What are you playing?

[XReaper]

finished euthanasia few hours ago & started replaying evolimit - hope the mars gang is able to pull me out of my momentary slump
 

[Down]

Continuing my journey through SubaHibi. I'm still very slow at reading japanese... ;_;

 

It's my own Invention was pure madness. Seriously.

I'm not a fan of ijime themes so the first half was a bit eh for me, but I have to admit that Sca-Ji already took that impressively far, and I get the intention. After that it's crazy scenes upon crazy scenes. Sometimes weird, sometimes nauseating, sometimes hallucinatory, it drags on a lot but boy it's a ride. And the alternate route was really worth reading, it has the best scene in the entire "route".

 

Looking-glass Insects was less mad, but its ijime part managed to be even more gut-wrenching. I mean seriously, I almost ragequitted at some point.

Overall the POV shed a lot of light on the plot, although a lot of the "revelations" had already been foreshadowed pretty clearly. The themes of the games are starting to become clear too.

The alternate ending was also really worth seeing because it's the one where the reference to Cyrano de Bergerac are the most displayed, and it make it seem important to the overall scheme of the game even though it's not "canon". It's also considerably more lighthearted.

 

So yeah, basically Invention and Insects are not parts that suited me as much as Down the Rabbit Hole, where I loved the creepy atmosphere and the mystery, but they're much more meety and impactful. You can see that Rabbit Hole was just a vast introduction.

 

I'll refrain from commenting further on the plot and the themes, as I think there's still a lot of stuff to see that might completely change the game.

 

Now onto Jabberwocky 1.

[Snowtsuku]

Installed Princess Evengeline. I hope I can play it. I haven't even read a line,

[Ayana]

Continuing my journey through SubaHibi. I'm still very slow at reading japanese... ;_;

 

It's my own Invention was pure madness. Seriously.

I'm not a fan of ijime themes so the first half was a bit eh for me, but I have to admit that Sca-Ji already took that impressively far, and I get the intention. After that it's crazy scenes upon crazy scenes. Sometimes weird, sometimes nauseating, sometimes hallucinatory, it drags on a lot but boy it's a ride. And the alternate route was really worth reading, it has the best scene in the entire "route".

 

Looking-glass Insects was less mad, but its ijime part managed to be even more gut-wrenching. I mean seriously, I almost ragequitted at some point.

Overall the POV shed a lot of light on the plot, although a lot of the "revelations" had already been foreshadowed pretty clearly. The themes of the games are starting to become clear too.

The alternate ending was also really worth seeing because it's the one where the reference to Cyrano de Bergerac are the most displayed, and it make it seem important to the overall scheme of the game even though it's not "canon". It's also considerably more lighthearted.

 

So yeah, basically Invention and Insects are not parts that suited me as much as Down the Rabbit Hole, where I loved the creepy atmosphere and the mystery, but they're much more meety and impactful. You can see that Rabbit Hole was just a vast introduction.

 

I'll refrain from commenting further on the plot and the themes, as I think there's still a lot of stuff to see that might completely change the game.

 

Now onto Jabberwocky 1.

 

Not spoilers for the story/plot, but rather some information regarding the choices in Jabberwocky I:

In Jabberwocky I, there will be another two-choice menu, and this time, for whichever choice you decide (it doesn't matter as much in this case but I do still recommend the top/first choice), just continue reading into the next chapter as it will be unlocked from either selection.

 

[Vej]

Just finished AProfile. It was a decent VN just a little irritating how the MC just forgives and forgets the shit and lies people tell him 

 

I'll be starting on あやかしびと next. Trying to combine reading VNs with learning japanese. worst thing is getting to involved into the vn to stop learning for the rest of the day

[Mr Poltroon]

Just finished AProfile. It was a decent VN just a little irritating how the MC just forgives and forgets the shit and lies people tell him 

Irritating? He's absolutely #bestprotag

Such trust, such altruism. If only he didn't have...

Such a bumpy past...

[XReaper]

@vej i know exactly what you mean, the way he acted was so damn naive, it started to hurt. especially mious route took it to another level, cant say he´s your typical hetare-kun, but it definitely went down the same road

[Chronopolis]

Finishing up Semiramis no Senbin (it's the one of a kind societal dissection, debate and drama). and starting Gurenka (it's a supernatural chuuni with soft artwork and a lot of atmospheric tracks).

[Eclipsed]

Yumina; finished Ai's route. Was pretty good; felt longer than the other routes since the EDs are dealt with by Ch. 7 and then Ch 8. is dedicated to the Algodan stuff.

 

Some quick rankings:

• Best girl: Yumina > Kirara > Ai. Maybe I do have a thing for pink >.>
• Best route: Ai > Yumina > Kirara. Idk, Yumina's was a bit too cheesy and Kirara's was a bit too chaotic. Ai's had the best flow imo.
• Best romance: Kirara > Yumina > Ai. Kirara auto-wins because she actually gets into a relationship with Ayumu midroute (and so characters get to comment on their relationship!!) unlike Yumina/Ai who just get together and cram a few H-scenes at the end >.> 

[Laluune]

Currently playing Hakuouki SSL, it's gorgeous and I'm getting a kick out of seeing all the guys in modern get up. Aiming for Heisuke for my first playthrough :3 good to know my choices won't kill anyone off too... as far as I know haha.

[Abyssal Monkey]

 

• Best romance: Kirara > Yumina > Ai. Kirara auto-wins because she actually gets into a relationship with Ayumu midroute (and so characters get to comment on their relationship!!) unlike Yumina/Ai who just get together and cram a few H-scenes at the end >.> 

 

Well said, you've just explained about 50% of what I dislike about Majikoi, and why Chris has the best route.  Also, I feel bad for the fact that you had to climb all of that tower in one go, and the fact that you had to redo almost an entire chapter just to get a skill to beat a boss.  For that boss, I got lucky and had Kirara's constant breaker and just overpowered the boss by being ~10 levels over.  I overleveled in that game way too hard. 

 

Did you have any thoughts on the combat mechanics themselves? I might have missed them. 

 

For me, I booted up nekohen's heavily edited machine translation of Ikusa Megami ZERO and read up to and completed chapter 3 just to see whether or not I could look forward to the actual full release of the game.  The translation, as I said, is clearly heavily edited machine TL, which for me, isn't a deal breaker, as it's edited enough to make sense, and I had gotten used to this type of "translation" two years ago when people started doing it on LN/WN before they actually got "good" at it.  As bad as it may seem, the translator puts in translator notes rarely, but they are always super sarcastic remarks on the context text that the game throws out.

Like when you kill Darnos/Dalnos, the game throws out [You acquired Darnos's items] and the translator adds: "Seriously, did you loot his corpse!?"

 

 

For the actual story itself: Holy mother of the gods, I can't tell where the hell this is headed.  I should have figured considering its a 30+ hour game and the title of it, but I seriously wasn't expecting this.  This is actually an epic, not just a normal adventure that, say, Kamidori was.  Since I had finished Kamidori about 8 months ago, I was expecting something of a similar vein in IM0, but in actual fact, each of the chapters is a god damn story arc.  I haven't had this much fun progressing the story in an RPG in a really long time.  Whenever a new chapter begins, I always think: "So who am i going to be playing with this time."

 

So while the gameplay is pretty standard for the most part (read: "just hit auto and press control while mashing enter", as I said, I like to be overleveled), the real take away from the first 3 chapters of the game: You sure do kill a lot of people while claiming to have a pacifistic/altruistic personality.

[Vokoca]

I feel like I didn't post an update here in forever - but I finally made some progress, so I actually have things to write about.

 

First of, I made progress in Senshinkan (crazy, huh?), finishing Rinko's route. Wow... where do I even begin? This route felt much longer than the other two, having not just a single major conflict, but nearly four! I thought they would leave Kuubou for much later in the VN, since it is on such a ridiculou scale of power that I couldn't even imagine a fight happening - but with some clever role changing and mixing the game up, the wicked dragon was actually one of the main parts of the route. And it's not even worth saying now that I absolutely loved the fights... this route was just even more creative than the first ones in terms of the chuuni, exploring more dreams, ideals and Kantan mechanics in general... amazing! The plot got also shifted around a lot... I think I have just the true route left, and really looking forward to that!

 

I also made quite big progress in Higurashi Sui. I finished Tatarigoroshi - probably not much to say here since it's the original arc, but damn, even if I hated it in the first half, the mysteries in the second half more than make up for it. Amazing read - and I bet whoever voiced Keiichi probably couldn't even speak for at least a week after that performance. I also nearly lost my hate for Satoko - that was until I played (and finished) Tsukiotoshi, one of the new arcs. This arc basically sshows the worst of every character - it felt very rushed at first, but once it gets into its own plot, the writing gets much better, and Tsukiotoshi turns into probably the darkest and most messed up arc in the entire series. It doesn't introduce any new mysteries, but it's an interesting scenario.

 

Now I just started Someutsushi, and all I can say so far is that I really like the new characters. Mirai, a new female detective on the case, is one badass lady - and the main character of the arc, Natsumi, is easily the cutest in the entire arc. I know absolutely nothing about this arc, not having even read the manga it was based on - very curious where this one goes!

 

 ... The alternate ending was also really worth seeing ...

Not seeing Kimika in all her badassery would pretty much be a crime, haha.

[Abyssal Monkey]

So I'm 10 minutes I finished the prologue of Bunny Black and I felt the compulsion to make a post.

 

First off, this main character has such a great personality so far.  He immediately goes to screwing a woman after being told "Violate her.", and when Meryl comes in acting haughty, he comments "This one needs a good fucking too"    His entire personality so far, and everything he has done just makes me scream "YESSSSSSS" on the inside.  I can only thank that there wasn't immediate copulation sounds on the scene, because I'm on speakers, and my mom is maybe 5 feet from me on the phone.

 

The first thing I noticed  about the game was that at the first lines, there is this rock/metal music playing, but after the first 5ish lines, it cuts to a forest overview and the music abruptly changes to smooth classic/jazz.  This continues to happen everytime there is a scene shift.  Right now I'm in the bar with Meryl explaining what I'm supposed to do, and I'm listening to what I believe is swing jazz?  I can only hope the game doesn't overly burn out all its music too quickly.

 

First impressions? This is gonna be fun, the entire game seems to exude personality so far, so it passes with an initial claw stabbed directly into my intestines.

 

EDIT: And I click start, and it immediately forces me to edit this post. "Regular Strength", "Extra Spicy", "Deadly to the Touch", "Abandon All Hope" difficulty levels?  This game is speaking to me on every level.  Deadly to the touch here we go!

[Funyarinpa]

Finished Grisaia no Kajitsu Michiru route.

Was kind of nice, but...

ARE YOU FUCKING TELLING ME THAT THE FUCKING EXPLANATION FOR THR OTHER PERSONALITY IS THAT THE CONSCIOUSNESS CARRIED OVER WITH THE HEART?! THE EVERLIVING FUCK

[Decay]

It's not eroge drama without

random supernatural nonsense out of nowhere

[Vokoca]

Finished Grisaia no Kajitsu Michiru route.

Was kind of nice, but...

ARE YOU FUCKING TELLING ME THAT THE FUCKING EXPLANATION FOR THR OTHER PERSONALITY IS THAT THE CONSCIOUSNESS CARRIED OVER WITH THE HEART?! THE EVERLIVING FUCK

Yeah, it's such an awesome and fitting plot device that

Grisaia trilogyy Michiru related spoilers

they retcon it completely in the sequels

[Eclipsed]

Finished Yumina.

I talked about how Yumina's route felt a bit cheesy; I should've expected the true end (a continuation of Yumina's route) to be cheesyness overload >.>

But as a character interaction lover, I thoroughly enjoyed every second of it (especially the Y&Y reunion!) and overall it was just a really great way to put a closure to the 60 hours I devoted to this VN

 

Did you have any thoughts on the combat mechanics themselves? I might have missed them. 

 

1. Extremely high initial learning curve; the tutorial sucks balls since it just describes and doesn't actually do like a step-by-step simulation of actual combat -.-
2. Becomes ridiculously easy once you become familiar with skill names, understand blast + anti-blast, learn how to fumble enemies, actually take time to read enemy skills, etc... Took me until mid-Hard playthrough to become efficient in combat (normal playthrough I just spammed whatever and hydroblasted whatever >.>).
3. Hardest boss(es) for me overall were Nayuta (normal) cuz I was a noob, Command Unit (hard) when I had no Null Silencer for his continuous heal+nuke, and the final dragon boss in the Ordacle (very hard)
4. Most underwhelming boss was Deele. I mean, in Ai's route you fight her AFTER you fight Karales >.>... A shame, cuz her battle theme was pretty sexy. 
5. Overall, I'm pretty neutral-to-positive towards the combat. It never really felt like a chore for me thankfully (except that 90 floor tower grind, but hey, worth for true end <3) and some boss fights were challenging & enjoyable. Side note: using Radiant Frame's Shape Supplier and having Ayumu scream 'Feel the power of my soul!!' was probably one of the most satisfying things to do in this VN xD

[joehawks12]

playing starless. Been a while since i played a game by the creators of bible black and discipline.  Hope my penis is up for the immense beating that is to come.

[Kurisu-Chan]

Read my first impressions. 

[hydro]

Started Wanko to Karasou, first VN in a while. It's fun enough so far. The only characters I don't like so far are clearly antagonists, which is always a good sign. Nothing worse than hating someone the story wants you to sympathise with like 90% of tsunderes. Kotarou is a bro.

[Yuuko]

I finally finished my first route, Ayano route in Hanasaki Work Spring. The prologue was funny and I enjoyed it but the route was kinda meh. Ayano was cute and all but the story was boring to me and there were no more good jokes. 

[MrBanballow]

Finished off My Girlfriend is the President (Ell Route) in the early morning hours. Onward to Higurashi!!

[Wonderfullyevil]

After being indecisive to the point of being unsure of whether or not I should even read something, I really got into Symphonic Rain. So far, I like it. The tone is nice. I also like how cozy the art is. I laughed at the name Falsita Fawcett though.

[FinalChaos]

Now I fully understand why everyone says that Wanko's route is the 'feels' route.

 

That hit hard ........ I was hoping through and through literally shouting at the screen.......

 

I had guessed the outcome that Chris was gonna beat Wanko in the tournament near the start.

But I had a tiny ray of hope as Wanko refused to give up and kept standing ......... but damn them crushing my hopes ...........

[Vej]

Now I fully understand why everyone says that Wanko's route is the 'feels' route.

 

That hit hard ........ I was hoping through and through literally shouting at the screen.......

 

I had guessed the outcome that Chris was gonna beat Wanko in the tournament near the start.

But I had a tiny ray of hope as Wanko refused to give up and kept standing ......... but damn them crushing my hopes ...........

 

Now I shall finish the rest of Wanko's route and then get to the remaining two routes - Moro's side route and Agave.

Chris didnt beat Wanko did she? i believe it ended in a draw - well Wanko won as Chris fell first but Wanko wasnt able to fight anymore for the next round?

 

i might be wrong its been a while