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What are you reading? Untranslated edition


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Welp, in the end continued with some VNs.

Einstein Yori Ai wo Komote: utter disappointment. A shame because MC has a clear personality, girls are cute and character interactions are good. Unfortunately, the plot and the end are meh.

Thank god, the next one went over my expectations. Of course, I'm talking about the VN currently being called the VN of the year: Hakuuchumu no Aojashin.

Honestly, I really didn't expect to get that much into it. Especially Case 2 and 3. I loved them. They were so much fun with the right amount of drama. On the other hand, Case 1 was more serious, so liked it less, but was good nonetheless.

Then Case 0 ties everything nicely, though it has some problems and I was a little disappointed by the end. The Epilogue in particular, felt like it was made pretty quickly, like it was here just to be here. (and the H)

While I'm at it, the OST is stellar, voice acting is amazing (Kamishiro Misaki's voice range for each heroine is impressive) and CGs are breathtaking. Yep, this VN was an absolute beast of a production. A shame there isn't any music mode to listen to the OST, though.

 

Anyway, wasn't planning to post here again so fast, Musei just left me that much of an impression, so even if it's just a few words, I wanted to write something.

Edited by Riku
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  • 2 weeks later...

Didn't think I'd post four times in a row. lol

Gonna be the last one of the year anyway, as I decided that I read enough VN this past month and it's time to go back to LN and WN.

First I read Mirai Radio, as Musei made me want to. Wasn't bad, but not particularly good either.

Then after that, well, I was thirsty for battle, so, you know, I decided to give Miburo a try. lol

The first hours were boring. It's just exposition, exposition and exposition, and contrary to Chusingura, that pulls you in pretty fast, here I almost gave up. But thank god, I didn't, and a little under the 10 hours mark, it finally picks up and becomes better and better. While it's different from Chusingura, it does have similarities (SoL, battle), and those are better in Miburo in general. Mainly the character interaction. In Chusingura you're mainly with one of the four girls and a few sub characters during a long time, but in Miburo you're basically always with (almost) everyone, like a big family, and it's great. Really loved that part of the VN.

But here is the catch. It's a tragedy, and the more you like the characters, the less you enjoy the story as you see them die. So I was bored in the first hours, greatly enjoyed the middle story, then little by little, it was just suffering, no joy, even if the story was still good.

And because of that, while I did the other 3 "main" paths, I skipped the 3 if routes. I just couldn't bring myself to enjoy them after finishing the main one.

Anyway, back to my previous post about the MC, after reading the VN I get why people don't like him much, but that's necessary for the story. Contrary to Chusingura where Suguha comes from the future and tries to change fate, here it's not the case. In fact, the objective is to have everything go as history, so Ken HAS to be "useless", because in the first place everything would have went the same even if he wasn't here anyway. And that's also the reason why he's only useful in the last if path (aka true end), because that's the reason he was made to join the Shinsengumi in the first place. So what I want to say is that, while it's a shame he isn't "good" because of that, in the frame of the story he has to be like this, so that's "fine".

So yeah, while I liked Miburo, I'm left with a kinda bitter taste, but it was a great ride.

And that's it. I basically played two monsters and half as well as some other VNs this month, so I think I'm good for this year. lol

Don't think I'll go back to VNs before a while, but who knows, I always do things on a whim, so...

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  • 4 months later...

Hey, I'm back. I played Gikei, and considering I talk about Chusingura and Miburo in the previous posts, thought I might as well talk about it here. (well, say a few words, at least)

But let's do things in order.

First I played Maoten.
It was OK, but nothing amazing. Had some fun parts, but otherwhise pretty average. However, I quite liked the last route and thought the drama was rather well done, so I can say it was worth my time.

Next is Meikei no Lupercalia.
It's praised as the best VN of the year since its release, but let's be honest, I didn't really like it. I do understand why it's liked, and I think it's well written. It's just not my kind of thing. You basically follow madmen during the whole story, and even if the end is a happy one, it's an open one and everything that happened leaves a bitter taste. So, yeah, some people might love it, but it wasn't my thing.

Then comes WagaHime.
I loved Majikoi, so even knowing it would be different, I had to try. Liked it overall, but was quite unbalanced. Shaon, while not useless, is pretty bland and almost like air in some scenes. Honestly, aside from a few times were he was useful by himself, the rest of the time it's just thanks to Minjara that he actually does something. Anyway, lot of great and fun characters, just a shame that because there are so many and the VN is divised by country you can't have everyone together. Hope WagaHime S will have a route with everyone together.

Finally, Gikei.
Well, it's said everywhere, so let's say it frankly: it's far below Chusingura and Miburo, but still a good VN nonetheless. To put it simply, characters aren't as memorable as the other two, the infodumpind is FAR WORSE too (mainly because, unlike Chusingura where Suguha is alone, so nobody to explain, and Miburo where Ken is from the era, so no need, here there is either Roko or Shizuka who has to freaking explain what is each freaking place and each freaking person and each freaking everything). I didn't find the story really compelling, and while the fight animations are done even better than the other two, being Heian era, it's mostly with bows, so it was meh. Honestly, the only thing better than Chusingura and Miburo is the ending. Here we have a truly 100% happy and good ending with everyone together, and that's great. Still, it was a good VN, just that I will never reread it, unlike Chusingura that I plan to one day.

Edited by Riku
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  • 6 months later...

So, almost a month ago, I read the latest Youjitsu volume, and a bad habit of Kinugasa shows up in it, so I decided it was time to read Akatsuki no Goei and Reminiscence to see if the endings were really that bad.

Well, let's start with the conclusion: I didn't mind the way the routes ended, but didn't like the endings themselves. I'll come back to it later.

First, AkaGoei 1.

It was honestly pretty disappointing. Yeah Kaito is amazing, yeah the comedy is great, but that's it. Worse, the structure of the routes is terrible. Really short common route, then heroine route starts, but there is some common route chunks inserted in between creating some incoherences in the way the characters act. Also, the start of each heroine route is basically another common route considering that whatever stuff happens without leading to anything.

Anyway, the only thing AkaGoei 1 has for it is the comedy. The rest is just some patchwork making it looks like a VN.

 

Next, AkaGoei 2.

Well, it's a FD, so nothing much to say about the after stories (or the fact that Reika totally got the short end of the stick). Kaito's past was interesting and make you understand why he's so strong, so it was pretty good.

 

AkaGoei 3.

The first half is amazing. The rest not as much. Kaito gets to shine more this time, but then come another problem I have with the trilogy: we never get to see Kaito being serious. Or rather, he does get serious, but never can show his 100% (either he's tired, or injured, etc) Kaito is so strong that Kinugasa had to do that to have some sort of tension, which is a shame. Then back to my other problem: not having either an open ending or harem ending. Like I said above, I didn't mind the way the routes ended, but my problem is that considering canon stuff happening in the series, there are 2 girls who literally can't live without Kaito, and arguably 3 others who most likely will never find another man beside him. So even if not a harem ending, an open one with everyone would be better. (though, considering Anzu is only in the Forbidden Area part of the story, it'd be difficult. At least she's with Kaito in all the Forbidden Area endings).

Anyway, even that aside, Kaito's awesomeness and the comedy were totally worth the time I invested in the trilogy. Special mention to Son, and his antics with Kaito. More stories should make you love the male characters like that, rather that just using the heroines.

 

Now we go 150 years in the future with Reminiscence.

It's even more of a disappointment than AkaGoei. I think the main reason is because I played them almost successively. Hidetaka is a good MC, but when compared to Kaito (who I was with for 3 VNs just before), he just pales in comparison... Also, I wasn't particularly fan of all the negotiation stuff (the cases were so obvious). Another thing I didn't like was the fact it's the future of AkaGoei. Yeah, it's just an alternate future, but still. Even more so considering the crumbs we learn (and that CG in Kyouichi's POV). Still, it wasn't boring and I did went through all the routes. Special mention to Aki's, I guess. In a way, the whole story is all about her and Hidetaka, so once you've done her path, the way you see the other routes is different.

Unfortunately, I just can't care about Re:Collect, so I'll stop here.

 

TL;DR: AkaGoei Trilogy was great and worth my time. Reminiscence wasn't bad, but too long far what it was, so I feel like I wasted a little of my time.

Edited by Riku
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Kaito is indeed a great MC : he's not only incredibly strong and intelligent (well, when he want's to be ^^), his personality makes reading his antics really a pleasure. I acknowledge the shortcomings of Akagoei (especially the endings and the routes that are far from being perfect) but I can say this : the game could have even more shortcomings and I still would like it, thanks to him (and Reika, Tsuki and Son that is a perfect stooge to contrast him to).

Reminiscence : Hidetaka is a totally different beast (that shows at any time but especially during H-Scenes and when he meets Kaito, showing in my eyes how inferior he is voluntarily designed to be). I still like this VN and it's sequel/FD. In fact, Reminiscence is better overall in terms of story. For example : Reika and Tsuki have no equivalent in Reminiscence (in terms of how I find their characters interesting), but their routes were very inferior to Aki's for example. Characters vs Story ? I don't know, some parts of Akagoei story (and the settings) are good as well... just overall, the routes were lacking.

 

Edited by Bredan
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  • 1 year later...

So, I finished two Japanese Koihime VN's. :)

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First ist Shin Koihime † Musou -Kakumei- Ryuuki no Taimou, the third part of the Kakumei trilogy. This took me quite some time, due to it being very long and also quite difficult to read, because of the many names, locations and what not. I also switched computers inbetween and it took me a while to pick it up again. In the process I also switched translators from ITH/Chiitrans using Atlas to Textractor using Google Translate. The advantage is that it's way more stable and comfortable to read and Google Translate is way better that the old Atlas nowadays. On the other hand, it's not as good for learning the language, because it lacks the convenient word-lookup functionality of Chiitrans.

Nevertheless, regarding the VN itself, the good news is that it was certainly a massive improvement over the Shoku route from the original Shin Koihime. It also added a nice conclusion, by having all the major factions unite against a common enemy at the end in the form of tibetan and manchurian barbarian tribes. It also handled the many characters better than expected, though it still got a bit chaotic in the second half.

The major weekness was probably their attempt to add individual routes for all heroines. And we're talking about 30+ or so. They also copied and expanded some of the heroine routes from Shin Koihime, which weren't the best there either. In order to manage this, they 'bundled' the routes for heroines which is something I never liked. Therefore the best routes were usually the ones for single heroines like Sei or the new maid character Mifa, which I enjoyed quite a bit. I wish they would have done that for all major heroines and just skipped the ones for the many minor heroines instead. Fortunately, the VN doesn't force the reader to read any of the individual heroine routes, except the first introductory episodes of each.

The protagonist Kazuto also looses more and more screen time towards the end, when the title focused more and more on other characters. I think they really should have toned down the scenes with the opposing factions a bit, considering they already have dedicated parts of the trilogy for themselves.

Overall, it was probably a bit weaker than its predecessor Son Go no Ketsumyaku, but I still enjoyed it a lot.

Overall rating: 7.5/10

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The next VN is also a Koihime title (yeah, I really like them) - the fourth Eiyuutan 4 fan disc Shin Koihime † Eiyuutan 4 ~Otome Enran ☆ Sangokushi Engi [Go]~. I actually finished this surprisingly fast. Reason for that it that it's a rather focused story on the Go family, split into three parts.

The first part is about Sheren searching for her rumored to be dead mother Yenren, together with Meirin, Rian and Kazuto. They are also dealing with an assassination plot against Sheren which escalates at a final tournament at Karin's court of the Gi faction. This was the best story.

The second part is about the past of Yenren and how she met Sai and Raika. Since it's in the past, Kazuto is only part as a listener to the story. Not as good as the first story, but still decent.

The third story is more on some side characters I wasn't too interested in and I therefore just skipped it, since it seemed just a tagged on filler story anyway.

Overall, I found this very refreshing, since due to its focused approach, it wasn't too overloaded with characters for a change and could focus more on the main characters that way. It was rather sparse in the H-scene department though and some scenes seemed to clearly indicate that there were initially more planned.

Overall rating: 7.5/10

So, now I just have to tackle the last part Shin Koihime † Musou -Kakumei- Souten no Haou to finish the whole Kakumei trilogy. :mare:

Edited by ChaosRaven
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