What are you playing?

[Turnip Sensei]

I decided to read Hanachirasu in order to get back into a VN reading mood. (other than slowly working my way through Hikari no Valusia) 

Hanachirasu being a short VN meant I could finish it in day and be left craving for more,  and so now I can start reading whatever I decide with fresh state of mind. Not to mention I've been interested in reading it for a while, but never got around doing it.

And Hanachirasu was pretty great. It was sufficiently dark, but also surprisingly amusing with it's somewhat absurd sense of humor.

And damn the battle scenes... I really liked the meticulous explanations and all the info about sword techniques, no matter how accurate they might or might not be. I've always been more fan of battles that are over in one decisive moment than fights that devolve into a contest of endurance, so I'm glad Hanachirasu delivered on that front. There's just much more feeling in it when every move is lethal.   

[HotTrax]

Tsumi no Hikari Rendezvous Tsubura Finish - Surprisingly very light on drama, arranged marriage route.

 

Spoiler

 

 

I thought her father would put up more of a fight but once he saw they were serious about their plan and the village he accepted and solved the whole arranged marriage problem. Her love for pork buns is real! Also poor Celica…. 
Final route awaits. 

edit: 
Ai route finished – Ehh, I dunno.  
Overall 1. Fuka 2. Tsubara 3. Ai. 
 

[Vorathiel]

I started and finished Phenomeno. In around 45 minutes, lol.
https://vndb.org/v10526

But it was PHENOMENAL. Short, but extremally eerie, scary, moody, climatic and tense little story. Taking fully advantage of VNs nature. Fuck, I want more, I want horrors! Never been scared like that before (exception - movie The Conjuring) after I celebrated my 13th birthday. Even the crepiest and scariest parts of Saya no Uta were no match for this gem.

[Hayashi]

この大空FD

小鳥ちゃんすごいよ

[Dionysus42]

I've still going through the post-game content of Kindred Spirits before moving on to something else. I was planning for that something to be Flowers, but given recent events...

Anyway, I also played through Danganronpa, with the new Steam release. It's quite good.

[suikashoujo]

Right now the translated game I've been playing is KoiChoco. I've finished the Chisato and Isara routes, and I'm working on Satsuki now. I like it so far even if I want Chisato to go die in a fire

 

As for untranslated games, I'm working on Taisetsu na Kimi no Tame ni, Boku ni Dekiru Ichiban no Koto, which is pretty interesting. Nothing like ghosts and incest to break my VN reading slump, amirite?

[MrBanballow]

Slowed down a bit over the past couple of days (as if I wasn't slow enough)...
... think I'm about halfway through Ch 21 of Evangile.

[Eclipsed]

Made some progress in Lucy

The year is 2050, the era of Androids. You spend a good first 30 minutes to an hour of this VN in the company of the protagonist You and his internal monologuing as he finds this broken down Android in the local junkyard about to be recycled. On a whim, he decides to take her- no, it- home. 

Spoiler

Whatever brah, I say hawt piece of junk 

Right off the bat it's established that You's indifferent to Androids. He understands that robots are just robots. They're tools to be used to make human life more convenient. Nothing more, nothing less. Falling in love with an Android would be like falling in love with your smartphone or computer. He'll spend a good amount of time reiterating this belief, but we all know what'll end up happening amirite 

So here's this broken-down-inactive-but-attractive-looking-silver-haired-female Android sitting around lifeless in his room. Hmmm, low on battery power? Let's try plugging in this power cord through its nose! (The VN will literally give you a choice of whether to do that or not ). After a bit of fumbling around, You manages to properly plug in and power on the Android and begins some Q&A. Name? The Android responds with a very, VERY typical female robot-sounding voice, "Lucy Valentine PIM-001".

You spends a bit more time glossing over the Lucy's condition- she's apparently flat chested and in dire need of repairs since she's basically just a "talking tin can" in her current state so he decides he will to bring her to a repair shop the next day.

Spoiler

ARE YOU BLIND, YOU??!?!!! THAT'S A VEEEEEEERRRRY OBVIOUS CURVE RIGHT THERE!@#

So, the next day, after nearly being strangled to death when he told Lucy to grab onto him so he can piggyback-ride her to the repair shop, they make their departure. On the way, he awes at the fact that Lucy feels so lifelike, so human. Pfft. Already going soft on your anti-robot stance, You?!

Spoiler

Sorry, I know this VN is All-Ages, but the hentai in me just has to say, "I wonder how real she feels in be-" okay I'll stop  

Blah blah blah, he makes small talk with the repairman and decides to cough up the dough for Lucy's repairs, tells her to behave, and leaves for school. 
At school we meet You's best friend and robot fanatic, "Dr. Gear", and he tells him about his finding Lucy. Dr. Gear quickly offers him a word of advice, "Humans are humans, and robots are robots. You should never forget this boundary between them". 

Spoiler

PSHHH, do you know who you're talking to? Like You's ever gonna fall for Lucy  

After school You heads back to the repair shop to pick up Lucy. He is greeted by a pleasant sounding, non-robotic female voice behind him, and turns around. The owner of that voice? You bet! It's his imouto!
Jk Jk, it's Lucy, all fixed up, full of life and brimming with energy, and I'm totally ready to enjoy the rest of this VN  

 

[Fred the Barber]

I'm spending about an hour a night with the Grisaia common route, and loving it. I'm in exactly the right place for a stupid school comedy, and this VN is pushing all the right buttons.

One particularly amusing thing is that I keep noticing things which I initially think are mistakes, or are at least something that is going to be under-explained. Primary examples would be:

Spoiler

Makina's photographic memory (I seriously thought they were going to bring it up and then just leave it at "oh, she's so smart"), and Michiru holding the baseball bat wrong in the SD graphic during the sportsball scene (I really thought this was just a trivial, stupid art error when it first appeared). Both things got addressed to my satisfaction, and the latter one even turned out to be all part of the gag.

However. I just finished the Michiru Vitamin A scene, and that one did bug me, because this is real: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypervitaminosis_A. Vitamin A isn't just something you screw around with, Front Wing. It's not your happy jolly Vitamin C where you can consume 20x the daily dose and piss it out. If you eat polar bear liver, you might straight-up die from all the Vitamin A in it (sidebar: polar bears, man. They're so deadly even their liver will try to kill you.). So, I guess that one didn't get addressed to my satisfaction. But at any rate, a lot of the stupid slice-of-life scenes have had nice exposition or gags for people who are paying attention, which I'm appreciating.

 

[Vorathiel]

9 hours ago, Eclipsed said:

Spoiler

ARE YOU BLIND, YOU??!?!!! THAT'S A VEEEEEEERRRRY OBVIOUS CURVE RIGHT THERE!@#

 

I hate when they're doing this, but that's how she looked like before remake:


(an actually I somehow would prefer t oread original version)

[Eclipsed]

^Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I'm mindblown. Forgot that this was a remake ._.

I don't mind it. I'm a sucker for today's moe style art 

[Deep Blue]

Playing one thousand lies which is weirdly enough... excellent so far, I didn't expect anything like this but it's actually really really good. I stopped playing umineko and deponia doomsday just to read this.

Haven't tried reading it in english so I don't know who well all the jokes and dialogues translate but if anyone is looking for a good comedy with a bit of mystery and romance this is it.

[Dergonu]

Ok, just finished chapter 3 + Kanon's route in G-senjou.

Spoiler

I feel like Kanon's route was weak compared to Tsubaki. The chapter itself was also not as good as chapter 2.

It was great, of course, but in comparison I feel the quality kind of dropped a bit. Still, the story is quite interesting, and I can't wait to find out what happens next! Also, chapter 4 will finally give me the Shiratori route

Don't know much about her yet, but all I need to know is ... Twintails

 

A little more on Kanon's chapter, they spent too much time just randomly talking about boring ass ice skating. I just ... Didn't care. The ending was good, but it wasn't as impactful as the Tsubaki ending, and the bad ending was just dumb ... Way too short.

I like Kanon as a character though. She is introdouced as this cute innocent little thing, but as you get through more of her route you start to see different sides of her. Her whiny, annoying side is ... Well, exactly that; annoying, but it made sense considering the situation she was in.

 

[Fred the Barber]

14 minutes ago, Dergonu said:

Ok, just finished chapter 3 + Kanon's route in G-senjou.

  Hide contents

I feel like Kanon's route was weak compared to Tsubaki. The chapter itself was also not as good as chapter 2.

It was great, of course, but in comparison I feel the quality kind of dropped a bit. Still, the story is quite interesting, and I can't wait to find out what happens next! Also, chapter 4 will finally give me the Shiratori route

Don't know much about her yet, but all I need to know is ... Twintails

 

A little more on Kanon's chapter, they spent too much time just randomly talking about boring ass ice skating. I just ... Didn't care. The ending was good, but it wasn't as impactful as the Tsubaki ending, and the bad ending was just dumb ... Way too short.

I like Kanon as a character though. She is introdouced as this cute innocent little thing, but as you get through more of her route you start to see different sides of her. Her whiny, annoying side is ... Well, exactly that; annoying, but it made sense considering the situation she was in.

 

Spoiler

I think enjoyment of Kanon's chapter is calculated as:

- some decent-sized positive offset because it's a good story and shows interesting sides of Kanon, who looks like a very flat character when you first meet here

- and then a substantial amount directly proportional to how much you enjoy ice skating

So, basically, I agree with most of what you said, except that I actually kinda like ice skating, so I got a surprisingly big thrill out of the conclusion and really, really enjoyed Kanon's chapter. Her good ending was probably my favorite ending, aside from the true ending.

 

[Zenophilious]

Kanon's h-scenes were pretty damn good, but in my opinion, her route kinda sucked.  It just kinda fell flat and never really interested me after the halfway point, and I didn't really like either of the endings.  Kinda reminds me a lot of Yumiko's route in Kajitsu, in the sense that the story was rather forgettable and the only thing I really liked it for was the h.  I love Kanon as a character though, she's great.  Her voice is beautiful and charming and warm  <3

[ChaosRaven]

Besides the two Japanese VN's I'm currently reading I also gave Saya no Uta a try and finished it now. I had the intention to read it for quite a long time, but the creepy look somehow always kept me from picking it up.

Overall I was pleasantly surprised by how well written it was. It was almost brilliant how it showed you the 'other side' to make you understand how Fuminori experiences the world and why he acts in a certain way that might appear horrible from the perspective of a normal person. It was really hard to judge right and wrong here. I could actually sympathize with all characters to a certain degree by understanding their motivations and overall I saw them all more as victims of the situation than perpetrators.

There's also a saying that the the flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all. And that's the way Fuminori was seeing Saya. In that regard Saya no Uta reminded me of Eden* which had a comparable relationship with Sion and Ryou. In a way Saya no Uta was bit like the demonic equivalent of the angelic Eden*, but both were emotionally very powerful novels. I was close to tears at times which I didn't really expect from this VN. It was certainly more tragic than simply horror even if it had some really creepy and messed up scenes.

I was also impressed that the writer stayed true to Lovecraft's original vision of the Old Ones in the sense that they are more or less amoral, and they are just perceived as evil beings because they are so fundamentally different that's it's almost impossible to understand them for a human mind. It would have been nice if Demonbane would have gone a similar way instead of fielding just a bunch of run of the mill comic book villains.

Saya also had a surprisingly high art quality for a VN of its age. The 'organic' images in particular were very well drawn even if the character designs showed their age a bit. The blurred photographic background images were a real downer though - I really hate that ultra cheap look. I wish they would have just skipped the annoying H-scenes and drawn the backgrounds instead.

Anyway, it was a pretty good read and certainly worth my time, but it's not something I can stomach everyday.

So what English VN to pick up next...?

[Fred the Barber]

5 hours ago, Zenophilious said:

Kanon's h-scenes were pretty damn good

I read this right after posting over in the "Key" thread, and my mind pretty much exploded.

Then I read a little more and realized you were talking about the character Kanon in G-Senjou, and my mind unexploded.

Then I remembered that the G-Senjou H-scenes were, universally, almost as bad as Key H-scenes, and my mind exploded for good.

Edit (oh wait, the rest of the post):

5 hours ago, Zenophilious said:

I love Kanon as a character though, she's great.  Her voice is beautiful and charming and warm  <3

This, though, I agree with completely. I actually didn't care for her voice early on, but after I got to know her a little better it really got to me. By the end of her chapter, I was crazy for it.

[Zenophilious]

1 minute ago, Fred the Barber said:

I read this right after posting over in the "Key" thread, and my mind pretty much exploded.

Then I read a little more and realized you were talking about the character Kanon in G-Senjou, and my mind unexploded.

Then I remembered that the G-Senjou H-scenes were, universally, almost as bad as Key H-scenes, and my mind exploded for good.

ayy lmao

"Rub a dub dub, thanks for the grub!" 

I liked Haru's.  First one was funny as hell, and the second one was...nice   I can't imagine Kanon's route without the h-scenes, it just takes away the reason for the bad end and pretty much the only good part of it.  Those suckers on Steam are in for a fun route.

[Vorathiel]

8 hours ago, Dergonu said:

Ok, just finished chapter 3 + Kanon's route in G-senjou.

  Hide contents

It was great, of course, but in comparison I feel the quality kind of dropped a bit. Still, the story is quite interesting, and I can't wait to find out what happens next! Also, chapter 4 will finally give me the Shiratori route

 

She's sooo dissapointing character. Actually she has no character at all. And I loved her in first chapters and was totally hyped up for her chapter.

[Fred the Barber]

13 minutes ago, Zenophilious said:

"Rub a dub dub, thanks for the grub!" 

Geeze. I'd blocked that out of my memory. While I get that "itadakimasu" is often difficult to translate, especially when used jokingly in that particular context, I've never seen quite as questionable a translation of that word, even in that same exact context, as that instance. I can only imagine that everybody who made or signed off on that particular translation must have been either drunk or high at the time.

Incidentally, I thought the translation overall was mostly fine. It just had its weird moments, none weirder than that one.

[Zenophilious]

29 minutes ago, Fred the Barber said:

Geeze. I'd blocked that out of my memory. While I get that "itadakimasu" is often difficult to translate, especially when used jokingly in that particular context, I've never seen quite as questionable a translation of that word, even in that same exact context, as that instance. I can only imagine that everybody who made or signed off on that particular translation must have been either drunk or high at the time.

Incidentally, I thought the translation overall was mostly fine. It just had its weird moments, none weirder than that one.

It's Commie Subs (moogy and herkz and co.), they're a bunch of trolls.  Never mind, thought it was Commie.  I doubt they would have put that there if it actually mattered in any way.  I'm assuming that they put it in there for teh lolz and for visual novel memes to flourish in the west.  I honestly thought it was hilarious.

[Decay]

TLWiki, not Commie Subs.

Itadakimasu is a word that you can translate a shitton of ways depending on the character speaking it and the context they're saying it. And it rarely matters, beyond establishing character personality and scene tone. Let them have their fun with it.

[Zenophilious]

3 minutes ago, Decay said:

TLWiki, not Commie Subs.

Yeah, I dunno why I thought it was Commie.  Looked it up again to be sure before you said anything and I don't think anyone from Commie worked on G-senjou.  My bad 

[Chuee]

I'm pretty sure the rub a dub dub thing started out in anime fan-translation before g-senjou. From what google told me, the earliest usage of it was in a gg release of toradora (2008), though it could've been used earlier. If you remember gg subs you'll know how much they loved their trolling escapades. 

[Deep Blue]

I finished one thousands lies, really good vn, I wasn't expecting that ending at all. I loved every single character. One of the best OELVN I've read aside from katawa shoujo, it's around 9 or 10 hours longs so it's a good read.

No into umineko! (again )