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Linkara reviews Cho Dengeki Stryker (partially)


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Not sure if anyone here watches comic review series Atop the Fourth Wall, but this week it's covering a visual novel, Cho Dengeki Stryker to be more precise. While he only covers part of it and is critical of some parts he does find merit in what's good and I think it's worth watching.

http://atopthefourthwall.com/cho-dengeki-stryker/

 

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Huh, when I heard that Linkara was going to do a visual novel I thought it would be something like Fault Milestone One, Dysfunctional Systems, or even Katawa Shoujo..... did not expect Cho Dengeki Styrker. A bit of a shame another title wasn't chosen, I have not read Stryker yet, but I got the feeling that it would fall under the super mediocre category of visual novels. Something that isn't offensively bad nor anything grand, just something you read to kill time before another visual novel project is released.

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I have not read Stryker yet, but I got the feeling that it would fall under the super mediocre category of visual novels. Something that isn't offensively bad nor anything grand, just something you read to kill time before another visual novel project is released.

Haha, Dengeki Stryker is one of the best visual novels available in English. I would even say it's the best VN on Steam at the moment.
People not appreciating a gem like Dengeki Stryker is really a good example why the modern VN scene sucks so much. You have this respectful homage to old school anime (you know, when animu was still good) with great production values, meaningful plot, fleshed out characters and, and this is the most important thing, much love, passion and heart from the developers... and the only thing people have to say to this masterpiece is "best girl has no route! what a kusoge!" (or after Chou: "Jack still has no route! what a kusoge!"). Just think about it. It's pretty much the perfect analogy why this medium can't produce nice things anymore...

Well, that said, this game was actually a very good choice, probably the best, for Linkara to review. As a critic with a more deep appreciation for art he "gets" what this game is about (as much as he can after the first route) and is pretty fair in his judgment. He even thinks the character relations are deep and fleshed out enough to justify a Hentai scene. Did not expect him to be this open-minded. I think if he was more familiar with the Shounen genre and old school Japanese entertainment in general, he would have gotten even more out of this.

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Really? Better than Grisaia, the released chapters of Fault, and Higurashi? I also like how you simply listed every generic compliment you can give to visual novels. I suppose my viewpoint is heavily influenced by the only game I played from the company, Edelweiss..... which really was a great big pile of nothing much. More than likely I suspect we simply just have a difference in tastes.

But anyways I was also very surprised how fair his review was. Whenever a normie starts talking about a VN I always brace myself and prepare for the worse.

Edited by Soulless Watcher
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There's actually a surprising amount I enjoyed about Cho Dengeki Stryker, but for the most part I thought it was a little too by-the-numbers. At least the CDS scenarios were better than the original ones. I thought it was good, but I dunno, I can't get nearly as enthusiastic about it as Tyr.

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I also like how you simply listed every generic compliment you can give to visual novels.

Yeah, but it's true. I didn't just list generic compliments:
-great production values: full voice (incl. Megumi Ogata!), Anime cutscenes, many songs, great OST (as always with Overdrive), quite a few CGs, mostly story related and not fanservice
-meaningful plot: it has message which is not shallow or superficial. It may not be too original, but it's kind of the perfect "Shounen" plot in a way. Like I said, very respectful homage.
-fleshed-out characters: spoilers, so I can't say much. But there is some character development I really, really like and I didn't see coming. Has something to do with the meaningful plot. Characters are stereotypical (in a good way, it's a homage) but still have their own personality.
-much love: I saw an interview with Bamboo and Endou Masaaki and they both were so in love with this game. The passion is strong with them.

More than likely I suspect we simply just have a difference in tastes.

The thing is that Dengeki Stryker is really a good Shounen. You may not like this genre and therefore this game may not give you much feels. That's fine. That's a matter of taste.
But even though you may not like this genre much, I think if you try to be reasonable you would see that this game is really excellent at what it wants to be.
For example, I don't think that Linkara is a fan of this, I don't think he's much into Shounen or Japanese superheroes. But although it's not his thing, he can still see it's worth. And I think that's exactly what a truly "good" game is made of, regardless of one's own taste.

 

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At least the CDS scenarios were better than the original ones.

 I dunno about that. The truest true most final saga was good, yes, but the rest... Steel Saga was incredibly boring at times, because there was just too much Rin, and Rin is dull, dull, DULL. But worst of all, Love Saga was a frustrating hackjob with a terrible ending and all-too-familiar heroine personality switch.

 

(Cho) DS is generally not good with heroine characterization and romance. It does everything else well, but romance is an exception and nobody should ever play it for the girls. Other than that though, it's great.

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 The thing is that Dengeki Stryker is really a good Shounen. You may not like this genre and therefore this game may not give you much feels. That's fine. That's a matter of taste.
But even though you may not like this genre much, I think if you try to be reasonable you would see that this game is really excellent at what it wants to be.
For example, I don't think that Linkara is a fan of this, I don't think he's much into Shounen or Japanese superheroes. But although it's not his thing, he can still see it's worth. And I think that's exactly what a truly "good" game is made of, regardless of one's own taste.

 

I admit that I am being very unfair, it's just whenever someone only has good things to say about a title, I immediately become defensive. I've noticed a pattern, it happened with Ever 17 and it happened with Clannad, both games caused me varying levels of frustration. 

Well, anyways I probably should pick it up sometime, since it seems it has a bigger following than I had thought, and reserve my judgement until then. 

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