Tokyo Babel Released!

[Decay]

Ayakashibito was criticized for having an overly long common route (although I disagree). I haven't read Higashide's other works, but maybe he reacted to that criticism by having super short common routes? Tokyo Babel's is very short, and leaves little in the way of causal relationship building before the characters become more closely involved with one another. 

[Clephas]

On 2016/3/28 at 2:14 PM, littleshogun said:

Another bump here, and this bump was to add another review of this game from none other than the translator himself, Conjueror. Here's his review. His score was good though, at 4 (Not 4/10 like solidbatman Little Busters, but 4/5). It's quite interesting that Clephas prefer Tokyo Babel and Conjueror prefer Ayakashibito, but from Clephas VNDB score and Conjueror score I'd said that they think both Ayakashibito and Tokyo Babel was good.

As for my take, I think I'd like to point that both of the review mentioned that there's some weak point in regard of romance, and also in regard of character development. In case you expected romance and character development in this game, I'd recommended to play game like Noble Works or Princess Evangile instead of this game. But if you like action, well look forward to this game, since Conjueror mentioned that 50% of Tokyo Babel was action scene. And speaking about weak in romance, funny enough that Conjueror and another reviewer here lamenting that there's no H-Scenes in Tokyo Babel that allow us to see how much the romance bloom between MC (Setsuna) and heroine.

I think that's all I could write at this moment, and it's only 3 days before Tokyo Babel finally released by Mangagamer.

It would be more accurate to say it was around 30% action scenes, 40% serious story, and 30% character development/slice-of-life/etc.  Considering that most chuunige only end up having about 15% action scenes, yeah that is pretty high though.  However, in terms of how it feels... it definitely feels like there is more action in it than a mere thirty percent because of the intensity. 

[Eclipsed]

My first impressions

Sorami = TL-Ru's Nana

Lilith = Danganronpa's Toko

Raziel is Kana Hana

This is a god-tier VA cast

[Dergonu]

6 minutes ago, Eclipsed said:

My first impressions

Sorami = TL-Ru's Nana

Lilith = Danganronpa's Toko

Raziel is Kana Hana

This is a god-tier VA cast

Yes! I love the voice actors. Nana-chan <3

 

Haven't gotten too far myself, but first impression: this is fucking epic. The atomsphere in the start of the game is so creepy and dark, which I really liked. Then you get a really badass fight quite early on and while they are fighting you hear Lillith making these hilarious comments. (Lillith, I love you already.) Pretty much a perfect introduction to the game. Hopefully it keeps going like this.

The race is on Eclipsed  

[Eclipsed]

1 hour ago, Dergonu said:

Yes! I love the voice actors. Nana-chan <3

 

Haven't gotten too far myself, but first impression: this is fucking epic. The atomsphere in the start of the game is so creepy and dark, which I really liked. Then you get a really badass fight quite early on and while they are fighting you hear Lillith making these hilarious comments. (Lillith, I love you already.) Pretty much a perfect introduction to the game. Hopefully it keeps going like this.

The race is on Eclipsed  

I wish this came out last week, so I could no life it during Spring Break. Now I'll be super busy af
 

But yeah, made it to the OP. Out of the some 30 VNs I've read in my career, I can say Tokyo Babel definitely earns the "Best First Impression" award.

Fucking epic indeed.

[Monmon]

Loving this vn atm...but but Belial really looks like Dojima from p4, i cant unsee it.

[Suzu Fanatic]

Just finished Azriel's bad end (one of them anyway - unsure if there are more). Glad I made the choices I did - it's actually a pretty well written bad end. (Not to mention long, I wasn't sure of it until the last few scenes)

[Martic]

Didn't want to make a thread for one simple question, so I'll post it here.

On VNDB one of the tags is "Built-in-Encyclopedia", was this removed from the US release? Or am I not far enough in the game perhaps? I really like encyclopedia systems ala Steins:Gate, so it would be a shame if it was removed. 

On a side note, what are the requirements for unlocking the cg gallery?

[Eclipsed]

I'm guessing as with most VNs unlocking CG Gallery requires completing at least one route

No idea about in-game Encyclopedia, and I'm about to start the second layer. A shame if there is none, that would help a lot with the lore.

[Martic]

Yeah I also assumed that the gallery would be unlocked after a route. I guess the real concern I wanted to raise is if there even is one?

I agree that the encyclopedia would help with the lore a lot, but I just passed the OP video and still don't have access, and you're even further. Maybe it's part of the gallery or something. 

Ah well, thanks for the quick response and happy reading.

[Kaguya]

I finished the game. 

Hm... Sorami was my favorite heroine out of the cast with routes (though Samael was undoubtely the best girl) and Lilith had the best route. 

The action was absolutely great. I'd comment on individual battles, but I loved so many of them it's actually kinda tough to do it  

[Martic]

1 minute ago, Kaguya said:

I finished the game. 

Hm... Sorami was my favorite heroine out of the cast with routes (though Samael was undoubtely the best girl) and Lilith had the best route. 

The action was absolutely great. I'd comment on individual battles, but I loved so many of them it's actually kinda tough to do it  

Would you mind if I asked, is there a cg gallery? Or did you notice any in-game dictionary/encyclopedia?

[Kaguya]

1 minute ago, Shioxus said:

Would you mind if I asked, is there a cg gallery? Or did you notice any in-game dictionary/encyclopedia?

Yep, both are there. The encyclopedia covers people, weapons and terms used in-game. You'll unlock both after finishing a route (bad endings don't count.)

[Martic]

Just now, Kaguya said:

Yep, both are there. The encyclopedia covers people, weapons and terms used in-game. 

Is it part of the gallery then? I haven't seen any signs of it yet.

[Kaguya]

2 minutes ago, Shioxus said:

Is it part of the gallery then? I haven't seen any signs of it yet.

No. People and terms are under "lore", weapons are under, well, "weapons". 

Again, you will unlock all of it once you finish a route. A little "extras" section will appear in your menu and everything will be there... It's pretty standard for VNs, lol. 

[Martic]

Ah. I was thinking it would be like Steins;Gate where you could open the encyclopedia immediately when a new term comes up, without having to return to the main menu. 

Anyhow, thanks for clearing that up, it is a relief! 

[Eclipsed]

2 hours ago, Shioxus said:

Ah. I was thinking it would be like Steins;Gate where you could open the encyclopedia immediately when a new term comes up, without having to return to the main menu. 

Anyhow, thanks for clearing that up, it is a relief! 

FYI you shouldn't have to ever worry about a Visual Novel that lacks a CG Gallery, that's like a standard, will always be there 

And yeah, damn, I would've liked to have that Encyclopedia available in-game, not post-game

 

~~

On 4/2/2016 at 0:37 AM, Clephas said:

It would be more accurate to say it was around 30% action scenes, 40% serious story, and 30% character development/slice-of-life/etc.  Considering that most chuunige only end up having about 15% action scenes, yeah that is pretty high though.  However, in terms of how it feels... it definitely feels like there is more action in it than a mere thirty percent because of the intensity. 

Gotta say, I'm really liking this allocation of writing. 

Oh hey, we just entered the second stratum all serious business describing the desolate-ness & rejection-ness AND we almost get s***** to death? No problem!

Spoiler

Let's just take a breather real quick and go to that maid cafe

Amen, Setsuna. Amen.

._.


Commence boss fight 5 seconds after this scene~

 

[littleshogun]

About lack of CG Gallerry (I knew it should be standard VN feature), actually there is one VN and ironically it was the best VN. Yes, I'm talking about Muv Luv Alternative which didn't had extra menu iirc. Actually before Mangagamer release ef, English ef version (Fan Translated) somehow managed to remove extra menu (CG, BGM, Scene).

Back to topic, I think propeller also need to had some obligatory fanservice, and this time we had maid cafe. Oh, by the way our Raziel will be changing the clothes in maid cafe (The problem was our MC watching though. Oh, by the way nice commentary on maid uniform Setsuna, and get ready to face maid otaku anger I supposed lol). And I actually quite amazed that Sorami and Lilith managed to high five like that for long time (So does Decay).

One last note, at this time VNDB score for Tokyo Babel was at 7.13 (I used Bayesian rating at VNDB by the way), whivh mean that this game once again got the good reception from VN fan (Although it's still too early to said that though).

Oh, and welcome back @Shioxus. Thanks for your Bunny Black tips by the way, because it helped me alot in the beginning. And once again hopefully many people had interest for Tokyo Babel.

[Decay]

1 hour ago, Eclipsed said:

FYI you shouldn't have to ever worry about a Visual Novel that lacks a CG Gallery, that's like a standard, will always be there 

And yeah, damn, I would've liked to have that Encyclopedia available in-game, not post-game

 

~~

Gotta say, I'm really liking this allocation of writing. 

Oh hey, we just entered the second stratum all serious business describing the desolate-ness & rejection-ness AND we almost get s***** to death? No problem!

  Hide contents

Let's just take a breather real quick and go to that maid cafe

Amen, Setsuna. Amen.

._.


Commence boss fight 5 seconds after this scene~

 

Your choice of font is killing me.

edit: apparently your edit somehow carried over into my quote, I didn't even know this forum software did that. 

[Eclipsed]

Suck it

It was the closest thing to GrisaiaCustom that didn't run off the screen, what font'd you use?

[Decay]

The default one, Ariel Black. Seems to be good enough. Since this is a game without a textbox or any sort of background for the text, I feel like the simpler and bolder the font, the better. 

[Eclipsed]

@Down actually mentioned to use Impact  

BEHOLD!!




~~
Yeah, looking at it again, Arial Black is fine. Using it now~

[Conjueror]

4 hours ago, Shioxus said:

Didn't want to make a thread for one simple question, so I'll post it here.

On VNDB one of the tags is "Built-in-Encyclopedia", was this removed from the US release? Or am I not far enough in the game perhaps? I really like encyclopedia systems ala Steins:Gate, so it would be a shame if it was removed. 

On a side note, what are the requirements for unlocking the cg gallery?

I almost lost my mind translating that thing, so it most surely is there.
It doesn't unlock until you finish the first route (and parts of it are still locked until you finish the game) to avoid possible spoilers I suppose, since some of the lore of some mythological beings (and weapons) ties directly to the plot.

[Darklord Rooke]

3 hours ago, Eclipsed said:

@Down actually mentioned to use Impact  

BEHOLD!!

Ugh, great troll, Down. Really, how could you be so cruel? xD

A little background on fonts. 'Impact' was a font designed for just that, to make an impact with the audience, but like most fonts designed for this purpose (anything italic, anything bold, script, etc) it affects readability if used for any reasonably large section of text. Affects readability in a negative fashion. In a way which will make people want to dig out their eyes with a spork. This means using a font like 'Impact' for a visual novel is useless.

Arial on the other hand, is simple and easy to read, thus it does the job. It wouldn't traditionally be used in publication because its sans serif, but it beats the hell out of that monstrosity. With a large body of text, for ease of reading a simple serif font is generally preferred. 

[Suzu Fanatic]

Noticed a few consistency errors in Raz's route - nothing big, but enough to make me say "wut?".

(don't click unless your done her route)

 

Early in the true route split, Setsuna reminds Az he loves her, despite having never confessed (though that could just be interpreted as speaking out loud what she already knew), and yet at the very end Raz asks him if he loves her and he says "I don't know". And then precedes to think to himself privately how he loves her~

 

I have a feeling my first example was a slip of the mind, they might have worked on the bad end prior to the true route, and mixed up the confession in the bad end as a event in the overall arc. Of course, I might have just completely missed something myself - and am just being scatter-brained

Now working through Sorami If anyone has been suffering the odd crash, it seems to be related to being in fullscreen, try going windowed mode for those moments. (seems to related to certain transition effects)