Jump to content

What are you playing?


Guest

Recommended Posts

Finished Our World Is Ended. ....It was the worst Visual Novel I read for a long time (writing, pace, characters)😨I finished the Normal/Bad Ends but I stopped after my second character ending. Too much effort for a so ridiculous reward (a few scenes and a very, very short chapter after the epilogue).

After all these sufferings, I'm cleaning my soul with Ima Sugu Onii-chan ni Imouto da tte Iitai!🥰I'm in love with the Character Design and the change of setting/atmosphere is so refreshing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Finished Little Busters! : It was a pretty cool ride, but something about the ending had me feeling like something is missing.

Started ef - a fairy tale of the two. : I'm around 7 hours in and it's pretty underwhelming and generic for now.

I drop VNs very rare, but I'm thinking of dropping it if something interesing doesn't happen by the end of the first road.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm currently playing Amnesia Later x Crowd. I'm stilll at the beginning of Later to be precise.

The game starts with a scenario about the entire cast wanting to find fireflies and going on an outing together to watch them. All this is still set while the protagonist lost her memories (in a more peaceful world it seems) so she is still mostly silent at this point.

Then you can choose who to talk to which opens their actual Later scenario. In addition to the five guys you also get a scenario with the three girls and Waka, the manager. Shout out to Mine for being very cute in her little talk with the protag! Looking forward to the actual girls night out scenario I was promised💕

I remember again why I love group dynamics with the love interests so much. There is just something very lovely about waching a bunch of adult men go ham playing at a little river. They different ways these guys managed to entertain themself is just so child-like it's wonderful!

Especially the progression of how they each got tangled up in playing!

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm switching back and forth between The Rainsdowne Players and Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark. The former is a pretty chill sandbox game, and the latter is a tactical RPG about a society that grew corrupted.

I'm also playing River City Girls for the second time, now with a friend and going for the true ending. And I'm finding it far more enjoyable with couch co-op. ^_^

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, Mago Ivo said:

Finished Little Busters! : It was a pretty cool ride, but something about the ending had me feeling like something is missing.

Started ef - a fairy tale of the two. : I'm around 7 hours in and it's pretty underwhelming and generic for now.

I drop VNs very rare, but I'm thinking of dropping it if something interesing doesn't happen by the end of the first road.

I feel like ef gets more interesting after the first "episode", so I understand why you are thinking it's underwhelming

Link to comment
Share on other sites

58837.jpg

BLACK SHEEP TOWN

It's unvoiced, but I don't really care too much for that. The story seems to have a somewhat similar atmosphere to Rose Guns Days with main characters being mafia related. There are people with mutations divided into different types: Type A - Psychic powers which comes with physical deformation and Type B - physical augmentation with degrading minds. There are 7 great holes in the world with the setting being in a city built near one of them. This reads more like a traditional novel written for literature than entertainment.

 

Spoiler

We start off with a wedding of one of the daughter of a big shot in mafia. They introduce the biggest mob boss in a wheelchair, and about to kick the bucket from illness.

Chris Tsue or however you spell his name is a rather interesting character.

Spoiler

After being offered immortality at the cost of his sanity, he replies: 生きたいさ。でもそれをすれば、命より大事なものを失う。- I do want to live. But if I take your offer, I would lose something more important than my life.

 

They show things from the perspective of many different characters, but there are cases where the same scenes does not have the same dialogues. I'm not sure if that's intentional or just a writing miss. An example is when the former detective talked to the doctor and the doctor reacted to his talk about Chris Tsue's dying, but from the doctor's perspective he heard about him dying from rumours coming from a nurse.

The writing is engaging and nihilistic. It feels very realistic, if not a bit dry and he does not sugarcoat anything. Majority of it is about finding your own meaning in life.

Edited by Nemesis
Fixed Translation
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Started Princess Waltz about an hour ago and have been playing Cafe Enchante for a week or two.

Princess Waltz: 

I bought this one a good few years ago, but I've always been vaguely aware of it's existence because of a old TvTropes article. I still remember some details from that article, which is why I must ask:

Spoiler

Fellas, when a protagonist basically gushes and daydreams about a prince but the prince is a girl but he doesn't know the prince is a girl, is there just a hint of bisexual undertones? Just a little bit? I'm sure there has to be. Even the other characters seem to be thinking that.

Anyway, regarding the characters, they're all chaotic.  Their classmates are exhausting, but in the good way. Kinda has an old school shounen manga vibe to it. Love that for this game.

Cafe Enchante:

You ever take a short, short break to play another game and come back to a game like "what route was i on? What route was I on?!"--because I love everyone in this game, which means there's a good chance that I chose any of the love interests to start off with. It has to be the headless fairy, though. He's too funny not to be the character I choose first. But I'm not sure, which is why I'm hoping I won't end up on a bad end because I didn't follow the guide properly.

I will say, one part in this game that I'm really enjoying is how much grief is involved. It's a funny, cute, wholesome otome game so far. Probably gonna kick me on my ass later on for saying that, as is tradition of otome games. But every now and then, everyone just genuinely bonds over their appreciation for the protagonist's grandfather and the cafe and what it represents to them. They're all a unique cast, none of them make sense together, but once you add in the grandfather it's like "Ah, yes, no wonder this demon king is friends with a feral beastman, an angel, a headless fairy, and a 30 year old human man."---though it's positively hilarious when they're reminiscing about him and grandpa turns out to be a bit of a jerk. Not in a bad way, but in that way where he's making them pay 5x marketplace rent in the form of gold because they have no idea what they got in their pocket. Something something, capitalism, ho!

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

58837.jpg

BLACK SHEEP TOWN

Generational change, huh. That's a pretty interesting topic in itself. The old passes away or retires and passes their hopes and dreams to their children. It's a reality that one cannot get away from as a mortal, and pretty much becomes the raison d'être of the older generations.

It's interesting how they show how different humans choose to live based on nature vs nurture. Those born as mutants tend to be more influenced by nature, while the more normal people are more influenced by nurture. But I think the point is that those two things both greatly influence a person's life. Ryou just wants to live a normal life as a student, but his circumstances around him won't permit it and turned him into a cold ruthless leader of a mafia.

All the characters are interesting as fuck. Tachigawa Ryouma, the doctor decided to stop living smartly and live as he pleases after getting involved with Chris Tsue. Chris Tsue is so fucking badass: 「おれが思うに、人間の命そのものには何の価値もない。命の価値というものは、その人間がどう考え、どう行動したかによってはじめて生まれる。……つまり作り出すものなんだ。」- "I think that there's no intrinsic value in people's life. A life's value is created from how people think and act...meaning we have to create it ourselves." 「人間は所詮土くれだ。誇りをなくし、心を濁らせれば糞と変われねえのさ 。」- "Humans are in the end the same as dirt. Those who lose their dignity, and have their minds tainted are no different from shit." Humans who live like cattle have no value. In real life, this refers to people who sell their dignity for money. They then use that money to buy safety for a stable empty life.

I think that his logic jump is too big here, but it's still an interesting thing to think about. I think it all depends on the personal goal of the person involved. For example, someone might join the sex industry to earn some money to pay for education, and then quit after a year. Is having that option truly bad? Systematically, it probably is as it can make poor people over-reliant on it. But for the individual involved, it's not necessarily bad. I guess I have similar ideas to Ryaochimin, which is money is just a tool.

There's lots of great quotes in this game. Saiki:

Spoiler

「アタシは色んな人を見たけど、本当に強い人なんか世界に一人もいないわ。みんなやせ我慢をしてるだけよ。」 - "I've seen all sorts of people, but I've never seen a truly strong person. Everyone is just persevering."Is he gay or is he just acting feminine to comfort Rita? I do agree that all this people dying, because they refuse to throw away their pride is just fucking sad.

The main theme here seems to essentially be: life is meaningless, so you should at least live freely and make your own choices on how to live your life so that you can die satisfied no matter the result. The other part is that humans are no different from beasts. They can be extremely cruel, or be extremely nice depending on their mood and the situation. 「優しさと残酷さは似ているんだろうか?」- "Do kindness and cruelty resemble each other?" It's pretty much a 善悪相殺 situation.

Setoguchi seems more negative about life compared to Sca-ji. Well I do agree with him to a certain extent. Life is indeed pointless: your parents were horny and made you, end of story, what other meaning is there? But that shouldn't really stop you from pursuing happiness and valuing life. I've read a couple of reviews mention that it's Setoguchi's best work so far. It's hard to confirm that from my end as this is the first time I'm reading his work, but I will say that this is definitely a great game worth reading.

Edited by Nemesis
Typos
Link to comment
Share on other sites

59670.jpg

終のステラ

The setting is in a post-apocalyptic world where large singularity machines roam around and pose a threat to anyone who comes near them. The MC, Jude, is a Transporter who gets a request to transport an android to a certain place for the revival of humanity.

Jude finds the android in an old ruin, and names her Philia. Philia wants to be a human, and Jude promises to take her to the professor who might be able to make her human. So the two travels together while trying to figure out how to be human.

Philia has a child-like innocence lacking knowledge of most things with her being a complete blank state. You watch her slowly learn about the world. She doesn't want to eat deer as she feels sorry for it, but she's fine with eating fish. I guess it shows the hypocrisy of humans as mammals are closer to us, so we can relate it to it more. She often reminds Jude of his daughter.

Her lack of sense of danger with Jude's realistic outlook makes for a good contrast. They both experience both the beautiful and ugly side of human nature through their travel.

This works seems to be about finding the boundary between machine and human. What does it mean to be human? Does having a human body make someone human even if their mind is an AI? Or is the mind what matters, if an AI passes the turing test, does that mean they are indistinguishable from humans?

It explores what is necessary for an AI to gain an ego. The professor says that for an AI to gain an ego, it is necessary to have instinct and fear. An AI stuck in a CPU case cannot gain a mind, because they cannot experience instinct and fear without a body. They need a body that can be stimulated by the outside world. I wonder what does /u/gambs think as this seems close to his field of study?

It talks about the uncanny valley: a robot that looks too close to human becomes creepy. A simple robot with a ribbon looks cuter. But the uncanny valley can be conquered by making them indistinguishable from humans.

As usual, Tanaka Romeo's prose is amazing. I have zero complaints. The background art looks great with the scenery.

Tanaka Romeo explores the relationship between parent and child well. How a child is seeking the attention of their parent to prevent from being abandoned. Why are parents willing to die for their kids? Jude's answer is because it's their instict to preserve their genes. Sounds like something Setoguchi would say, hahaha. But he adds later on, that it can develop past instinct into true love after spending time with them.

What the professor wanted was as I expected a 人柱 ending: sacrifice the few for the many. While it might be good for society, if it doesn't prove beneficial for the people being sacrificed it's a conflict of interest. So Jude ends up risking his life to save Philia.

At its core, it's an adventure of two people who learn more about the world:its beauty and ugliness, what it means to be human, and about family love. Tanaka Romeo has created another great piece.

For those who also just want to read a moege, not to worry, Philia is moe as hell. You can ignore all the complicated story and just focus on how moe Philia is.

 

25796.jpg

美少女万華鏡 -神が造りたもうた少女たち-

I can see why some people can like Biman 3 so much. It has lots of meme, and lots of it is based on Steins; Gate. But the story is rather meh. It's decent enough for a sci-fi, but there are plenty of better ones. What I would praise it for though is I guess the threesomes scenes which the previous Biman games did not have.

It explores the relationship between religion, science, and the masses. How religion is used as a tool by those in power to keep themselves at the top, and the masses use it to mentally support themselves in hard times. It is amazing how self-aware Japanese are of religion, while accepting it themselves: 「苦しい時の神頼み。」 But honestly, compared to Tsui no Stella, it is rather shallow. Still, It is a decent game with a rather strong ending.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/13/2022 at 6:23 AM, adamstan said:

I bought it few days ago - I guess this will be my next read, especially since it seems to be on the shorter side :)

And once again it turned out differently than I expected.

I was in the mood for something more lighthearted, so I tried to play Strawberry Nauts, which I got recently, but currently emulated version still suffers from many technical issues (like glitched voices or sprites not fully loading), so I put it back to the backlog.

And I started Clover Day's (Vita version). I think I'm still at the prologue, but it looks very promising - I'm really enjoying the atmosphere and characters so far. I went with console version, because judging by the premise it seemed like one of those titles where sex scenes don't fit too well - at least for my taste ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Been in a rut for the last week and started playing my favourite PS2 JRPG again. It's Dark Chronicle (for EU people), also known as "Dark Cloud 2" for everyone else. I'm actually tempted to review the game since I finally played all of it now. But since it is not a VN I would review it on my userblog eventually.

Well, after such an amazing gaming experience I'm back again.

If you wanna see that game and have never heard of it, check out Korzak's Platinum Trophy playthrough of it. It helped me finally find a solution how to complete the Medal challenges...
 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

54255.jpg

紫影のソナーニル ~What a beautiful memories~

I put this on pause for a while as I read through some other games, and now I finally got back to it.

Spoiler

The cause of the incident being Edison playing god makes me want to introduce him to Tesla to make him feel how small he is.

This game is inspired by Nietzsche. They hammer this stanza every chapter:

すべて

そう、すべて

あらゆるものは意味が持たない

Everything

Yes, everything

All things hold no meaning

Memories hold no meaning, they are nothing but fragments of the past. Something that will eventually be forgotten. While Lily holds the opposite view: memories have meaning. They are the proof of people's lives and existence. As long as you remembers them, people can still live inside you. Your world is made up of your own memories. What a beautiful memories.

It's good, but it has too much otome wish fulfillment dragging it down. Plus, steampunk genre is not really my taste. I can only read so much 「わたしの、背の高い、足の長いあなた」 - "My tall darling with long legs" before getting annoyed, lol. It's a good game, but I'm obviously not the target audience.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I continue Clover Day's - yesterday I landed a few scenes past the OP movie. So far it is amazing - it actually exceeds my expectations. While it uses lots of common tropes, so far they seem to be well executed, and it simply just "clicked" for me :)

I laugh heartily on comedic bits, while emotional moments (mostly in flashbacks) made me shed a tear or two. Heroines are cute and likeable (well, apart from that annoying brat Izumi :P - but she's funny in her own way), and there's strong "Group of friends" vibe present :) What's more, many side characters also have sprites, which makes the world feel much more "lively" - the lack of those was what bothered me the most in the otherwise great Aonatsu Line for example.

So yeah, there's the potential for great charage/moege here. Let's hope they don't mess it up in the routes ;)

And good luck for NekoNyan with their upcoming English version :) Actually I remember watching the progress of @astro's FanTL project, and I was really disheartened to see it stalled. While in the meantime some things changed - namely, I got more inclined towards all-ages versions and learned enough Japanese to attempt to read untranslated VNs - which ultimately made me go with the Vita edition ;) - I'm still very glad that this got picked up for official release :)

BTW, does anyone have some route order recommendations? Guide at seiya-saiga lists them in order Anzu -> Anri -> Hikaru/Hekiru twins -> Tsubame -> Izumi.

Edited by adamstan
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/20/2022 at 4:06 PM, adamstan said:

I continue Clover Day's - yesterday I landed a few scenes past the OP movie. So far it is amazing - it actually exceeds my expectations. While it uses lots of common tropes, so far they seem to be well executed, and it simply just "clicked" for me :)

I laugh heartily on comedic bits, while emotional moments (mostly in flashbacks) made me shed a tear or two. Heroines are cute and likeable (well, apart from that annoying brat Izumi :P - but she's funny in her own way), and there's strong "Group of friends" vibe present :) What's more, many side characters also have sprites, which makes the world feel much more "lively" - the lack of those was what bothered me the most in the otherwise great Aonatsu Line for example.

So yeah, there's the potential for great charage/moege here. Let's hope they don't mess it up in the routes ;)

And good luck for NekoNyan with their upcoming English version :) Actually I remember watching the progress of @astro's FanTL project, and I was really disheartened to see it stalled. While in the meantime some things changed - namely, I got more inclined towards all-ages versions and learned enough Japanese to attempt to read untranslated VNs - which ultimately made me go with the Vita edition ;) - I'm still very glad that this got picked up for official release :)

BTW, does anyone have some route order recommendations? Guide at seiya-saiga lists them in order Anzu -> Anri -> Hikaru/Hekiru twins -> Tsubame -> Izumi.

Glad you're enjoying it; it's my favourite VN ever with just the right balance of moe, comedy, and a hint of naki.

I would suggest two alternatives:

Hekiru/Hikaru->Tsubame->Izumi->Anri->Anzu, or

Hekiru/Hikaru->Anri->Anzu->Tsubame->Izumi (my preferred)

for plot reasons, depending on which is your favourite pair of girls (as they are paired routes) and whether you want to do them last.

As for the sex, the game has a great deal of sexual innuendo outside the H scenes so if anything the AA version is very heavily cut; not the other way around. The game was written as an adult game to begin with and then modified for an AA version.

Disclaimer: I'm the translator for the official localisation with NekoNyan.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I wanted to play some Chaos;Head NoAH today, but I spent my entire day translating some cool smut for a client. So I was in the mood to play more smut today and picked out the new DwarfSoft game "Kankin Byoutou~ Kyonyuu Chijo Nurse no Nyuuin Kango Kiroku~" because I'm a big fan of Nurse games and Dark One/Shiravune's Nope Nope Nurses (Sakusei Byoutou) Series is something I really enjoyed. The game features three heroines on the cover, Shiina Chisa, Miyabi Himoto and Tamaki Isahaya. There might be more, but I just played three scenes now.



Plot is basically that you wake up without memories inside a remote hospital somewhere in the boonies and you have no remembrance whatsoever. So you're waking up tied to the hospital bed and the nurses have their way with you. The first one, Chisa, reminds me of Tachibana because her shtick is that she's emotionless. However, she can't really hold herself back so you find her panting and getting horny when she jerks you off. So it's a bit like Sakusei Byoutou, but not really.

Spoiler

5pXemOd.jpeg



The second girl is Miyabi Himoto and she's a thick Onee-san type that really really wants to baby you badly. You're confronted with lots of baby speak, she forces you to pee into a latrine and you suck on her boobs while she gives you the good old jerky. She can yell very loud when she becomes aroused (I had to turn down my headphones lol)

Spoiler

T0FBOgl.jpeg



The third girl is my beloved Tama-chan. For some reason the Kamige producer of this game made the chief doctor girl a Mesugaki Namaiki Gyaru with blonde hair and the typical gyaru speak. I absolutely adore her and she's pretty sexy. She seems to be quite smart, skipped classes and is a legit doctor. She also seems not to be pulling the strings behind the scenes, because she occasionally calls her "Papa" on the phone (whether this is Papakatsu or her actual father is left open thus far) about what to do with the protagonist. Her first hentai scene is a titfuck and she scoops up some of your seem for whatever purpose to use later. Weird.

sTNNGDj.jpeg

I think I'll keep playing this. There's a bit of mystery in there with the memory loss and even though it's probably a pretty shallow plot, I'm doing it for Isahaya-chan. Maybe the game surprises me, idk.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, ittaku said:

As for the sex, the game has a great deal of sexual innuendo outside the H scenes so if anything the AA version is very heavily cut; not the other way around. The game was written as an adult game to begin with and then modified for an AA version.

Yeah, and from what I'm seeing so far, most of it has been kept in the console port (it has +17/CERO D rating actually +15, I confused it with HoshiOri) :) I know that it might be considered weird, but recently I prefer most of my moege (and even moreso nakige) without H-scenes ;) I'm fine with sex jokes like those in this VN, or off-screen sex, like in Vita version of HoshiOri, but I don't enjoy reading most of the sex scenes themselves.

(When I'm in the mood for eroge, I tend to go for 3DOELVNs or some RPGM shovelware ;) )

7 hours ago, ittaku said:

Hekiru/Hikaru->Anri->Anzu->Tsubame->Izumi (my preferred)

I think I'll go with this recommenadtion then - thanks :)

7 hours ago, ittaku said:

depending on which is your favourite pair of girls

Currently I think I'm leaning towards Tsubame, but I'm still near the beginning, so it all might change ;)

7 hours ago, ittaku said:

Disclaimer: I'm the translator for the official localisation with NekoNyan.

So we can expect some quality TL :)

Edited by adamstan
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ended up getting Covid so I decided to bring out my neglected copy of "Birushana: Rising Flower of Genpei" and, y'know, actually play it while I'm sick. I was expecting to close it after ten minutes of attempts at playing, because I have zero brain capacity right now, but...

Friends, it's good. I wasn't expecting it to be this good. I'm on chapter 6 on Noritsune's route and so far, there's been no real romance. It's been all action-adventure. It reminds me of a mix of the manga Akatsuki no Yona and the otome game Hakuoki, wherein if Hakuoki had a writing team that seemed to like their protagonist,, this is maybe what would result.

I will have to admit that it has an unfortunately short common route!!! According to the guide I'm following, I might be almost done this route? I'm really sad  because it feels like it's only been an hour!

ALSO. I started Island. Easily one of the more.....interesting starts to a game I've played. I am not sure if I'll finish it right now, but I'll probably get back to it when I'm feeling better.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, auntwitch said:

Ended up getting Covid so I decided to bring out my neglected copy of "Birushana: Rising Flower of Genpei" and, y'know, actually play it while I'm sick. I was expecting to close it after ten minutes of attempts at playing, because I have zero brain capacity right now, but...

Friends, it's good. I wasn't expecting it to be this good. I'm on chapter 6 on Noritsune's route and so far, there's been no real romance. It's been all action-adventure. It reminds me of a mix of the manga Akatsuki no Yona and the otome game Hakuoki, wherein if Hakuoki had a writing team that seemed to like their protagonist,, this is maybe what would result.

I will have to admit that it has an unfortunately short common route!!! According to the guide I'm following, I might be almost done this route? I'm really sad  because it feels like it's only been an hour!

ALSO. I started Island. Easily one of the more.....interesting starts to a game I've played. I am not sure if I'll finish it right now, but I'll probably get back to it when I'm feeling better.

It's sad to hear that you got Covid, I hope you get well soon, I'll continue to play Princess Lover later. Then play other VN games.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Continuing Clover Day's, yesterday I finished my first playthrough of prologue/common route - going for Hekiru/Hikaru route.

My impressions so far:

  • I'm loving the humor in this VN :D Nakigey moments also tug at my hearstrings skillfuly ❤️
  • Izumi, who initially seemed like an annoying brat, already grew on me, and I started to like her and find her cute ;)
  • Hekiru, with her obsession about MC, reminds me of Miyako from Majikoi :D

I'm really looking forward to the routes :)

BTW, I skimmed through common route in PC version to check for any obvious differences, but found only one:

Spoiler

Near the end of common route, when Hekiru sneaks into MC's bed and tries to talk him into having sex, in the PC version she uses the word セックス, while in Vita version instead she uses 合体. I actually thought it worked well, since it was the same word she used near the end of this scene about hand holding while sleeping - effectively saying something like "Okay, for now let's have sex with just our hands" ;) 

Other than this, common route seems to be the same in both editions, all dirty jokes and risky CGs included ;)

Spoiler

Like Izumi's pantyshot or Tsubame's (SD) underboob ;)

There's also one UI/technical difference - Vita edition allows to switch text box between default floating and fixed mode, which I found quite useful, since I'm not a fan of floating text boxes, and prefer the standard one.

Edited by adamstan
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...