What are you playing?

[adamstan]

9 hours ago, Larxe1 said:

To be more specific, the characters felt very unreal, they didn't have any sense of realness to them in the sense that their traits don't feel real, it rather feels instead that they had specific traits in mind to appeal to each otaku fetish, and made a character around them. While this may be a harsh thing to say, it was still enjoyable in its own way.

While most of the characters were rather tropey - which seemed to work perhaps thanks to fantasy elements in the setting? - there's one exception, and that's banter between Kakeru and Sora, which, at least to me, felt surprisingly natural. And maybe that's what makes Sora the best character  

As for your complaints towards Sora's route - that's where all-ages version shows its superiority

Spoiler

Since they're not fucking, of course the relationship doesn't turn into full-blown incest, and I prefer it this way

Unfortunately, I cannot recommend Steam editions without adult patches, since there are parts where they are overly censored (especially the Haruka's chapter). The only "proper" all-ages version is Complete Edition, (available in two physical versions and on DLSite) which unfortunately is untranslated. But if one wants to read -Nine- in Japanese, it's great (and it's in 1080p ) Besides, the epilogue is all-ages only anyway

**********************

As for Damekoi,

Few days ago I finished Kaya's route. I liked it, although it shows that she's just a "side heroine" I have stopped for a moment, because last few days I've been too tired to read, but maybe I'll return to it today.

BTW I again did a quick comparison between the All-ages edition that I'm playing and +18 MangaGamer's version (so far only for Kaya's route). And once again I lean heavily towards all-ages version, even if sometimes it felt a bit too tame (but then, it has +15 rating). I found the replacement scenes added in the PSP version to be much nicer than too-many badly-animated H-scenes from MG's edition. Really, some of those animations looked so bad it's not even funny   I was very disappointed to find out that scenes like

Spoiler

The fun with fireworks in the park or very amusing date in the game center

were just the replacement scenes, and were completely absent from adult version - they fit the route so well. Also, all-ages edition added very nice post-credits epilogue for Kaya (and I assume for other "side" heroines as well, but will know for sure after finishing them)

It's a pity that all-ages version is available only on low-res PSP though I wish there was PC or PS3 port...

Edited October 13, 2021 by adamstan

[Larxe1]

13 hours ago, adamstan said:

While most of the characters were rather tropey - which seemed to work perhaps thanks to fantasy elements in the setting? - there's one exception, and that's banter between Kakeru and Sora, which, at least to me, felt surprisingly natural. And maybe that's what makes Sora the best character  

 

Yeah it seemed to work because it was rather self-aware in what it's trying to be. Sora and Kakeru's banter felt real and also extremely funny to me lol, Tanezaki Atsumi's voice elevates their banter to another level or maybe it's just because I'm biased as hell because Tanezaki Atsumi is my favorite voice actor.

Spoiler

You're right on the all-ages part though, while I like my h-scenes because SOMETIMES(I strongly sometimes emphasize because mostly it is just used for porn) it kind of makes the relationship feel real, Sora's h scene in the true end was just out of place and was there for the porn. 

Also IMO one of the best examples of the tropey characters was Takamine where he was completely defined by his undying loyalty to Yoichi that wasn't even explained and also his chuuni side that I found incredibly funny, his character doesn't go beyond that, or explore the depth of Takamine's character. He's just there for random fights and humor.

Who's your favorite heroine and episode? Although I feel like your favorite heroine is already Sora though lol

[adamstan]

12 minutes ago, Larxe1 said:

Who's your favorite heroine and episode? Although I feel like your favorite heroine is already Sora though lol

That's a tough question. Sora is for me definitely the best character, as she shines throughout the whole series, and brings light into every episode But when coming to the "choose your best waifu" problem, that's another dimension To put it simply, I loved them all. And each episode was better than the previous one. In first episode I thought that Miyako was very sweet girl, and I wouldn't mind a girlfriend like her. But then came Sora's route, and I found it to be very good too. Haruka was also lovely, and I really liked how she developed as a character. And then there was Noa. I didn't care too much about her throughout the first three episodes - especially since she was always staying on the side. But her episode turned this all upside down and made me fall for her head over heels.

Spoiler

And her death in the bad ending hit me as hard as the hardest KEY's tearjerkers

So, however contradictory it might seem - Sora is my best character, Episode 4 is my best episode, and I'm unable to choose my favorite heroine.

Edited October 13, 2021 by adamstan

[adamstan]

I just found nice easter egg / reference in DameKoi.

Do you remember a game they played in chapter 7 during the

Spoiler

Himeo's welcome party?

Buntarou says that he remembers this game being a VN, while Yoshinori says that he grabbed the assets of said VN and remade it.

Actually, all the locations they mention and the music that is playing is from first Hermit's VN - Folklore Jam (also written by Maruto).

Edited October 15, 2021 by adamstan

[Fujoneko]

[Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward]

I missed this gameplay, although it can be hell sometimes. The 3D art is a little weird, but it is what is is; I'm sure I'll get used to it. So far, I'm really enjoying this one as much as the first (well, I did enjoy the first a bit more). 

Due to spoilers from the first game, I'll just say this is for the first recommended ending on the steam guide:

Spoiler

Okay, this was a pretty interesting one, although kinda short. I liked seeing how the old cast plays in this game! I wanted to see Junpei tho [sobs] I'm still not sure about Alice, it's still a tad confusing for me, idk.

So, about that ending... Who killed them? It wasn't Quark as he was still in the pod; it could have been Phi (since she looked infected) or Sigma himself, since he had a similar behavior to Quark (wanting to kill himself), hmmmmm... maybe it'll be explained in other endings!

Oh yeah, another thing: I find Luna quite suspicious. She looks a bit like Akane (she could've dyed her hair) and Clover said her powers could be absorbed if there was a stronger user near, and, well, I'm pretty sure Akane's powers are stronger than Clover's. Luna definitely knows more than what she is letting us know. 

Next week I will be talking about Tenmyoji's ending! 

[Seraphim]

As an avid horror fan, I figured I'd give the recently released Abaddon a go, so that's what I did today.
I love the retro look and music, and the ambience is surprisingly great in spite of the simple graphics, but man does the combat suck ass from a straw, to quote AVGN. It's completely ruining the experience for me, to the point where I've run out of patience to even continue playing. I wish there was some way to simply turn battles off, but since that isn't an option, I guess I'll have to keep my fingers crossed for someone to eventually release a trainer that'll make it possible to breeze through them.

[alexfang452]

Currently reading through Love Duction. Also, not only did I finish Miniature Garden, but I started AND finished both Livestream: Escape from Hotel Izanami and Prison Princess.

Miniature Garden: Overall, a fine VN. My only problems with it are that some parts to the story are unanswered and there are a few things I can't suspend my disbelief for. To name a few:

Spoiler

1. Sumika's existence. I know I watched Gravity Falls and had no problem with the weird things going on, but Sumika is too weird for this VN. She is a girl that died from a Miniature Festival years ago that shares a body with the living soul of Ayana's old doll. I can't accept the idea of living dolls. It just seems to be accepted by the characters despite how crazy it sounds.  Why does she have powers? Why was she there? We never get an answer to any of those questions. 

2. If Ayana was actually in the infirmary when Yasunari woke up, how was he seeing her in the classroom? He swore he heard the sound of her hair accessory. 

3. How Yasunari's and Ayana's parents were involved. While they do talk about this, we are never given a clear answer (even though with what was said, you can make your own conclusions). Only Yasunari's father is name dropped, so how is his mom involved in all of this?

4. An organization was able to buy out the government.
...
I decided to just accept that.
 

Livestream...Hotel Izanami: As someone who gets scared easily, I was terrified while playing this from start to finish. However, the mascot chasing me quickly went from terrifying to annoying with how frequent it can show up. I thought this VN was enjoyable and fun to read through. The endings are what really scared me, with one that WOULD give me nightmares from the visuals if I decided to sleep after seeing it. The only thing I can complain about is that in one instance, the mascot showed up RIGHT BEHIND ME, giving me very little time to escape and it killed me. 

Prison Princess: Another good VN. I like the two princesses and there were one or two unexpected moments in this VN. I prefer Aria slightly over Zena. While Zena does know martial arts and swordplay, Aria knows magic and is a massive bookworm. The fanservice moments during puzzles are interesting and I like how they are implemented in the game. However, some parts did leave me lost for a long period of time. I would play more games like this to get more used to them. 

Edited October 26, 2021 by alexfang452
Revised some parts in the spoiler section.

[TexasDice]

Moege reports:

Koikari is incredibly entertaining.

That's it. It's not high art and it's not deep, nor world changing. But regardless, I cannot stop reading through at breakneck speed. Oh and the nonstop meme-barrage from the other localized ASaproject title, Suki to Suki is not in this one, which I personally appreciate.

 

Primals Hearts 2 is even better than the first game. And as weird as it seems to see sequels in the medium, what is even weirder is that 2 directly references the events of 1. Like a real sequel. Very raunchy, but also pretty funny.

 

Study § Steady is still a broken piece of shit. Don't buy it if you own an AMD card, the VN will not work and crash every 10 or so lines. Shame, because the Art is the most fantastic thing I have ever seen.

Edited October 27, 2021 by TexasDice

[Silvz]

Today I finished World End Syndrome. It was fantastic, I loved it and it got me hooked through the whole story. I just wish the routes were longer - it felt that when the routes were finally starting to get interesting, they ended.

 

Now I'm still reading Angel Beats and plan to finally restart SeaBed. This is one that I've read for some time and didn't enjoy because it was too slow-paced. But now I got it on the Switch and am actually pretty excited to try it again.

[adamstan]

8 hours ago, Silvz said:

Today I finished World End Syndrome. It was fantastic, I loved it and it got me hooked through the whole story.

Yeah, I loved it too despite some flaws (that map movement system...) Now, Toybox, where's the damn sequel? You think you can get away with teasing us like that?

Edited October 31, 2021 by adamstan

[Kajahara]

I've started with Cresendo and ChuSingura46+1 S and I am being both so far also currently trying to stop myself from buying more vn's with all of the sales going around.

[Fujoneko]

[Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward]

Huuum so many questions... It's been two days and I have forgotten most of them already, darn it.  
This time, I played Tenmyoji's Ending!

Spoiler

I don't believe that guy who showed up was really Zero - they wouldn't show them so soon! It just doesn't make sense to show them out of nowhere; and now, a bomb?? It's called "Bomb one", so it implies there's AT LEAST a second one, oof- where did these bombs even come from?? Also, I guess that old man is Junpei? I don't see another reason for him to have a picture of Akane; besides, he did say he was looking for her and what did Alice say back in Clover's ending? Yep, that Junpei was looking for Akane. It all makes sense. There are still a lot of things I haven't written here and that I'm still confused about, but I'll get there, I hope.

Next will be Dio's ending! 

[Fujoneko]

[Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward]

I don't know if it's because of my busy and tiring schedule or what, but I have been so not into theories for this game... My brain has been lazy.
Aaaaanyway! This time I did Dio's ending!

Spoiler

Dio is a clone and member of that one terrorist organization? Ooookay... That was unexpected. I did enjoy the passwords gathering method haha it's fun!

It seems Phi really does know about the timelines as well. That's why us both know each other's names right as the game starts - the start of the game for us players must not be the actual first time they meet. Man, this is getting exciting!

P.S.: Where did Quark go? I'm afraid he got killed... I hope not...

Next stop: K!

[OdaNova]

I finished two this week;

 

Euphoria 

Spoiler

I'm split on this, it's just an 'extreme' nukige, so whoop de doo with some god awful writing, and atrocious eroge scenes 'ourghe!!! DICK MILK AND BABY BATTAH!" is just pure cringe. And then, it launches that really good mind-screw of a plot if you get into the bad/true routes, like wow, the whole concept was superb. And the other half of this VN just drags it down. I kind of wish they scrapped the god awful nukige and put 100% of the effort into that storyline, because it has so much potential IMO. So I finished with mixed feelings and a lot of empathy for Nemu. ;_;

 

Synergia

Spoiler

One of the most dull written sci-fi VN's I've had the displeasure of reading, I could only get halfway through before I had to quit to be honest. The writing is mediocre, but it's also dumping too much text in one text box at a time, so you get complete mood-whiplash as subjects change in the same text box. It feels like it needs another editing pass. Also, there's dry subject matter and there's Synergia dry - the writing was sending me to sleep with how tedious it was.

 

Not sure what I'll read next tbh. Hopefully something that clicks and gets me some happy fuzzy feelings.

[Larxe1]

https://vndb.org/v31262

Reading Monkeys! 

It's a very lighthearted story, I'm still in the first few hours of the game and the presentation does kinda stand out from other vn's, There is early on a large amount of cg's but it is mostly in the form of a manga, so basically its like reading a voiced manga sometimes while coming back to the VN format again. 

It has both a trap protagonist and an outrageous setting. Usually I dislike trap games, because well, I'm not really into traps but more on that I dislike the common trope of trap protagonists being a mixture of extremely kind, and girlish. Like trap protagonists are usually the same just like how self insert protagonists in random moeges are the same. The trap protagonist here Saruyoshi is kinda a fresh take on it since I don't think I have read a trap VN before where the protagonist was a delinquent, but yeah idk I don't read trap vn's a lot.

The setting is outrageous in the sense that it is fun but just dont think about it too deeply lol, I was able to notice a lot of weird holes in the setting but I think that I nor future readers should take this setting a bit too seriously just suspend your disbelief.

I'm still early on so I can't say if its good but it did pass the test of me not dropping it within the first hour, I drop a lot of VN's in the first hour if it doesn't hold my attention but Monkeys is a standard lighthearted vn so far with good execution and a unique presentation for me. Also Karasu's VA is new but her voice is very nice, looking forward to her career in the future

[alexfang452]

https://vndb.org/v16858

Currently reading through Master Magistrate. Despite the story being serious, the balance of comedic moments keeps it from being serious. The CGs I have seen so far look great. I like the use of the CGs in black and white during actions scenes. It is almost like I am reading a comic book. Since I haven't played any Ace Attorney game yet, getting evidence and the trials are new to me. While the one for the first chapter was easy to figure out, Chapter 2's trial did stump me a few times. 

I am currently on Chapter 3. I am excited to see what happens next.

Also, I finished Love Duction. While Yoshia's route was good, Annie's route disappointed me. To explain why,

Spoiler

 Despite the lack of many comedic moments in the routes to focus on the romance, Annie's route still failed. Since the routes are short, there is little time to make the development from friends to lovers feel convincing. However, there was no focus on the romance. The first and second chapter seemed to be setting up something, but then the third chapter shows up. Instead of focusing on Kanata and Annie developing feelings for one another, they decide to focus on another wacky situation where Kanata is dead. Near the end, they decide to throw the two together and FAIL to convince me when Annie says that Kanata is an important part to her. They didn't have any meaningful interaction with each other, so I wasn't convinced at that line.

Despite my thoughts on Annie's route, I still thought that this VN was still decent. You will enjoy more if it can make you laugh. Unfortunately, I didn't even laugh once. 

Edited November 11, 2021 by alexfang452
deleted some sentences

[Fujoneko]

[Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward]

Woah, a lot happened, huh? I gotta say tho, I don't like how dragged everything feels in this second game... it kind of bores me. *sigh* Oh well...

Dio's ending:

Spoiler

I guess we did kinda figure out where we are or at least what the building is or was — the house and research facility of K's dad. I'm pretty sure the "mother" for K was actually Akane, it just makes sense that way. Also, what's the deal with K having the same face as sigma?? Or is it the other way around?? Is it the same deal as with Dio? I'm confusion.
I also wonder how the hell Sigma was able to just reach the conclusion K was the one killing Dio lololol I know K is very sus, but still- In the end, we weren't able to find the old man and Clover...

Next is the ending of someone starting with the letter A!

[alpacaman]

A few days ago I finally finished Muramasa. My feelings towards it are complicated. It seems like Nitroplus applied their own law of balance where for each brilliant idea in the game they had to put in a bad one as well. To name one example, one of the core ideas Muramasa poses is how using violence / killing someone evil for the sake of good actually makes you evil as well, making the case that those one considers evil have different ideals for which they deem using violence justified, like you do for yours, putting you on the same level morally. While I personally don't agree with the conclusions the Muramasa draws from this seeming contradiction, I admit it makes its case well and in a nuanced fashion, at least for the most part. It would be easier to accept these ideas though if the "villains" our "heroes" are supposed to be morally equal to weren't either

Spoiler

ridiculously racist, genocidal, kidnapped children to extract their life essence or raped women for fun / as a punishment for trying to mediate between oppressors and oppressed. Telling me one of these guys also rescued two war orphans (who he orders to perform sexual acts for allies btw.) isn't going to convince me killing them in battle isn't justified when there is no other way to get rid of them.

There are a lot of really interesting concepts like how the individual mecha (which are sentient btw) and their powers are basically the manifestation of the violent form of the ideals of their masters. I know it's not exactly revolutionary to have a character's personality match their fighting style but imo Muramasa handles this aspect especially well, turning fights into battles of ideas with stakes that go beyond "will the protagonist survive". To balance this out, a few of these mechas

Spoiler

can turn into sexy elf girls. One of which gets two H-scenes with her wearing a maid costume in one of them, even though the game takes place in 1940s Japan.

Speaking of H-content, I'd even say most of these scenes involving the protagonist are handled relatively well. There's pretty dubious consent in most of them and I totally get if they cross the line for anyone but at least for me they kind of work in their thematic context. Then again there are numerous rape scenes that just exist to show you how evil a certain character is.

There is a lot more stuff (good and bad) I could write about. But overall I'd say Muramasa is worth checking out, at least if you can stomach a few rape scenes, an extremely gloomy protagonist (don't get me wrong, I think he's well-written and his overly literal and honest character makes for a few very funny scenes, I just wish he wouldn't take himself so seriously sometimes) and some pacing issues in the first half. I would say Muramasa has too many flaws too be called a masterpiece, but it's definitely one of the most ambitious "mainstream" VNs out there, and when it gets good, it gets reeaally good. It actually has some depth to its themes, the fight scenes can be extremely suspenseful and it has a strong main cast. I gave it an 8/10 on vndb. Without all the bad stuff I might have landed on a 9 or even 9.5, but even so the bad stuff can get quite annoying at times but at least to me not distracting enough to award Muramasa anything close to a low rating. But I totally get how it could ruin the experience for someone else.

[Fujoneko]

[Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward]

Another ending completed! I'll just leave my thoughts under 

Spoiler

I enjoyed learning more about Alice! I feel like there's still a lot of mystery surrounding her, though. Sigma remembering his past timelines is always cool to see and him tricking Dio was pretty great, I gotta admit. Even though Dio killed them all in the end, I feel bad he had to kill himself  I don't know, I just feel like poison is such a nasty way to die. 
Anyways, I'm guessing I'll only be able to turn off all the bombs in the true ending? Either way, it feels good to collect all these passwords.

P.S.: FUCK that puzzle with Alice. I hated it.

Next is Sigma's!  LET'S FUCKING GOOOOOOOO!!! *trying to hype myself up*

[VernonZirconKitsune]

Started playing the Hashihime of the Old Book Town append demo a few days ago. Already noticed differences in translation compared to the PC version within the first five minutes. I'm both scared and curious to see how certain parts of the game play out, as they've given the Switch version a T rating. 

Overall, I'm pretty excited for the full version. I can't wait to see the new content they've added.

[ztrepzilius]

I'm playing Yamizome Revenger slowly. I brought it because I heard some people compare it to the Beat series.

I tried the demo of Venus Blood Hollow. Minor text issue but other aspects are fine.

[Seraphim]

I've finished a few VNs now in November, so here are some of my thoughts.

1.



This wasn't anything to write home about, to put it mildly.
The protagonist is a total creep that sexually assaults people in their sleep, the game is almost devoid of any humor, and the writing is pretty awful, both in terms of plot and wording.
One thing that's seriously awkward is the fact that the characters, for whatever reason, mostly refer to each other and themselves as "roommate", "landlady", "neighbor" and so on instead of their actual names. They even call each other "big roommate" and "little roommate" (depending on their age differences), which is something I've never seen before.
At one point, the landlady even refers to her husband as "his landlord" during some internal monologue, as if she's thinking through the protagonist's perspective.
Furthermore, there's a severe lack of punctuation, leading to some... unfortunate dialogue.



Honestly, I'm not sure why I even bothered to play through the whole game. I guess it's a case of me hoping the story would pick up at some point, combined with some OCD tendencies.

2.



In stark contrast to Dreams of Desire, this was actually great. The plot has some similarities to the former, but the writing here is leaps and bounds above that and the execution is just so much better overall. I also kinda like the anime-ish character design, compared to the more realistic look that VNs like this tend to go for.
There's quite a heavy focus on humor, and it happens to align almost perfectly with my tastes, to the point where I think it's safe to say that this is now among the top 3 funniest VNs I've read; something I definitely didn't expect when I picked it up.
One thing I really loved was that there's a ton of references to other franchises, and a bunch of cameos from well-known characters. An example:



Stuff like this definitely wouldn't be possible if this game had been released on Steam, so I'm really glad they chose to make it available for free on itch.io.
All in all, Once in a Lifetime is probably my favorite 3D VN aside from Acting Lessons.

3.



As a big fan of Nanairo Reincarnation, I went into this with quite high expecations, but it still managed to deliver. Just like in Nanairo Reincarnation, the story is pretty dark at its core, but it's well rounded with some lighthearted stuff as well and I think it makes for a satisfying whole. (not to be confused with "satisfying holes", which can be found during the game's animated h-scenes)
I really don't think I need to go into any more details here. If you've played Nanairo Reincarnation and liked it, you'll almost certainly enjoy this as well. If you haven't played Nanairo Reincarnation, you should do so, and then follow up with this one.

[Silvz]

On 11/20/2021 at 2:02 PM, VernonZirconKitsune said:

Started playing the Hashihime of the Old Book Town append demo a few days ago. Already noticed differences in translation compared to the PC version within the first five minutes. I'm both scared and curious to see how certain parts of the game play out, as they've given the Switch version a T rating. 

Overall, I'm pretty excited for the full version. I can't wait to see the new content they've added.

I'm pretty torn about this one. I plan to read it, but I don't know if it's worth skipping the +18 content in this case. At the same time, the idea of having more content on the Switch makes me want to try it when it launches on that platform.

[adamstan]

22 hours ago, Seraphim said:

One thing that's seriously awkward is the fact that the characters, for whatever reason, mostly refer to each other and themselves as "roommate", "landlady", "neighbor" and so on instead of their actual names.

In 3DOELVNs those are usually signs of early incest version that has been poorly covered up for patreon purposes

[OdaNova]

Just finished How to Date a Magical Girl.

 

The two plot twists were fairly obvious, though I didn't get the exact nature of the second twist down to a T. I thought the nature of the second plot twist led to the whole story being somewhat pointless as everything got hand waved away, nothing really mattered and none of the interesting plot hooks ever got resolved.

Also, the life attribute levelling nonsense really dragged out what was clearly a short novel spread fairly thin thanks to the stat padding.