Clephas' random VN thread

[sanahtlig]

I'd agree that the heroine endings in Venus Blood games are pretty weak.  They seem included mostly as an afterthought.  Ironically, I was disappointed that Titi's ending had no H-scene, for the very reason that she had no H-scenes in the entire game.  An H-scene would've made the perfect icing on the top.

 

I really have no issue with the gameplay being more about strategic planning than execution.  To me, creatively formulating armies that can cope with any situation IS what makes these games fun, and there's opportunity and need to do so throughout the entire game because more armies equal more killing power, faster clears, and more flexibility to deal with bosses with special attack capabilities and weaknesses.

 

The biggest flaw in the series is the overwhelming amounts of ero concentrated in the last few chapters of every game.  This is linked to having too many H-able characters and gameplay incentives for H'ing them.  If they could concentrate the ero in the Chaos route this would be somewhat less of an issue.

[Toranth]

I'm impressed you managed to marathon the series, although slightly disappointed you skipped the earlier ones. Desire is still probably my favorite, although I haven't played the most recent few. I think Frontier was the last one I played. Even with spacing them out by years, they still felt too similar to keep holding my interest.

But in terms of enjoyable strategy games, I think they are just more fun than Eushully's "MUST HAVE FAQ" "MUST PLAY 10 TIMES" games.

[Clephas]

lol... it is hard to play the later Venus Blood games without a FAQ, unless you use Easy mode.  It is easy to completely run out of resources in Gaia if you don't take every chance you can get to make money and build up a store of cards for character-making, for instance.  In Hypno, the internal affairs button is hidden on the healing screen, so a lot of people will overlook it and run out of money and resources.

 

Edit: Also, Hypno's ending requirements are hopelessly complicated for Anora.

[sanahtlig]

 In Hypno, the internal affairs button is hidden on the healing screen, so a lot of people will overlook it and run out of money and resources.

That's covered in the tutorial.

 

I've played all the Venus Blood games since Empire using a guide only for the endings.  The combat isn't that hard as long as you plan strategically, at least on Normal difficulty.  Playing Hypno on Hard has been quite a slog though, at least for the prologue and Ch. 1.  The first named character you face totally destroys your starting units.  I had to regroup and attack multiple times to get her down, which was really expensive due to healing costs.

[Clephas]

Linnet isn't too bad... Silvia and Jud'ecca are far worse.  With Linnet, you just need a solid set of attackers, destroyers, and/or lancers with anti-beast skills... the problem is that when you first start out, your resources are really, really limited, so I honestly can't recommend playing hard the first time through, lol.

[sanahtlig]

I managed to get SS+ vs. Sylvia, although it required some save scumming to prevent getting overwhelmed by Judecca.  Getting SS+ vs. Linnet was simply impossible.  You have one turn to beat her, and that's just not possible with the starting forces.  Her formation is craftily composed with a unit that nullifies Anora's brainwash skill, and this unit can't be attacked directly because it has the "Hide" skill which allows it to pass direct attacks to the unit in front (the Guarder).  Linnet's attack power is overwhelming, and her speed is also high, so it's not possible to take her down before she does major damage to your team.

 

Basically, vs. Sylvia you have some options and breathing room to recruit new units and reorganize your forces.  Vs. Linnet, you have nothing except the default units (assuming you're investing for the long-term like me, and chose not to rashly burn all your reserves just to try and blitzkrieg this single scenario).

[Clephas]

I restarted the game and set it up so that I would have just enough time to create a solid unit night-fighters while pushing my way through the forces leading to her... from the units you can make available at the beginning, it is possible to make a unit that can take her and her people on hard mode at night in one turn...   You also have to reorganize Leon's unit with new troops to take advantage of his unique set of skills, which you have to do on the first turn.  It is a pain in the butt and you almost have to fire some of the troops before the next battle, but it is possible.

[sanahtlig]

Like I said, if you're thinking long-term, there's no good way to beat Linnet in one turn.  If you had to burn all your starting resources creating entry-level units, that sets you up poorly for the next mission.  The first thing I did in Ch. 1 is organize a very powerful beast force focused on beast+ modifiers.  I likely wouldn't have had the resources to do that if I'd used your strategy, and that force was pivotal to taking down both Sylvia and Judecca and earning the SS+ rank for that mission (and massacring every enemy force while I was at it).

 

Also, Leon doesn't really have unique team skills.  The uniqueness of his leader skills is that they're useful in any group composition--versatility is kind of important for a protagonist.  Noel, on the other hand, is a fantastic beast squad leader, and she synergizes well with Linnet.

[Clephas]

The big advantage in Hypno is if you create a treasure-hunting unit after the prologue, you won't ever be short of blanks for character creation, as long as you partner them as a legion with stronger armies.  The actual rewards from the chapters are weak, but a treasure-hunting unit allows you to effectively gather what you need to support your army.  The big problem is that your income is reliant on the collective internal affairs skills of your units (the leader's internal affairs skill determines which resource they gather) and how much you invested in internal affairs.  It is hard to invest early on, but if you don't you'll be screwed later.  Another problem is that while money is mostly used for healing and paying for items, magical energy and food are used for character-making, deployment, combat, and internal-affairs investment.  This means that it looks like - at first glance - you are best off investing mostly in magical energy and food, but in reality, in the late game what you need is ether, because the highest cards for character creation require 5000, 10000, and 20000 (bronze, red, gold) for each.  To make stronger units, you have to have those higher level cards... and if you've been investing properly, the coins for healing will stop hurting nearly as much toward the end.

 

Edit: Oh, and make sure you pour all your resources into investment and buying cards before the last battle, because investment carries over to new game plus.

[sanahtlig]

Healing units has been a real pain so far, especially on Hard where simply getting your units up to par with the level 30 enemies from 1 HP costs thousands of gold each.  20 HP per turn of automatic healing is really a drop in the bucket when your units are gaining 100 max HP per turn just from leveling.  The Ch. 1 clear bonus gave me 60,000 gold however, so maybe that'll help fix the issue for a while.  Also, many of the conquered towns seem to give huge bonuses to gold income, to the point that it seems investing in gold income is probably a poor use of funds.

[Clephas]

Generally, you should invest three times as much as you do in gold in each of the other areas.  Even if you only bring gold to level 8, you'll still be drowning in it by the end.  I can guarantee that you'll use more magical energy than gold in Hypno.

 

Edit: Except the beginning and the end, that is.

[Clephas]

Rose Guns Days

 

http://forums.fuwanovel.net/blog/46/entry-630-rose-guns-days/

[Clephas]

Corona and its fandisc, by the makers of Yumina.

 

http://forums.fuwanovel.net/blog/46/entry-650-kikouyoku-senki-gin-no-toki-no-corona-part-1-gameplay-and-unit-types/

 

 

http://forums.fuwanovel.net/blog/46/entry-653-kikouyoku-senki-gin-no-toki-no-corona-part-2-mini-review/

 

http://forums.fuwanovel.net/blog/46/entry-657-corona-fandisc/

[Clephas]

Gah, I'd forgotten how much contempt I held the protagonist and his friends from Baldr Force in... I mean, I know some rl hackers, so I know that a lot of them think like that... but it still drives me up the wall that anyone would fail to miss all those obvious signs of a trap.  Also, it doesn't help that as soon as I started playing it I remembered the entire story in detail... sometimes I really hate the way my memory works.

[Clephas]

 

I just finished my trip through the Tiny Dungeon main series.  The links are below (and the maid is Opera).

 

http://forums.fuwanovel.net/blog/46/entry-727-tiny-dungeon-black-and-white/

 

http://forums.fuwanovel.net/blog/46/entry-747-tiny-dungeon-bless-of-dragon/%C2%A0

 

http://forums.fuwanovel.net/blog/46/entry-749-tiny-dungeon-birth-for-yours/

 

http://forums.fuwanovel.net/blog/46/entry-751-tiny-dungeon-brave-or-slave/

[Kawasumi]

 

I just finished my trip through the Tiny Dungeon main series.  The links are below (and the maid is Opera).

 

http://forums.fuwanovel.net/blog/46/entry-727-tiny-dungeon-black-and-white/

 

http://forums.fuwanovel.net/blog/46/entry-747-tiny-dungeon-bless-of-dragon/%C2%A0

 

http://forums.fuwanovel.net/blog/46/entry-749-tiny-dungeon-birth-for-yours/

 

http://forums.fuwanovel.net/blog/46/entry-751-tiny-dungeon-brave-or-slave/

Do I smell a yandere? (´・ω・`)

[Clephas]

Mmm... no yandere, except Ruruu in Endless Dungeon, the sequel/conclusion to the series.  Opera is just a total sadist who loves nothing more than instilling terror in others... as well as taking pleasure in other people's troubles.

[Clephas]

My post on Endless Dungeon, thus ending my Tiny Dungeon marathon. 

 

http://forums.fuwanovel.net/blog/46/entry-756-endless-dungeon/

[storyteller]

This may be random, but what happened to the commentary on the last 2 routes to Tapestry?

[Clephas]

As promised, here is the full list of my blog posts for my marathon of the entire Tsuyokiss series, starting from the full edition of the original, right down to the FD/sequel of Next released last month.  For those of you who are interested, this series is based in the same world as Majikoi, two cities over (with Tsujidou's setting in between).  The first three VNs follow Leo and are referred to as the 'Legendary Generation' and the final two follow the second generation ten years later that is referred to as the 'Next Generation'.  Generally speaking, my opinion on this series is... mixed to say the least.  the Full Edition of the original is worth playing, as is Sangakki, but Nigakki and the Next generation are not nearly as interesting or deep.  That said, Kitsune's, Kachiki's, and Sumika's paths from the Next generation are generally worthy of being played, so my opinion isn't completely one-sided overall.  However, these VNs are incredibly long... they devour time, and even if you begged me I would never play them again, lol.

The Legendary Generation

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Next Generation