Shadows of Pygmalion review discussion

[Fred the Barber]

https://fuwanovel.net/reviews/2017/03/08/the-shadows-of-pygmalion/

Seriously, though, that one kiss scene was hotter than the sum total of all the H scenes in a few eroge I've played.

[Dreamysyu]

Great review. I'm glad that you liked this VN. There are some minor things where I don't agree with it (for example, I believe the scripting could be done better) overall it catches the good things about the VN quite well.

As for the VN itself, I already gave my opinion about the demo in "What are you playing?" thread. I finished the common route, and I can't say my opinion changed that much. I'll wait before I finish the full game to give my final thoughts. I'm a bit cautious, because I feel like some plot points might turn into plot holes if not properly addressed later, but we'll see. Anyway, it's certainly much better than I expected at first.

[Silvz]

I'm reading it and so far I'm enjoying a lot. The parts that annoy me the most are the technical parts, such as the image tearing [as you pointed out on your review] and the sound options - like in Tokyo Babel, the voices seem too low compared to the music.

It seems unfair to say that it is great already, as I just got to the opening, but the story is pretty engaging and the characters likeable. Loved how everything turns upside down right away and the main character seems as lost as us while the many information are given through the game. Even though I can get a lot of what is happening, it is nice not to have characters pointing out the obvious at each dialogue.

The writing, though - and I say this as someone who accepts almost anything - is kind of bad as it relies on just simple sentences, as if a comma or two verbs would hurt. I don't know if this is the MC's trait or something, but it seems just lazy at some parts, which is worse because I've played Tokyo Babel before, and one of its stronger parts (as if Tokyo Babel wouldn't simply get a 10/10, right?) is how good all dialogue and descriptions go by.

I may come back here if we get a longer discussion - I think we did already, but prior to the review - and after I go deeply into the story. So far, I recommend buying it.

Oh, and a PS: It is only All-Ages for not having graphic content, right? Because, I think Fred said that too, some parts are too sexual too soon to be read by kids.

Edit: reading the full review, Fred and I seem to disagree about the writing. However, I do feel it is not the translation's fault, but the original writer.

Edited March 10, 2017 by Silvz

[EdwardWongHPTIV]

At first I dismissed this VN, but after reading your review I might have to give it a go.

@Silvz I've been on a bit of a VN spree of late and sound/music is becoming one of my pet peeves. I mean granted most games have volume control, and it's especially nice when they have controls for each characters voice. But I have run into a few that have certain tracks or looping sfx that I find grating. This is especially bad when things aren't normalized or they are purposely cranking the volume of certain things for effect. Maybe my age is showing but I really don't need to hear cicadas blasting through my headphones. I know this is sort of a normal atmospheric thing but it gets on my nerves at times. TL:DR Volume control is important, and I wish more VN's took care to keep things from being relatively too high or low.

[akaritan]

Good review, was a blast to read. I've been considering picking this up, and it's very nice to see opinions on it.

[Silvz]

On 10/03/2017 at 0:21 AM, EdwardWongHPTIV said:

At first I dismissed this VN, but after reading your review I might have to give it a go.

@Silvz I've been on a bit of a VN spree of late and sound/music is becoming one of my pet peeves. I mean granted most games have volume control, and it's especially nice when they have controls for each characters voice. But I have run into a few that have certain tracks or looping sfx that I find grating. This is especially bad when things aren't normalized or they are purposely cranking the volume of certain things for effect. Maybe my age is showing but I really don't need to hear cicadas blasting through my headphones. I know this is sort of a normal atmospheric thing but it gets on my nerves at times. TL:DR Volume control is important, and I wish more VN's took care to keep things from being relatively too high or low.

The problem here, as it happened to Tokyo Babel, is that there are volume settings, and you can mix it up as much as you want. However, even putting the BGM at the lowest and the voices at the maximum, I still have problems hearing the latter. This is not an issue with any other VN I played, which are a lot, but I don't see many commenting on that, so may be a problem with how my laptop deals with the game's engine

[EdwardWongHPTIV]

Ah, yeah that does suck. Well Tokyo Babel is probably the next thing I'll play after I finish up on my current VN. I'll see if I have the same problem.

[Fred the Barber]

17 minutes ago, Silvz said:

The problem here, as it happened to Tokyo Babel, is that there are volume settings, and you can mix it up as much as you want. However, even putting the BGM at the lowest and the voices at the maximum, I still have problems hearing the latter. This is not an issue with any other VN I played, which are a lot, but I don't see many commenting on that, so may be a problem with how my laptop deals with the game's engine

FWIW, I didn't have any problems with relative sound levels that I can recall. It's rare for me to adjust sound levels at all, but I sometimes do, and always in the situation you describe where the music is too loud and the voices too quiet, such that they get drowned out. That said, I don't recall whether I did any adjustment with Pygmalion's sound levels. Do you use headphones, or your laptop speakers? I actually played the whole game on a tablet and listened through the tablet speakers, but I find the quality of the speakers has a dramatic impact on perceived relative volume of human speech vs. background music (though right now I can't remember which way I decided it biases things ).

Incidentally, in case you're thinking listening on my tablet speakers means I'm crazy, while I agree it's a less immersive experience than using headphones, it makes it much lower-friction for me to get into the game. Since I have problems getting started on playing a game sometimes, I try to optimize for ease of pick-up-and-play, so that's how I'm usually rolling these days.

Edited March 11, 2017 by Fred the Barber
I put a comma before an emoticon WTF is wrong with me

[Silvz]

48 minutes ago, Fred the Barber said:

FWIW, I didn't have any problems with relative sound levels that I can recall. It's rare for me to adjust sound levels at all, but I sometimes do, and always in the situation you describe where the music is too loud and the voices too quiet, such that they get drowned out. That said, I don't recall whether I did any adjustment with Pygmalion's sound levels. Do you use headphones, or your laptop speakers? I actually played the whole game on a tablet and listened through the tablet speakers, but I find the quality of the speakers has a dramatic impact on perceived relative volume of human speech vs. background music (though right now I can't remember which way I decided it biases things ).

Incidentally, in case you're thinking listening on my tablet speakers means I'm crazy, while I agree it's a less immersive experience than using headphones, it makes it much lower-friction for me to get into the game. Since I have problems getting started on playing a game sometimes, I try to optimize for ease of pick-up-and-play, so that's how I'm usually rolling these days.

I use earphones on my notebook. Even in portuguese or english, if I try to use the speakers, I don't understand a thing. I always change the sound and text settings when possible, and like I said, only TB and Pygmalion have had such problems on their volumes. It is nothing game breaking, though, but I keep their levels (BGM and voices) in opposite extremes, which it is never necessary in other novels.

That second part could start an interesting discussion, but I'll refrain as it is not the main topic here, but I think the first impression of a game in general is what makes me decide to stick or not to it. When a visual novel doesn't seem interesting right at the start, be it for its introduction or for being technically bad, I tend to simply start another one. I feel great with Steam charging less than usual here in Brazil, because if you look into my library and guess its raw value, you'd see how I tend to ignore any games that don't catch my attention from the start.

[EdwardWongHPTIV]

I finally got around to starting Tokyo Babel and I can confirm there is some sound level issues with certain voices. Not sure if the intent was to make it sound far off or a whisper but I had to mess with the volumes to hear. As far as the BGM/Sfx goes I wasn't sure if I was getting some unintentional noise but once I got a little further in I realized they're going for a retro 8-bit distorted sound track. Well at least a portion of it is.

I've barely started so we'll see how it goes now that I've adjusted volumes. Still need to pick up Pygmalion.