What are you playing?

[Eclipsed]

Finished Remember 11

Hotdamn, that's gotta be the most Mass Effect 3 tier absolute shit ending I've ever seen, which is a shame because Remember11 is actually pretty above average in terms of enjoyablility with all of the suspense, dread, and mysteries getting shoved down your throat as you individually go through Kokoro & Satoru's perspectives and experience their woes.

Seriously, it builds up ALOT of questions over the course of these two routes, so you'd think the writers would throw in a lengthy True Route like Ever17 to masterfully tie in everything together again, but nope, this time they opted to give readers the GIANT middle finger instead and answer only a handful questions haphazardly before very abruptly cutting everything off.

It could be that I missed something because I'm stoopid, I'll go scrounge around the net for answers just incase, but apparently there's no way out of infinity this time boys, suck it!

 

Remember11:

• Story: 8- the way the narrative flows you will constantly be asking questions and be theorycrafting with the protags on wtf is going on so it's a great story in that respect 
• Characters: 8- Protags Kokoro's 20% logic, 80% emotion vs. Satoru's 100% logic narratives can be quite entertaining. The other characters aren't too special, but the idea of DID keeps things interesting since you'll always be wary on who you can or can't trust.
• Ending: 1- It's the best ending if you want an ending that leaves you utterly disatisfied . I'm exaggerating, but it's definitely been a looong while since I've ever experienced a "that's it...?" feeling as huge as this one
• Music: 7- They have some catchy tunes every now and then
• Art 6- CGs actually look pretty nice for their time. Sprite's eyes are too detailed however- the male characters look feminine because of it  

 

TL;DR Remember11 is an enjoyable suspensful mystery involving multiple personalities, a race against time and nature, and aloooootta 'science', but don't expect a satisfying, fulfilling conclusion to be waiting for you at the end with open arms. 7.5/10

E: I take back everything I said about the ending except that it left me completely unsatisfied- upon reading this massive spoiler/theory https://explainremember11.wordpress.com/2013/08/18/the-meaning-of-the-incomplete-ending/ it's a nice food for thought. 

[akaritan]

I recently finished Inganock and loved it. It has what is probably the most engaging world I've ever seen in a VN, and the storyline is a fairly complex one that requires you to pay attention to fully understand. Really nice art, too. The characters were good, I suppose. I didn't love most of them (apart from Gii, who's an absolutely fantastic protagonist), but they had their charm. The ending was cathartic and even pulled on a few heartstrings, which isn't something I say often. I think it could have benefited from more tracks, but it doesn't necessarily need them. Repetitive though they may have gotten towards the end, some of them were so good that I didn't really mind. I especially loved "Right Hand from Behind" which only made a bunch of really awesome fight scenes that much cooler.  I felt that the pacing started to slog towards the last few chapters, but aside from that, it's probably one of the best VNs I've ever read. Sona-nyl is a day 1 purchase for me now and I can't wait for its release.

I started ef* a fairy tale of the two. Quick first impressions: really good hook. The first scene had a certain mood to it, which was amplified by a lack of music. Music is really important to VNs, but I feel that sometimes silence can be just as powerful in setting a tone. Since then, the tracks that I've heard have been overall good, but I can't say that they're anything to write home about. Yuuko is cute, but I honestly find Miyako and Kei to be a bit off-putting as heroines. I can't say I'm too fond of characters that feel like they'd be annoying or hard to keep up with in real life, haha. And the other main thing that hit me was the abundance of CGs. I honestly feel like I've spent more time looking at CGs than sprites so far, which is really impressive as a whole. The VN has a cinematic feel to it. I just sort of wish the male cast's faces didn't look so strange; they clash really badly with the rest of the VN. As a whole, it seems pretty good so far. 

1 hour ago, Eclipsed said:

Seriously, it builds up ALOT of questions over the course of these two routes, so you'd think the writers would throw in a lengthy True Route like Ever17 to masterfully tie in everything together again, but nope, this time they opted to give readers the GIANT middle finger instead and answer only a handful questions haphazardly before very abruptly cutting everything off.

I hear that Remember11 is really good and on one hand, I think I'd probably enjoy it, but on the other, a bad ending is a huuuuuuge turn-off. I'm not sure I could deal with that, especially after getting hooked, haha.

[BookwormOtaku]

Finally finished Kara no Shojo 2...overall I liked it, but not as much as the first game. I'll go into more detail once I give it a review (sorry I haven't been doing those much this year but that happens when you have to move twice for work), but I can say one problem I have is the ending:

Spoiler

It kind of had a more sequel bait-ish feel to it than the first game. Now don't get the wrong idea, I acknowledge the fact that game ended on hanging plot thread to be followed up on in another game but the ending still felt conclusive, we at least saw where almost everyone was concerning the aftermath of the case good and bad. In KnS2 it just ends with finding Toko and roll credits followed by that bit at the end. Does the conclusion leave Reiji broken and from there leave things for Masaki to be the full main character next game? What the heck are Naori's motives in all this? Why would he even care about publishing some serial killer's last works?

 

 

[MrBanballow]

Finished off my first play through of SoniComi...

... Cameraman-san is covering a Civil War of some sort, and Sonico just randomly shows up in a nurse getup. I'm down with that. Also, interesting to see that wherever this Civil War is taking place, they still have the time to erect crude monuments to Metallica.

[Eclipsed]

44 minutes ago, BookwormOtaku said:

Finally finished Kara no Shojo 2...overall I liked it, but not as much as the first game. I'll go into more detail once I give it a review (sorry I haven't been doing those much this year but that happens when you have to move twice for work), but I can say one problem I have is the ending:

  Reveal hidden contents

It kind of had a more sequel bait-ish feel to it than the first game. Now don't get the wrong idea, I acknowledge the fact that game ended on hanging plot thread to be followed up on in another game but the ending still felt conclusive, we at least saw where almost everyone was concerning the aftermath of the case good and bad. In KnS2 it just ends with finding Toko and roll credits followed by that bit at the end. Does the conclusion leave Reiji broken and from there leave things for Masaki to be the full main character next game? What the heck are Naori's motives in all this? Why would he even care about publishing some serial killer's last works?

 

 

KnS2's ending problems got nuttin' on Remember11's disgrace of an ending 

Spoiler

But yeah, fk Naori, seriously don't know what his game is, he better have a DAMN good reason explained for his actions in KnS3 or I'mma riot

~~

2 hours ago, akaritan said:

I hear that Remember11 is really good and on one hand, I think I'd probably enjoy it, but on the other, a bad ending is a huuuuuuge turn-off. I'm not sure I could deal with that, especially after getting hooked, haha.

You'll get some 15 hours of enjoyable mystery-suspense-dread in exchange for an hour of an incomplete/cliffhanger ending that only answers the tip of the iceberg of questions, do it  

~~
I was supposed to read FataMorgana next, but frankly I need a break from reading all of these abstract scenarios and am itching for something more... normal. ish. with dem fictional modern day jp town / high skoo settings. Don't worry, I finished Fate/Stay & Ever17 two years after saying I would, the same rule will apply to Morgana. Hopefully. 

What? Flowers? All girls high skoo Innocent Grey with fem protag? 

That's too hypey.

I'm going with ef - a fairy tale of the two, cuz akaritan's reading it  

[jetpack003]

I decided to try something new which is out of my preference so I searched around until I found this game on steam. Why? because I was bored and I usually don't like to play games on Steam either.

It's called Ace Academy.

 

For a VN made in an english-speaking territory, the voice acting is pretty good and it expresses the personality of the character very well. Because of this, the characters are also interesting especially Valerie. I also have to say that the setting so far for this game isn't bad either.

 

This is one of the few english-dubbed VN that I actually enjoyed reading besides Blazblue.

[Ariurotl]

Almost done with Princess Evangile. So much absolute stupidity in that one, I can't even. It makes Harukoi look like a literary masterpiece.

Also, the bad ending is such a shameless "fuck you" to the reader, I'm frankly impressed. Go ahead, click on the spoiler tag, it's not spoiling anything whatsoever.

Spoiler

 

[akaritan]

2 hours ago, Eclipsed said:

What? Flowers? All girls high skoo Innocent Grey with fem protag? 

That's too hypey.

I'm going with ef - a fairy tale of the two, cuz akaritan's reading it  

Senpai noticed me~

 

But in terms of Flowers, frankly, I don't think you're really missing much. It isn't very good, in my extremely arrogant opinion . Shame, too, Innocent Grey has a fantastic track record.

[Decay]

6 hours ago, Eclipsed said:

I'm going with ef - a fairy tale of the two, cuz akaritan's reading it  

I was actually going to recommend that you read this but then I forgot.

[Jun Inoue]

5 hours ago, jetpack003 said:

I decided to try something new which is out of my preference so I searched around until I found this game on steam. Why? because I was bored and I usually don't like to play games on Steam either.

It's called Ace Academy.

 

For a VN made in an english-speaking territory, the voice acting is pretty good and it expresses the personality of the character very well. Because of this, the characters are also interesting especially Valerie. I also have to say that the setting so far for this game isn't bad either.

 

This is one of the few english-dubbed VN that I actually enjoyed reading besides Blazblue.

Valerie best girl, mate. The game is mostly a prove of concept due to the problems the developers ran into (it's actually quite interesting, they made a stream explaining it all and announcing their new project, if you are interested), so do have in mind that if you finish it and feel that it needed a few more hours and that it ends kinda open, well, that's why ;o
It's a pity cuz I loved what they did (and tried to do), and how human the characters felt (apart from the multitude of hilarious option choices).

[jetpack003]

4 hours ago, Jun Inoue said:

Valerie best girl, mate.

I agree with you on that one. Her character was top-notch and her VA really outdid herself!!!

Although Kaori the tsundere wasn't bad either. Seriously her character went past my expectations. The voice-acting was good at portraying her personality and the scenes actually showed her tsundere side really well.

4 hours ago, Jun Inoue said:

The game is mostly a prove of concept due to the problems the developers ran into (it's actually quite interesting, they made a stream explaining it all and announcing their new project, if you are interested), so do have in mind that if you finish it and feel that it needed a few more hours and that it ends kinda open, well, that's why ;o
It's a pity cuz I loved what they did (and tried to do), and how human the characters felt (apart from the multitude of hilarious option choices).

That's interesting. I didn't know about the potential problems during the development of this game.

If you have a link to it, I'd love to take a look at it later.

Thanks for the warning too.

[Jun Inoue]

23 minutes ago, jetpack003 said:

I agree with you on that one. Her character was top-notch and her VA really outdid herself!!!

Although Kaori the tsundere wasn't bad either. Seriously her character went past my expectations. The voice-acting was good at portraying her personality and the scenes actually showed her tsundere side really well.

That's interesting. I didn't know about the potential problems during the development of this game.

If you have a link to it, I'd love to take a look at it later.

Thanks for the warning too.

Tried to look it up for you, but it has been auto-deleted due to time passing... it was a dev stream on the 13th of August on Twitch.

Spoiler

If you irking to know, though, the general outline was smth like this: start the project, realise things are getting out of hand, find out the project is impossible to continue due to various problems, be forced to scrap everything and start a new one (the original idea was Kendo Crush, a game also about school life, but about kendo, not mecha). This meant they had wasted a shit ton of money that was no longer useful. They scrapped resources, the project leader learnt code by himself to help make the game, his brother helped fund the project a little, etc. The VA were kinda shocked since they had been preparing for Kendo Crush and suddenly they were getting an email about "our project ACE Academy" but gave it their all. By the way, funny note, the VA for Shou is literally Shou. His manner of speaking, how he gets nervous, etc.
They didn't want to compromise on their idea, though, so they rejected the idea of looking for more funding or the like.

They ended up managing to create the game but, as you'll see, it feels awfully short, and the ending is kind of super open. So it's more of a proof of concept. Now they know they can do it, and now they know what pitfalls they'll find while creating VNs and how to avoid them, and are working on their second project, Crystalline.

Personally I find that their explanation fits through and through. When I finished the game, my immediate thought was "well this was an ok-ish story with amazing characters, impressive VA and superb interactions and choices (seriously, some of them are genius and just hilarious, I recommend that you try them all), but is more of a proof of concept than a finished game.
I'm kinda sad cuz ACE Academy won't really ever be finished (although, who knows, it's their beloved first project, maybe if things go well they'll patch it up a bit with an episode 5 DLC or smth later on), but I'm hyped for their new project, too. If you wanna check the latest stream they did, though, here it is. I think they talk more about Crystalline, I've yet to watch it ;o

Also, lel at when the VA for Valerie kind of accidentally made her into a trap.

[Limerence_]

Currently reading Evangile... The whole ojou-sama setting kinda turned me off initially but I'm starting to get into it. 

PS: Has anyone read the Narcissu remakes? 

[jetpack003]

17 hours ago, Jun Inoue said:

Tried to look it up for you, but it has been auto-deleted due to time passing... it was a dev stream on the 13th of August on Twitch.

  Hide contents

If you irking to know, though, the general outline was smth like this: start the project, realise things are getting out of hand, find out the project is impossible to continue due to various problems, be forced to scrap everything and start a new one (the original idea was Kendo Crush, a game also about school life, but about kendo, not mecha). This meant they had wasted a shit ton of money that was no longer useful. They scrapped resources, the project leader learnt code by himself to help make the game, his brother helped fund the project a little, etc. The VA were kinda shocked since they had been preparing for Kendo Crush and suddenly they were getting an email about "our project ACE Academy" but gave it their all. By the way, funny note, the VA for Shou is literally Shou. His manner of speaking, how he gets nervous, etc.
They didn't want to compromise on their idea, though, so they rejected the idea of looking for more funding or the like.

They ended up managing to create the game but, as you'll see, it feels awfully short, and the ending is kind of super open. So it's more of a proof of concept. Now they know they can do it, and now they know what pitfalls they'll find while creating VNs and how to avoid them, and are working on their second project, Crystalline.

Personally I find that their explanation fits through and through. When I finished the game, my immediate thought was "well this was an ok-ish story with amazing characters, impressive VA and superb interactions and choices (seriously, some of them are genius and just hilarious, I recommend that you try them all), but is more of a proof of concept than a finished game.
I'm kinda sad cuz ACE Academy won't really ever be finished (although, who knows, it's their beloved first project, maybe if things go well they'll patch it up a bit with an episode 5 DLC or smth later on), but I'm hyped for their new project, too. If you wanna check the latest stream they did, though, here it is. I think they talk more about Crystalline, I've yet to watch it ;o

Also, lel at when the VA for Valerie kind of accidentally made her into a trap.

Cool, thanks. I'll watch it when I get the chance.

Thank god they didn't make Valerie a trap character or kept that line. I'd be really depressed after that revelation.

I'm still playing through all of the other character's route but damn, I'm so tempted to go for Valerie now especially that alcohol scene (I saved her for last). That voice is so seductive, hehe.

 

I'm looking forward to what they do for the next game as well. Seeing as what they can do with Ace Academy, I bet you this game would be awesome as well. All they need to do is to not promote it only on Steam.

[WinterfuryZX]

I replayed my Muv Luv EXTRA eng(ixrec)-->ita fantranslation... As it is, I cannot release even as a partial patch but maybe I can put some videos on youtube, hmmm, I translated like 1/3 of the common route. It's lying there dead since sept. 2011

[Jun Inoue]

25 minutes ago, jetpack003 said:

Cool, thanks. I'll watch it when I get the chance.

Thank god they didn't make Valerie a trap character or kept that line. I'd be really depressed after that revelation.

I'm still playing through all of the other character's route but damn, I'm so tempted to go for Valerie now especially that alcohol scene (I saved her for last). That voice is so seductive, hehe.

 

I'm looking forward to what they do for the next game as well. Seeing as what they can do with Ace Academy, I bet you this game would be awesome as well. All they need to do is to not promote it only on Steam.

Haha, well I played her first! I simply loved how her character corrects the classic "daring onee-san that's pervy and into the MC" archetype, one that I hate with a passion, and makes it into a believable one that I enjoyed so much.

I've  yet to do 1 more route... Mayu's. I can't bring myself to iiiiiiiiiiiit. She belongs with Shouuuuuuuuuuuuu. Did you know? There was no Mayu route, but fans asked for it a lot and the devs decided to listen to them and make a route for her in the end. But when I played it first, it felt so obvious it had been first intended for Shou and Mayu to end together, that I can't bring myself to do that route xD

Also, there's a route for Shou and a sort of bonus... for Nikki ;D;D;D;D

[jetpack003]

4 hours ago, Jun Inoue said:

Haha, well I played her first! I simply loved how her character corrects the classic "daring onee-san that's pervy and into the MC" archetype, one that I hate with a passion, and makes it into a believable one that I enjoyed so much.

I've  yet to do 1 more route... Mayu's. I can't bring myself to iiiiiiiiiiiit. She belongs with Shouuuuuuuuuuuuu. Did you know? There was no Mayu route, but fans asked for it a lot and the devs decided to listen to them and make a route for her in the end. But when I played it first, it felt so obvious it had been first intended for Shou and Mayu to end together, that I can't bring myself to do that route xD

Also, there's a route for Shou and a sort of bonus... for Nikki ;D;D;D;D

I don't really mind those 'onee-san types' but I get what you mean. She's seriously a different change when compared to the other typical and cheeky characters that you find in visual novels. Valerie also doesn't flinch when you retaliate back on her. She gets back at you even more. I like that.

Yeah, it's so obvious that she belongs to Shou but I've heard that they wrapped it up ok (that's what I've heard so take it as a grain of salt). The devs should have listened to other people and put in a route for Mei. I was hoping there was one but nope...

So, there's a bro route and an IMOUTO ROUTE???? That's a first I've heard of it. I thought the devs said that they didn't want to put it in because they would be behind bars if it was done (or something along that).

[Jun Inoue]

1 hour ago, jetpack003 said:

I don't really mind those 'onee-san types' but I get what you mean. She's seriously a different change when compared to the other typical and cheeky characters that you find in visual novels. Valerie also doesn't flinch when you retaliate back on her. She gets back at you even more. I like that.

Yeah, it's so obvious that she belongs to Shou but I've heard that they wrapped it up ok (that's what I've heard so take it as a grain of salt). The devs should have listened to other people and put in a route for Mei. I was hoping there was one but nope...

So, there's a bro route and an IMOUTO ROUTE???? That's a first I've heard of it. I thought the devs said that they didn't want to put it in because they would be behind bars if it was done (or something along that).

Well, there's been a lot of joking and screwing around. In the end, a "Nikki route" became sort of a gag thrown around in the project's page and updates. What you do  have is a special event, so it's not really a route. And if you find it, you'll understand all about there being a Nikki route or not : p

[littleshogun]

Ace Academy? Maybe I'll play it later.

I did some first look on Sorcery Joker using complete save. The game size here was quite big (Around 7.5 GB or so, which is acceptable for graphic like that). This game using flowchart system, which while from the first look it was redundant because this is kinetic VN, actually the flowchart here quite useful to show us which events that happened in same day (Sort of like Odin Sphere). Beside that, from the flowchart you could replay the previous scenes there. Oh, and unlike Hapymaher you couldn't play Sorcery Joker at English locale, so Mangagamer here probably must do some porting here (Once again I didn't know of how's that work here). For last word here, looking forward to translated version release.

[jetpack003]

20 hours ago, Jun Inoue said:

Well, there's been a lot of joking and screwing around. In the end, a "Nikki route" became sort of a gag thrown around in the project's page and updates. What you do  have is a special event, so it's not really a route. And if you find it, you'll understand all about there being a Nikki route or not : p

There should definitely be a Nikki route after all the teasing they've put into it

But to think it's actually in the game. How do you get it? Activate all of Nikki's cutscenes?

[Jun Inoue]

3 minutes ago, jetpack003 said:

There should definitely be a Nikki route after all the teasing they've put into it

But to think it's actually in the game. How do you get it? Activate all of Nikki's cutscenes?

Basically, by not going into anyone's route. Don't go with any girl, don't go with Shou. During Ep. 4 you'll either get it automatically, or get an option with smth like "I'm worried about Nikki."

[jetpack003]

16 minutes ago, Jun Inoue said:

Basically, by not going into anyone's route. Don't go with any girl, don't go with Shou. During Ep. 4 you'll either get it automatically, or get an option with smth like "I'm worried about Nikki."

Thanks, I'll figure that one out.

Lastly, is episode 4 really the end of the game? No more announcements for it after that?

[Jun Inoue]

23 minutes ago, jetpack003 said:

Thanks, I'll figure that one out.

Lastly, is episode 4 really the end of the game? No more announcements for it after that?

Nothing, I'm afraid.

[SCG_1037]

Just finished reading Flowers -Le Volume sur Printemps-.

Story-5/10-it was ok.

Art-8/10- I liked the art of this vn.

OST-6/10-It was decent.

So this vn is a 6.3/10

So now i have to decide what to read next , maybe i will read orc castle and Detective Masochist 

Thank you for reading this.

[ChaosRaven]

1 hour ago, SCG_1037 said:

Just finished reading Flowers -Le Volume sur Printemps-.

So you finished the entire Innocent Grey collection while I'm still in the first half of Flowers?! That's... depressing. 

1 hour ago, SCG_1037 said:

So now i have to decide what to read next , maybe i will read orc castle and Detective Masochist 

Or you could marathon all Sakura games... 

On a more serious note, you could try to tackle Umineko if you haven't already read it. It's probably the longest translated VN and you seem to have the required 'reading persistence' for it. It actually looks pretty good with the PS2 art patch. Except you got tired from mystery for the moment and want to read something different.