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Ok, i just read that infamous scene in Muv Luv Alternate.

Spoiler

 

And yeahhhh... That was Muv Luv NTR rape special. How do i know? well the vn doesn't seem to have anything vanilla and it totally wasn't needed. Like at all. Protecting Takerou and the fact that he was eaten by the beta and she reduced to a brain after mind probing and torture by being kept alive when her bodyparts were stripped away would have totally been sufficient for the drama of pushing him away to get him out of harms way in that current segment of the story. Not that they particularly needed any of this drama in the first place. Otherwise the fact that they put too much emphasis on fetishizing it. Like nipple insertion, tentacles, pee/poo draining(?) exhibition (well, she said she'd like it), thrusting her own hips, forgetting all about Takerou.. all these standard faire rape turned to pleasure things. Japanese people are truly fucked in the head, sorry to say. This stuff is all too common in japanese media.  But that's not all. All this was said in a way to make takerou (for the benefit of the reader) feel as terrible as possible by detailing everything to the smallest detail. What happens afterwards? Takerou is not even shocked, he just moves past it... See? they just wanted to insert such a scene for no good reason. NO CHANCE would Takerou not be shocked entirely speechless. he's not very emotionally stable yet in this story and was shown that of what he calls his second half. His love since he was a kid, but didn't really seem to care much. He'd be utterly speechless and conflicted and she'd likely have to leave due to his silence in shock until he could figure out how to deal with it and get past it over time before he could reearn her trust. But not if it's a scene put there simply for some other reason, because then he's suddenly the most robotic human ever. Yes, every single person on this planet would have been shocked into silence after seeing their loved one in such a situation. Unless they're a psycopath of course.

Beta doesn't see humans as lifeforms, yet instead of brutal murder by animalistic monsters they suddenly want to to figure out how to pleasure them. as best as they can.. Jesus christ And no, i'm fairly desensitized to NTR at this point so it doesn't matter much, but i call bullshit when i see it.

It is sad that they shat on the main heroine in such a serious and good visual novel though. I'm sure it was a major risk for them, so why not go a more...... What's to be expected type of scenario. And that is figuring out how the brain and nerveous system works quite obviously by probing their brains, not fucking them raw for however long xD

If i were a betting man this was a scene shoehorned into the VN pretty late in the development by some weird ass boss.

Oops. guess there was a normal h scene too. Was told there wasn't really. Pretty weird

 

 

Edited by Stormwolf
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I've heard many people say that that particular scene is so traumatizing and horrible, but it honestly didn't have nearly that big an impact on me. Is it a lot worse in the 18+ version of the game? Back when I read the VN, the 18+ patch didn't exist yet (it wasn't released until almost a year after the game), so all I know is the censored version.
"That other scene" earlier in the VN affected me to a much greater degree, to the point where it actually triggered a panic attack. (I assume that's the kind of effect they were hoping for when they wrote it.) MLA is the only piece of media ever that has managed to do that to me.

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3 hours ago, Seraphim said:

I've heard many people say that that particular scene is so traumatizing and horrible, but it honestly didn't have nearly that big an impact on me. Is it a lot worse in the 18+ version of the game? Back when I read the VN, the 18+ patch didn't exist yet (it wasn't released until almost a year after the game), so all I know is the censored version.
"That other scene" earlier in the VN affected me to a much greater degree, to the point where it actually triggered a panic attack. (I assume that's the kind of effect they were hoping for when they wrote it.) MLA is the only piece of media ever that has managed to do that to me.

Spoiler

I bet you're talking about their teacher when her head is crushed. Hmm, i was shocked to be sure as it was a huge not so nice surprise... and had a long stare at it for a few mins to collect my thoughts. At the end i found it a bit of a forced shock factor. I was sad of course since i love that character, but her death felt a bit forced so the impact wasn't big. I still miss her :(

 

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Yeah, that's the one.

Spoiler

She's one of my favorite characters, and that definitely served to increase the impact that scene had on me. As horrible as it was though, I actually feel like it added depth to the game in the way that it makes the player potentially suffer some PTSD symptoms themselves just as Takeru did. It somehow made it more realistic and relatable, despite all the ridiculous stuff going on in the story.

 

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9 hours ago, Seraphim said:

I've heard many people say that that particular scene is so traumatizing and horrible, but it honestly didn't have nearly that big an impact on me. Is it a lot worse in the 18+ version of the game? Back when I read the VN, the 18+ patch didn't exist yet (it wasn't released until almost a year after the game), so all I know is the censored version.
"That other scene" earlier in the VN affected me to a much greater degree, to the point where it actually triggered a panic attack. (I assume that's the kind of effect they were hoping for when they wrote it.) MLA is the only piece of media ever that has managed to do that to me.

The best way to know is by looking at the CG I guess

Spoiler

What did you see in the censored version? The scene was pretty harsh and brutal so I cannot imagine what they displayed instead

 

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48 minutes ago, TheMode911 said:

 

  Hide contents

What did you see in the censored version? The scene was pretty harsh and brutal so I cannot imagine what they displayed instead

 

I honestly don't even remember any specific details. I guess that in itself is proof that it impacted me far less than that other scene, which I can clearly recall to this day despite the fact that this happened several years ago.
I've been intending to reread MLA at some point, and I'll make sure to use the 18+ patch this time around to see what it's like then.

Edited by Seraphim
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Spoiler

 

Poor Takerou. All this crap he's been trough and no one respects him one bit. This scene stuck out. Meya was pleading in her stoic way for the imperial robot she was gifted by her sister the shogun. Takerou tried speakig up to help her but Meya silenced him immediately. Right after Chizuru starts doing the same, but Meya let's her speak. Not to mention that he has a phoney rank which no one cares about (even disrespects him during combat) and no scene after he received it has given us the "he sure ranked up" feeling im sure many wished to see. If he never received the rank then no one would notice a difference. 

So come on Takerou, grow a spine. It's a downwards spiral once women starts disrespecting you

 

 

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Finished World End Syndrome a few moments ago. I'm a big mystery fan, but I ruined the experience for myself here to some extent by unintentionally spoiling myself.
 

Spoiler

See, the thing is that I have this habit of, in games with nameless protagonists (such as Persona), look up if there's a canon name for him or her. As such, I googled "<game title> protagonist name" as I usually do and was immediately met by the name "Sora Otonashi". The game had a limit of 6 letters per name though, so I settled for "Sora Otona" instead.
Unfortunately, I soon realized, basically right at the start of the game, that this name was in fact a huge spoiler, as I was introduced to a certain "Yukino Otonashi". It didn't take a lot of brain power to deduce that this was most likely the supposedly dead sister of the protagonist. Suffice to say, this made the whole reveal at the end of the game quite anticlimactic.
Not only that, but the game apparently wasn't expecting anyone to name the protagonist "Sora" from the getgo, because there was a bunch of dialogue towards the end about how "Sora's" name was "Sora", not "Sora". This made it all seem more like some sort of comedy skit rather than the serious scene it was supposed to be, and the same goes for the grand reveal of Sora's name itself.

g1vzLb.jpg

4B7EOh.jpg

TQzdx4.jpg

Yeah.


Anyway, despite this and the cliffhanger-ish ending, I found the VN quite enjoyable as a whole, and I'm looking forward to see what they do with the sequel.

Edited by Seraphim
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[Majikoi]

Alright, next week is Agave time! :ezgif-2-df452814b3f1: Anyways, this week I finished reading the female sub routes.

Chika (5/10)

I've never had a big opinion abt her; she always seemed a bit superficial and fakey for me. In some routes, she can be a handful, too...

Spoiler

Ok, this was pretty weak. Sure, it was kinda sweet (pun intended) and all, but it was very mid, compared to the others... Even Kojima's was better! I guess Chika is just so plain and superficial compared to the other heroines that it ends up being rather underwhelming. I thought the part in which she would tell him how to be and how to dress would create more drama but it seems it didn't, huh.

Mayo (5/10)

My feelings for her are the same ones I have for Chika: meh. She wasn't very interesting and her only feature was being a loli.

Spoiler

 

Oh, and she has a poor family. I don't really mind that, but they could have developed that a little more in her own route, ffs.

I feel like this was really not necessary. I know, I know: it was probably made to appeal to the lolicons buying this game, but seriously! They could have made a better job - but that would require a longer route.

 

Kojima-sensei (6/10)

I find her an interesting character, for sure. At first, I wasn't sure how she'd fit with Yamato, but her route was rather cute.

Spoiler

Other than that cute parts, this route was pretty meh. I found her moments with Yamato pretty adorable and I really liked that side of her but I HATED how Yamato just raped her and there were no consequences... but I guess that's just old eroge logic. No, what I rly disliked was how prematurely the route ended. I understand if you don't want to focus so much on her because she isn't that important, but then why make a route for her in the first place? Just to see an h-scene and a "happy ending"? 'K then. I noticed this was pretty much the problem with all these sub routes, girls or not. I guess that's why they are called sub routes in the first place...

I'm so excited to read Agave!! Everyone says it's the best part of the entire vn, so I hope it does live up to my expectations! :yes:

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6 hours ago, Seraphim said:

Finished World End Syndrome a few moments ago. I'm a big mystery fan, but I ruined the experience for myself here to some extent by unintentionally spoiling myself.
 

  Reveal hidden contents

See, the thing is that I have this habit of, in games with nameless protagonists (such as Persona), look up if there's a canon name for him or her. As such, I googled "<game title> protagonist name" as I usually do and was immediately met by the name "Sora Otonashi". The game had a limit of 6 letters per name though, so I settled for "Sora Otona" instead.
Unfortunately, I soon realized, basically right at the start of the game, that this name was in fact a huge spoiler, as I was introduced to a certain "Yukino Otonashi". It didn't take a lot of brain power to deduce that this was most likely the supposedly dead sister of the protagonist. Suffice to say, this made the whole reveal at the end of the game quite anticlimactic.
Not only that, but the game apparently wasn't expecting anyone to name the protagonist "Sora" from the getgo, because there was a bunch of dialogue towards the end about how "Sora's" name was "Sora", not "Sora". This made it all seem more like some sort of comedy skit rather than the serious scene it was supposed to be, and the same goes for the grand reveal of Sora's name itself.

g1vzLb.jpg

4B7EOh.jpg

TQzdx4.jpg

Yeah.


Anyway, despite this and the cliffhanger-ish ending, I found the VN quite enjoyable as a whole, and I'm looking forward to see what they do with the sequel.

Congratulations, you played yourself :P

But, jokes aside, I'm also looking forward to the sequel :)Luckily, for this VN I managed to go spoiler-free. BTW I think that weird character limit for protagonist's name is there because developers couldn't be bothered to properly adapt the system from the Japanese version for English release - in Japanese number of characters would be enough for almost any possible name, when writing in kanji.

BTW I have to ask - if I enjoyed this VN, would I be okay with Higurashi? (I'm almost 100% sure that Subahibi is a no-go for me, but Higurashi doesn't seem so fucked-up based on reviews)

 

  

4 hours ago, Fujoneko said:

Agave!! Everyone says it's the best part of the entire vn

Yes it is, no doubts about it :D

 

Edited by adamstan
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6 hours ago, adamstan said:

BTW I think that weird character limit for protagonist's name is there because developers couldn't be bothered to properly adapt the system from the Japanese version for English release - in Japanese number of characters would be enough for almost any possible name, when writing in kanji.

Yeah, that's what I figured as well. It'd be pretty weird to implement such a limit otherwise, when most of the other characters have names that are longer than that.
 

6 hours ago, adamstan said:

if I enjoyed this VN, would I be okay with Higurashi?

Hard to say since I don't know quite how sensitive you are or what type of content affects you most. I found Higurashi a lot less disturbing than SubaHibi, but it's definitely a few shades darker and more impactful than World End Syndrome. In any case, I highly recommend you give it a try, because it's quite a ride if you're up for it! Just remember to grab the 07th-Mod.

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On 2/28/2021 at 8:33 AM, Seraphim said:

Hard to say since I don't know quite how sensitive you are or what type of content affects you most. I found Higurashi a lot less disturbing than SubaHibi, but it's definitely a few shades darker and more impactful than World End Syndrome.

Hmm... apart from fucked-up h-content, I guess I'm also not good with too depressing mindfuck stuff, like death games etc. (Those two combined rule out things like Euphoria ;)) To give an example - I know that it's rather mild (and I think a talked about it once here), but I got severely disturbed by watching "The Cube" in the highschool (I think I was 16 back then). Not because of the gory bits, but more because back then I found the overall message kind of depressing.

Mystery, violence etc are all fine, as long as it doesn't all spiral down into "All people are monsters, world is fucked-up beyond repair, no hope, no future, no love and it's best to die anyway" kind of stuff ;) Basically - no hard utsuge please.

It's just that after reading WES and finding out that I enjoyed its mystery part, I kind of started to warm-up to the idea of tackling Higurashi one day ;)

Edited by adamstan
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Too bad you don't own a Switch, or you could've picked up that version for a measly ¥3960. It's, to my knowledge, the only release that includes the story in its (current) entirety ("all 19 console arcs, the drama cd arc, Hajisarashi-hen, plus the three Hou exclusive arcs", to quote VNDb). That's some serious bang for the buck.
(Dunno if you're at the point where you can read Japanese without a text hooker though, so maybe it wouldn't help you even if you had the console.)

EDIT: I just noticed that the Switch version was apparently later ported to PS4, so maybe that's an option for you.

Edited by Seraphim
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45 minutes ago, Seraphim said:

(Dunno if you're at the point where you can read Japanese without a text hooker though, so maybe it wouldn't help you even if you had the console.)

Sadly, most of console versions newer than PS3 are no good for me. I don't own any console (and I'm not ready to go without text hooking yet since I have to look up lot of words), so I have to rely on emulators. PS4 isn't emulated yet, so that version is out of question. As for Switch - there's an emu, and I managed to play World End Syndrome with it, but the performance was far from stellar, and I'm not sure how hook-friendly Switch emulation is ;)

But then maybe I should try my luck with PS3 version? It looks like I could get it (used) from amazon for ¥4400 (incl. shipping). Just have to check if it's hookable beforehand, since some VN engines are weird, and don't have separate memory area for textbox contents. In those cases, or when the game uses non-standard text encoding, hooking is impossible.

Edited by adamstan
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9 minutes ago, Seraphim said:

I haven't actually gotten started on the console arcs myself yet, since I want to read them all in one go.

I'm not sure if I'm actually that interested in console arcs, since they apparently are just extensions made by different(?) writers. Also, given sheer length of the story, maybe I should stick to the english version? ;) I guess that finishing it in Japanese would take me something like half a year :P

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Muv luv alternative chronicles The Day After 3

Well, Age doesn't like their protagonists. Always the same crappy drama of the protagonist being a weak person and wasting a shitton of time on having us read the self-deprecating thoughts they have over, over, over and over again. It never ends. They say they're over it, they promise that they now have goals, but they end up spiraling back to this self-deprecating as if they suffer from dementia or something. First it was Takeru, now it's Hibiki. 

The story is interesting outside that of course, but at some point this crap is almost all we read. 

Edited by Stormwolf
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10 hours ago, Seraphim said:

Reading the English Steam version is definitely a safer bet then. If you want to delve into the console arcs later, all you need to play them on PC is a copy of Chapter 4.

Yup. Also, I just found out that Steam version has both English and Japanese text included - so I'd probably will go indeed with Steam version + 07thMod. PS3 version is unfortunately unhookable. But I have to say that PS3 opening song kicks ass - so I'm really glad that 07thMod includes it too :)

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11 hours ago, adamstan said:

I'm not sure if I'm actually that interested in console arcs, since they apparently are just extensions made by different(?) writers. Also, given sheer length of the story, maybe I should stick to the english version? ;) I guess that finishing it in Japanese would take me something like half a year :P

 I haven't read them myself, but it seems to be the common knowledge that the console exclusive arcs are pretty bad and make the whole game way too long. The exceptions are the arcs based on the manga created by the original author.

EDIT. I somehow missed it when I posted it, but don't read the annotations unless you finished the first 4 arcs from the main game!

https://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?id=6399

https://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?id=6398

24 minutes ago, adamstan said:

But I have to say that PS3 opening song kicks ass

Honestly, almost all openings are pretty good. :yumiko:

Edited by Dreamysyu
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15 hours ago, adamstan said:

Hmm... apart from fucked-up h-content, I guess I'm also not good with too depressing mindfuck stuff, like death games etc. (Those two combined rule out things like Euphoria ;)) To give an example - I know that it's rather mild (and I think a talked about it once here), but I got severely disturbed by watching "The Cube" in the highschool (I think I was 16 back then). Not because of the gory bits, but more because back then I found the overall message kind of depressing.

Mystery, violence etc are all fine, as long as it doesn't all spiral down into "All people are monsters, world is fucked-up beyond repair, no hope, no future, no love and it's best to die anyway" kind of stuff ;) Basically - no hard utsuge please.

It's just that after reading WES and finding out that I enjoyed its mystery part, I kind of started to warm-up to the idea of tackling Higurashi one day ;)

Euphoria and Higurashi don't have anything in common... Higurashi is way more focused on psychological horror, while Euphoria is exactly what you'd expect [tho with great story]. Also there is a ton of SoL cutsy stuff in Higu, so you'll be fine. The og anime made Higurashi sound way worse than it actually is!

That said, Umineko is better! But I do recommend reading them in order so you can enjoy some of Umi's twists and references :D

Edited by Silvz
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Oh, forgot to mention. I took my own advice and, with pain in my heart, I gave up reading Adabana. It's great, beautiful, wonderful music. Unfortunatelly, I've been working reading texts all day long, so I didn't feel joy reading it, and since I stalled it so long ago, I decided to move on. Now I'm reading Flowers 3!

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I also forgot to mention, that yesterday I finished Himawari no Kyoukai to Nagai Natsuyasumi. It took me ~90hrs over three weeks, so perhaps half or one-third of my "normal" (translated) reading speed ;)

It was great story about friendship, family and time, with a bit of magical undertones - a little KEY-like.

In my previous post I mentioned Daiya's route - it was quite typical ojousama moege route, but very enjoyable. Then I read Ruka's route - it had very different mood, with a bit of mystery and magic, and quite interesting twist. Tsukiko's route (console only) was again more lighthearted, but it also featured some additional foreshadowing for Yomi's route.

Yomi's route, unlocked after completing those three above, is kind of pre-true route ;) It made the most use of the supernatural parts, and was quite nakige'y. I loved it.

Completing Yomi's route unlocks Hina's, which is The True Route. Hina is much younger than the rest of the cast - when we meet her, she's little girl who just came to the Oboshiro church after loosing her parents (or so it seems), and Father Arakawa is taking care of her - just like he did for Yousuke (protagonist) years ago.

Hina is really cute, and quickly becomes friends with Yousuke and the girls. It's really heartwarming to watch how they all are doting over her in common route and some parts of the girls' routes :abilove:.

Hina's actual route branches off early part of Yomi's route. It covers an (unexpected) link between Yousuke and her and ultimately ends with Yousuke becoming her guardian, and them living in (now closed) Oboshiro church. (I think the conclusion itself isn't that big of the spoiler, since the most interesting parts lie inbetween.) Luckily, Yousuke isn't lolicon, so there isn't any H stuff in this route in any version of the game ;) Overally, this route was very heartwarming.

But that's just a first part. After completing little Hina's route, the following part of the true route unlocks from the main menu. It is continuation of Hina's route after ten years timeskip, following the struggles of Yousuke's and Hina's family life and her growing up. It was really nice family-focused coming of age story. I think we could draw some parallels with Matsuri's route from Kazoku Keikaku, although it is a bit different. But the common point of two people with considerable age gap falling in love remains. Here we also get to know more about Hina's family. Daiya, Ruka and Tsukiko also come back as supporting characters. It was quite a ride, definitely pinnacle of this VN. And the ending was very fulfilling.

Art and music is gorgeous. Voices were also nice, I'd just wish that all characters were voiced. As it is, only female characters are fully voiced. For male characters, only three of them are voiced - Father Arakawa, Daiya's grandfather and one other guy who's identity should remain secret, since it's a bit of a spoiler ;) Other male characters are unvoiced and spriteless - those two things combined often tripped me up a bit, since I had to stop for a moment to check if the line I'm just reading is protagonist or one of those characters ;) But that's just a minor complaint.

It would also be nice, if common route had some more variety/branches. As it is now, while it has lots of choices, those choices are just convoluted way to select the route, and in common route they change just a few lines, if anything. So after a first playthrough, common route consist mostly of skipping ;)

I also skipped through +18 PC version. I didn't like placement of most of the H-scenes, and also I strongly dislike the style of HCGs this VN uses, with big focus on the genital area often taking up to the half of the screen. It's fine in the nukige, but in romance story I'd prefer something less obviously porny. Aokana did great job at that with most of its HCGs. So with that considered, I'd take additional Tsukiko's route of the PS3 version over those dubious H-scenes ;)

Time to sum up this horrible wall of text - HimaNatsu is definitely one of the charage gems, and I'm really glad I read it. 8.5/10

 

Edited by adamstan
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