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Should I continue Chaos;Head? (Currently end of chapter 7)


limitseeker

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I was quite hyped when i finally got the chance to play Chaos;Head and I enjoyed the VN. However, there is couple of glaring flaw in the VN which became worse as the series goes Surprisingly, the whinny coward MC is not one of them. While I do hate him and would like him to be feed like Lancer in Carnival Phantasm to Seiba, it is rare to see this kind of MC so I don't really mind. What I want to rant is actually the narrative aspect of the VN

Here are my issues.

1. Interludes that distrupt the flow of the VN. The VN seems to branch to MC story with confined point of view and the detective work. The thing is, at first I was happy the interlude was short, unlike Steins Gate 0 use unneeded character like Fubuki as interlude for too long and it did not pay off at all. However, as i read further chapter, the interlude cut in in tense moment and the pay off of the tense moment sometime is negated by different atmosphere of the previous interlude. Good example of interlude is a Fate Stay Night VN, it is relevant and also connects to the main storyline. I find most interlude here is bothersome since the information presented in interlude does not have any use since the MC does not know it and probably never gonna use it anyway. The story will go to halt mode and it is annoying to wait for the main story back.

 

2. The trigger system is totally useless. I was baffled when i opened up a guide and it showed me the trigger is only for B route. The True Ending according guide is AA route. Why would you make alternate route as hard as Zero Escape route while the true route is a breeze?

 

3. Hallucination is handled poorly. Compare it to Tsukihime's MC when going insane, I would say it really pale it comparison. The description is lacking and it is obvious that it is just a daydream. Also, when it ended the MC was like "Oh it was just my dellusion" and continue normally as if nothing happened. This problem exist in trigger hallucination. The narrative forced one sometime is not that bad.

 

4. Pretty much minimum character bonding. While I get it the MC is a loner, it baffles me that I realized I am at 2/3 way of the game and I know basically nothing about other characters background except the blonde girl and the sister (FES and The Ice Cream eater is barely known, Yua and Rimi only knwon in surface, MC's friend is not really well established). The problem actually could be averted if they give them more screen time instead of the police officer's too often interlude.

 

Will the next 3 chapters really pays off? Honestly I am curious to continue in order to know myself how it ended since I am so far invested and I loved seeing how far Science Adventure Series planned the series (like Victor Chondria University cameo and I know the papers that being used are Kurisu's thesis) but the technical problems kinda turn me off. What is your opinion about this?

 

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I disagree with @1P1A. Instead i agree with those he mentioned as "everyone" who said that "VN is much better". I like it, although not so much as Steins;Gate. Honestly, i actually don't really know what to suggest... Cuz i had been reading it with interest (aside from MC) and the thought about stopping never crossed my mind. It all goes up to whether or not you want to disclose the truth and i'd say that there are some quite interesting moments in the end and that is worth to read.

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1- Chaos Head is one of my favorite VN, I don't have that much memory about the interludes, but they are more or less all important. It's a very complicated VN, and the fact that you have fiew information on each interlude is weird. but as I come closer to the end, it made sense.

2-Yes and no, the real point is to understand how instable the MC is. You can check how this instability evolve as the story progress. If you really follow the story, you can more or less understand that the story is pretty crazy (New Gen serial murders which are more or less connected to Takumi, people trying to deduct you then set you as the serial murder, the upcoming of Shogun, the upcoming of the bloody Rimi, the girls holding D sword in the street, the drama with the little sister... All those event have an impact on Takumi. A lot of people blame Takumi for being a coward, but I'd like to see how they would react if all those shit happened to them). The delusion is more a way to check this instability than to have a real purpose.

 

4 I agree about the lack of information about the characters. That's because Chaos Head is linear while Chaos Head Noah allow you to enter a route for all the main heroines, and discover their history, how they became gigalomaniac etc. I remember you don't have that much information about Rimi, but you have enough for the story to make some sense.

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1. Yeah, the information presented in certainly interesting, i like it very much and it is the reason why I liked steins gate lol. What I am having problem as of currently is that the interlude branch of as a subplot which the MC has no access. The reader has no ability to use that info either since the choice in the vn is quite miniscule. So it sometime end up, for me at least, waiting for explanation that the MC wont use each time a tense moment occured. A good sideplot interlude would be Fate Hollow Ataraxia since the info, while cannot be use by MC, is useable by reader to pick a choice latter one and then even sometime the MC pick up on the sideplot too. Probably they will pick it up later in this VN but man it is quite long time to reach it.

 

2.Hmm....i see. That is one way to put it. But if it is the case, the illusion is not executed well enough for me which make it kinda meh. MC instability sometime negated by MC admiting it is just an illusion in non-chalant way (Oh that thing is impossible,  is just my daydream or no way she open her clothes, it was just my dream.) If MC is unstable the dellusion is supposed to be more interesting,harder to distinguish for the mc, and also longer. The trigger system, for me personally, sometime fall flat in doing the intended purposes. 

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1- Well yes. I remember one of the interlude, as I said, it was weird, because I saw 2 characters talking, but without any name. It was long and not interesting. But since I was really in love with this VN, I remembered almost each interlude. For example, this one where there is 2 males characters talking, one saying he is surprised to see the second coming to him. You can understand that one side is going to betray another, but you can not tell who, when, but you can know why, the interlude a lot of information and give you the true face of some character while when they are in front Takumi, they are pretty much factice (you'll understand this once you finish it). I never played Tsukihime or Fate Hollow Ataraxia.

2- I don't remember that much the illusion, but if MC is able to admit this is an illusion, then he is more or less sane, somehow... 

4- Ah, one last example about the routes and informations from Chaos Head Noah. Even if you finish Chaos Head, understand that the females characters other than Rimi are not that much useful, you won't have that much information because they have very few few screen time. But in fact, even if you finish Chaos Head, you won't have all the informations (about the nextgen murder, about the Noah project, etc). I'll give one example with next gen murder (but you can skip because it will be a light spoil): 

remember the white haired girl that want to avenge her dead sister that jumped from a roof (first case of the nextgen murder), well the said dead sister is in fact alive...

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I'm currently playing Chaos;Head's VN, I'm like in Chapter 3. So far so good.

Still you have to bear in mind it's a pretty old VN and almost nobody hits the jackpot on their first try, this should be the case of Chaos;Head within the Sci fi Adv series. I enjoyed Steins;Gate immensely more due to the way the story is built, the characters, the powerful Kyouma, the atmosphere, S;G is as good as you can get. Chaos;Head is a different beast and that should be taken into consideration. By the way, I rate 0 below original S;G.

My hopes lie with Chaos;Child instead.

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2 hours ago, Stormwolf said:

S;G 0 is definitely not as good as the first. While it's a different story and is really a good one, depressed rintarou makes it quite boring compared to the original.

I agree lol. Interestingly, SG 0 patched many weakness of the previous SG which I was happy with. SG was one of my favorite but it has some problem (which are not that bad tbh)

1. Not much added in alternate routes (fixed by SG 0 turn off/on route which was very distinct and was quite distinct from each other)

2. Hard to get true end (fixed by more easier to see trigger in SG 0)

3. No flowchart (fixed by autoquick save each time a choice popped up)

 

however it added some problem that did not present in the original SG

1. True end? More like true epilogue. The last SG True end spanned one full chapter. SG 0 not really delivered it to me.

2. Macguffin (aka get/drop plot device ). Amadeus and Kurisu's laptop is massive offender. There is actually many ways to expand the plot with them but they did not go far.

3. RINE app was underwhelming. Original SG mail with Kakeru story was actually very neat.

4. Some event cut short. Show us the plot, dont tell them. Worst offender here are Kurisu and True route. They skipped many scenes which if developed would be very amazing.

5. Safe/True end mechanic like in Zero Escape. This one though was....underwhelming, the route only unlock new chapter which resemble an epilogue. Original SG was amazing since the True End added so much in the chapter.

6.  SPOILER

 

 

A certain character turned out to be another character. Negating the whole interaction of said char and depleate any meaning in char dev. Interesting twist, but damn what a price to pay.

 

 

5 hours ago, Okarin said:

I'm currently playing Chaos;Head's VN, I'm like in Chapter 3. So far so good.

Still you have to bear in mind it's a pretty old VN and almost nobody hits the jackpot on their first try, this should be the case of Chaos;Head within the Sci fi Adv series. I enjoyed Steins;Gate immensely more due to the way the story is built, the characters, the powerful Kyouma, the atmosphere, S;G is as good as you can get. Chaos;Head is a different beast and that should be taken into consideration. By the way, I rate 0 below original S;G.

My hopes lie with Chaos;Child instead.

I must agree, Chaos Head has very different tone and writing style. It is also very different in terms of how they implement the science. SG series seems to be more grounded, requiring minimum suspension of disbelief which makes it easier to swallow compared to Chaos Head. I still plan on completing it once I am done with Tsukihime fully lol.

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Actually S;G has the benefit of, no one really knows how altering the past would work, so anything goes.

From what I've gathered, it's just a vision about time travel (or more specifically, "time warping" if we take the Denwa Renji into account), it doesn't aim to be fully realistic but to tell an engaging story, and it succeeds at that. Still every rule of their time travel is according to current physics.

Edited by Okarin
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Tbf, i decided not to read SG0 and only to watch anime. I thought from the start that was not a necessary VN and still think the same way, despite i really like the show. I thought that because, esentially, all who've read original SG, kinda knew what would happen in the end of SG0. It's just they showed that in details. I'd prefer something after SG movie. But oh well, anime is still good and i believe that VN is also good, but i won't read it.

As for Chaos;Head and Chaos;Child - i think i rate them both as 8/10. Sometimes during the story as 7/10. Considering Chaos;Child - my memories are fresh cuz i finished it before the summer, and i still remember how annoyed i was by some characters. Sometimes it was just plain impossible. But overall story is good. In both VNs.

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18 hours ago, Stormwolf said:

S;G 0 is definitely not as good as the first. While it's a different story and is really a good one, depressed rintarou makes it quite boring compared to the original.

Sad scientist is also good, if only for the contrast, aside from the depiction of depression and mental disorder (which isn't toyed with very much I think).

The point that made the original superior is probably immersion. That game has a wonderful immersion, you start playing and don't wanna leave it. It builds tension in a unique way.

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  • 5 months later...

Most of your problems with Chaos;Head are all fixed in Noah. Chaos;Head is an incomplete version due to its parrallel devolopment with Steins;Gate, which lead to a lack in budget at the time. While I still think Chaos;Head gives me one of the most unique experience, it may not be your cup of tea.

Anyways the complete version Chaos;Head Noah (which has 9 endings) and Chaos;Child is much more better. While Noah has't had English tls yet, Chaos;Child is available now on Steam. I'd recommend you give it a try.

If you do remember to install the patch by CoZ to greatly improve your experience: http://sonome.dareno.me/projects/chaoschild-steam.html

Edited by dinhbinh599
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  • 3 years later...
On 8/21/2018 at 10:11 PM, cro-mag said:

Tbf, i decided not to read SG0 and only to watch anime. I thought from the start that was not a necessary VN and still think the same way, despite i really like the show. I thought that because, esentially, all who've read original SG, kinda knew what would happen in the end of SG0. It's just they showed that in details. I'd prefer something after SG movie. But oh well, anime is still good and i believe that VN is also good, but i won't read it.

As for Chaos;Head and Chaos;Child - i think i rate them both as 8/10. Sometimes during the story as 7/10. Considering Chaos;Child - my memories are fresh cuz i finished it before the summer, and i still remember how annoyed i was by some characters. Sometimes it was just plain impossible. But overall story is good. In both VNs.

I'm not sure how you decide SG;0 is an "unnecessary" VN without playing it.  This kind of argument really bothers me; I'm not sure how anybody feels comfortable critiquing a piece of media (or anything else) they've never bothered to look at.

 

The original has a special kind of magic to be sure, but that hardly renders the sequel/side-quel pointless.  It's very well done, as you can probably tell from watching the anime; but like the original, the experience of passively watching a truncated version of one route can't really be compared to immersing yourself in the many different narrative possibilities presented in the VN.  I haven't replayed SG;0 since it first came out, and I can still remember some of the more shocking plot twists that happen outside of the route depicted in the TV adaptation like I played it only yesterday.  The Amadeus mechanic is far more interesting in the game than in the show, and there were whole plot lines and character threads that greatly enrich and contextualize the overall story but that never made it into the adaptation.

 

There are a lot of different criteria by which the quality of a story and its delivery can be judged: a surprising ending is far from the only important metric.  I'd argue that, when it comes to many of the best stories ever told, the ending is less important than what happens along the way.  The notion of "spoilers" get a lot of hype in the modern world, and maybe that impacts how people receive stories; but unless you're talking about a mystery/detective story, knowing the ending rarely spoils anything. 🙈

 

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