Tokyo Babel Released!

[Formlose Gestalt]

13 hours ago, Rooke said:

Not much hype surrounding Babel  

Well I am pretty hyped about the title. It was the final push to create an account here. (Hi! btw.)

Since I plan to play it on release, I didn't even bother with the demo. 

Even with the reduced romances I think it's going to be an interesting and unique read.

 

 

[ChaosRaven]

4 hours ago, Suzu Fanatic said:

EDIT: my thoughts on what is/is not a better medium for action/etc: I grew up in a time that relied HEAVILY on books - sword fights, gunfire, martial arts - all of it had to stem from a writers ability, and my own imagination - so to say it should be through a animated medium to be well-expressed just seems silly.

I think you're right about that and I take my statement back since it's simply to general. I've read lots of books in my younger years with action scenes too (god that makes me sound old), like BattleTech, Shadowrun, etc. So it works if they really take a narrative writing style to describes a scene. For example: "He carefully hid behind a small hill following the movements of his enemy. Then after a short moment of hesitation he made his decision and shot his heavy laser targeting the right leg with weaker armor of his opponent."

Unfortunately, what I often see in VN's instead is some kind of comic book approach. The 'narration' in those cases then looks more like "Diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeee!!!" followed by five minutes of cling and clang sounds and the screen flashing in every color the rainbow has to offer. Then it contnues with a "Muhahahahah... now you get that back!!!" followed by another ten minutes of disco flashing supported by a chain of very, VERY simple words that almost makes you want to cry. In short, they try to let flashy screens do the job instead of the narration, and for that an anime or a straight comic would simply be better. Those at least show a bit more than the same screen over and over again, just with a different color.

So the key question would be if the action scenes in Tokyo Babel will also consist of endless repeated 'Shonen Power' scenes or if they are more descriptive and with unique images instead of flashing screen x 1000.

[Vorathiel]

50% of game is action scenes? D: I have nothing against action...but what do you mean by action? G-Senjo had a great tense action in 2nd chapter, with all that running around the city. But if you mean 'action' as 'fight scenes', then maybe I will pass on this title... I have the same problems with actions scenes as ChaosRaven. Hopefully there will be more to it than simply slashing swords. And fights only for fights sake, without proper characterisation, stakes and plot behind it is just pointless. I will wait with my decision to een read this, for more opinions about that matter.

[littleshogun]

Okay, I think the problem is the people who worry about action scene was definitely didn't play the demo. Because the demo should give you how Tokyo Babel will be. So, in order to allow all people see the fighting scene, how about the sample of fighting scene from propeller official channel. This is the first fighting scene and if you download the demo you'd definitely know which part (Actually propeller also had fighting scene video, but it contained some spoiler so I couldn't post it here). Well, if after seeing the fighting scene and the people still scare to play this game, too bad. And I apologize if my thought about conjueror review scare some people here to play this VN.

 

[Decay]

8 hours ago, ChaosRaven said:

I think you're right about that and I take my statement back since it's simply to general. I've read lots of books in my younger years with action scenes too (god that makes me sound old), like BattleTech, Shadowrun, etc. So it works if they really take a narrative writing style to describes a scene. For example: "He carefully hid behind a small hill following the movements of his enemy. Then after a short moment of hesitation he made his decision and shot his heavy laser targeting the right leg with weaker armor of his opponent."

Unfortunately, what I often see in VN's instead is some kind of comic book approach. The 'narration' in those cases then looks more like "Diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeee!!!" followed by five minutes of cling and clang sounds and the screen flashing in every color the rainbow has to offer. Then it contnues with a "Muhahahahah... now you get that back!!!" followed by another ten minutes of disco flashing supported by a chain of very, VERY simple words that almost makes you want to cry. In short, they try to let flashy screens do the job instead of the narration, and for that an anime or a straight comic would simply be better. Those at least show a bit more than the same screen over and over again, just with a different color.

So the key question would be if the action scenes in Tokyo Babel will also consist of endless repeated 'Shonen Power' scenes or if they are more descriptive and with unique images instead of flashing screen x 1000.

This is what the Demo is for! Your concerns will be laid to rest if you try it out. The action scenes are all actually very detailed and narrated really well. I tend to agree with your assessment of action in most VNs, it's usually poorly done with super simple narration and cheap special effects in place of actual writing. That's not what Tokyo Babel is. If you've played Ayakashibito, it's more like that (same writer).

[Eclipsed]

I'll look forward to Tokyo Babel's action scenes.

Rewrite was the first VN I read that had them, and quite frankly, the 'DBZ' scene between Yoshino and Kotarou was

Spoiler

Glorious.

 

[ChaosRaven]

8 hours ago, littleshogun said:

Okay, I think the problem is the people who worry about action scene was definitely didn't play the demo. Because the demo should give you how Tokyo Babel will be. So, in order to allow all people see the fighting scene, how about the sample of fighting scene from propeller official channel. This is the first fighting scene and if you download the demo you'd definitely know which part (Actually propeller also had fighting scene video, but it contained some spoiler so I couldn't post it here). Well, if after seeing the fighting scene and the people still scare to play this game, too bad. And I apologize if my thought about conjueror review scare some people here to play this VN.

Thanks, I think the demo video gave me a good insight about the battles. While it probably still contains a fair amount of trash talk, it's obvious that they've spent a lot of effort to reach a high visual quality. So I'll probably enjoy at least some of them. And if they are spammed too much - I guess that's what the eroge god invented the skip button for. 

3 hours ago, Decay said:

This is what the Demo is for! Your concerns will be laid to rest if you try it out. The action scenes are all actually very detailed and narrated really well. I tend to agree with your assessment of action in most VNs, it's usually poorly done with super simple narration and cheap special effects in place of actual writing. That's not what Tokyo Babel is. If you've played Ayakashibito, it's more like that (same writer).

Yeah, I know, but thoroughly judging a VN from the demo can cost a considerable amount of time, and if I end up liking it I'd hate it not to be able to continue immediately.  I prefer an all or nothing approach. I think littleshogun's demo video was fine enough for me. I'm also interested enough in the whole angels & demons theme that I'd really like to read the whole thing even if not everything is perfect. I gave Haruka a fair chance so Tokyo Babel deserves it at least twice as much.

Anyhow, I ended up preordering the whole thing together with Ozmafia, so I'm just hoping for the best now. Though I'm not sure if I really start to read it straight at release. I'm still busy wish Aoishiro and if Root Double gets released too, it'll have priority.

[Vorathiel]

3 hours ago, Decay said:

This is what the Demo is for! Your concerns will be laid to rest if you try it out.

You're right. So I'm giving it a try. I had like 15 minutes only tonight, but I still managed to found few nitpicks to point out :v

(remember, that those are only nitpick and I'm like 10 minutes of actual game in)
- Full screen options. Who the hell would take fullscreen over windowed...and play with window size screen, with large black bars around image? Who is this option even aimed for? And this is the 'basic' option, to fill the screen, one must go to options and pic it manually.
- Options. Voices cut at every 'next' are 'on' at start. And this option is not i nthe sound options, is in 'general options'.
- Options 2. WHo the hel thought that dark red font on transaprent, black, striped background is a good idea? It isn't. Its hard to look at, leave alone read. Fortunatelly there is not much options to configure (another nitpick), so I didn't had to sped much time here.
- Aspect ratio. In options there is a choice between 1280x720 and 1024x768. 16:9 or 4:3. And while game, art, sprites, texts looks good only in 16:9, short menu on right side of screen is definitelly made for 4:3, because in 16:9 all letters are incredibly streched, which looks really bad.
- Text. Is to wide. Most of 16:9 titles seems to limit the text field to reasonable amount of screen, for like 60% in hte middle. TB seems to be around 85% and that makes fast reading..problematic. I had to do too much eye movement. Distracting. although I'll probably get use to that.

I also don't like art style. Face of this first girl, her lack of nose, etc is just ugly. Backgrounds seems to be nice though. I liked that classroom a lot. Simple classroom, but something positively 'clicked' with me.
Also music is not in my taste.  But oh well. I can survive that. I'm fine with anything other than vocalized disco j-pop-rock songs as BGMs.

And effects are nice too. Last time I saw them, they were in phenomenal Phenomeno, and they did a huge aprt of job to create creepy atmosphere.

I'll write more, when I finally get down to read this demo. How long is it?

[Fred the Barber]

1 hour ago, Vorathiel said:

I'm fine with anything other than vocalized disco j-pop-rock songs as BGMs.

Your oddly specific example has me wondering: has there been any other game meeting this description, aside from The World Ends With You (which was objectively one of the best soundtracks ever)?

Random comments on other stuff:

• The soundtrack is certainly out of the norm, but in a way that I actually rather like.
• Unless it's really bland, art style usually takes some getting used to. For me, an initial dislike due to unfamiliarity quite often turns into really liking an art style, within a few hours. So at this point, I tend to just reserve judgement on that particular facet until I've had a lot of time with the game. I don't think the art is by any means ugly or bad - though admittedly that girl's facepalm face is definitely not my favorite...
• There are people who play windowed? Weird. Fullscreen master race.
• In all seriousness, why bother complaining about options, as long as you like at least one of the options? There are defaults, sure, but the reason an option exists in the first place is because not everybody's going to agree on the value the developer chose. I'm sorry that happened to be you this time?

 

[Conjueror]

Most of the problems I pointed out in my review apply to the Dies Irae (and 90% other vns in the genre) everyone thinks they want so much too.

I wonder if I accidentally downplayed the game, its actual fight scenes are very well done, among the best I saw in the medium (definitely better than what you had in Gahkthun), and its story is fun if not particularly groundbreaking. It might not be a masterpiece that will change your life, but it's an enjoyable game for what it is, and is definitely worth checking out given the limited options you have with translated VNs.

My reviews might be a bit on a harsh side since I'm jaded from the hundreds of VNs I've read and they have to be pretty entertaining to receive 7/10 (4/5) or above from me.

[Vorathiel]

9 hours ago, Fred the Barber said:

Your oddly specific example has me wondering: has there been any other game meeting this description, aside from The World Ends With You (which was objectively one of the best soundtracks ever)?

Well, in my ear, 90% of openings for anime/VNs is some form of disco-pop-rock song. I just hate japanese music.


Was it me being sleepy AF, or I really saw a typo in this 'special effect' inscription in first 15 minutes? "Fouuuud you" instead of "Fouuund you"?
Or maybe it was font fault (my mother writes 'u' and 'n' very si,miliar to each other :v)?
Anyway - I got chills, great scene.

[WinterfuryZX]

11 hours ago, Vorathiel said:

- Aspect ratio. In options there is a choice between 1280x720 and 1024x768. 16:9 or 4:3. And while game, art, sprites, texts looks good only in 16:9, short menu on right side of screen is definitelly made for 4:3, because in 16:9 all letters are incredibly streched, which looks really bad.
 

How is this handeled? Did they cropped the CGs or what?

[Vorathiel]

3 hours ago, WinterfuryZX said:

How is this handeled? Did they cropped the CGs or what?

If you choose 1280x720 (16:9):

- CGs, sprites, texts, backgrounds are at right proportions, looks just as they should look.
- Menus are streched and looks 'odd'.

Spoiler

If you choose 1024x768 (4:3)

- CGs, sprites, texts, backgrounds are narrowed and 'compacted'. 
- Menus are with right width, nothing streched, looks fine.

Spoiler

 

 

It's nothing major if you have widescreen monitor, but just simple question - why did they do that? What was the point?

[Suzu Fanatic]

6 hours ago, Vorathiel said:

It's nothing major if you have widescreen monitor, but just simple question - why did they do that? What was the point?

Seems pretty simple to me - to ensure backwards compatibility (in the rare chance someone still uses a crt/etc). It's hardly the first VN to offer various reso's and aspect ratios, which may in turn effect the in-game image and GUI in odd ways. I suspect your complaint about the "stretched out" menu is the default style, and just a matter of taste.

 

EDIT: An after thought - it might be dependent on what the native GUI was like, how it presented japanese text, and how the localization had to work around its constraints to provide any sense of balance, without obscuring the intended imagery too much.

 

Still, seems like forced nitpicks to me - but I'm a fanboy of the writer, so I admit I'm biast. But seriously, perhaps focus on reading it rather then pick at every little thing. Didn't you ever hear "preconceptions can poison the tastiest of fruit"? From prior posts, it's clear you went into this skeptically - clean away your preconceptions and judgements, and maybe you'll actually find it to be enjoyable.

 

Either that or I'm just really relaxed about what it takes to bother me.

[Suzu Fanatic]

Tokyo Babel up for sale and ready to D/L.

 

My inner theme music right now while I wait on the download:

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Decay]

I wish to see all who complain about "Americanized" translations cringe and suffer.

Spoiler

Thank you @Conjueror for helping make this dream a reality.

"Proof is in the pudding and all that jazz. Right, so how about we meet T^HE D_EM^ON L^O_RD A^STAR_OTH"

Seems good. ?

[Suzu Fanatic]

Holy hell - the production values on this are off the charts. loving it so far - though not very far yet.

Suggest you do not open unless you're past a key point in the opening chapter:

 

 

 

1. A Demon?

2. A Angel?

I'll take the unlisted choice: 3. A Crazy Bitch?

 

I'm gonna call it now, and see what happens later: Sorami IS Gethal - or rather, a fragment. maybe something Gethal wanted to be - or a subconcious attempt to preserve her broken mind.

 

There are a few hints that could lead to that conclusion, though it's still a stretch. Biggest hint I'm weighing that idea on, is the "even though I shouldn't be able to hear what he is saying"(the phone that Gethal picked up). As well as being able to easily transplant "her sight" into Sorami. And Sorami's ability to see through the illusions at times, and sense something was off (unless that was at Gethals' design, just for the mind-fuck of it.)

 

Though there are things that can debunk that too. Such as Sorami seeming to recognize Tokyo, and its current state - which could hint she recalls the past (though that could be Gethals memories~ )

 

Oh well, time will tell - random guesses like this are what I love about reading a new VN

 

 

[littleshogun]

@Suzu Fanatic For Gethel question, I think I'm going with slightly off lol. Nice speculation I suppose, and may I ask how much the file size for Tokyo Babel? Is it really 15 GB, 9 GB or less? I asked that because Mangagamer and Steam said it was 15 GB. Thanks in advance.

Oh, for the people who already finished buying and downloading Tokyo Babel, enjoy the game. As for vorathiel, well since he was nitpick of course he'll try to search the game fault to the very small one, but I think if he could overcome the technical aspect, guess he'll enjoying the game.

[Decay]

The download is 5.4GB and the install is 8.56GB. 

[Vorathiel]

14 minutes ago, littleshogun said:

 As for vorathiel, well since he was nitpick of course he'll try to search the game fault to the very small one, but I think if he could overcome the technical aspect, guess he'll enjoying the game.

I enjoyed demo. I will play Tokyo Babel not long from now.  (I dunno when, cause on my laptop for VNs fight scene was really slowing down with all those heavyu effets, and without them is not much fun). Nitpicks were what they were - nitpicks. It didn't mean that I was looking for flaws, they just came to me, but I didn't consider them even near 'major' to ruin game for me.  

[littleshogun]

For Decay, thanks. Quite big I see. Well, at least it was made at 2012 (I'd know that SakuSaku size was at 7GB, and it was released at 2014), so at least it's quite justified compared to School Days, which the download size was reaching 9.6 GB for 2005 games (Granted the production value was a bit high though).

@Vorathiel I see, glad if you enjoying it. Well, if those technical aspect didn't bother you, then it's fine. Well, good luck if you play the game later.

[Decay]

School Days had hours upon hours of very poorly encoded video, so that makes sense.

[AaronIsCrunchy]

I'm at my parents' at the moment, and in total this is gonna take ~18/19 hours to download in full, assuming there's no phone calls (they knock the phone out, which is excellent -_-) Probably gonna have to run one section per night and do it that way, cos like hell am I waiting nearly 3 weeks to go back to my student house (though there I could download it all in about 1 hour and a bit)

Hyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyype

[FinalChaos]

Now that I've finished my current vn euphoria, I'm on time to get into Tokyo Babel.

I already get the feeling that I'm gonna love this title. Everything from the over-the-top action to mythological references fit me like a charm. 
The high production values are mouth-watering.

Now to download it and get on with the hype.    

[Suzu Fanatic]

I'm normally fine with VNs that lack H-scenes, but...

 

 

SHOWING ME THIS IS JUST CRUEL

Hilarous scene though, really liking Propellers' style of humor. Have some minor complaints about the pacing, and some things feeling abit forced - but not enough to turn me off of enjoying it.