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moenovel is releasing "A sky full of stars"


ratboi

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Great news, that title looks great, I was hoping that this was the title they hinted about releasing a few months back. This title was only released in December 2015 in Japan, and it will release after only 2 years in english, this is pretty good and it's an actual title created for the japanese audience, unlike the LoveKami shoverlware made for the western Steam audience.

The ISSUE is that this is an 18+ title trough and through, there is absolutely no All-Ages release in Japan whatsoever, so basically unless they plan on releasing an 18+ patch we are looking at yet another Konosora situation... Also, we won't be able to tell how the translation is until release, but I am guessing it won't be a problem since I haven't seen people mentioning any issues with the LoveKami translations?

The Steam page is up btw:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/745960/A_Sky_Full_of_Stars/

Edited by Nier
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Reminds me of If My Heart Had Wings ....... and I guess it's made by the same people too.

I'll probably pick this up if the +18 version appears in time....

+EDIT+ Apparently, this VN is even in the same universe as If My Heart Had Wings.

Edited by r0xm2n
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... why is it that moenovel always picks the cheesiest pulltop games?

Edit: I mean, if you just want to appeal to the moefans, the original LoveKami, which is actually good, would be a much better choice...

Edited by Clephas
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12 minutes ago, iamnoob said:

Is this not good? Got a link to your review?

This was my post on it, back in the day...  tbh, I forgot almost everything about the game less than two months later, not just Orihime.  It just wasn't a memorable VN.  There are literally hundreds of VNs with equivalent levels of visual and audio quality out there, so I have to snort in laughter at those who use that aspect as an excuse for choosing one like this for localization.  The aversion amongst the localization companies for localizing anything made before 2010 that doesn't already have a partial or full tl floating around is at its worst with Pulltop, since Pulltop's golden days ended with Oozora.  Everything they've produced since has been drivel.

Miagete Goran, Yozora no Hoshi wo

Yes, I more or less said I was thinking about not playing this... and I wouldn't have, either, if it weren't for the fact that I had three separate people beg me during one of my brief appearances on mirc to play it... and the fact that I had so much trouble getting Izumo4 setup.  So, while I probably won't play Korona's route (she annoys me), I plan to play the other three routes for VN of the Month. 

First, my worries about the osananajimi issue have been, to some degree, borne out by my experiences in this VN.  To an extent, a lot of the character development for Hikari and Saya seems to have been entirely reliant on flashbacks, though they were good flashbacks.  To be honest, once I found out why they'd become so distanced from one another before the story began, I was more than a little exasperated/disappointed at how petty it was, but it wasn't as bad as some similar situations I've seen in other VNs in the past. 

The music in this VN is generally high in quality, so much so that I felt the need to actually come out and mention it.  Some of it is reused from other Pulltop VNs, but there are several high quality themes used that are unique to this game. 

Art-wise, a lot of people have been making a lot of noise about this game, and I can see why.  It was very hard not to choose Saya's route from the very beginning simply because of the degree to which they made her visual characterization so absolutely perfect in combination with her audio one.  Looking at it from a purely writing/story-based perspective, her character is no different from a hundred different 'shy osananajimis' I've encountered in the past, but the characterization in this game manages to bring her to life to a degree that makes her stand out from all the heroines and characters... by leaps and bounds.  Of course, I'm a contrary bastard who never chooses such obvious 'main heroines' on my first playthrough, so I chose Orihime first.

The common route is a classic seishun-drama, focused around a combination of flashbacks and a 'personal revival' (the renewal of a character - usually the protagonist - that leads to them regaining something they lost or abandoned) scenario.  If I have a complaint to say about the common route it is that there is a severe lack of 'bumps in the road'.  Generally speaking, a 'good' seishun drama scenario will have some major bumps in the common route in order to give you a reference point by which you can emotionally grasp how hard it was for the characters to do what they were doing.  In that sense, the common route can be considered a failure, as far as seishun drama goes... except that the flashbacks provide that 'bump' for you, the regrets of the past basically acting as a replacement for the lack of such obstacles in the present.

Orihime

Mmm... Orihime is a dreamer.  Dreamer heroines are some of the most annoying heroines out there... or some of the most inspiring (or both).  Orihime tends toward the former in my eyes, but that is mostly because my view of such heroines/characters is automatically negative, due to my preference for pragmatism and practicality over dreams and ideals.  As a heroine, she has some serious oddities, though... and they are amusing enough that I never managed to hate her.  However, her route isn't exactly an exciting one, and humor and light romance with no obstacles doesn't really make for a memorable path (I'll probably have forgotten this path existed two months from now).  The choice to make her an 'ojousama' heroine was probably a poor one, as an underused ojousama character setting is like having a bottle rocket set up and not lighting it up.

So basically, her route was amusing... but there was nothing really emotionally moving about it, from my perspective.  For better or worse, it is light fare that doesn't leave much of an impression.

Edit: Hikari

Hikari is one of the two main heroines, the two points of a love triangle between the protagonist and his two osananajimis.  Typically for her type - the somewhat tomboyish genki-heroine - she is extremely awkward in how she deals with the protagonist's advances and just doesn't know when to quit when it comes to trying to dump him off on her shyer, much more adorable best friend Saya.  This quite a typical scenario in this kind of love triangle, and - to be honest - I found it to be unbelievably irritating.  It was made worse by the fact that it was obvious that was the way they would choose to do things almost from the beginning of the path split (Saya and Hikari share a rather large amount of story, as their paths are split off completely from Korona's and Orihime's).  That isn't to say it was an awful path... those who have played Kono Oozora will recognize the general 'feeling' of the path... it is by the same team, after all.  This is a lot more apparent in this path than it was in Orihime's, though the influence was almost as obvious in the common route.  Also, you should probably know that the Soaring Club makes an (text-only) appearance as a part of the path, for those who are interested... please no one ask for this to be tled by Sekai Project, lol.  I honestly can't see any way the relationship formation would make sense without the h-scenes.

Edit2: Saya

Saya's route is pretty close to what you would call the 'classic osananajimi route'.  Why?  Because the first worry that comes up when they get together is 'its no different than it was before!'  I had to sigh in exasperation that they actually went through with using that particular trope, because it is one of the primary reasons osanajimi routes tend to be as boring as hell.  That said, Saya's character is by far the most well-developed of all in the entire VN, and as a result, her path has the strongest emotional impact.  In fact, it has even more drama to it than Hikari's, and it gets pretty emotional at times... but because of the way they drew out the drama, it started to feel monotonous toward the end.  I did think that the actual epilogue and ending parts were really good, but I have to conclude that they went a little overboard with Saya.  However, Saya's character is... adorable.  She's one of those extremely devoted types with infinite patience, and the result is really, really hard to choose anyone else for your first heroine of the VN, lol.

 

Overall

I have a few comments to make before I conclude this.  First, this VN's route balance is horrible.  Hikari's and Saya's routes and characters get almost all the emphasis, and as a result, anyone who plays the other routes will be able to tell at a glance that they are sub-heroines.  To be honest, this VN would have been much better if there had only been Saya's and Hikari's routes.  However, Saya's and Hikari's routes are both quite powerful, leaving you feeling satisfied (with their routes) at least partially because of the same over-used flashbacks that ensured that Orihime and Korona would be relegated to sub (or sub-par) heroine status in comparison.  In reality, Saya's and Hikari's routes feel like they are an extension of the flow of the common route, and that is how it should feel in a case like this.  For those who are interested in this VN, I suggest you just play Saya and Hikari's routes, as the others can only be disappointing in comparison.

Edited by Clephas
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29 minutes ago, iamnoob said:

Is this not good? Got a link to your review?

This game is the second highest rated Pulltop game since 2010, see:

JQ9TtAW.png

"Look up, see the star in the night sky" has an average of 80, based on 344 votes:

http://erogamescape.dyndns.org/~ap2/ero/toukei_kaiseki/brand.php?brand=689

Still, you better judge the game by yourself rather than going by hearsay and that's especially true in the western side of things (the japanese side is far more reliable when it comes to this kind of thing.)

Edited by Nier
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3 hours ago, Clephas said:

This was my post on it, back in the day...  tbh, I forgot almost everything about the game less than two months later, not just Orihime.  It just wasn't a memorable VN.  There are literally hundreds of VNs with equivalent levels of visual and audio quality out there, so I have to snort in laughter at those who use that aspect as an excuse for choosing one like this for localization.  The aversion amongst the localization companies for localizing anything made before 2010 that doesn't already have a partial or full tl floating around is at its worst with Pulltop, since Pulltop's golden days ended with Oozora.  Everything they've produced since has been drivel.

Miagete Goran, Yozora no Hoshi wo

Yes, I more or less said I was thinking about not playing this... and I wouldn't have, either, if it weren't for the fact that I had three separate people beg me during one of my brief appearances on mirc to play it... and the fact that I had so much trouble getting Izumo4 setup.  So, while I probably won't play Korona's route (she annoys me), I plan to play the other three routes for VN of the Month. 

First, my worries about the osananajimi issue have been, to some degree, borne out by my experiences in this VN.  To an extent, a lot of the character development for Hikari and Saya seems to have been entirely reliant on flashbacks, though they were good flashbacks.  To be honest, once I found out why they'd become so distanced from one another before the story began, I was more than a little exasperated/disappointed at how petty it was, but it wasn't as bad as some similar situations I've seen in other VNs in the past. 

The music in this VN is generally high in quality, so much so that I felt the need to actually come out and mention it.  Some of it is reused from other Pulltop VNs, but there are several high quality themes used that are unique to this game. 

Art-wise, a lot of people have been making a lot of noise about this game, and I can see why.  It was very hard not to choose Saya's route from the very beginning simply because of the degree to which they made her visual characterization so absolutely perfect in combination with her audio one.  Looking at it from a purely writing/story-based perspective, her character is no different from a hundred different 'shy osananajimis' I've encountered in the past, but the characterization in this game manages to bring her to life to a degree that makes her stand out from all the heroines and characters... by leaps and bounds.  Of course, I'm a contrary bastard who never chooses such obvious 'main heroines' on my first playthrough, so I chose Orihime first.

The common route is a classic seishun-drama, focused around a combination of flashbacks and a 'personal revival' (the renewal of a character - usually the protagonist - that leads to them regaining something they lost or abandoned) scenario.  If I have a complaint to say about the common route it is that there is a severe lack of 'bumps in the road'.  Generally speaking, a 'good' seishun drama scenario will have some major bumps in the common route in order to give you a reference point by which you can emotionally grasp how hard it was for the characters to do what they were doing.  In that sense, the common route can be considered a failure, as far as seishun drama goes... except that the flashbacks provide that 'bump' for you, the regrets of the past basically acting as a replacement for the lack of such obstacles in the present.

Orihime

Mmm... Orihime is a dreamer.  Dreamer heroines are some of the most annoying heroines out there... or some of the most inspiring (or both).  Orihime tends toward the former in my eyes, but that is mostly because my view of such heroines/characters is automatically negative, due to my preference for pragmatism and practicality over dreams and ideals.  As a heroine, she has some serious oddities, though... and they are amusing enough that I never managed to hate her.  However, her route isn't exactly an exciting one, and humor and light romance with no obstacles doesn't really make for a memorable path (I'll probably have forgotten this path existed two months from now).  The choice to make her an 'ojousama' heroine was probably a poor one, as an underused ojousama character setting is like having a bottle rocket set up and not lighting it up.

So basically, her route was amusing... but there was nothing really emotionally moving about it, from my perspective.  For better or worse, it is light fare that doesn't leave much of an impression.

Edit: Hikari

Hikari is one of the two main heroines, the two points of a love triangle between the protagonist and his two osananajimis.  Typically for her type - the somewhat tomboyish genki-heroine - she is extremely awkward in how she deals with the protagonist's advances and just doesn't know when to quit when it comes to trying to dump him off on her shyer, much more adorable best friend Saya.  This quite a typical scenario in this kind of love triangle, and - to be honest - I found it to be unbelievably irritating.  It was made worse by the fact that it was obvious that was the way they would choose to do things almost from the beginning of the path split (Saya and Hikari share a rather large amount of story, as their paths are split off completely from Korona's and Orihime's).  That isn't to say it was an awful path... those who have played Kono Oozora will recognize the general 'feeling' of the path... it is by the same team, after all.  This is a lot more apparent in this path than it was in Orihime's, though the influence was almost as obvious in the common route.  Also, you should probably know that the Soaring Club makes an (text-only) appearance as a part of the path, for those who are interested... please no one ask for this to be tled by Sekai Project, lol.  I honestly can't see any way the relationship formation would make sense without the h-scenes.

Edit2: Saya

Saya's route is pretty close to what you would call the 'classic osananajimi route'.  Why?  Because the first worry that comes up when they get together is 'its no different than it was before!'  I had to sigh in exasperation that they actually went through with using that particular trope, because it is one of the primary reasons osanajimi routes tend to be as boring as hell.  That said, Saya's character is by far the most well-developed of all in the entire VN, and as a result, her path has the strongest emotional impact.  In fact, it has even more drama to it than Hikari's, and it gets pretty emotional at times... but because of the way they drew out the drama, it started to feel monotonous toward the end.  I did think that the actual epilogue and ending parts were really good, but I have to conclude that they went a little overboard with Saya.  However, Saya's character is... adorable.  She's one of those extremely devoted types with infinite patience, and the result is really, really hard to choose anyone else for your first heroine of the VN, lol.

 

Overall

I have a few comments to make before I conclude this.  First, this VN's route balance is horrible.  Hikari's and Saya's routes and characters get almost all the emphasis, and as a result, anyone who plays the other routes will be able to tell at a glance that they are sub-heroines.  To be honest, this VN would have been much better if there had only been Saya's and Hikari's routes.  However, Saya's and Hikari's routes are both quite powerful, leaving you feeling satisfied (with their routes) at least partially because of the same over-used flashbacks that ensured that Orihime and Korona would be relegated to sub (or sub-par) heroine status in comparison.  In reality, Saya's and Hikari's routes feel like they are an extension of the flow of the common route, and that is how it should feel in a case like this.  For those who are interested in this VN, I suggest you just play Saya and Hikari's routes, as the others can only be disappointing in comparison.

Only 3 heroines and 2 of them are childhood friends? that seems rather short 

I hope the drama in childhood friend route is not as bad as the ones in Hatsukoi 1/1, that was horrible. The MC sounds decent at the very least i guess

 

My main concern is still the TL quality, the english in the official website itself sounds like dodgy lol

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3 hours ago, ShinRaikdou said:

ZPKYk8k.jpg

Yeah they could release an 18+ patch for the Steam release like almost everybody else, but the prospects of this happening are pretty low since MoeNovel NEVER released anything 18+, LoveKami are both All-Ages in the West while they are both 18+ in Japan.

https://vndb.org/v20337

https://vndb.org/v21188

And we already know what they did to Konosora.

So to play A Sky Full of Stars as it was meant to be played, we might need yet another unofficial 18+ restoration patch...

Edited by Nier
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I have continuously requested feedback from MoeNovel on twitter with regards to the adult (original) version of the game, yet they ignore those questions. The fact that they so blatantly ignore such a common (and thus important) question is basically the same as saying "No, you won't get it".

The IMHHW restoration patch turned out well, so I hope this one gets the same kind of TLC.

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Personally i want to see moenovel fail with their next releases. The way they have handled the western vn marked just seems really bad. 

First there is konosora that they just censored the hell out of, so they could aim for the huge audience of 12 year old french girls just dying to get into enlish translated vns.

Then it seemed like they had better strategy with the lovekami spinn offs, while the games weren't really good atleast from what we could see in the start it did not have an 18+ edition and therefore it didn't seem like anything was cut. Then they come out with info of the release of the japanese version which is the true full game with the 18+ content that seemed to have been planed all along. They even had the balls to promote the game for the japanese audience by using the fact that the game had been released in english and that the japanese people would exclusively get the 18+ content. Whatever their initial intent was this just looks really bad. First they made the people in the west think that what they got was the full game. Then they release the game for the japanese audience promoting their bellow average game through the fact that it had been released in the west and that the japanese would get a better edition.

This action seems much more like an exploitation of the western vn fanbase rather than something made to please the fanbase. Looking at the cg from the 18+ version and knowing the general quality of the vns i don't think we missed out on much in the case of lovekami, however my principle is that i want the full experience of a vn with nothing cut. So atleast personally this pissed me of and from what i can see moenovel just doesn't seem to respect the western vn fanbase at all.

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4 hours ago, MaggieROBOT said:

Btw, Is Moenovel still doing things for 12 years old french girls? I don't really follow them anymore.

Moenovel censored their second game in a devious way to try to cover up the fact they were doing it.  They released it first in English, then several months later released it in Japan ... with h-scenes added and specifically said to only be for Japan.  That sounds more or less like the kind of trick you'd expect to fool 12 year old girls, so yeah, I'd say they are :makina:

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Well too bad that MoeNovel didn't announce another Lovekami VN considering that I look forward to that the most in regard of MoeNovel, because it mean that Pulltop's blunder was far less severe compared to Konosora and this time Miagete.

As for the VN itself, looks good according to VNDB and Erogamescape there. But for now I think I'll just pass this considering that the size was pretty big (8GB), and yeah I knew that there's HDD external but right now I didn't have it if I may be honest.

Edited by littleshogun
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Thank gods they are releasing it, so I won't have to care at all about any potential fuck ups on their side.

Tis' a wonderful time to live in.

On a sidenote, I had never, ever understood what's so amusing about vn's dealing with astronomy clubs. It's the most bland, cliched and godawful way to tell a story, unless it involves extraterrestrial contacts, space anomalies or large celestial bodies (actually, just rocks) floating through the vast expanses of cosmos. Seriously, as much as watching stars (or more like the dusk/night sky) can be considered both interesting and romantic, reading about people doing so is not.

Edited by Narcosis
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1 hour ago, Narcosis said:

On a sidenote, I had never, ever understood what's so amusing about vn's dealing with astronomy clubs.

Yeah never really got why so many VNs deal in this same subject, most of which are only available in Japanese but the density of these is quite high and the subject isn't all that exciting.

Edited by Nier
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41 minutes ago, FinalCloud said:

My only question is: Are the h-scenes really the difference between a game for 12 year old french girls and a game for adult males? -.-

A game for 12 year old french girls is a game where kisses were written out, such as If My Heart Had Wings.
People right now are satirising and exaggerating. All Moenovel's doing right now is keeping H-Scenes from the West, most likely because Pulltop doesn't want H-Scenes in the West.
Which is still a legitimate reason to be mad. But it doesn't mean they're trying to market it towards 12 year old french girls.

 

In other news, looking at the pages for the game, it looks quite interesting. I'm probably going to get it, if I don't learn that something was badly screwed up.

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5 minutes ago, Mr Poltroon said:

A game for 12 year old french girls is a game where kisses were written out, such as Konosora.
People right now are satirising and exaggerating. All Moenovel's doing right now is keeping H-Scenes from the West, most likely because Pulltop doesn't want H-Scenes in the West.

In other news, looking at the pages for the game, it looks quite interesting. I'm probably going to get it, if I don't learn that something was badly screwed up.

Agreed I thought it looked kinda interesting, and the main girls all look decent. No Loli which is always a plus, altho Saya maybe looks slightly Loli. But yea, this ironically looks like one I might not mind the adult scenes being included for, guess I will give it a few months to see if any unoffical restoration appears.. I havent even played IMHHW yet anyway =/

Edited by FinalCloud
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