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43 minutes ago, Stormwolf said:

You use a program called "textractor" and couple it with "Sugoi translator". Textractor will grab the text from the game and sugoi will have it translated from Deep translation. Google and Bing are horrible in comparison.

I'm going to download two program tomorrow, thank you very much.

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Yesterday I started 9 -Nine- and reached the end of the prologue of the first episode.
(BTW, in Complete Edition you select the episode at the "New Game" screen, but each episode needs to be unlocked by finishing previous one)

It seems very promising - I like this kind of "School-slice-of-life suddenly turned upside down by supernatural danger" settings. Other VNs where I enjoyed that were Folklore Jam, World End Syndrome or Amber Quartz - although, at least for now, 9 -Nine- seems to be more lighthearted than those - if not for other reasons, then because of the Sophitia ;) And Yoichi is one of the weirder Sunohara variants I saw so far - a pervert with a cute face of a "good boy" :D

Character designs are cute - as expected from Tsubasu-sensei :) Voiced protagonist is also nice addition.

The only thing I'm missing are some background characters - like people walking on the street, other students in the classroom etc. This level of details is a trademark of Sprite (Koichoco, Aokana), but also some Yuzusoft titles feature this in their backgrounds - like the Parquet I read just before, or Natsuzora Kanata. But that's just a minor issue, and I'm aware, that what I'm expecting is kind of luxury and not a norm.

I'm looking forward to see how the story unfolds 👍

BTW while Complete Edition is 1080p, I'm playing it in 900p window to leave some space at the bottom for Chiitrans window for looking up words ;)

Edited by adamstan
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The common route dragged on for way too long, but I thought the heroine routes were great. That said, Grisaia was one of my first VNs, so I have no idea what I'd think about it today. At the very least, my tolerance for various VN/anime tropes is significantly lower than it used to be, after being fed them over and over more times than I can count.

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1 hour ago, Silvz said:

So... I'm not enjoying Grisaia 😕 I'm very early in the story, I think, and no character - or even music - has caught my attention enough to want to read. I've actually read very little of the game. Does it get better? Or is it a case of if I don't like it now I won't later?

Honestly, if you don't like it in the beginning, I doubt you'll like the rest of the common route. If you don't like this kind of humor, you will probably hate it. It stays more or less the same to the end. As for the heroine routes, for some reason there are some very polarizing opinions about them. I personally found Amane's route to be really good, and Makina's route to be quite decent, while the other routes were a bit lacking (though all of them had their moments).

Edited by Dreamysyu
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5 minutes ago, Dreamysyu said:

Honestly, if you don't like it in the beginning, I doubt you'll like the rest of the common route. If you don't like this kind of humor, you will probably hate it. It stays more or less the same to the end. As for the heroine routes, for some reason there are some very polarizing opinions about them. I personally found Amane's route to be really good, and Makina's route to be quite decent, while the other routes were a bit lacking (though all of them had their moments).

I mean, there was only one scene that made me laugh a little and it was just after the protagonist told a horror story to Makina, I believe, the young one. I love comedy, but there is not much of it at least until now

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I just finished first episode of 9 -Nine-.

I found it really engaging and enjoyable. If that was indeed the weakest part, then I see that I'm in for a treat :)And while some people say that Miyako makes for a rather bland heroine, I found her absoutely cute, and could definitely fall in love with her :abilove:. Besides, the confession scene was amazing - very awkward and at the same time feeling very natural. I'd probably act very similar in such situation ;) The way how the relationship between siblings Kakeru and Sora is portrayed was also brilliant - I loved their constant banter.

Another nice thing was acknowledging of the other "branches" directly in the story, making routes and different endings part of the setting.

I'm playing All-ages Japanese release, so cannot say much about H-stuff, but as for this episode I don't think anything was lacking, and I don't feel like this would be better as an eroge ;) Kissing scene did very good job to convey the intimacy.

And I dread at the mere thought of H-scenes between Kakeru and Sora in the next episode :nou: - that's one of the reasons I chose All-ages version ;)

There were some points that could see some improvement, but overally it was very good start. So it's 7.5 for the first episode, and I'm looking forward to the rest :)

Edited by adamstan
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So, I finished Kin'iro Loveriche or Kinkoi for short. 

I am not the biggest moege player as I struggle to keep my motivation when the stakes in a story are too low and there are no particularly engaging conflicts to speak of. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the cute characters, the SoL and the comedy, but I have to pace myself and be careful to not get oversaturated or chances are I'm not gonna finish the game. 

I picked up Kinkoi as per recommendation of a friend of mine who knows what I tend to enjoy very well, and he told me that I would most likely come to love the true route... and holy shit he couldn't be any more right. To be completely honest the rest of routes were nothing to write home about. They were funny and entertaining enough so long as I didn't binge, but I can't say they are spectacular by any stretch of the imagination. The romance also felt incredibly lackluster and I never felt a special connection between the MC and any of the heroines... until the true route. Hooo boy the true route. What a beautiful and powerful thing. I love how everything comes together and how tactful it all feels. It never feels cheesy or overly dramatic, it doesn't feel like they are trying to manipulate your feelings. It all flows so nicely and leaves you with such a good aftertaste and a message that will stick with you for a long time. It might not be exactly original or innovative, but it's beatifully executed and that's more than enough.

Now I'm talking about it in very vague and abstract terms because I obviously don't want to spoil the experience for anyone. I am just going to say, please, if you have even the slightest tolerance for moege, you need to give Kinkoi a try. 

PS: Ria is such a beautiful human being and she earns a more than well deserved spot in my best fictional girls of all time, and in my heart. Bless her.

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I just finished Muramasa, and, well, it was a worthwhile experience, but not much more than that. It's definitely on the good end of the spectrum; it simply fell short of my, admittedly high, expectations. To say it in clearer terms, I wouldn't place it among my top 10 VNs, as suggested on VNDb; maybe not even my top 30.

To name a few things I disliked about it:

- The protagonist. Yeah, he's pretty much the definition of an antihero and he's expected to grow on you over time, but I still think you'd need to be able to symphathize with him somewhat from the getgo to truly immerse yourself in the story. Sadly, that is something I was unable to do for a good part of the game. I realized there was probably some reason for his actions, but not knowing those, I could only judge him based on the information I had been fed. This made me not really care one way or another whether he lived or died, which made battles, among other things, lose a lot of impact. Speaking of...

- The fight scenes. They're probably my biggest issue with Muramasa, considering the fact that they make up such a large part of the game. Basically, I found them too long and over the top for my tastes. I could accept the premise of "Okay, foe, in order to beat you, I will unleash my ultimate attack, which cannot be avoided. <1 second later> Damn, he avoided it. Let's boost my power although I was already at the maximum and try again. Rinse and repeat." back in the days when I was watching Dragonball or Naruto, but I've kinda grown past that by now and don't find it nearly as entertaining or exciting as I used to. (This also happens to be one of the reasons I haven't read Dies Irae yet.)

- The rape scenes. I can't recall a single one that was actually relevant to story progression in the grand scheme of things, meaning they were all just there either for cheap shock value or to cater to the tastes of the people who actually enjoy that stuff.

- The info-dumping. I realize that many people might want to know every little detail about every little thing, but to me, it just felt tedious and bothersome. At one point, it caused me to literally start nodding off on the couch, so I ended up skipping past that part of the game just so I wouldn't get completely bored out of my mind. I think this is actually the first VN where I've skipped something that wasn't an h-scene, which should speak volumes about how disinterested I was.

- The true ending. This came so out of the blue, I had to take a moment just to realize what had happened. I was entirely convinced I was on one of the regular routes and would later end up on some true route revolving around

Spoiler

Hikaru,

but then it just ended and all I was left with were a few missing CGs from earlier choices and the knowledge that all the stuff I thought were just a bunch of sidenotes in pursuit of something greater were actually what canonically happened in the story. It was a cocktail of confusion and unfulfillment.

To not end this post on a negative note, I'd like to mention that one thing that Muramsa deserves praise for is its translation. I remember seeing one person making a comment about this being the new golden standard for localizations, and while I can't attest to the accuracy compared to the Japanese original, which I haven't read, this is without a doubt one of the best VNs I've read in terms of prose.

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6 hours ago, Seraphim said:

Oh, right, to those of you who'd like to know what you can expect from the translation, here's an example:

Yeah, it sounds very competent. But at the same time, if this really reflects the original writing, then I'd say it's horribly pretentious :P I probably couldn't stand whole game written like that ;)

Edited by adamstan
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7 hours ago, adamstan said:

if this really reflects the original writing, then I'd say it's horribly pretentious :P I probably couldn't stand whole game written like that ;)

Don't worry, most of it is written in a more normal manner! From what I've heard, the Japanese original could feel quite pretentious at times, so I assume that they just wanted to stay true to that with the localization.

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On 9/10/2021 at 10:38 PM, Silvz said:

I mean, there was only one scene that made me laugh a little and it was just after the protagonist told a horror story to Makina, I believe, the young one. I love comedy, but there is not much of it at least until now

Interesting that you'd say that. The common opinion of Grisaia back when most people played it was that it was great because of the comedy, and that the common route was chock-full of it. But like anything else, it ultimately depends on what one likes. Any individual scene from the common route continues to be a barrel of laughs to me.

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2 hours ago, Mr Poltroon said:

Interesting that you'd say that. The common opinion of Grisaia back when most people played it was that it was great because of the comedy, and that the common route was chock-full of it. But like anything else, it ultimately depends on what one likes. Any individual scene from the common route continues to be a barrel of laughs to me.

Read it years ago and can't remember everything, though I clearly remember the common route almost making me drop it. The comedy was honestly not enough to make me forget the defaults. Can't remember them all, but a sentiment of isolation, a world of papier-maché without substance behind. Isolation if done well (especially for psycho/horror) can be very pleasant, but that was not the case in this too isolated, too long and too repetitive common route.

I clearly remember two positive aspects though : 1. you spoke about the music not being good but I really loved them. 2. I read the fan TL at that time and I remember having thought that it was exceptional.

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5 hours ago, Bredan said:

Read it years ago and can't remember everything, though I clearly remember the common route almost making me drop it. The comedy was honestly not enough to make me forget the defaults. Can't remember them all, but a sentiment of isolation, a world of papier-maché without substance behind. Isolation if done well (especially for psycho/horror) can be very pleasant, but that was not the case in this too isolated, too long and too repetitive common route.

I clearly remember two positive aspects though : 1. you spoke about the music not being good but I really loved them. 2. I read the fan TL at that time and I remember having thought that it was exceptional.

the text itself was good, well written, but that was not enough. The music seemed very dated to me.

8 hours ago, Mr Poltroon said:

Interesting that you'd say that. The common opinion of Grisaia back when most people played it was that it was great because of the comedy, and that the common route was chock-full of it. But like anything else, it ultimately depends on what one likes. Any individual scene from the common route continues to be a barrel of laughs to me.

Yeah, it didn't click with me, sadly. I had high hopes for it.

I decided to play it safe and stalled Grisaia. Now I'm reading Angel Beats! and gosh, it's way better - in  my opinion, of course. I'm also reading World End Syndrome. For the first time in ages I'm trying two at the same time. Since WES seems to be short, I will probably finish it early.

 

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7 hours ago, Silvz said:

Now I'm reading Angel Beats! and gosh, it's way better - in  my opinion, of course.

I had Angel Beats on my radar, but what discourages me is that it's the first episode of the series that got discontinued :(

7 hours ago, Silvz said:

I'm also reading World End Syndrome.

I really liked the story, characters and the atmoshpere of WES. The biggest downside for me was map movement system, which got quite tiresome, and the fact that "less important" scenes during map movement segments were unvoiced.

Edited by adamstan
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BTW Yesterday I finished second episode of 9 -Nine-.

It was so engaging that I almost binged it - started on the late Sunday morning, and kept going at it until 2AM. 2 hours of sleep, go to work, and after I got back home I finished it, with ~16 hours on the counter.

In this episode there was more focus on the mystery plot than a romance. Also the overall tone got a bit more serious.

Relationship with Sora was kept rather on the wholesome side in the all-ages version, and I can't really complain about it - it was good route, and had good flow.

Ep2 also seems to serve as a more detailed introduction for Haruka, who's the next heroine.

So, this episode gets an 8, and today I'm going to start Ep3 :)

 

I also took a sneak-peek into the adult versions of the first two episodes, but, as my forum title might suggest, I prefer the more wholesome variant presented in all-ages version. Those H-scenes were a bit too much. Thankfuly vanilla, but just too much of them crammed into very short time frame, which feels off. Also, I don't really like this style of animation - it makes the game look like those flash-based sex-sims :P The only animated H-scenes I liked so far in a VN were those in PC98 Love Escalator and its Windows remake Lovers - but those were hand-drawn, not vector animation, and it made great difference.

Also, I'd have to check it more thoroughly, but at first glance it seems that all-ages version from Sekai/Steam and Complete Edition that I'm playing are slightly different.

Edited by adamstan
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Yesterday I finished Ep. 3 and immediately started Ep. 4 of 9 -Nine-.

Ep. 3 was great, and Ep. 4 is very promising. I think I'll write more when I finish all parts. For now let me just say that Sora is probably the best character in this VN :D And the way route structure is incorporated into the story itself is IMO on par with YU-NO.

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42 minutes ago, adamstan said:

Yesterday I finished Ep. 3 and immediately started Ep. 4 of 9 -Nine-.

Ep. 3 was great, and Ep. 4 is very promising. I think I'll write more when I finish all parts. For now let me just say that Sora is probably the best character in this VN :D And the way route structure is incorporated into the story itself is IMO on par with YU-NO.

I dunno, i felt that route structure was one of the most overrated aspects of 9-nine. Too much hand-holding in comparison to YU-NO or the Zero Escape series, especially in episode 4 since that had so many opportunities for puzzle-solving on par with 428.

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37 minutes ago, onorub said:

I dunno, i felt that route structure was one of the most overrated aspects of 9-nine. Too much hand-holding in comparison to YU-NO or the Zero Escape series, especially in episode 4 since that had so many opportunities for puzzle-solving on par with 428.

Ah, actually I'm not a big fan of puzzles, and YU-NO is the only "multi route mystery" of that scale I played so far (with the walkthrough on hand all the time ;) ). There was also World End Syndrome, but it was pretty light. What I meant, that it has been well integrated into the story - as in having consistent and somewhat amusing in-story justification.

Spoiler

Especially once the meta fourth wall breaking occured at the end of Ep. 3, when it turns out, that the Overlord is not Kakeru but the player

Other VNs when routes were justified in-story that I played were two of the Key classics - Clannad and LittleBusters - but those were of slightly different kind.

Amber Quartz seems to have a bit similar structure to 9 -nine-, but there it wasn't spelled out clearly.

Edited by adamstan
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On 9/14/2021 at 2:40 AM, adamstan said:

I had Angel Beats on my radar, but what discourages me is that it's the first episode of the series that got discontinued :(

I really liked the story, characters and the atmoshpere of WES. The biggest downside for me was map movement system, which got quite tiresome, and the fact that "less important" scenes during map movement segments were unvoiced.

You can read Angel Beats without the other games. According to various sources, the game is a complete experience, with three main routes and a ton of content. The only thing it lacks are the sequels and a conclusion, but the latter you can watch in the anime version.

I'm loving WES. Loving. The map segments are bad, but I'm following a guide so it's not really a problem. I just wish there were more common scenes - as in scenes focused in the mystery instead of the characters - along the way. But I'm still in the beginning of Saya's route, so maybe it'll get better.

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