Vn Reading Club - January 2016: Gahkthun

[Fred the Barber]

Chapters 8 and 9, which I finished earlier this week:

Spoiler

Having a quick break for chapter 8 was nice, and the slice-of-life scenes and the Tesla x Neon relationship focus were both rather pleasant. Makes me appreciate the pacing

 

Chapter 9 was the first time I've really botched the choices, which makes me feel like they were probably a little unnatural this time. "This boy likes a girl. What should he do?" I really wasn't expecting the Notorious B.I.G.-inspired answer of "Answer: ignore girl, acquire statues".

I have no problem with the story being told in this chapter, by all means, but I guess a bit of a problem with the way the Exercise for the Reader segments delivered it. Ultimately, I think this chapter was serving two purposes: continuing the breather from serious material, between chapters 7 and 10, and an excuse to use Rodin as a character. I can't blame the writer too much, I suppose; Rodin is pretty awesome.

And Chapter 10, which I just finished:

Spoiler

Well, that escalated quickly.

One thing I really like about the two Steampunk VNs I've read (counting this one) is that they don't have routes, instead telling one long, complicated story. Having separate routes tends to result in most characters falling by the wayside during one route or another. Gahkthun's single story, with an equally large cast, becomes more complex than your typical VN as a result, and it fully embraces that - and in particular, in this chapter, we get to see Neon emotionally torn to pieces as a result of Jo's arc. It's funny at first, when Neon is spying on the date with a little cloth wrapped around her head, and with a similarly-"disguised" Lobo nearby, but seeing her curled up in bed at night trying to think through her emotions is painful. And I love it. Not out of any sort of sadism or schadenfreude, but rather because I can relish the tension and firmly believe that it's going to be resolved in a positive way before the end of this story. The negativity now just makes me the eventual positive resolution all the better. And to be clear, I don't expect a happy ending per se from this VN; this isn't my first goat rodeo, as an acquaintance once said to me. But this misunderstanding, let's call it, I know will be resolved to my satisfaction, and I'm remaining confident that the Tesla x Neon relationship is going to be fully, happily resolved, for however short a time. As long as that happen, that will be enough for me; I can't wait to watch that unfold.

 

[Forgetful Frank]

This is amazing! I need to get in in this in the future, I'd love to join in.

[Turnip Sensei]

I already talk about Chapter 6 and I don't have much more to say, so I'll keep it short.

Spoiler

On 11.1.2016 at 8:14 AM, Turnip Sensei said:

The shower scene was one of the scene's in where I felt that Gahkthun took a big step back compared to the other Steampunk games. I can understand the reasons, and it works pretty well to make the reader uncomfortable, but it's not that effective. It kind of lessens the internal fears of Anne to a concrete one. A irrational fear of something incomprehensible turns into easily defined fear of ones' safety, and the scene felt little flat after that. I would have wanted more inner struggle from Anne, seeing her accept her fears. And the clown could have been easily used as an amazing threat. Since they took so many inspirations from Cthulhu stories, they could have also borrowed the philosophy that sometimes the the threat itself is more effective than the action and the fear of unknown is easily the strongest one.

Still, it's a pretty good chapter and they handled Anne and her weaknesses very well. And it's not like the shower scene was completely awful, I was just little disappointed how they took a pretty fetishistic approach to it, especially considering how well the other Steampunk games have handled themes like this.    

On top of all that chapter 6 does really good job at portraying the irrationality of fear. You can be as resolved or determined as you can, ready to face anything, but still there are things that are scary no matter what. Whether it's because of trauma, because it's something you can't understand or something that is impossible. Neon said it pretty fittingly in the end: "Scary things are just scary, there's no logic to it". And it's not bad thing to feel fear, important is to not let it overcome you.  

Next up, Chapter 7. Probably my favorite chapter, featuring my favorite Lady.

Spoiler

Like I previously mentioned, Émilie's character is defined by her "Noblesse Oblige" philosophy. - Rulers exist for the sake of people, to rule them. Such person is ruler before anything else, and must use her powers for the greater good. Ruler stands above all people and must not differentiate between her subjects, offer objective guidance without personal intervention. Rulers have no need for friends, love, happiness. After all ruler exist to rule, and thus is ruler before a human. - Or something like that, if you were to roughly summarize Emilie's personal philosophy. It's pretty sad, but somehow beautiful ideology. And ideology fitting for a benevolent ruler, albeit at the cost of her own happiness. Kinda reminded me of Saber from F/SN.

But interesting thing is that this philosophy is not something she necessarily believes, but something Emilie wants to believe, something she feels she has to believe. Some of her inner feelings comes out quite ambiguously, but it's fairly clear that she truly wants to play the part of ruler and it's not something that's been pushed on to her. But at the same time she has her lingering feelings, desire for friendship and longing for her love, things she thinks are unnecessary. She uses her ideology of ruler to keep these doubts at bay, to convince herself she doing the right thing.

And that's were the conflict arises. Once again, the influence of Coercive Suggestion twist inner thoughts and guide Emilie's decisions to extreme directions. In order to prove she doesn't need love or friendship, she decides to break her ties with old loved one. To try to prove herself she doesn't love the man she loves. But also to continue forth without regrets. If she's not going to love anymore, at least she should experience love and intimacy for the last time. And for this we get the very tastefully done sex scene. It's about the characters themselves and their relationship, not just the act. About Emilie trying to make herself believe something she doesn't and trying to deal with her hesitation. About Luis-Charles struggling with his emotions and the roles they set for themselves long ago. Too bad not many VNs use sex this way, to show more than just carnal impulses and affection.   

And finally the last encounter, Neon recklessly confronting Emilie and making her realize her foolishness and breaking the Coercive Suggestion. No matter how much you want to deny it, heartfelt feelings almost impossible to ignore. Much like Neon risked her life just for the sake of a friend, some times is just better to go with your inner feelings. Even the benevolent ruler has right for happiness.

From the once again very subtle ending and the following chapters you can feel how Emilie found an answer to herself. How she reached a balance between her own emotions and her ideology.    

Whoops, that turned out to be something completely different. It was supposed to be about the strengths of Chapter 7, but I got little carried away and it kind of turned into a tribute to Emi with added rambling.

[Fred the Barber]

And, done:

Spoiler

Chapter 11 was too depressing right out of the gate. I couldn't let myself stew over what happened there, so I pretty much didn't stop reading from the start of Chapter 11 until I finished the whole thing. All that anxiety and worry from Chapter 11 was beautifully resolved by the Final Chapter, though. The revelation that all of the students were tied to Tesla was pretty huge - that hit me hardest when Neon was on her mad rush to get to Tesla, while more and more of the 100,000 students whose fate was tied to Tesla started joining in to help; there were many tears shed. That was helped in no small amount by the gorgeous BGM (which is giving me shivers listening to it again now!):

And then that CG right after Neon brings Tesla back, with Neon and Tesla are holding each other. That was, for me, total fulfillment of the one remaining unfulfilled promise of this story. More tears. Lots of them.

After that, the kiss seemed almost unnecessary, but that also left me feeling warm and fuzzy. I actually kind of thought the curtain was going to fall after just the very first CG in that scene, where you can only see their feet, with Neon standing up on tiptoes for the kiss. That, really, would also have been excellent.

When it kept going, I thought maybe it would end after the other two kiss CGs, which would have been fine. And then we got an extremely long, but rather tender H-scene. I didn't mind much, though I really could take it or leave it.

And then yet more wrap-up, and more wrap-up... but eventually the fairy tale came to a satisfying (but open) end, and I was quite satisfied.

I wasn't sold on the music for this VN until I heard that track I linked up above, but in retrospect it really is excellent; it's about on par with the Inganock soundtrack mostly, but its high points are even higher than Inganock's. I find it hard to compare Gahkthun or Inganock fairly to other VNs music-wise, though, since the Steampunk series tends to have such short soundtracks, which is both a blessing and a curse. I don't mind repetition, so as long as I like a song in the first place, it's fine that almost any track in a Steampunk series game is going to get played a whole lot. But there were a few tracks in this one that I wasn't all that fond of (especially the one the plays at the main menu, which was used quite a lot), which kind of dampened the enjoyment for me. But the high points, like that track above, or the music that plays when Tesla transforms, or the gentle piano music that plays when everything is calm and happy, are truly wonderful.

All in all, I was truly delighted by Gahkthun; if every VN I read was this good, I doubt I'd do anything but read VNs all day.

[kingdomcome]

On 17/1/2016 at 4:21 PM, Fred the Barber said:

And, done:

  Reveal hidden contents

Chapter 11 was too depressing right out of the gate. I couldn't let myself stew over what happened there, so I pretty much didn't stop reading from the start of Chapter 11 until I finished the whole thing. All that anxiety and worry from Chapter 11 was beautifully resolved by the Final Chapter, though. The revelation that all of the students were tied to Tesla was pretty huge - that hit me hardest when Neon was on her mad rush to get to Tesla, while more and more of the 100,000 students whose fate was tied to Tesla started joining in to help; there were many tears shed. That was helped in no small amount by the gorgeous BGM (which is giving me shivers listening to it again now!):

And then that CG right after Neon brings Tesla back, with Neon and Tesla are holding each other. That was, for me, total fulfillment of the one remaining unfulfilled promise of this story. More tears. Lots of them.

After that, the kiss seemed almost unnecessary, but that also left me feeling warm and fuzzy. I actually kind of thought the curtain was going to fall after just the very first CG in that scene, where you can only see their feet, with Neon standing up on tiptoes for the kiss. That, really, would also have been excellent.

When it kept going, I thought maybe it would end after the other two kiss CGs, which would have been fine. And then we got an extremely long, but rather tender H-scene. I didn't mind much, though I really could take it or leave it.

And then yet more wrap-up, and more wrap-up... but eventually the fairy tale came to a satisfying (but open) end, and I was quite satisfied.

I wasn't sold on the music for this VN until I heard that track I linked up above, but in retrospect it really is excellent; it's about on par with the Inganock soundtrack mostly, but its high points are even higher than Inganock's. I find it hard to compare Gahkthun or Inganock fairly to other VNs music-wise, though, since the Steampunk series tends to have such short soundtracks, which is both a blessing and a curse. I don't mind repetition, so as long as I like a song in the first place, it's fine that almost any track in a Steampunk series game is going to get played a whole lot. But there were a few tracks in this one that I wasn't all that fond of (especially the one the plays at the main menu, which was used quite a lot), which kind of dampened the enjoyment for me. But the high points, like that track above, or the music that plays when Tesla transforms, or the gentle piano music that plays when everything is calm and happy, are truly wonderful.

All in all, I was truly delighted by Gahkthun; if every VN I read was this good, I doubt I'd do anything but read VNs all day.

It's a pity I didn't see this thread earlier, probably would have been a good enough reason to buy it. I will do it once I'm finished with a couple of others.

[Kosakyun]

Aight. So I'll try to actually finish my thoughts now.

The second semester has started, and I don't think I'll be finding myself here as much as I did in the semesteral break.

Well, without further ado, here are my slowly-decaying-after-being-finished-for-a-week thoughts.

Chapter 10:

Spoiler

This one really got me going. Sure, little girl going out of her way to tell us to kill her sister, Jo, was pretty surprising. It makes you wonder about their current relationship with each other, and how it became something like that. But the part of the chapter that really caught my attention wasn't the conflict between Jo and her sister. Rather, I was engrossed in the conflict happening within Neon's mind, where she's trying to figure out why she feels what she feels. To get straight to the point, this chapter was really depressing for me. Sure, the resolution of the conflict between the March sisters is really nice, heartwarming even, but remembering that Neon's all alone in the mansion, waiting for the man who's causing so much pain for her, is really sad for me. I don't remember much regarding how the chapter was written, but holy god the sudden plunge of the atmosphere around the scene in the dress boutique was really steep. Since the end of that scene, I couldn't help but think how insensitive Tesla is regarding what Neon feels about him going out with Jo, and I was honestly getting a little frustrated with it. Of course, Tesla's still entertaining, but this is one of the times when his obliviousness and insensitivity works against promoting favor for his character. It's not a bad thing though. It makes Neon's situation and thoughts about it all the more depressing, which is a sign of its effectiveness on the reader. At the end, I was feeling pretty sad, since Tesla might have saved another person in the Academia, but he neglected 'saving' the one closest to him both physically and emotionally. Add that to the fact that Neon's suffering will be going on for another month, following the usual interval of days between chapters in the game. I guess it's true that sometimes the closer we are to a person, the blinder we get.

Chapter 11:

Spoiler

Good fucking lord. I cannot help but think that Tesla was a jerk in this chapter. You didn't have to say that in the way you did to Neon, Tesla. That was really, well, cruel, in my opinion. Sure, a large part of it is because of him, but I can't help feeling a little bit frustrated at the fact that he worded it in a way that makes him come out as the actual killer, when Neon's family was actually killed by the people hunting him down. Yes, it's better for Neon's safety to put distance between the two of them, but the method he chose to perform it was pretty wrong imo. It's a pretty short chapter, and there's nothing really to comment about. It's just downright depressing. Being alone after being with someone for so long is just so sad. All the more if you really liked being with that person.

I ran out of time to finish my thoughts. It's just a break, after all. I'll get to it once I go to Fuwa again.

'Till then, friends.

[kyrt]

Shit if Eclipsed is reading I must be really behind. Teaching people is time consuming as hell so I'll probably still be reading it by the end of the month. Like the little I've managed to read of it though.

[Fred the Barber]

57 minutes ago, KosakiFag said:

 

  Hide contents

the sudden plunge of the atmosphere around the scene in the dress boutique was really steep

 

 

Spoiler

Yeah, I had exactly the same experience. The first time Neon showed up, at the fountain, wearing the little cloth around her head, right next to an identically-"disguised" Lobo, I actually laughed hysterically. Funny shit, I thought at the time. Then the boutique scene happened and absolutely wrecked me. Suddenly it was not funny at all anymore, and it just got worse with every passing moment. That was a very painful chapter.

 

11 minutes ago, kyrt said:

Shit if Eclipsed is reading I must be really behind. Teaching people is time consuming as hell so I'll probably still be reading it by the end of the month. Like the little I've managed to read of it though.

Pretty sure Eclipsed gave up for the month...

[Eclipsed]

^Srryz, i got distracted by Danganronpa, will get to this soon, upupupupu...

[Dergonu]

Haha, just have to point out: People can still vote on this and Noble Works is winning at the moment 

 

So ... You´re all reading the wrong VN!  

[Fred the Barber]

Nah, they're all just voting for the wrong VN.

For what it's worth, I'm pretty sure the voting actually closed properly, but then it got reopened by the database rollback (and probably lost votes in the process?). Doesn't matter; the right answer won out anyway

[kyrt]

I wish I had bloody time to read this at a faster pace. Is the Masterpiece rating legitimate or is this a carry over from the last poll? 

[Fred the Barber]

Nah, the poll's just borked. I voted it a 9 on VNDB, FWIW, but my votes do skew a bit to the high side.

[Kosakyun]

On 1/20/2016 at 1:39 PM, Fred the Barber said:

  Reveal hidden contents

Yeah, I had exactly the same experience. The first time Neon showed up, at the fountain, wearing the little cloth around her head, right next to an identically-"disguised" Lobo, I actually laughed hysterically. Funny shit, I thought at the time. Then the boutique scene happened and absolutely wrecked me. Suddenly it was not funny at all anymore, and it just got worse with every passing moment. That was a very painful chapter.

 

So I just got back from whichever place I came from.

Spoiler

Oh Fred, why must we feel this pain of Neon? It really made my chest contract. I wanted to cry and stuff.

Man, I'm such a crybaby.

On 1/20/2016 at 4:17 PM, Eclipsed said:

^Srryz, i got distracted by Danganronpa, will get to this soon, upupupupu...

Every month, heh.

[Eclipsed]

23 minutes ago, KosakiFag said:

Every month, heh.

According to my memory,

Ayakashibito - said would participate (failure, didn't even read)
Forest - maybe said would participate (failure if so)
Shikkoku no Sharnoth - said would participate (success! ...half a year later)
Cou - said would participate (failure, prologue only)
Yume Miru no Kusuri - said would participate (failure, prologue only)
My GF is President - said would participate (failure, Ell route only)
Sekien no Inganock - didn't participate
Swan Song - didn't participate (but did read on my own last month!)
Narcissu - didn't participate (but did attempt to read before the club, but failure)
Symphonic Rain - some discussion (read on my own last year)


~~
Jocky Thoon -  most likely will be another success!...half a year later

[Kosakyun]

On 1/29/2016 at 3:45 PM, Eclipsed said:

Jocky Thoon -  most likely will be another success!...half a year later

Well, at least you put effort into starting some! Also, it seems that it not being the visual novel of the month actually motivates you to read.

Now if you would only be bothered by the fact that you haven't finished the ones you actually started reading...  

Going back to the topic at hand, I guess I'll comment on Chapter 12 with my very fragmented memory of it. Although I do remember a large part of it, the reality that I probably can't mention specific instances in the chapter is very obvious. Might as well comment on the thing as a whole.

Spoiler

Chapter 12 was glorious. The tension between Neon and Tesla was very evident in the way they acted in the Promenade, and it was really painful to see that the two were consciously avoiding each other. I guess the fact that they've been together for ten months (Chapter 11 was set in February soooo) made the impact of what Tesla did stronger. Add that to the fact that his mission was to save every last one of the students in the Academia. It's so ironic that Tesla would claim the credit for being the killer of the Smiljas. Anyway, I really thought Neon would come and help Tesla against Wilhelm Reich, since he seemed like a very powerful opponent. He was beaten pretty fast compared to the others though. Maybe it's because Tesla was using a different kind of radiance in that battle. Anyway, long story short, seeing Tesla beat Wilhelm on his own was not refreshing in the slightest. It was not refreshing due to the fact that the conflict between Tesla and Neon wasn't really solved in that battle. It's sad, since even though they tried so hard to prevent the Bell of Gahkthun from being completed, it still ended up complete. 

Anyway, I'll cut it short. I don't want to drag this on unnecessarily again. I really liked the villain in Gahkthun. Rosenkreuz, huh? He's pretty awesome, if you ask me. Although not as big of an impact as M being the last boss was, Rosenkreuz still gave off the feeling of utter hopelessness. It was nice seeing a very powerful enemy in the WAB series. I still think how the battle ended was pretty anti-climactic though. He just pointed at Rosenkreuz and shot at him with powerful radiance. He wasn't even in his final form. Why? Why must that be? I guess it wanted to put more emphasis on the radiance that Neon possessed and gave to Tesla. Also, the whole scene where Neon was charging towards Tesla was great. The enemy of the world was going to be saved by a girl that cared for him so much. It was heartwarming. Seeing everyone work together to bring Neon to the Chateau d'If was really nice. It kinda makes me tear up a little when thinking about it.

I'll also mention the revelation that everyone in the Academia was related to Tesla, one way or another. It was great. I did not expect that. I thought only a handful was related to him in some way, but it turns out that every one of them was related to him, and that the whole point of the Academia was to wipe out every last thread that ties Tesla to their world. Man, that was a huge fact to swallow. It raised the stakes of the whole conflict to a whole new level. Great job, the Society.

The whole thing was really good. Although I would have preferred that it was ended in another way (I thought the Neon H-scene was pretty unnecessary, but I guess they wanted to satisfy the demand for it.), it was still a great read. Would recommend to anyone interested in the WAB series. 

Ahahahaha. Way to make a last post about it.

Also, I made it before February.  

[Fred the Barber]

14 hours ago, KosakiFag said:

 

  Hide contents

I'll also mention the revelation that everyone in the Academia was related to Tesla, one way or another. It was great. I did not expect that. I thought only a handful was related to him in some way, but it turns out that every one of them was related to him, and that the whole point of the Academia was to wipe out every last thread that ties Tesla to their world. Man, that was a huge fact to swallow. It raised the stakes of the whole conflict to a whole new level. Great job, the Society. 

 

Spoiler

This was unquestionably the clincher moment of the whole VN for me, because it suddenly changed my whole perspective on that key phrase Tesla kept using "my 100,000 friends, cursed by fate". There was suddenly a much stronger sense to the word "friends" than I had realized, and equally importantly, when he calls them "cursed by fate", he's clearly referring to his own involvement in their lives as being a curse. Retrospectively, when the happy resolution is complete, I mentally reframe it as Tesla's 100,000 friends, blessed by their connection to a wonderful man. And that makes me incredibly happy.