started with Yayoi, and I personally found her route very underwhelming compared to the other two routes.

Yeah, Yayoi's route was my least favorite one, mostly due to

Spoiler

the fact that she was a selfish jerk in the later parts. Not only did she try to trap people in her dream; when Tohru finally pulled her out of it, she started ignoring him and was going to catch that plane to the UK without even saying goodbye. That didn't sit well with me, to say the least.

 

27 minutes ago, Dreamysyu said:
Spoiler

did this particular spoiler affect your enjoyment of the VN that much?

 

Well, it was nagging at the back of my mind and I would have preferred to have it revealed later on because of that, but it's not like it ruined my impression of the VN or anything. I tend to overanalyze a lot whenever I'm reading mystery stories, which quite often leads to me figuring out plot twists far in advance, although I've also been completely off the mark in some cases. One example of the latter is that I briefly suspected that

Spoiler

Maia might actually have been the one to make it out of the forest, while Tohru was the one who died. The dream where Tohru suddenly turned into a girl was one of the things that seemed to me like potential foreshadowing.

In any case, I liked Hapymaher more than expected, and now I really wish I could move on to read Fragmentation Dream, since it apparently continues where the true ending of the original left off. I've been studying Japanese for a while, but I'm nowhere near good enough to actually read anything, unfortunately. Maybe I should consider making it my first text hooking experience?

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10 minutes ago, Seraphim88 said:

One example of the latter is that I briefly suspected that

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Maia might actually have been the one to make it out of the forest, while Tohru was the one who died. The dream where Tohru suddenly turned into a girl was one of the things that seemed to me like potential foreshadowing.

Spoiler

Oh, wow, I actually had exactly the same hypothesis. Actually, I felt like some evidence was very clear, so I was actually pretty surprised that it wasn't the case in the end. Well, who knows, maybe that was actually intended, and the true ending is a lie. :makina:

 

22 minutes ago, Seraphim88 said:

In any case, I liked Hapymaher more than expected,

Well, unfortunately, it was the opposite for me. I was very hyped about this VN before it was released and bought it on the same day as it was released, but, overall, I felt a bit underwhelmed about the experience. I still liked it in the end, and, I think, the first half of the common route was really cool with how it introduced the girls and their internal worlds through their dreams. After that the plot started feeling kind of random, and there a lot of little things that really annoyed me and made my experience worse, and while it got a bit better in some of the character routes, it never really got back to the quality of the first few chapters.

Actually, for some reason this VN has some very polarizing opinions about it.

21 minutes ago, Seraphim88 said:

since it apparently continues where the true ending of the original left off.

Spoiler

Actually, I think somebody (perhaps, @Kiriririri?) mentioned that it does not directly continue from the true ending. Apparently, it basically makes the ending non-canon and continues from the point a bit earlier in the story.

 

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Just now, Dreamysyu said:
Spoiler

Apparently, it basically makes the ending non-canon and continues from the point a bit earlier in the story.

 

Oh, really? I just figured it was a continuation, since the VNDb description mentions the story takes place after

Spoiler

Yuuko's recovered to the point where she can attend school again; something we never got to see in the original.

If Fragmentation Dream isn't actually canon, I'm much less interested in it.

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