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....I finished Island.

Goddamn, I haven't been this emotionally attached to a cast of characters in a looong time. Specifically the love tale between Setsuna and Rinne. It's just so fabulously romantic, everlasting love that transcends the boundaries of time... Sorry Sara and Karen, these two heroines get absolutely shafted in the grand scheme of things, but it worked in my favor anyways cuz I just ADORE Rinne.

Unfortunately can't say much without instantly getting into SPOILERS, but yeah, once I got into winter I was hooked until the end.

Random highlight reel (ULTIMATE SPOILERS) cuz I gotta rant about this stuff to get it out of my system or I'll get a real nasty case of post-VN completion withdrawal depression LOL:

Spoiler

Need some proper bgm playing for the following CG:

 

 

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I, uh, didn't know Rinne could make such a face o_o

Ah, the brilliant climax of Rinne's route. Here we have Rinne, inner conflict struggling with whether the protagonist Setsuna is the same Setsuna that she fell in love with 5 years ago before they had their little 'spirited away' accident, and due to Sara's time travel delusions the group mistakenly believes that Setsuna IS that same Setsuna and that he time traveled into the past to kill his past self in order to ensure Rinne's survival. She's not too happy that that resulted in her Setsuna dying, and so she demands protag Setsuna to name the one person he loves most of all so she can kill that person and make Setsuna feel the same exact despair that she's feeling now. To which of course, Setsuna replies "Rinne"- resulting in that CG above. Now at first you'd think that means she'll commit suicide- but this is where the whole "is this time travel thing really true, or is it all a bunch of islander kid delusions" comes into play- Rinne opts to go to the island where she was spirited away to time travel into the past and kill her past self to ensure her Setsuna's survival- just as Setsuna supposedly did to kill his past self to ensure Rinne's survival.

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Rinne's descent into madness was well done. Kinda hot. LOL. Felt utter chills as she was taunting Setsuna.

The confrontation was fierce:
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But ultimately, when the pair stumbles upon the real Setsuna's bones during their quarrel, they realize that they didn't actually travel to the past- in fact there was never any time travel all. No protag Setsuna going into the past multiple times to figure out a way to have both of them survive the desert island- no protag Setsuna killing his past self to ensure Rinne's survival. There was just real Setsuna finding the cold sleep machine and placing Rinne in it, allowing her to be found 5 years later while he perished. It was all a massive red herring misconception bonanza that the writers were able to conjure up pretty well to keep the reader guessing and it definitely entertained me. 

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YO WTF RINNE YOU MADE SUCH AN EVIL FACE, ALL OVER A MISCONCEPTION DELUSION????? JEEBUS WTF LADY!!!


....Now that I've finished reading the whole VN, the next part is actually kind of stupid. How the heck did current Setsuna and Rinne make it to the deserted island through a fawkin' storm, but couldn't make it back home? Or why couldn't they just wait for help? Kuon knew where this island was- that's how she found Rinne in the first place. But nope, the two try to return to the island the next day on the only-one-person-can-fit-in-the-boat, Setsuna runs out of stamina and tells Rinne to live on Titanic style, but then she fulfills the Setsuna x Rinne legend and decides to off herself to let Setsuna live instead in the hopes of meeting him again when she is reborn:

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I cried many manly tears at this though. I'm such a sap for romantic tragedies sighhh ;-;;;


~~

NEVER ISLAND

Spoiler

 

And then queue the most hype thing ever with the VN transitioning from ISLAND to the NEVER ISLAND title screen:

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Setsuna failed the Rinne of this era. But thanks to our little plot device called the Cold Sleep machine, he resolves to use it to wait for a time when a time machine would be invented, so he could then use it in order to travel back to the past and save Rinne. Winter route has got to be one of my favorite late game VN narrative shifts ever. There's obviously some hardcore bias going on here, because my fondness for "Rinne" and the concepts surrounding her are off the charts, but yeah I literally read the VN starting from here straight until the end. Absolutely hooked.

Welcome to Winter~

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I really like how the writers were able to weave this back and forth 'there is time travel going on' / 'nope its all a bunch of delusions' narrative to keep you on your toes. Well, Setsuna actually made it- he went from 1999 to 22016- a whopping 20,000 years into the future in an ice age world where humanity is forced underground in a structure called ISLAND due to an uninhabitable surface. Unfortunately, an unavoidable side effect of the Cold Sleep machine is amnesia, so he spends the entirety of Winter route with only key fragmented memories. I would've liked for him to have his full memories and be able to banter with this iteration of Sarah, Karin, and especially RinnE, but sadly that wish will have to go unfulfilled.

I'm gonna gloss over ISLAND's conflicts- the whole Sarah being the cardinals daughter of the Church that rules over the island limiting births and rationing food supplies during these apocalyptic times, and Karin leading a revolutionary squad of kids Neo-Avalon to defy the church. And then we have the innocent RinnE who naturally finds the amnesiac protagonist, again grants him the name of Setsuna (which happens to be the name of her late brother), and lets him in on a little secret: she's going to build a machine to save the world:

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"IT'S NOT A MASSAH - CHEYA! IT'S iLANDER" - the device that will save the world.

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LOLI RINNE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE ❤️

This incarnation of RinnE was such a cute little gem. Every scene with her was always something to look forward to with how brimming with energy, curiosity, and positivity she was even during these tough times (unlike her shut-in afraid of the sun lazy princess 1999 self). The writers go to great lengths to even make it so that you're left with a certain dilemma by the end of it once shit hits the fan: I know I came into the future so I could get a time machine to return to the past to save Rinne... but what about this RinnE? What about her..?

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SHE'S SO CUTE!!! BTW I'M NOT A LOLICON I SWEAR LOL!

Setsuna at first tries to distance himself from RinnE, because she isn't Rinne. But by the end of Winter when he feels guilt about having meddled with ISLAND's affairs which led to the deaths of Karin, Sarah, and basically ending the way of life on ISLAND itself, he then gets delivered the finishing blow via RinnE's love confession, and so he resolves to use the completed time machine iLander to try to protect this RinnE by making it so that he never meets her nor gets involved with this world:

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Btw, I am SO glad that the writers didn't make RinnE die. I was a bit worried what with Karin and Sarah dying that they would do that. That would've absolutely broken me. Anyways-

...But RinnE's too nice; she catches on to Setsuna's intentions, and instead opts to sacrifice her own happiness so that Setsuna can fulfill his original goal to save Rinne:

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OMG THIS STUFF IS SO TRAGICALLY BEAUTIFUL EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. DON'T MAKE ME CHOOSE BETWEEN Rinne and RinnE GAME!!! IT'S TOO HARD!!!!


~~
MIDSUMMER

Spoiler

And so, Setsuna makes it back to the present. Time to save Rinne with all the knowledge we obtained throughout the millennia, Muv-Luv Alternate style!

Setsuna is able to talk-no-jutsu through all of the heroines worries and issues within like a day, and hook up with Rinne faster than ever before. Perks of being a time traveler.
He receives Kuon's blessings, and marries Rinne.

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We got it boys n' girls! After traveling through 20000 years, TWICE, through all the hardships, through all the tears, we finally EARNED our happy end!!! HUZZAH!

...

...

...

Spoiler


Now, Island totally could've ended right then and there and I would've been 100% fine with it, but hey, we gotta toss in some last minute twists!

The writers slap on a "The day before the wedding" chapter where Rinne feels doubtful about whether she deserves such a happy end- that these strings of good fortunes are just too good to be true:

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It honestly kind of felt... off for her to have such worries this late into the game, considering everything we've seen Setsuna go through all for her sake.

But then comes... Kuon...and... the pieces... finally start... coming together...

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Kuon is...

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KUON IS-...!!!

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Kuon is RinnE!!!!!!! OMFGSDALKFJSDLFKSJF@!#!

And let's toss in some more last minute plot twists, because why not?! Setsuna decides he wants to use the cold sleep machine again to wait for the day a true time machine is invented so that he could one day ultimately return to the original Adam and Eve: the ORIGINAL Setsuna x Rinne so he could undo every single tragedy that ever occurred between the pair, because as it turns out, the cold sleep machine is a one way trip to the future: THERE WAS NEVER ANY TRAVELING TO THE PAST.

That insane Rinne that I opened this post with? She's gone. Forever. By the time Setsuna 'came back to the present' he was actually 40,000 years into the future, it just so coincidentally happened that the world state and everyone reincarnated to be exactly the same as it was when he 'came back', as far-fetched as that may be. I blame Chronoquakes. Countless Setsunas and Rinnes used the cold sleep machine in their pursuit of happiness. It's such an utterly fascinating thing to ponder about the endless cycle of love and tragedy between the two:

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Kuon/RinnE vows to complete a real time machine however, and Setsuna vows that once he awakens in a future where a time machine exists, that once he has saved all the Setsunas and Rinnes, then he would come back for RinnE.

Now I was totally expecting another chapter to open up, maybe Fall or Spring to cover the details of this LOL but I'm 100% totally fine with them leaving it up to the readers' imagination. We need an Island 0 like Steins;Gate 0

And it looks like they do eventually succeed and truly earn their happy end:

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...And there we have it. I have no words, man. Just overall a very touching and romantic tale between two lovers that transcends time itself. So friggen' beautiful..

 

 

 

 

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First off, let me just say that I love reading your posts. They actually serve as a great recap for me, as a person who tends to forget a lot of details from VNs I haven't read in a while.
As for Island, I enjoyed it a lot back when I read it, and I'm glad to see it getting some more appreciation. The only thing I wasn't entirely satisfied with was how

Spoiler

Setsuna left at the end. I get why he did it and that it's probably the right thing to do in the grand scheme of things, but if anything goes wrong, it would just mean him leaving Rinné behind once more with no way of ever seeing her again. I'm a sucker for romance, so I kinda wish he'd just stayed with her after they were finally able to reunite.

 

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On 5/5/2021 at 10:29 PM, OdaNova said:

Onto the D route at the moment.

Finished it tonight, all endings, all CG's, all music, all everything except TIPS and the Xtend scenes.

I tried some of the Xtend scenes and some of them rehash old information, but it doesn't register as already read for the skip function... I cba going through all of these. 

 

What a fun novel though, translation issues aside my only complaints were B route's parapsychology techno-babble being very boring and D route taking forever and a day for the main cast to realise  N's identity, even though it is so obvious from ten thousand chapters prior... So that part dragged painfully, but they got there in the end I guess. 

I like the nod to the player with the allusion to the spirit though, nice touch. 

 

Think I'll look for a fairly basic, vanilla novel for my next read! 

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16 hours ago, Mr Poltroon said:

Well, from what I'm hearing I guess Island should be on my list.

I guess I skipped over it in my "I bet the romance sucks, not going to play it" phase.

I was thinking the same because of the

Spoiler

Rinne having been together with someone before. Something i don't mind with adults, but when it's teens it gets a bit.. Well, it makes me completely uninterested

 

Edited by Stormwolf
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Just don't fall for the 'got overhyped, then was left disappointed' trap :sachi: I TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY

But yeah I totally went into Island with 0 expectations and am still in the post-VN feelsies after phase. Prob will last until I pick up another VN but I'll take my time

On 5/9/2021 at 12:37 AM, Seraphim said:

 The only thing I wasn't entirely satisfied with was how

  Reveal hidden contents

Setsuna left at the end. I get why he did it and that it's probably the right thing to do in the grand scheme of things, but if anything goes wrong, it would just mean him leaving Rinné behind once more with no way of ever seeing her again. I'm a sucker for romance, so I kinda wish he'd just stayed with her after they were finally able to reunite.

 

Yeah I getchu.

I just blitzed the anime version, and for all the rushed ultracondensed yo Ne.-I.-is-literally-shoehorned-into-just-2-episodes-LOL it's still a 10/10 anime for me cuz:

1. You get to see Rinne without a hat more often.

On a serious note it did end more in line with what you wanted, and now that I think about it yeah the VN didn't really do the 'final' confrontation much justice.

 

~~

Speaking of my next potential VN(s), I'm feeling pro-Frontwing atm for obvious reasons, so

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I am rereading Tsujidou san junai road and am again reminded what a terrible girlfriend Ai is. She's got potential to be amazing. She kinda is. But she mostly only got her cuteness going for her, and her devotion. Since the start she's been saying that she's bored of fighting and wants to stop. She gets together with Hiroshi and says she's no longer a delinquent, but his girlfriend. Yet, she betrays that and seeks out fights while lying about it and even leaves him hanging when they're going on a date. These are very much grounds for breakup right there. I dont remember much which is why i reread it, but i do hope that Hiroshi ends it and let's Tsujidou figure out what's important to her. 

The message that Hiroshi knew what he signed on for isn't entirely correct. He signed up for a delinquent girl who was proper and didn't fight for no reason, yet at this drama stage that is exactly what she has become. But this can easily be reversed. A relationship is a two way street, Tsujidou also knew what she signed up for when she got together with a normal person.

I never liked drama which warps characters for a while and just warps them right back once its over.

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I've been slowly making my way through Baldr Sky. I'm currently finishing up Chinatsu's route, which should be the last route from Dive1.

I've been enjoying the ride quite a bit so far, though this last route is giving me mixed feelings. I was kinda ready for that though, having been warned beforehand that this was a polarizing route, and a polarizing heroine. And sure enough, I find it really hard to like Chinatsu, but at the same time, I chalk it up to what I consider bad writing over the character itself. I think she's plenty likable outside of this route.

Anyway, I've heard that it's in Dive2 when shit gets insane, so I'm looking forward to that. I believe I might have a reasonably solid idea of what's going on, but it's precisely cause I'm used to these kinds of stories that I know they tend to really pull the wool over your eyes, which I definitely welcome any day of the week :mare:

Edited by Mehnot
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Honestly, unless I decide to revisit Himawari one day and realize that I somehow completely misunderstood it and it's actually the best thing ever, Island is on my hard skip list.

PS. After many months I suddenly decided to pick up another random VN, and, well, it's trash made for people with a yandere fetish. Well, the art is somewhat good (though the sprites look like zombies), and it's very short (though I didn't get all the endings), but that's everything that's even remotely good about that game. 🙂

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1 hour ago, Dreamysyu said:

Honestly, unless I decide to revisit Himawari one day and realize that I somehow completely misunderstood it and it's actually the best thing ever, Island is on my hard skip list.

Just FYI, I thought Himawari was kinda so-so and liked Island a whole lot more.

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Hot take, but I literally can't stand Dies Irae.

I'm halfway through Rea's route and I can't take any more pretentious dialogue (that portends to be 'grandiose' and 'insightful') and random Nazi bullshit.

Also, Rea and Ren has no chemistry.

 

Gekkou no Carneval is SOOO BORING.

 

Probably gonna wait until something more worth playing comes up. Until then, there's a huge backlog of games to start on.

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Finished some VN's so I guess it's time to write a few words about them.

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9-nine-:Episode 4 was the grand finale of the 9-nine- series. This part felt significantly darker than the previous entries. It's impressive how some characters that might appear all nice and friendly on the outside, can reveal a pitch black darkness inside of them. Even the protagonist himself could get pretty scary when driven into a corner. The writer could without any doubt also write a pure horror VN.

Spoiler

Honestly, Yoichi and Kakeru sending each other into a death loop to mentally break the other one was really creepy. Probably only topped by Iris revealing Yoichi in his last moments that he wasn't more than a convenient tool for her.

That said, the romance part with Noa was probably the weakest of the four and also felt a bit forced, considering Kakeru kept his memories that time. I think it would have been better, to move the final clash into a fifth episode. There also wasn't that much mystery this time, since the fronts where mostly clear and there was a bit too much branch hopping for my taste. Nevertheless, the physical and psychological duel was pretty intense. Overall, it was a pretty cool finale, but I wouldn't rate it quite as high as others.

Overall rating: 7.5/10

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I also finished Kami no Rhapsody. This was one is a bit hard to rate. Plot-wise it was certainly the weakest Eushully title I've played so far. Technically the whole story consists of doing trials to prove that you're the most worthy candidate to become the successor of the 'Divine Enforcer'. Naturally, there are also competitors who also want to claim that position and whom you have fight on certain occasions. Overall, not a bad story setup, if it would be just for the prologue until the real story starts. However, the 'prologue' is about... 9 from 10 chapters and then the game is over after some final boss fights. A whole crowd of characters join your party pretty soon, which didn't really make sense. So this felt more like a game with light VN elements comparable to Huniepop, but with much higher production values. It did have a lot of character events though, even if most of them were just slice of life and H-scenes. Characters and mood were also rather fluffy and nice with a clear emphasis on moe.

So, while the story certainly was nothing to write home about, the gameplay was actually pretty decent. I REALLY appreciate that they pretty much got rid of grinding in this game. Each map had just a limited amount of skill medals and ability runes you could get from it. That means that it usually didn't make sense to play a map several times. In addition to that, the maps were usually not too big and could be finished in a reasonable time of ~10 - 20 minutes. There were still a lot of maps, so gameplay still took up a considerable amount of time. but there was a better feeling of 'progress'. The gameplay itself was fairly addictive. Your characters fight on a small hex map against enemy units with 2 - 5 tiles of movement speed depending on the character. Units also have a zone of control and flank and rear attacks do more damage. Mana can be used for spells or to deploy more allied characters. This made spell casters usually a bit weaker in comparison, since mana was often too valuable for spells.

Overall, the title felt a bit like they ran out of development time and had to release it while the writers just got finished with the character events and didn't have much time for the main story yet. Its saving grace is the decent gameplay, high production values and some likable characters. I could recommend it for the gameplay, but not for the story.

Heroine ranking: Mistoria > Forzasleyn > Elgamisera > Lavirie = Nekol = Noelia = Patra > Others

Overall rating: 6.5/10

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The last one is Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk - an otome VN. The predecessor Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly had an interesting story premise, nice visuals and music, but unfortunately the writing was pretty poor. However, since I bought them in a bundle, I wanted to at least give the successor a try. A gothic romance in a medieval setting - what could go wrong?

Well, it could be written by that writer again, to name one. Granted, it was 'slightly' improved and there weren't that much filler episodes to finish this time around in order to progress the story. However, the writer still has a 'special talent' to take an interesting story premise and write it in the most boring way possible. Music and visuals also felt like a step down. The protagonist 'girl' was also cross-dressing and looked like a guy which make the whole thing feel a bit like Shonen-Ai. It wasn't particular romantic anyway, but still felt a bit awkward.

I actually wanted to get on the route of Hugh since he was kind of mysterious, but somehow ended up in a route of two others mass murdering half of the town. No clue how I got there and it was probably a bad end, but after hours of dreadful boredom, it felt like the perfect ending to me.

Overall rating: 5/10

Edited by ChaosRaven
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Just finished Nanairo Reincarnation.


I must say it was a bit of a mixed bag for me. The game itself was marvelous, but it kind of felt rushed. . Not to mention it's a pretty short VN. 

Spoiler

 

The story was interesting, but i could have done without the sex demon thing. It wasn't offensive, but i felt it wasn't utilized properly. They were horny demons, but Makoto kinda rejected it so it was kinda pointless outside the scenes where he was almost forced into having sex with them. Im thinking maybe the vita version is better unless they replace the sex with something sillier. The cases were interesting, but waaaaaay too few of them. 

General cast: All good except for Aoi. She annoyed me greatly. 

Music was really good imo. It doesn't have a grand amount of tracks it feels like, but the ost we have really fits the atmosphere

 

I skipped Yumi's route like a boss. I mean, i wanted to read it but i already know it turns into some bisexual experience and that is quite the turn off. And what a shame that is. I mean they both have feelings for each other and you can really feel it when they interact, so why ruin it with pushing Kotori in the middle of it and making this some lesbian/bisexual fapfest? I don't really like 3p scenes, but i tolerate them unless they're very tactless. But this went further. This created love between all parts and that ruins it for me as i am a monogamist. Hard skip.

Azusa i skipped because reasons under

Iyo: i initally planned on skipping most routes but figured i'd just give it a shot, and what a spectacular waste of time. It's just like Kotori's with some meaningless development where he suddenly loves Iyo out of nowhere at the end and Kotori passes on after watching them have sex, and that it. At least for this couple it was a good ending in the short epilogue, but wasn't a good ending for Kotori for sure, but it wasn't her route either.

Kotori.. Yeah... So i was shocked when i got to the twists of her being a ghost. I mean, i had my suspicions, but i the writers were clever in hiding it. Kotori is really cute and i just love how they progressed their relationship in a more natural way. But the thing is.... Both her endings were kinda shit and i wonder if she got her best ending as a bisexual girl with Yumi and Makoto. Way to trash the main heroine

Ending 1: She lives on as a ghost and it was hinted that while she's happy now, she'll likely be miserable later when Makoto grows while she stays the same, and she won't be able to either marry him or have a child with him. And i mean, should Makoto end this ghost psychic bloodline now? that sounds wrong also. He'd have to get an heir and follow traditions, so Kotori won't ever realistically get a good future with him. So it was bittersweet which was admittedly more on the sweet side of things than the bitter. 

Ending 2: Kotori passes on and the writer just disregards Makoto completely. Why did we play this game exactly? They just fuck it and skip ahead to when they're reincarnated together and marry. But what about the Makoto and his harem of demons we have been following for the entire game? Jesus christ. I don't know if it's a tragic or happy ending. What we see in the ending is two different people with no real connections to the story. If you just follow the flow it looks very nice and romantic, but if you think about it, it really isn't. Kotori and Makoto are gone and the ending didn't even give a small hint about them having any memories, just showing us that it's the same souls. I'll take ending 1 thank you very much, or an ending with another heroine. Central heroines have a tendency to get overcomplicated to the point where you don't know if it's a good or bad route.

Before the route split Makoto was looking for some journals and didn't find one of the books, so i kinda hoped he'd find it and could do some asspull due to his grandfathers experience, but everything about his grandfathers study was disregarded. Utterly pointless. 

So in conclusion i liked the story, the characters, but not the routes. It was too heavily relying on the last route which for me was not very satisfying.

For anyone who's read the sequel. Which of these two endings is the canon one if you take their other game in this setting into consideration? I am guessing the first ending. 

 

 

Edited by Stormwolf
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2 hours ago, Stormwolf said:

but i could have done without the sex demon thing. [...] Im thinking maybe the vita version is better

Yes, come to the dark side of all-ages versions :D (We have cookies expanded wholesome stories and sometimes even additional routes.)

Edited by adamstan
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Yesterday I got back to Konneko after month-long break. It's interesting case - this is one of those stories that (for me) are easy to put aside, but also very easy to jump back in, and when I read it, I enjoy it very much :) It's mostly SoL cuteness, but the kind that I like :) I think I'm currently near the beginning of Touka's route.

This VN seems to get some ideas/influence from first ToHeart - sometimes I think the mood is a bit similar.

Edited by adamstan
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So I've been doing some reading over the last couple of weeks.

I finished Musicus!. In my opinion it deserves most of the praise it's receiving. It feels to me like the kind of novel you'd read in literature class that everyone found extremely boring except for the literature geeks, so being this highly rated on vndb despite reaching a more mainstream audience thanks to the hype surrounding it is a pleasant surprise to me. I usually dislike it when people defend a boring story by saying it has ~themes~ (cough, Himawari, cough cough), but in the case of Musicus! I'd say it actually is themes-driven rather than plot- or character-driven. Characters often represent certain ideas or outlooks on life and once those are developed to a certain degree the game has no issue dropping those characters completely, and its approach to scene selection is somewhat similar, rushing through scenes that seem central to the plot and instead showing some slice-of-life surrounding them. Occasionaly there is an edgy philosophical monologue, but a lot of the time Musicus! communicates its ideas through small details, like most of the protagonist's classmates only getting sprites once you enter the school route or the bad route completely lacking BGM.

I also read Meeting in the Flesh, a free otome EVN about romancing monsters in a gory fantasy world. What seems like the premise for a (bad) parody game turns out to be one of the most powerful love stories I've encountered in a VN so far. It reminded me of Saya no Uta to a certain degree, but inverts its core theme of how your perception of the world shapes your outlook on things, instead showing how an open and loving mind lets you find even the most deeply hidden beauty. This game is also one of the rare cases where I'd really recommend reading the R-rated version, despite, you know, the vore and tentacles. The CGs aren't that explicit anyway.

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On 5/16/2021 at 1:40 PM, LAsuka said:

Hot take, but I literally can't stand Dies Irae.

I'm halfway through Rea's route and I can't take any more pretentious dialogue (that portends to be 'grandiose' and 'insightful') and random Nazi bullshit.

Also, Rea and Ren has no chemistry.

 

Gekkou no Carneval is SOOO BORING.

 

Probably gonna wait until something more worth playing comes up. Until then, there's a huge backlog of games to start on.

My thoughts on Dies Irae exactly. I dropped it during Marie's route and never looked back. I was bored out of my mind.

DI made me realize chuuniges are just not for me.

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So, I've just finished the new Kyonyuu Fantasy 3 if with all routes. Considering that it was just released about 3 weeks ago and it's a rather long VN, that's very fast for my standards. For obvious reasons that also means that I've enjoyed it quite a bit. I was looking forward to this VN in particular for several reasons. First, KF1 - Gaiden 2 had some impressive world building with its recreation of medieval europe and its major powers. Second, I'm a bit of a history and mythology nerd and KF3's setting of the Roman Empire and the greco-roman pantheon of deities is of particular interest to me. Third, it has some significant improvements in the art department compared to its predecessors, with some rather striking character designs for a change like the ones from Athena or Zoe. Fortunately, those weren't the only improvements. Overall, pretty much every aspect was improved ranging from writing, music, art and characters.

World-Building:

The world building in this VN is particular impressive, because it didn't just cover the mortal world of the Roman Empire, but also its pantheon of gods, including the underworld and the empyrean olympus. There was quite some care about historical accuracy with roman titles and customs and they also covered the beginning of Christianity with the followers of the new church of the Holy Rood making their first appearance. There were also real rules of how the gods could interact with the mortal world. They were not free to do so and usually just had a limited time to do so, otherwise they would be tracked down by Faron (aka Charon) and brought back by force. They could also manifest themselves in ethereal or material state. It was even mentioned that Astrae was the last goddess to descend to the mortal world in the greek golden age, which even I wasn't aware of. As it was common in mythology, the gods also had some specific powers over their divine domain, like a war god being good at fighting, Apollo being capable of prophecies or love gods like Venus or Julinas being good at... well you know. ^_^

Protagonist:

The protagonist was actually one of my biggest worries in this VN since I never really got warm with Lute or Ruin from KF1 or KF2 even if they certainly had their moments. But despite being a somewhat similar boob-obsessed character, I found Julinas surprisingly likable. And there are several reasons for that. First, while Lute was technically just a big pervert, Julinas is an actual love god, so being somewhat more horny than usual is just part of his divine domain. Second, Julinas is rooted in normality, as crazy that may sound for an underworld god. But in his life in the underworld Faron and Medusa are close and important friends and Hades and Persephone have strong parental roles in Julinas life. Neither of those characters are involved in a sexual manner with Julinas and there was also little to nothing naughty going on in the underworld anyway. And since there are long episodes in the underworld you can  see a rather normal and caring side of Julinas. And oh yeah, he has his own personal pet hell hound. :P

Furthermore, while Lute or Ruin solved a lot of problems just with dumb luck, ridiculous events or by help of others, Julinas actually does a lot of stuff himself. He might be just a lowly god of the underworld, but he still IS a deity with some powers and most of his actions were somewhat comprehensible for a world of mythical powers. And last but not least, Julinas had a good chemistry with most of the heroines. As a lively trickster god, most of the heroines found him likable or at least funny from the beginning. In the case of the human heroines, it was even understandable that they looked up to him. In KF1 or KF2 the heroines often went from pure digust to worship, which was simply not believable anymore.

Story:

The story had pretty much two main arcs. The first one covers Julinas first interaction with the mortal world after being stuck in the underworld for 500 years. As the lowest god of the underworld he therefore gets his chance to get his own followers and a temple dedicated to him by helping the people of Doronium to get rid of a terrible curse. He also helps out the roman legion fending off the attacks of a minotaur army, further widening his influence in the mortal world.

The second story arc covers the conflict between the gods of the underworld and the empyrean. There's a strong rivalry between them and it's one of Julinas greatest wishes to lift Medusa's curse which was put on her by Athena as punishment. This is probably the strongest arc since most of the gods got some rather strong character development. Their personalities did reflect their mythological counter parts pretty well, with Hermes being as fast trickster god, Athena being a strict but just maiden goddess, Venus rathere easy going, Apollo being quite the looker, Mars being not a nice guy at all (Ares in particular was considered a rather dark god of bloodshed and massacre), Jupiter being the patriachic leader and brother of Hades. It was quite fascinating to see the greek pantheon come to live in a surprisingly authentic manner. That arc also had some rather heavy and touching moments regarding Medusa's curse with Julinas showing some impressive mental strength.

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Sound:

It was quite refreshing to not having to endure the same music of 5+ years of rehashed KF music again. To fit the vibes of the antique rome, they fortunately used some new soundtracks. Most of them at least decent and some of them even great like the olympian theme or the theme from Venus. I might even listen to those independently. Oh and did I mention that almost every major character and not just the heroines have their own theme music? It really gave the characters more personality and added more vocal diversity to the game.

I was also surprised that several of the male main characters got better voice actors. Like Jupiter having a voice actor from Silverio Vendetta and his patriarchic voice was pretty impressive. Some recurring ones also seem to have improved their performance like Hades and some particular bad ones were just left out. Minor characters might still sound a bit cheap but the main character case was definitely solid or better.

Graphics:

The good news is that most of the heroines and the major character were rather wel drawn. H-scenes in particular were a massive improvement compared to the older KF titles, even if Gaiden 1 & 2 already had some improvements for the newer heroines. And we're talking about like 150 H-CG's here. It's also impressive how much character sprites they have in this VN. With all the major characters and the support cast put together, we get over 50 sprites. That's just massive and blows most other titles out of the water.

However, the bad news is that some of the minor character sprites look almost worse than in the former titles. I've no idea why Japanese VN developers have a problem with the eyes of minor characters, but they somehow love to hide or leave them out completely. While that's a bit odd I can usually live with that. But the latest fashion seems to be to make them black,... which makes them look like they got infected with the T-virus and are about to turn into zombies and attack you. So that makes them stand out even more than if they'd just have drawn their eyes like normal. Fortunately it's just the minor characters.

Flaws:

Besides the aforementioned T-virus sprites, this is still a KF title. So even if the writing is improved, it's still simple and can occasionally get rather cheesy. And although they managed to embed this type of protagonist extremely well into the world, he's still a horndog on many occasions, which can be certainly annoying. And while the B-movie feeling isn't as strong as in previous titles, it's still there. The H-scenes also have a tendency to come in avalanches which can get a bit overwhelming. Hours of pure story are often followed by multiple H-scenes for several heroines, especially in the first human arc. I don't really understand why they can't just use an optional character event selection like Koihime Musou and other VN's are doing it rather successfully. 

The human heroines were also a bit left out in the rain after their arc and didn't get much more development. Medusa or Persephone which were technically just side heroines had way more screen time than most of the main heroines which felt a bit odd. Paia was also rather annoying, especially at the beginning. Nevertheless, this is still mostly nitpicking.

Conclusion:

Overall this was a quite impressive VN, especially considering that this tackles both story and ero rather sucessfully and also offers lots of content for both. Ironically, it's probably also one of the most sophisticated VN's I've read so far, since the writer did not only put a lot of effort into the research of the historic and mythologic backgrounds of the world and characters, but also managed to combine them into a very entertaining story.

Heroine ranking: Athena = Ajura > Venus > Zoe > Destra & Eskelda > Farnelia > Constancia >> Paia

I left out Medusa and Persephone from the ranking, even if they were some of the best characters. But they were more like family, so it felt weird to mix them into a dating ranking.

Overall rating: 8/10

Edited by ChaosRaven
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Ok. So, I started reading VNs in 2014. That's like what, 7 years? And my VNDB lists 76 finished, which makes 10-12 per year average. You could say I'm a seasoned veteran now (not really, still a flippin' casual tbh).

My first five VNs were If My Heart Had Wings, Little Busters!, Rewrite, Steins;Gate, Grisaia no Kajitsu. Y'know, all the common classic starter packs, so I rated all of them 9+/10

And what am I reading now? 

CLANNAD.

This monster has so many 9+/10 ratings I have to wonder if it was all because it was one of the starter packs that everyone starts their VN career reading and then they get nuked by the late game Key Magickz and hail it as one of the greatest of all time

I'll have the luxury of going into this with seasoned veteran status, so I am totally going to be critical and see what all the hype was about.

~~
sHvqF3O.jpg

Yes. Sometimes I wish I was back in my naive VN early days where I didn't realize how utterly butchered Moenovels' translation was for IMHHW and I still regarded it as a wonderful VN. Btw that's the obvious poster heroine above: (first) Nagisa Furukawa. 


The male protag Tomoya surprised me. Idk why, but I totally thought he would be another LB! bland nice guy Riki, but he's got some Rewrite's Kotarou delinquent sass to him so at least he'll keep me entertained I hope. The main heroine Nagisa also caught me off guard; when you're into idol rhythm games like Love Live / Bandori, and all the Honokas and Kasumis AKA orange/brown haired girls are the genki type, Nagisa totally throws a curve ball by being the innocent naive mellow type:hS1FvDt.jpg

LOL FURUKAWA WTH!!!!

And then there's Sunohara:bWOVFgl.jpg

F*** me, I forgot Key loves them some male bro side characters. I got spoiled by ISLAND having no bros to deal with. I personally feel these guys only serve to deduct heroine screentimes. Their banter is usually always whatevers. 


~~
Scariest thing so far:

NsKcCdp.jpg

7 heroines, jeebus! I felt overwhelmed with ISLAND having just THREE heroines and was glad they focused on ONE. I know, forgive me, I'm old. Idk if I gots the patience to go through 'em all, but I'll try. Right now I really like Tomoyo for being a former-delinquent-turned-model-student-badass (yay, so that leaves Tomoyo After something to look forward to). Nagisa is a bit too mellow. Ryou's aight, Kyou's where it's at though. Fuko just Fukos. And I don't even think I saw Kotomi or Yukine yet; damn these numerous blind choice mechanics.

 

tugBN2T.jpg

^Best girl


~~
I'm so curious what will happen. So far this totally looks like just standard high school SoL, and then come lategame Key'll pull some uber QQ tragics that will me bawls like no tomorrow and 10/10 this VN. But wtf can they do...?

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@Eclipsed In a rare turn of events, I'd actually argue the anime adaptation of Clannad is better, with the Visual Novel as an appendix if you want to spend more time in the world.
In either case, don't shy away from just doing the heroines you feel like (and then maybe watching the anime, because it does differ).

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On 5/29/2021 at 8:44 PM, Eclipsed said:

Ok. So, I started reading VNs in 2014. That's like what, 7 years? And my VNDB lists 76 finished, which makes 10-12 per year average. You could say I'm a seasoned veteran now (not really, still a flippin' casual tbh).

My first five VNs were If My Heart Had Wings, Little Busters!, Rewrite, Steins;Gate, Grisaia no Kajitsu. Y'know, all the common classic starter packs, so I rated all of them 9+/10

And what am I reading now? 

CLANNAD.

This monster has so many 9+/10 ratings I have to wonder if it was all because it was one of the starter packs that everyone starts their VN career reading and then they get nuked by the late game Key Magickz and hail it as one of the greatest of all time

I'll have the luxury of going into this with seasoned veteran status, so I am totally going to be critical and see what all the hype was about.

~~
sHvqF3O.jpg

Yes. Sometimes I wish I was back in my naive VN early days where I didn't realize how utterly butchered Moenovels' translation was for IMHHW and I still regarded it as a wonderful VN. Btw that's the obvious poster heroine above: (first) Nagisa Furukawa. 


The male protag Tomoya surprised me. Idk why, but I totally thought he would be another LB! bland nice guy Riki, but he's got some Rewrite's Kotarou delinquent sass to him so at least he'll keep me entertained I hope. The main heroine Nagisa also caught me off guard; when you're into idol rhythm games like Love Live / Bandori, and all the Honokas and Kasumis AKA orange/brown haired girls are the genki type, Nagisa totally throws a curve ball by being the innocent naive mellow type:hS1FvDt.jpg

LOL FURUKAWA WTH!!!!

And then there's Sunohara:bWOVFgl.jpg

F*** me, I forgot Key loves them some male bro side characters. I got spoiled by ISLAND having no bros to deal with. I personally feel these guys only serve to deduct heroine screentimes. Their banter is usually always whatevers. 


~~
Scariest thing so far:

NsKcCdp.jpg

7 heroines, jeebus! I felt overwhelmed with ISLAND having just THREE heroines and was glad they focused on ONE. I know, forgive me, I'm old. Idk if I gots the patience to go through 'em all, but I'll try. Right now I really like Tomoyo for being a former-delinquent-turned-model-student-badass (yay, so that leaves Tomoyo After something to look forward to). Nagisa is a bit too mellow. Ryou's aight, Kyou's where it's at though. Fuko just Fukos. And I don't even think I saw Kotomi or Yukine yet; damn these numerous blind choice mechanics.

 

tugBN2T.jpg

^Best girl


~~
I'm so curious what will happen. So far this totally looks like just standard high school SoL, and then come lategame Key'll pull some uber QQ tragics that will me bawls like no tomorrow and 10/10 this VN. But wtf can they do...?

Good luck! I played that last year and it was pretty late in my VN reading journey but it was enjoyable enough, I guess. It's definitely better for people who play this as one of their first VNs but, dependending on what you like, it can be just as good later on! Personally, I don't enjoy these pure love stories and Nagisa... oh gods, I loathe Nagisa, oof. She is just so bland, meh. Most routes are pretty good tho! I would say that my fave heroines are Kyou, Tomoyo, Yukine, Kotomi and Misae, but the best routes (imo) are Kotomi's and Yukine's. Oh, Fuko is pretty cute, also, but I don't see her as heroine material akjsjsbd and that's not all! You also have other routes to read, which I'm not gonna tell you in case you want to go blind haha

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Finally, I'm able to post something decent lel I've been playing Maggot Baits for a while but I still don't have much I want to comment on, though I'm liking the story so far! The h-scenes could benefit from a cut but oh well! As far as story goes, I'm enjoying it! The bad ending was pure nukige material, but the plot towards the first ending is very much interesting. I'm looking forward to advancing the plot... :footsip:

Today, I started my rereading of Higurashi: When They Cry and UUUGHHH I MISSED IT SO MUCH! I finished the chapter 2 (within the Onikakushi chapter) and I'm so satisfied~!! :wahaha: Aah, I love 'em girls hahaha

PMtUHkk.png

Well, that feels like a fucking lie-

zpCno1E.png

Pfft Keiichi is too ahead of himself :makina:

Now, for the spoilery stuff...

Spoiler

ZhRNLfz.png

I love parallels made in stories so much, nngh... also, this makes me so fucking sad, ugh :sadsacchin:

eLD8w5C.png

Another parallel I loved!

p8z5HgC.png

It's fun seeing stuff like this after reading the second chapter; iirc, Mion has a crush on Keiichi? Or was that whole thing because she wanted to be feminine and stuff? I don't even remember anymore, but I found this so freaking cute!!

ROwIviG.png

And finally, this made me shiver, brr... The way the music stopped, the rushed answer, the smile but serious face, everything felt so tense and heavy.

I LOVE IT  :100:

I should be finished with this first chapter this Sunday so until then, I won't probably post updates, who knows... :maybe:

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