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Aight, so, Fata Morgana round 3 after overwhelming majority vote in my recent 'what should i read next' thread :wafuu:

First off, my last attempt was apparently dated from February of last year, wow does time fly >.>

Spoiler

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I SWEAR I DON'T KNOW WHAT I DID IN BETWEEN THEN AND NOW, HONEST!


Second off, Fata Morgana really is good stuff; the shilling that happened when it came out is all justified, and I just need to stop being a slacker and finish this already because IT'S GOOD STUFF!@###INdoCTriNaTEdSHILL

I was making decent progress today too, but unfortunately i'm FORCED to take a break from reading and type out this mini-first-impression-review thing because the climax of the Second Door kind of broke me :wafuu: (!HO1!!W C!OU!LD T!HE!!Y D!O T!HAT T!1O P!OL1L1Y OMFGGGG     ;----;


~~
Fata Morgana's basic premise is you wake up as some amnesiac dude in some eerie mansion and are greeted by The Maid who claims you are the current Master of the mansion (which is apparently cursed and leads to unfortunate fates for all of its inhabitants, gg). She is surprised that you are amnesiac, and so she invites you to experience the history of the mansion in order to unlock your true memories or something.

This leads to an episodic flashback narrative, where you view prior-residents-of-the-mansion's lives and events that lead to their imminent demise. Due to the episodic nature, it can take a bit to fully immerse yourself with each story arc since it has to develop these new characters and settings, but once you finally are committed and things are looking up, BAM the inevitable tragedy strikes and it's off to the next arc  : )

The arcs themselves cover themes on the more mature-dark tragedy spectrum, with the First Door featuring one sided incest and the Second Door focusing on being a human vs. being a monster. The characters in these arcs will all try very desperately to find some sort of middle ground they can be at peace with regarding these conflicts, and they do seem to find some solace once a certain mysterious reoccurring, red eyed, white haired, pale but beautiful woman comes into the picture, but unfortunately this light at the end of the tunnel also happens to be a double edged sword primed to place that final nail in the coffin..

Spoiler

Image result for fata morgana red eyed white haired

"Hii, once I show up in your story, it's ggez"

 

Speaking of final nail in the coffins, Fata Morgana's climaxes are superb. You have all the right elements: dark themes/conflicts, messed up characters, a cursed mansion that ruins the lives of all its inhabitants...you KNOW shit's going to go down in these arcs, it's just a matter of when and how the characters will break. And man when they inevitably do, even though you knew it was coming, Fata Morgana manages to execute these climaxes in ways that maintain the "OH SHIT" shock factor and ultimately leave you with a satisfying(?) tragedy.


Artwork is okay, takes some time to get used to the goth style or w.e if you're like me who's more used to and prefers the current day moege style #yesihavebadtastestoobad

Soundtrack/BGM is great. I really like the BGMs during peaceful/tranquil moments when they occur, they really give a nice moment of reprieve from the perpetual ticking doomsday atmosphere of Fatamorgana. BGMs during horrific revelation moments were also on point in capturing the essence of the situation. The vocals were a good idea.

 

~~
As for the specific moment in Second Door that made me Alt-F4 and take a break, it was this(spoilerz obviously):

Spoiler

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So fking tragic ;--;; omfg

As a previous lighthearted slice of life moege lover, I'm HORRENDOUSLY weak to tragedies like this :wafuu: I haven't teared up buckets like this since, idk, Kara no Shoujo or something ;---;

 

OK, I FEEL BETTER NOW, TIME TO SOLDIER ON, THIS WAS JUST THE FIRST TWO DOORS I CAN'T EVEN IMAGINE WHAT'S NE-


~~
update: Third Door

Unbelievably frustrating to slog through, manipulative plotlines are always disgusting to read especially when you have an utter moron like Jacop getting completely suckered for the entirety of it, jesus this guy was soooo hopelessly bad, it's pathetic because how he treated the wife was terribad even before the manipulation BS so i just couldn't accept the end game "i just wanted y'all to be happy"

 

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Finished Evenicle which was incredibly fun, Aster is a great MC and the Wives were pretty great as well I liked all 10 which is odd with a cast that big you d think there  d be at least one bad apple in the bunch but nope! Also finished Chaos;Child which was a dark, somber, sometimes terrifying but overall bittersweet experience, was a great read over all.

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5 hours ago, douggle said:

Finished Evenicle which was incredibly fun, Aster is a great MC and the Wives were pretty great as well I liked all 10 which is odd with a cast that big you d think there  d be at least one bad apple in the bunch but nope! Also finished Chaos;Child which was a dark, somber, sometimes terrifying but overall bittersweet experience, was a great read over all.

 

On ‎07‎/‎07‎/‎2018 at 8:01 PM, littleshogun said:

Evenicle, and right now in Chapter 3. It was quite interesting VN so far, albeit with many cliche anime/JRPG trope there.

Huh, glad to hear that as I start Evenicle. The summary looked interesting but also somewhat of a mess, so I was unsure of what to expect.

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Some visual novels to give the antagonists a taste of their own medicine. Like Sorcery Jokers....

Spoiler

Ruu: The extremely twisted sister ...... get her own powers used on her ...... and is completely and utterly Psychologically Raped. Her mind was more or less destroyed. Pretty damn extreme...

Touya: The false god, the angel of ruin ...... is cast to earth like trash ...... then is discovered by his two most devastating killers, Fiona ..... and Ruu! Fiona gives her "blessings", while Ruu begins to psychologically torment him. Cue his scream of absolute terror as she activates her powers....

Sometimes, baddies create their own Hell on Earth :makina:

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I thought that after playing tons of ecchi crap and then a few short, casual EVN getting through the catalogue of Ebi-hime's free VNs (other than the Yuri Game Jam ones I've read last year) might be a good change of pace. Now I see that it might've been a bit too much of a change... :isla:

I've started with Dejection: An Ode, which is a predecessor to Asphyxia - the same characters inspired by classic English poets, the same themes of depression, substance abuse and general despair. With Samantha, the gender-bent Samuel Taylor Coleridge, going through one giant meltdown during the whole story, which leads to an abrupt ending, foreshadowing her imminent demise. Really cheerful stuff. Although, Is This The Life?, a story of a teenager mentally falling apart after his mother's death might be even worse in that respect. In the first VN, there was at least something charming in the characters, you liked Samantha and pitied her for her turbulent nature and rampant depression that she had no control over. The protagonist in that second game is at once similar and feels much less understandable in his outbursts. I was tired of him half-way through and pretty much hated him by the end. Maybe it's because how different I am from him? The way he rejects other people's kindness, violently rebels against everyone around him... I guess that's also how people cope with a tragedy, but I still can't relate to it. Maybe to his general feelings (partially), but not their scale and the way he expressed them. It was building up frustration in me all the way through.

So, hey, this is quite a ride. I don't think I'm going to back down at this point (6 more VNs to go) and they're all really well written when it goes to prose and making believable characters, but that only makes the angst even more real. I'm scared to think where it all comes from. :s

Edited by Plk_Lesiak
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14 hours ago, adamstan said:

Continuing with Clannad, I'm currently going for Mei's route. Then suddenly I hear familiar voice... No way, can't be, let's check... YUP!

  Reveal hidden contents

Sanae Furukawa is Belldandy :D (both voiced by Kikuko Inoue)

 

You play enough VN's, you start recognizing some voice actresses (when they use the same voice at least). Sometimes even the characters they voice across multiple VN's have very similar personalities.

Then again, one voice actress can voice an "imouto" in one VN (Sorcery Jokers), only to voice a cat (yes, a cat!) and a timid basketball player, which funny enough, BOTH meet horrible ends (Grisaia).

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In this case, that's because I'm currently watching "Oh! My Goddess" anime, so I recognized that voice instantly, especially since she even speaks in similar manner.
Speaking of famous VAs in Clannad, there's also Megumi Ogata in Misae's ending (not listed on VNDB).

Spoiler

Looks that I was mistaken. Somebody wrote it in some review or post, and indeed Katsuki Shima sounds like being voiced by Megumi Ogata, but apparently it's Romi Park.

Earlier I had this experience with two Pulltop VNs - Hikari from Miagete has same voice as Ageha from Konosora (and they both are redheads ;)).

Edited by adamstan
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Finished Sorcery Jokers the other day. What a ride and a half that was! That VN had some rather profound themes too.

Asahi best girl (I just love how bold she is). While Ruu is ..... unforgettable (that scene when the tables FINALLY flipped on her was crazy extreme!).

 

Time for my next read ......... well ........ thy time has cometh!

*Installs Muv-Luv*

 

..... doesn't Sumika's voice sound familiar?

*checks VNDB*

Yep, has the same voice as Grisaia's Amane. Apparently all the big sister types have the same voice :makina:

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17 hours ago, r0xm2n said:

Finished Sorcery Jokers the other day. What a ride and a half that was! That VN had some rather profound themes too.

Asahi best girl (I just love how bold she is). While Ruu is ..... unforgettable (that scene when the tables FINALLY flipped on her was crazy extreme!).

+1 Asahi best girl. You like Michiru and Asahi... you my friend have good taste!

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2 hours ago, PiggiesGoMoo said:

+1 Asahi best girl. You like Michiru and Asahi... you my friend have good taste!

I disagree.

Fiona was the best girl in this game imo ^^. Nothing to say on michiru though, she was great :makina:

I'm waiting for the next 3rdEye game, it's in the making right now (well, they said so on their twitter ^^).

 

Other than that i'm playing rance 10 right now. Just finished my first playthrough (ended on route A) and it was pretty nice. The game is clearly meant to be played multiples times through, there is no way to see everything (or almost) in one playthough, or even two actually ^^.

The gameplay is pretty solid and it's full of references from the previous games.

 

I'd like them to make Rance 04 remake now, since i absolutly loved rance 03's remake (probably my favorite rance story wise).

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Finally finished Root Double. Boy, what a ride this had been. While certain plot twists were predictable and could be seen from miles away (the identity of the test subjects), I quite liked how everything's connected together in the original routes and loose ends were tied up nicely in the Xtend epsiode. Pacing was rather slow, but that was due to the sheer number of endings. Bad ends were aplenty, which kind of reminded me a little of FSN and Remember 11, though thankfully those bad ends reached their respective conclusions rather quickly. Also, this was the first vn that I had read which had extensive discussions of telepathic powers so it was quite a refreshing experience.  Not quite what I had initially expected, since I thought it would be similar to ZE and E17, but it still managed to leave a deep impression on me.

Overall: 8.5/10

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Continuing my adventure through the Ebi-hime's free VNs and the emotional rollercoaster only picks up speed. Lucky Me, Lucky You was actually the first non-pure-angst story among the ones I've read and I think it's superb. It's full of LGBT themes (I think it might be one of those degenerate games Bee was talking about when he got banned), but the characters feel surprisingly genuine and interesting. The protagonist (college freshman lesbian) uses foul language like I've probably never seen in a VN before and acts like a brat, but there's something surprisingly likeable about her, just like with her crossdressing, gay friend. And while those main characters sound like weirdos, it's never the main thing you think about or something the narrative focuses on. Their peculiarities are just part of who they are and the issues they face (especially the protagonist, who tries to cope with being dumped by a girlfriend she genuinely loved and to a lesser extent, being rejected by her family) are quite relatable and universal. In the end, it was a really great, casual story - the really nice art helped quite a lot too.

And after that came Round the Mulberry Bush, going back to the historical setting, themes of interclass romance etc... And was one of the most devastating things I've ever read. I knew there would be some heavy stuff ahead of me after the first game, but damn, this is harsh. :michiru:

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I've moved on to Fatal Twelve now and I am pretty far into it right now and I am loving it. I'm really impressed by the characters the writing and overall tone. I also like that it chooses to take the story in different directions to those I was expecting.

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Yesterday I finished Clannad. (with Steam's time counter at 67 hrs)

What can I say, it was great. @wei123 said that Tomoyo & Kyou were best girls, but while I love them, it isn't as easy to pick for me - they all were lovely. Tomoyo's was first "romance" route that I read (Misae's was more like an introduction to the world for me). Her and Tomoya were nice couple, I really liked it, but then...

I also love peace that Yukine brings, and her sweet, caring personality, I want to protect Kotomi and never ever leave her again, I want Mei and Fuko as my little sisters... Kyou is amazing girl too - I liked how she was on the same wavelength with Tomoya, and her ending had some really moving moments for me.

Spoiler

She reminded me of Hikari from Miagete - or rather it's other way around I suppose ;) Hikari also loved the protagonist, but - in addition to being somewhat tsundere - she tried to pair him with Saya.

And then, I totally love Nagisa, and really like how her relationship with Tomoya was portrayed in VN. They need each other, and seem to be meant for each other and I totally get how she is main heroine. And let's not forget pair of greatest supporting characters I've seen - Akio and Sanae.

Spoiler

She did great job at being mother for Tomoya. His banter with Akio was hilarious. And all together they made really amazing family. Having such great in-laws seems like a dream, and goes against all stereotypes ;)

AfterStory was great too, but saying almost anything will probably be spoiler...
 

Spoiler

 

First arc, showing how Nagisa and Tomoya's relationship slowly progressed was nice. Nagisa's death didn't hit me instantly, as the game was little ambiguous about it when it happened (maybe skip was too abrupt).

The scenes that moved me the most in the first AS run were Tomoya's reunion with Ushio (however I was mad at him in the first part of this arc) and reconcilliation with his father. Then, Ushio's last moments, oh my... :rubycry:

I don't have children, but have two little nieces that I really love, and children/family themes in VNs or anime always get me. I was in that minority of Sailor Moon viewers that didn't hate ChibiUsa ;)

Kyou as kindergarten teacher was great too.

Strangely, the scene that moved me the most was Fuko's ending

Spoiler

when she starts to fade away at Kouko's wedding

That didn't only make my eyes wet, but it actually made me sob and cry. Thank goodness, that she finally got her happy ending too - I see that some readers dislike Fuko, but I can't. 風子ちゃんが嫌いになれない。 She turned out to be one of my favorite characters.

Now something about the game itself. Backgrounds were really nice, and characters were looking good too - I probably got used to Hinoue Itaru's style. Then, the music - that was totally awesome. My favorite tracks are melancholic song that plays during Illusionary World sequences, and both ending songs. I didn't have any issues with translation - it reads smoothly, and feels pretty lively.

So, after all, it seems like it's Nagisa for me. (BTW, I forgot to mention it, but oh how cuuute she looks in her waitress uniform :wub: )

So now, everybody sing:

"Dango, Dango!"

Great experience, 9/10

 

Edited by adamstan
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So, after I've dealt with my leftover academic duties, I was able to continue the agony also known as my Ebi-Hime marathon. Where the Sun Always Shines actually gave me a bit of a breather - it's this kind of casual, bittersweet story that deals with relatively heavy themes, but ends on a fairly positive note and leaves you in a good mood. It had good characters and was overall very decent, but was also possibly the least memorable thing from Ebi-Hime I've read so far. 

Lynne, however, which I approached next, didn't grant me similar mercy. It's greatly stylized when it goes to visuals, makes an excellent use of music and sound effects, and the convincing characters really get me involved in the story. It is, however, a horror through and through - not a supernatural one (at least it's debatable whether anything that happens is anything more than protagonist's mind playing tricks on her), but terrifying and brutal in this existential sense. It's a story that could happen in real life, but that only makes it more suffocating and impactful.

I only have one "real" story to go through, Six Days of Snow and then I'll be just left with the Ebi's April Fool's game, Learning in Love! I pretty much gave up on hope that the former won't devastate me even further, so maybe the latter will cheer me up a bit. :wafuu:

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Reading Danganronpa 2.  It has a lot of entertaining characters, and the trials have all been really good so far (and really sad and dramatic in some cases). I must say though, I find myself rushing through free time to get to the trials, and not bothering to buy gifts.  I don't really like the clear delineation between "free time" and "oh no someone got murdered" in the game, it makes the pacing seem predictable...  Like "oh it's a free time day? Welp, I guess nobody is getting murdered."  Still, I think the trials make the free time worth doing.

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Still playing Fatal 12 and damn is it still finding ways of surprising me which is something that I absolutely love.

Odette has definitely been my favorite characters so far, I adore her and her shark teeth.

 

@adamstan I felt really differently about Nagisa I didn't like her at all, though I didn't hate her. In my eyes she is one of the worst examples of a character who has a random illness that makes them weak. You know the illness that just makes them weak but might also prove fatal later on. These are the characters that are designed for you to feel bad for them and want to protect them. And I absolutely hate that it feels like the story is trying to dictate how I'm supposed to feel. I want that to happen organically in a story. She also just didn't have much of a personality to me aside her love for her family and her obsession with dangos. I really felt that she lacked that substance the rest of the cast had. (Hell, even Fuko had more and she was like a space alien!) I did like her more when had the role of support character.

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3 hours ago, Ranzo said:

In my eyes she is one of the worst examples of a character who has a random illness that makes them weak. You know the illness that just makes them weak but might also prove fatal later on. These are the characters that are designed for you to feel bad for them and want to protect them.

There's some truth in this, yeah. So count me as one that easily falls for cheap tricks. After all, if it didn't work on anybody, writers wouldn't write like that ;) OTOH there are some explanations for her illness connected to the Illusionary World (there was some discussion about that at kazamatsuri.org) [After story spoliers]

Spoiler

There are some speculations that her condition is somehow connected with "the place" (that place where Akio took her when she was dying earlier, he talks about it, later the hospital is built there) or even whole town. Same with Ushio, who is also the girl from the Illusionary World.

As I don't expect all characters to have strong or "interesting" personalities, I was OK with her. And, well, "love for her family" isn's some dismissable thing - it's pretty important for me. "She makes for a boring girlfriend, but great wife" - I'm not sure who said that, and if it was in-game or some forum post, but this quote fits Nagisa I think. "To love and be loved" - that's my dream.

Maybe that isn't exactly realistic, and indeed while playing romance VNs I often catch myself at thinking - "No way! There are no such girls as her! (at least not nearby ;) )", but well, games are form of escapism, and man can dream, right?

Fuuko is cute weirdo, but certainly not bland.

All in all - I have pretty low threshold for suspension of disbelief, so unless there are GLARING plot holes or contradicitons, I just go with the flow of the story and enjoy the ride :).

And, to stay directly on topic - now I'm starting Tomoyo After.

Edited by adamstan
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3 minutes ago, wei123 said:

18+ or all-ages? You should probably try the latter since it has more content, especially in the epilogue (which imo is the best part of the vn)

All ages. I bought whole Clannad bundle on Steam summer sale. After hearing how bad Key's h-scenes are, I have no desire to read any of them. When applying tl-patches to Air and Kanon I used all-ages options too. (In case of AIR that included mixing two patches. Supposedly GaoGao translations' patch is better, so I used this, and then added numbered "seenxxx.txt" files that make replacements/cuts for h-scenes from WinterConfetti's all-ages conversion)

Edited by adamstan
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