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8 minutes ago, littleshogun said:

By the way I'm fine with some image got untranslated, although it's obviously inconsistent though because we have some translated picture at the beginning.

That's because the patch is unfinished - it is internal beta for the translation team, which was leaked by one of the editors, when group's main hacker/coder couldn't do anything for the few years. There was actually some editing and TLC done after this version was made (and those pictures were translated too), but they were never compiled into the working patch :( The patch that we have was released in 2016, but it was actually made around 2013.

https://www.reddit.com/r/visualnovels/comments/4te0e4/yoake_brighter_than_the_dawning_blue_100/

8 minutes ago, littleshogun said:

Also before expecting something grand with Yoake, one must remember that this is at most was only charage so you better expect that as charage

Right, but for a charage it's very good IMO.

8 minutes ago, littleshogun said:

Too bad though that Yoake here is underrated one, mostly because people were already watched the anime


From what I've read, the anime wasn't good :(

8 minutes ago, littleshogun said:

Well if no sex scenes could work for both of Miagete and Aselia, it should work for Yoake as well.

It works, I have no complaints at all.

Edited by adamstan
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2 hours ago, LemiusK said:

I think the gameplay definitely distracted a lot from the story for me. I became less interested in the characters and storyline as the gameplay dragged on. I'm surprised this even qualifies as a visual novel, considering that 50% of the game is more like an adventure horror game.

I don't know. The fact that the first game had a stronger focus on the characters' relationship with each other (and how tragic it became when they lose them) made a stronger impact on me. Blood Drive, on the other hand, had a meandering plot that, as I said, served merely to set up a superficial plot twist before getting to the climax. I think the game almost expects you to be familiar with the new characters from Sachiko's Birthday, because there's a blatant lack of that visual novel element where the story familiarizes you with new characters first. I think the lack of that connection just left me utterly indifferent to their fate.

I think the biggest disappointment is that I actually had to go out of my way to buy this online because my local Playstation store doesn't have this in-stock. It wasn't cheap to acquire this game through such means, not to mention the time wasted.

Yeah, it's kinda debatable whether or not games like are actually VNs. As far as the series, I think Book of Shadows felt most like one to me. Wandering around exploring things in these kinds of games can be a lot of fun, but when you're forced to run away from things non stop it can get tiring. Especially when it has nothing to do with the story and is just some random, endlessly respawning spirit. I kinda like how Danganronpa did exploration for a VN type game. You couldn't die or anything, but it still felt suspenseful and let me appreciate the uneasy atmosphere of the school.

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Episode 10 of Muv-Luv Alternative was shorter than I expected, given that it's the final battle and all. But man... it's finally come to an end. A grand epic finale worthy of the hype.

Sigh. Gotta hate it when good stories end. lol

Though I've gotta be painfully honest, I actually don't have as hard a time leaving Muv-Luv behind as I do towards other franchises. :sacchan: It's one of those cases where you acknowledge and respect the hype surrounding something, but you're just not as personally invested as everyone else. It's a reaaaally solid story with amazing characterization, don't get me wrong, but I don't know, I just don't feel that torn up about leaving it behind.

I guess if I'm to be honest, it probably comes down to not being that attached to the characters. I was going to blame it on all the infodumping dampening my experience, but then I remember how much I liked Fate/Stay Night (or specifically, Saber's character) in spite of the infodumping. Muv-Luv has a very clever way of growing its characters, but none of their personality just appealed to me the way other VNs/anime did. Even my favorite girl, Ayamine, was only so because I found her to be witty and funny, but no deeper connection than that. I might have changed my mind if there was actually an Ayamine route in Alternative to further explore the character, but I doubt it.

This is going to be the same case with many VNs I've played and will play in the future, so I won't bother boring you again with a similar post next time. G-senjou no Maou, Saya no Uta, Corpse Party, and the Zero Escape VNs are all examples of popular visual novels I acknowledged the quality of, but not as crazy or fanatical as everyone else. It takes a really special kind of VN that go above and beyond the average quality to really get me singing praises about how much of an impact it has on me; timeless and epic stories like Steins;Gate, Umineko no Naku Koro ni, Clannad, and of course, Fate/Stay Night. Muv-Luv Alternative, unfortunately, won't be on my AAA list. But that's not necessarily a bad thing, mind you; I'm extremely fussy. Second place is still considered great in my book.

That being said, I will still be browsing the Muv-Luv spin-offs in the future. I am a bit curious whether if there would be sequels where

Spoiler

humanity in the Alternative universe continue their fight on Mars and other planets.

But first, I need to finish clearing up some of the unread routes in Unlimited and Alternative, of course (I sort of rushed into Alternative without clearing all the routes in Unlimited because they were all so similar). I'm currently at the "Final Episode" of Alternative, so I guess farewells are not too far away.

Anyway, to bring this verbose statement to a close, Muv-Luv Alternative is great. I enjoyed all the clever subversions they did for the harem setting. And you know, I have to talk about the music too, because that's a pretty solid soundtrack up there. Some of my favorites were the grander trumpet scores played during the closing of a large battle, and man, the theme songs inserted between scenes definitely boosted my spirits in the face of a grim battle ahead. "CARRY ON, MY WAY!" lol

Final Rating: 9/10
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now that Alternative is out of the way, I could hopefully get back to my favorite blonde tsundere over at Grisaia no Meikyuu soon... Then after that, I might see if I could spare some time for Ever17.

Speaking of Ever17 - which I've dropped twice now - I remember that the second time I dropped, I was probably very close or at least halfway through the first route of the game. I was at the point of the story where

Spoiler

they're trying to cure the virus of someone. Can't remember whom though. It was either a virus or a medical condition; can't recall.

Anyway, if someone could clear that up, I'd appreciate it.

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lol Okay, I spoke too soon. There's a bit more to talk about regarding the final episode of Alternative. For starters, can't wait for Altered Fable to be fully translated now, if ever. lol Probably gonna pick Kashiwagi's route this time, as she caught my eye during Alternative (though technically, she already piqued my interest back in Muv-Luv).

And then and then and then... there's that 

Spoiler

Muv-Luv Extra theme at the end... mhmphhhh...

Well, the rumors were right, it definitely hit in the feels there, as the theme took on a different context there at the end.

Now see, THIS, this is how you do an ending, not that ambiguous nonsense. This is how you do a satisfying ending where you get proper closure and feel like you've came a long way with awesome characters. Very solid and fitting conclusion. Definitely a case of

Spoiler

"Earn your happy ending."

Hm. Think I'll throw in something a little extra:

Final Rating: 9.5/10

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1 hour ago, LemiusK said:

But first, I need to finish clearing up some of the unread routes in Unlimited and Alternative, of course (I sort of rushed into Alternative without clearing all the routes in Unlimited because they were all so similar).

Don't bother. The "routes" in Unlimited are basically the same anyway. Alternative doesn't even have routes (technically, there's one scene right at the very end that depends on which girl you favored during the walkthrough, but I'd just recommend to watch it on YouTube).

1 hour ago, LemiusK said:

That being said, I will still be browsing the Muv-Luv spin-offs in the future. I am a bit curious whether if there would be sequels where

  Hide contents

humanity in the Alternative universe continue their fight on Mars and other planets.

 

I don't think any of the spin-offs cover that, sadly. I myself would love to see a proper sequel with this as a setting. :vinty:

You know, not being crazy about a VN even when you acknowledge its quality is pretty normal. I actually feel the same way about quite a lot of VNs. Not every good story will work for you personally.

1 hour ago, LemiusK said:

G-senjou no Maou, Saya no Uta, Corpse Party, and the Zero Escape VNs are all examples of popular visual novels I acknowledged the quality of, but not as crazy or fanatical as everyone else.

1 hour ago, LemiusK said:

I was at the point of the story where

You almost finished a route I believe. Also, Ever17 gets a lot better when you start it for the second time (if you choose a different protagonist).

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On 11/6/2018 at 12:25 AM, LemiusK said:

Sigh. Just got to the R18 scene of Muv-Luv Alternative...

Sigh. Sigh. Should really have stuck with the All-Ages version. This is just so damn stupid.

I mean, I've seen my share of hentai, so I'm not squeamish or anything, but it does break the immersion. Makes it all feel like one big parody.

You know, if I didn't know any better, I would've thought Nasu was the one who wrote this, given how Heaven's Feel turned out. Guess the rumor that many Japanese VN writers are closet perverts isn't that far from the truth.

Personally, I hate censorship for the most parts, but in some cases, I would actually favor the All-Ages version when the sexual parts don't add anything to the story (Key's VNs like Clannad comes to mind), or when they even detract from the story. This is definitely one of those cases.

I tried tellin' cats that waiting for the 18 patch was a bad idea but they never listened to me. Yeah I found it really weird and off putting as well.

And yeah I wish the characters had been a bit better initially especially design wise. I ended up really loving the cast that joins the team later in Alternative and I wished that they had been the main girls. I did like Meiya quite a bit.

 

I played Corpse Party for the first time recently and while I enjoyed my experience I think it is certainly one of those games I would have liked more had I played it when I was younger. A lot of the horror stuff just didn't click with me and walking through all the samey rooms and hallways got old after a while. I also really didn't like that guyz younger sister. For one thing she is supposed to be in Middle School yet they have her talking like she's in kindergarten or elementary school. Middle School girls do not talk like that unless she has some developmental disability I know they were trying to make her seem innocent but they should have just made her younger. I also really didn't like how most of their arc was dedicated to her really needing to piss. It was weird and stupid. Also, I thought the ending was just whatever for me. Nothing was really solved and it seemed like bait for a sequel. One which I don't quite feel like chomping at.

 

I'm playing Crystalline you know that EVN that was made by the fine folks behind Ace Academy and while I'm sort of enjoying myself there are some issues I have with it. One, the story is pretty basic it's your classic Isekai tale that has already been done to death but that's okay the characters are decent and the writing is decent. The second thing is the boob physics. I hate boob physics they are always real off putting and fake. A woman putting her hands on her hips and slightly leaning forward will not cause her tits to ruble like some kind of earthquake. The last thing and worst thing about it is the amount of references. There is just too fucking much and they are not very funny and quite annoying. Referential humor can be funny only if it used in small doses and not all the fucking time. Visually however I think it is pretty great and the backgrounds are damn good. 

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8 minutes ago, Ranzo said:

I ended up really loving the cast that joins the team later in Alternative and I wished that they had been the main girls. 

To be honest, aside from Kashiwagi maybe, the only other girl from the later team I was really fond of was Akane, but only because I already liked her tomboyish attitude from the KimiNozo anime. Still waiting for Akane Maniax to be translated...

That said, 

Edited by LemiusK
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Well, it looks like I finally finished the common route in Dies Irae. I am not sure where exactly each route splits out, but according to the walkthrough I already passed the last choice leading to Kasumi route. And, well, my first reaction is that this is a pretty good VN, but so far I don't really see anything that would make it stand out above all the others.

I'll just make a list of things I liked and disliked so far:

+ Overall, the writing feels good. Except for (actually quite rare) SOL scenes, I never really felt bored.

+ I was kind of skeptical about the setting when I first heard about this VN, as I generally don't enjoy these "good guys vs bad guys" settings, but the villains are pretty well written, and the "good guys" aren't exactly that generically good either, so we'll see.

+ The action scenes overall are quite engaging. The plot armor for the important characters is obviously present (though it will probably become looser in the character routes), but the exact outcome of each battle isn't really that predictable.

+ The character art is pretty nice.

+/- The music somehow manages to change between really good songs and the songs that literally make my head hurt.

+/- There are way too many intermissions. It becomes pretty confusing to keep track of which information the protagonist already knows and which we know from some external source. That said, the main problems with the story structures like that is that the protagonists quite often end up looking like complete idiots in the eyes of the readers, but DI manages to avoid that so far, and the intermissions never reveal too much.

+/- The plot itself is pretty average (and quite predictable) so far, but from what I understand the plot is not the main selling point of this VN. The characters also don't really stand out so far to me personally, but I hope it'll change in the character routes.

- Kasumi, and quite a lot of scenes where she is involved. They somehow managed to make her a very generic osananajimi character, and most scenes where she is involved just make me cringe.

Well, that's it. I don't feel like giving this a numerical rating so far because it can still change very much, but overall it feels like a very enjoyable VN, but I don't really expect it to become one of my favorites.

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1 hour ago, adamstan said:

I just started Sanoba Witch. For now I have to say that dual-language option (with both EN and JP text visble simultaneously) is great feature, although it probably slows me down greatly, as I'm trying to read original text along with translation :P

It's a good thing, but useless for me :( It's one thing to know which japanese letters make the english sentence, but i'd never know what's what since they're structured differently. With romanji it would be a bit easier i think, but that would look like a mess :P

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Rereading Ever17 because my save data was lost. Decided to just wing it and pick whichever option I feel like for my first playthrough to make it feel more natural. After looking at the flowchart, it seems like I'm heading for Tsugumi+Sora Bad End. Oh well.

Couldn't stand Tsugumi's edgy loner attitude enough to play nice with her, so I didn't pick the nicer options for her this time (as opposed to my original playthrough). Became closer to Sora this time round, but still not enough to earn enough points because I listened to Coco's joke instead of paying attention to her at the beginning. C'mon, it was a hilarious joke. I'm annoyed that Takeshi didn't laugh one bit at the joke. Poor Coco.

Speaking of whom, Coco is soooo cute. Best gurl of the game. She seems like someone whom I could just hang out with all day, joking around. Well, I kinda understand why they wrote her that way, since I could still recall vague details of what happens near the end of Tsu+Sora's route. Feels bad man.

Sora's infodumping got me to fall asleep, literally. Then again, I was reading at 2 in the morning, coincidentally the same in-game time Sora was infodumping in the VN. Gah, I didn't bother trying to figure out half of what she said.

Anyway, can't wait to get on Coco's route soon. :kosame: 

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10 minutes ago, LemiusK said:

Decided to just wing it and pick whichever option I feel like for my first playthrough to make it feel more natural.

Nice to see someone that feels the same about choices as me! ^^  Walkthrough is useful for endings hunting and for getting those pesky 100% completion but it take all the fun out of the game. I love to experiment, to try, and pick what feels natural and to figure out how can I favor my best girl/boy.

...Although because of this refusal to look at walkthroughs my first ending on my first VN ever was the Bad Ending 13 of FSN (the one you get for insufficient points with Saber on the last day, you know?). The backtrack still haunts me to this day. Fun times. :notlikemiya: 

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1 hour ago, MaggieROBOT said:

...Although because of this refusal to look at walkthroughs my first ending on my first VN ever was the Bad Ending 13 of FSN (the one you get for insufficient points with Saber on the last day, you know?). The backtrack still haunts me to this day. Fun times. :notlikemiya: 

You managed to get that ending blindly? I've seen walkthroughs about how to get that ending for 100% completion because it's so hard to get. Then again, if it was your first VN you probably weren't aware of affection points. I wonder how you did against Illya's affection wall in Heaven's Feel or any of the routes in Amnesia Memories.

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11 minutes ago, onorub said:

You managed to get that ending blindly? I've seen walkthroughs about how to get that ending for 100% completion because it's so hard to get. Then again, if it was your first VN you probably weren't aware of affection points. I wonder how you did against Illya's affection wall in Heaven's Feel or any of the routes in Amnesia Memories.

Yeah, I had no idea the points existed, and I always prefered Rin over Saber soooo... So I can attest, it's a easy ending to get if you keep favoring Rin, although you have to go back to day 9 to fix this shit for the true ending (it's salvageable after that, even if you didn't bothered before).

After that trauma, I didn't even try to go UBW and HF blindly, I almost did advanced math with the guide to calculate all points for a minimum backtrack run. :wahaha:  I do the same with other games known for their obnoxious flag/points system now.

Meanwhile, it took me a while to get some normal endings in Code Realize, as I kept getting too many points with the heroes and it was locking me in the best endings. (I know about the scene selection, but my honor didn't let me get the easy way out wwww)

Edited by MaggieROBOT
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Slowly getting trough No One But You... Truth be told, I bought it solely because the male best friend (Ryo) has a route XD I know that it doesn't have the best reputation, but ehh... I kinda like it? I admit, I might just be biased because Ryo turned out to be basically me with a weiner and a tad worse home life... Like, seriously. The similarities are almost uncanny o.O I like the other characters well enough too, even tho I'm only on my second route (Yui is best girl). Heck, even the protagonist is pretty cool, at least in my opinion. Maybe my standards are just painfully low, but whatevs, I'm having fun  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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Ah, I read it. I think it was one of the first VNs I read after flash h-dating sims ;)

It had some good moments (Chinatsu and Yui endings), but routes have really ridiculous plot holes (especially Megumi and Shiro), and the way it tries to mimic japanese VNs is just cringey, because it's poorly executed. Complete opposite of this was, say, Katawa Shoujo - although it was unvoiced OELVN, in my memories of it I hear japanese voice acting  ;) So it can be done properly, but NOBY is just really badly written :(

While I rated it a little higher than @Decay (I gave it ~5/10), his review is spot-on:

https://fuwanovel.net/reviews/2016/01/29/no-one-but-you/

Edited by adamstan
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12 minutes ago, adamstan said:

Ah, I read it. I think it was one of the first VNs I read after flash h-dating sims ;)

It had some good moments (Chinatsu and Yui endings), but routes have really ridiculous plot holes (especially Megumi and Shiro), and the way it tries to mimic japanese VNs is just cringey, because it's poorly executed. Complete opposite of this was, say, Katawa Shoujo - although it was unvoiced OELVN, in my memories of it I hear japanese voice acting  ;) So it can be done properly, but NOBY is just really badly written :(

While I rated it a little higher than @Decay (I gave it ~5/10), his review is spot-on:

https://fuwanovel.net/reviews/2016/01/29/no-one-but-you/

I'm curious. Did they ever add in the stretch goal routes and all the other kickstarter stuff that wasn't there at launch?

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5 minutes ago, Decay said:

I'm curious. Did they ever add in the stretch goal routes and all the other kickstarter stuff that wasn't there at launch?

As for the version that I played (I think it was about a year ago), if I remeber correctly, it had h-scenes, but no voice acting, voiced OP song or additional routes. And it still had bugs/scripting issues with incorrect date during routes.

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Ah man... finally reached it, the super-bad end of Tsu/Sora in Ever17. And ho boy, is it a bad end alright. A major "You royally f***ed up" moment. Phew. Poor You. Probably gonna play her route next... and probably getting her bad end next. Ugh. Hope it's not as graphic as that previous bad end...

I mean, I liked You enough, and she's probably my favorite out of all the selectable routes (Coco's route isn't selectable during your first playthrough), but the only reason I didn't pick You first was because Takeshi's perspective felt more relatable, since Kid's like 14 or something, not to mention his medical condition. Oh well.

Still, can't believe how close I was to the bad end the last time I played this (right before I dropped it). Can't remember why I dropped it the previous time... what a waste. :makina:

Overall, not as tedious an experience as I remembered. Probably because I'm more used to all the infodumping by now, and also because I pretty much just skimped through all those walls of text, so it feels faster this time.

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43 minutes ago, LemiusK said:

Ah man... finally reached it, the super-bad end of Tsu/Sora in Ever17. And ho boy, is it a bad end alright. A major "You royally f***ed up" moment. Phew. Poor You. Probably gonna play her route next... and probably

I can still hear the damn OST playing in my head :kosame: Now I'm sad. Gotta get a chicken sandwich brb. 

43 minutes ago, LemiusK said:

Overall, not as tedious an experience as I remembered. Probably because I'm more used to all the infodumping by now, and also because I pretty much just skimped through all those walls of text, so it feels faster this time

Most people say that Ever17 is worth it just for the true route, aka Coco's route. I can see that, though if the other routes rub you the wrong way and you find yourself wanting to commit suicide, then I probably would advice against it :makina:

Anyway, in my experience one of the things that made the more tiresome parts of Ever17 more bearable is the theorycrafting. There are quite some clues along the way as to try to guess what's going on there, and it was really fun for me to try and put the pieces together. Maybe you could do the same? 

Good luck with the rest of the VN. I believe you still have Tsugumi and You's routes left? (Edit: not Sora's, obviously, I messed up) 

Edited by Thyndd
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17 minutes ago, Thyndd said:

Anyway, in my experience one of the things that made the more tiresome parts of Ever17 more bearable is the theorycrafting. There are quite some clues along the way as to try to guess what's going on there, and it was really fun for me to try and put the pieces together. Maybe you could do the same? 

Hm. Well, yeah, that would work, I guess, though I can't say I enjoy puzzles that much. :makina: The more fun parts of Ever17 so far are comedy-related or drama-related. Any time Sora starts spewing existential musings, the tiresome feeling comes back. lol As opposed to theorycrafting, thinking what Sora's trying to say, I was just thinking, "How could I get through this wall of text ASAP without missing anything important?" :yumiko:
 

29 minutes ago, Thyndd said:

Most people say that Ever17 is worth it just for the true route, aka Coco's route. I can see that, though if the other routes rub you the wrong way and you find yourself wanting to commit suicide, then I probably would advice against it :makina:

Well, I usually have the policy to play all the Bad Ends first before reaching the Good/True Ends. Much more satisfying that way. Besides, I've been through Muv-Luv Alternative and only shed a few pea-sized tears. This is small fry.

Spoiler

(as much as it hurts to see Coco like that...)

 

30 minutes ago, Thyndd said:

Good luck with the rest of the VN. I believe you still have Tsugumi and You's routes left? (Edit: not Sora's, obviously, I messed up) 

Well, it's only my first Bad End so far, so I still have... every other route to go. lol

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