What are you playing?

[ChaosRaven]

Code Realize really has some stellar art. It's a petty that Otomate hate the PC so much. They could make a lot of money if they would release at least their already translated titles on Steam.

Though it's definitely possible that they have contracts that forbid exactly that. Shitty consoles and their attempts to monopolize titles... 

[Decay]

8 hours ago, Vorathiel said:

Even worse. 

Eh, he freaking stepped on her, and she's small. And then she profusely apologized afterwards. The misandrist scenario you're imagining didn't transpire.

[Vokoca]

On 07/05/2016 at 4:35 PM, Fred the Barber said:

Ruri's route is practically identical. Leica's route is very different, but has large sections which are poorly translated and poorly edited, which make it less enjoyable. Al's route is by far the best, IMO. You did both endings, right? If not, go back and get the other one - they're both worth reading.

Edit: Also, Leica's route is generally just considered weaker than the other two; I'm kind of inclined to agree. But it is very different, at least, once you get past the Common Route.

Thanks for the reply! Based on that and the fact that the PS2 version seems to lack a reasonably useful skip function, I've decided to leave the routes for a bit later.

In the meanwhile, I've finally picked up Steins;Gate 0. I usually read VNs pretty slow, but if the fact that I spent around 23 hours on S;G0 in just two days alone is any proof, then the story just grabs you right from the start and never lets go. I've finished my first route, and so far I can happily say that this is a sequel worth reading. Having most of the character and world building out of the way, the sequel feels like the original Steins;Gate without the first half. Those who've read it should know what that means. 

Hopefully the rest of the routes is at least this good as well!

[bogdankl]

wait, fate has status and weapons and descriptions to discover about old gods and legends.... that's so fucking cool, it very much reminds me of the persona compendium except smaller... and more detailed... and much smaller

 

edit:ok what the hell is this, a vn or a dnd game??? this has more stats and rules than most rpgs nowadays

[ChaosRaven]

I've finished my first route in Ozmafia now. I went for Pashet the cat girl first for obvious reasons. 

The route was a bit short and more about friendship, but I still liked it. Pashet herself is the don of famiglia 'Boots' (don't ask) and somehow resembles lady Oscar from The Rose of Versailles a bit, one of my all-time anime favorites. She's a great character and I really wished her route would have been a bit longer so I could have seen more from her.

The VN itself is extremely stylish, starting from the unique and elegant character designs, over the fantastic soundtrack to the somehow flowery writing style and conversations. Although it could be probably be criticized that it's more style over substance, even if I've probably not seen enough yet to give an accurate judgement about that. The voice acting was very good, BUT there is a catch. There's just partial voice acting and not in the sense of one chaper this way and another chapter that way, very often it changes from one sentence to the next which was a bit annoying to be honest. It actually felt a bit like the script was changed or edited after the voices were recorded.

The setting is some kind of crazy mixture of popular western fairy tales, Italian mafia gangs and French aristocracy. Actually, the whole city gave me some Parisian vibes. Though I had a few culture days in that city about two months ago, so maybe it was just nostalgia.

The ruling famiglias in that city are really one of a kind. The Oz famiglia are some kind of gentlemens club and more or less the main famiglia that takes the protagonist girl in at the start. The 'Grimm' famiglia are a real chaos club with Hansel and Gretel being the VN version of Bonnie and Clyde. The Wolf gang seems to be Ozmafias take on the 'Sons of Anarchy' while the 'Boots' famiglia somehow resembles french royalty.

Obviously, the VN takes itself not all too seriously, even if the story has technically some rather gory parts inbetween which are usually just not shown. But it's somehow remarkable how different the whole style is in comparision to common bishojo titles with high school setting. The guys are (for obvious reasons) represented much more mature and civilized which is a rather strong contrast to the usual teenage simpletons. Fuka, the protagonist girl was more on the simple side so far, but she's still charming and likable.

I'm not really sure yet how many routes I want to play. For now I definitely want to play Axel's route, since he's the 'knight' tsundere character and was pretty cool so far. After that, we'll see.

[WinterfuryZX]

Japanese have a strange tendency to idolize Sicilian Mafia, expecially in female targeted fiction.

Anyway, I ffinished Phenogram, I liked all the chapters placed under alpha and beta attractors, I still don't get how the other word lines could be possible.

Also, Kurisu's chapter should have been longer.

[Fred the Barber]

3 hours ago, bogdankl said:

wait, fate has status and weapons and descriptions to discover about old gods and legends.... that's so fucking cool, it very much reminds me of the persona compendium except smaller... and more detailed... and much smaller

 

edit:ok what the hell is this, a vn or a dnd game??? this has more stats and rules than most rpgs nowadays

Oh, it's definitely a VN; even though the encyclopedia is rather interesting, the stats are completely meaningless just like your choices.

[Decay]

When I first read Fate, like 4 years ago, I knew pretty much nothing about it, and when I saw all of those stats and ability descriptions and stuff, I was so confused. I actually thought it was going to turn into some weird SRPG part of the way through for quite a while.

[Fred the Barber]

I'm still playing Grisaia in the little time I can allocate to playing VNs. I recently finally finished my first route, Sachi, and have been skipping through the common route for a second time, deciding whose route to choose next. I might actually just make a save all the way at the first fork this time so I can avoid the skipping next time, though I actually find myself occasionally stopping to read common route scenes, and at times it seems I really do feel like playing the whole common route again. Maybe when I'm on the last route. Maybe I'll get Yumiko's route out of the way this time? I dunno, every one that pops into my head seems tempting...

Once I'm done with that, I'm going to pick up an otome, mostly on the principal of branching out. Leaning towards Hakuoki, but I'm pretty interested in Ozmafia, in part because of the recent MangaGamer staff blog about editing it: http://blog.mangagamer.org/2016/05/05/ozmafia-editors-corner/ (which I know @ChaosRaven saw since I see his name in the comments ).

[Eclipsed]

Haha.... Impey's route was pretty much everything I expected. The airheaded, genius engineer who is the Michiru of the cast (the one that's always picked on for lulz) did not disappoint with his antics and dialogue, and he stayed true to himself to the very end when it mattered. Bravo. 

TL;DR this couple:

Spoiler

Ty for the peptalk, Cardia ;-;


ROUND 1

LOL REKT


ROUND 2

LOL REKT X 2!!1


ROUND 3

ATTA BOI, IMPEY

Redbull Love Gives you Wings!

 

THAT'S NOT FLYING!!! THAT'S FALLING, WITH STYLE!!!!@#11

~~
Impey shoved Saint-Germain out of the way and is currently second best guy, as he also boasts a whopping three skinship CGs with Cardia like good ol' Frankenstein, but Frankenstein wins out for first because his achievements plotwise are greater.

But hey, we can have a best couple award too, right? These two are just soooo  

D'awwww


~~
And now, finally, Mr. True Route Lupin is unlocked!@# HYPE TRAIN

Spoiler

 

[Eclipsed]

21 minutes ago, Fred the Barber said:

I'm still playing Grisaia in the little time I can allocate to playing VNs. I recently finally finished my first route, Sachi, and have been skipping through the common route for a second time, deciding whose route to choose next. I might actually just make a save all the way at the first fork this time so I can avoid the skipping next time, though I actually find myself occasionally stopping to read common route scenes, and at times it seems I really do feel like playing the whole common route again. Maybe when I'm on the last route. Maybe I'll get Yumiko's route out of the way this time? I dunno, every one that pops into my head seems tempting...

Once I'm done with that, I'm going to pick up an otome, mostly on the principal of branching out. Leaning towards Hakuoki, but I'm pretty interested in Ozmafia, in part because of the recent MangaGamer staff blog about editing it: http://blog.mangagamer.org/2016/05/05/ozmafia-editors-corner/ (which I know @ChaosRaven saw since I see his name in the comments ).

You have some insane patience if you are able to re-read through parts of Grisaia's common route prior to diving into another heroine route. Hell, I get pissed off just having to skip through common routes in general; just slap a bunch of saves at every heroine route prompt since they're back to back ;-;

~~
Oh, and be sure to give Code Realize a chance one day once you branch into otome

[Fred the Barber]

26 minutes ago, Eclipsed said:

Oh, and be sure to give Code Realize a chance one day once you branch into otome

Yeah, that one definitely has me intrigued, too; I hadn't even heard of it outside of your posts here, but you've succeeded at getting me interested.

[XReaper]

pretty much on the last spurt of "pigeon blood", guess i´ll finish it later today. all in all the story seriously managed to draw me in, btw. surprisingly creeped the very fuck out of me at times. might write a few lines about it after reaching the end :P.
next one is definitely going to be "shingakkou -noli me tangere-" from the same devs, whichs read i´ve regrettably had to stall around 2/3rd in shortly upon its release... oh dear my sanity...

edit: sure this is boys-love, BUT if you´re able of handling said matter (incl. partly very gruesome-ish content) than there´s absolutely nothing left to regret. fantastic art paired with awesome & thrilling writing, done by some of the most favourite staff i´ve ever came across. definitely sth to try out for oneself!

[Kawasumi]

9 hours ago, Eclipsed said:

Haha.... Impey's route was pretty much everything I expected. The airheaded, genius engineer who is the Michiru of the cast (the one that's always picked on for lulz) did not disappoint with his antics and dialogue, and he stayed true to himself to the very end when it mattered. Bravo. 

TL;DR this couple:

  Reveal hidden contents

Ty for the peptalk, Cardia ;-;


ROUND 1

LOL REKT


ROUND 2

LOL REKT X 2!!1


ROUND 3

ATTA BOI, IMPEY

Redbull Love Gives you Wings!

 

THAT'S NOT FLYING!!! THAT'S FALLING, WITH STYLE!!!!@#11

~~
Impey shoved Saint-Germain out of the way and is currently second best guy, as he also boasts a whopping three skinship CGs with Cardia like good ol' Frankenstein, but Frankenstein wins out for first because his achievements plotwise are greater.

But hey, we can have a best couple award too, right? These two are just soooo  

D'awwww


~~
And now, finally, Mr. True Route Lupin is unlocked!@# HYPE TRAIN

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Told you he was best husbando

[ChaosRaven]

14 hours ago, Fred the Barber said:

Once I'm done with that, I'm going to pick up an otome, mostly on the principal of branching out. Leaning towards Hakuoki, but I'm pretty interested in Ozmafia, in part because of the recent MangaGamer staff blog about editing it: http://blog.mangagamer.org/2016/05/05/ozmafia-editors-corner/ (which I know @ChaosRaven saw since I see his name in the comments ).

Yeah, I was a bit nitpicking about the lack of options. Though Hakuoki is certainly a must read if you've the right hardware to read it. I've both anime seasons from it.

[Turnip Sensei]

Welp, Kara no Shoujo 2 was pretty good. There's (obviously) going to be spoilers galore for the whole series, so please exercise caution.

Spoiler

Kara no Shoujo 2 turned out to be quite different from what I expected. Since I heard that they improved investigation systems I expected it to be more crime focused liked the earlier parts in Kara no Shoujo 1, but they actually decided to pursue the mystery angle that also appeared near the end of KnS1. Not that I really minded since I liked the complicated human connections, but it lessened the tension that came from the killings considerably. Kara no Shoujo 1 made me feel "we need to stop these murders, now", while as KnS2 was more akin to "why are these murders happening". Not that big difference, but the resulting atmosphere in both games are completely different. There's not that sense of urgency and the thrill it creates, and I felt little detached from the deaths since none of them hit as close.

Still, that's not really a completely negative thing, since it's very clear that Kara no Shoujo 2 follows the mystery parts of KnS1 and in that front it does way better. How everything is tied around the Hitogata Village, but also around the events and characters of previous games. Hitogata Village was especially interesting with it's old familial customs and secrets, that and Masaki's story was definitely the strongest part of the game. The involvement with Blessed Congregation, orphanage and all that felt little flimsy in comparison. Especially since some of the pretty crucial information is very clearly left for the sequel, which is kind of annoying.

But, while the mystery parts are good, the involvement from the player is pretty weak this time. The investigation system was little too punishing and obscure in KnS1, but they definitely toned it down way too much. All of the choices were really obvious and there weren't that many point where I had to actually use my head. Even the parts I though were difficult or that I misunderstood something turned out to be choices were your answer didn't even matter. It feels like they got scared about making it too difficult, but when it's easier to get good end in a crime story I feel something is little off. Even the part where I actually got something wrong (I misunderstood Kohane's secret message) the game just gives you the right answer and even spoils what's to come. 

Most of the twist were pretty easy to guess as well, at least for me. Ayako's new identity managed to slip past me and surprised me pleasantly, but other's were pretty easy to figure out. In fact too easy at times. I though the identity of the killer was so obvious that it couldn't be true, so actual revelation felt super lackluster. I also figured out the true identity of Nanako's child pretty early, so it bugged the hell out of me that I couldn't pursue Naori, not to mention he was character I suspected the whole time, for right and wrong reasons. 

I've feel like I've only complained so far, but I actually really liked KnS2. It might be inferior in the crime investigation and gameplay aspects, but as a story I liked it more. Characters, especially those involved with Hitogata Village were all well fleshed out. The children from the Orphanage and their ways to deal with troubled past were interesting as well, even if their handling was mostly on surface level. The name sake(s) of the game, the "empty girl", Ayako and Yukiko turned out to be actually more interesting in retrospect. Ayako I liked in her both incarnations, as Satsuki and Kayahara, but Yukiko I initially compared too much to Touko and didn't really care for. She wasn't as important to the main plot and her resolution wasn't handled as well, I felt like her background why she ended up like that wasn't explained that well, but considering how most of the details behind the orphanage are still mystery it might be content for the sequel. 

On more minor scale, I'm really happy Toji was brought back. She has such good chemistry with Reiji and Masaki, the combination of the three solving mysteries together was pretty cool. It was nice too see the investigations work on many fronts and it was definitely more interesting than Reiji wandering around the city alone. Too bad more people weren't bought back.  (Stella...)

Now, when is the 3rd Episode coming out? Oh, and if Ayumu won't become Reiji's assistant I'm going to... pout!? 

 

[Vorathiel]

10 minutes ago, Turnip Sensei said:

Kara no Shoujo 2 and 3 spoilers.

Spoiler

Stella is coming back in 3rd game.
Any thoughts on bad ends (two Yukaris gave me chills) and true end?

[ChaosRaven]

3 minutes ago, Vorathiel said:

Spoiler

Stella is coming back in 3rd game. 
Any thoughts on bad ends (two Yukaris gave me chills) and true end?

I'm a big fan of her as well, though I'm not sure if I should be happy that she'll make a return, or very very worried... 

[Turnip Sensei]

1 hour ago, Vorathiel said:

Kara no Shoujo 2 and 3 spoilers.

  Reveal hidden contents

Stella is coming back in 3rd game.
Any thoughts on bad ends (two Yukaris gave me chills) and true end?

Spoiler

Haven't done all of bad ends yet, but Two Yukari's was pretty unsettling indeed. Same with the Yukio ending were Yukiko regresses back to small child inside her memories. Karen and Disappearance were pretty meh.

True End

Spoiler

was mostly a cliff-hanger for me. It was pretty obvious that Touko had lived and gave birth, and I was just waiting for the revelation. It also confirmed my suspicions about Naori. But still, the final scene where Tokisaka digs Touko up was pretty good way the end the game, and the appropriate delusion of Touko's body was just the kind of bittersweet detail I really like. 

 

 

[Eclipsed]

Finished Code:Realize.

That's gotta be one of the most satisfying True Routes I've ever read, it's not like it was LB! feelsy or Zero Escape mindblowy or anything, but everything just came together to create a fantastic story from start to finish.

Lupin's da best, btw, hands down,



~~
Oh, and I guess a minireview,

Story: 8/10: Just some stoic, amnesiac, poisonous girl hang'ang out with her five capable handsome dudes in 19th century Steam London. All of them have their own backgrounds and motives for ending up where they are and what starts off as a mutual alliance slowly becomes much more... Also throw in some secret organizations, conspiracy plots, and character-centric mysteries with a dash of kyaa! romance and you've got a pretty thrilling story on your plate.

Characters: 9/10 Like I said, some stoic, amnesiac, poisonous girl and her five capable handsome dudes. Van Helsing the Vampire War Hero badass, Frankenstein the nice guy Alchemist, Impey the To-Love-Ru Lala's male counterpart, Saint-Germain the mysterious on-the-level-of-Half-Life G-man & Sephiroth clone, and Lupin the world's greatest gentlemen thief.

You can't get a more colorful cast than that, and their bond and companionship was just so great to read throughout

Art: 10/10 YOU DON'T KNOW HOW MANY DUDES i WOULD BANG-

JK, BUT MAN YOU GOTTA ADMIT THAT'S SOME HAWT ART. Cardia herself is great too, especially with dat hat. I like dat hat.

 

Music: 5/10 Sorry, once I notice music getting repetitive, it's all over! They're decent tracks that are appropriate for the setting, but they don't stand out and are limited.

 

~~

Overall: 8/10. Read it  

[Decay]

You should do a full review for the hub, we need more otome reviews!

[Fred the Barber]

3 hours ago, Eclipsed said:

dat hat. 

Sold. This is totally the next VN I'm picking up.

[DarkZedge]

Since my laptop can't be charged until I get a new charger for it I had to stall DP 2 and Shiny Days.

So I'm currently playing Sharnoth and Tokyo Babel

[Eclipsed]

2 hours ago, Fred the Barber said:

Sold. This is totally the next VN I'm picking up.

Yay!! 

 

[Vokoca]

So, uh... I accidentally got the true ending in Steins;Gate 0 as soon as it got unlocked.... It was really good, but man I really wanted to read the other routes first. :C Hopefully the rest isn't too much worse - so far I'd say SG0 is even better than the original.