Redemyr Posted April 11, 2015 Share Posted April 11, 2015 I came upon this forum after finishing Tomoyo After (Doko's traslation) while having a well.... trying not to be spoilery here.... STRONG need to hear what others had to say about it... I found a post here, with some opinions I agreed with, others I didn't and a rather pleasant surprise as well... I felt like this was the perfect place to be if I intended to continue exploring this wonderful, if at times touching, world of VNs... lurking wasn't just going to be enough this time, so here I am making my intruduction: I'm a 31 years old boy (please can I still consider myself one???, thanks!) from Argentina, we do speak Spanish here so I apologize in advance for the grammar and such... anyway, I'm 31 and I've led what could be considered a normal life so far, I went to school, university, got a degree in International Commerce, been working in something related to my field for about 11 years now... I live in an apartment in the capital city Buenos Aires, nothing fancy, but I like it... I have a girlfriend, we've been together for almost 10 years now, no plans for marriage or children in the near (or perhaps far) future... we get along well, nothing like the stories depicted in subject that brings us together here, but well enough, maybe I've just grown complacent, idk, I've never given it much thought but I guess these stories are really having an impact of how I view things.... getting off topic though, so moving on... I have a normal family, no major tragedies there, my parents got separated when I was old enough to realize that they were better off that way, so while not perfect, it is ok... I had many friends during my school and university years, had parties, went on holidays together, really fun times.... As life went on however, only a few mainly from my hometown remain as such, and while we talk and get together from time to time, it doesn't happen as often as before.... I do have some from work as well, but barring a few exceptions (or just one to be honest) it's not the same... I did my share of sports growing up, soccer, swimming, working out, as was the case with my friends though, those activities occur less often as well, it's more of an on and off thing currently, leaning on the off side a bit if I'm being honest... Anyway, that's that for my life, not perfect, not bad either though, normal guess... There's a gap within me though... and beyond that... Exists another kind of life, another side of me, something that people don't see... something hidden... Mmmm, I guess I got little carried away there, by that other side I just meant my hobbies, they take the lion's share of my waking hours, often usurping some meant for sleeping and occasionally just eating them all... Those hobbies include reading books, playing PC games and watching tv shows... movies might fall here but not so much because of what I'll explain below... I have played many games, my steam library holds about 250+ of them, plus a few from other places... That's from the last 6 or so years, before that I got them through means I'm not so proud of, but given my lack of income at the time, plus my country general economy and also out of habit, I guess that was just the only way I thought I could get my hands on them... I played most genres, mainly RPGs, and besides the fun factor in them, the things that stood out for me in them and recalled later were their music and story... They just stayed in my head, not sure how to explain it but for example I recall on a holidays challenging my friends to a race in the beach, and as motivation, I played the ME2 suicide mission track on my mind... not really sure if that made me run faster or not though, I do recall winning that particular race but we had some alcohol in our systems at the time so we were not at our peak at any rate... Concerning books, I also read quite a few of them, first in Spanish and now almost exclusively in english, I don't have an exact amount but if I had to guess it'd be... mmm, no, can't guess either.... Most were novels of several genres, with a bias towards historical novels and fantasy... Tv shows are more recent in my list of pass-times, from maybe 7 years ago when I discovered I could get whole seasons in my computer and marathon through them, I don't have a specific genre at all, from Firefly to Chuck to Supernatural to House to Lost to Vampire Diaries to Castle (I kind of gave away one of my favorite actors though) and many things in between Southland, the Wire, Revenge, somehow I get hooked to all of them... (well I do drop some at certain seasons)....Movies I also watch but not as many... Anyway, if I had to choose which of these is the main one it would be a tie between books and gaming, the latter taking a bigger share of my time but as the empirical evidence has shown me, a good book will steer me away from a good game most of the time... so again, a tie. These activities combined add up and make up the life where I'm doing what I want. The other life, which is the one where I do the things I must or just do them because it's what's expected of me or hey, even because I want to sometimes! Those two lives have a gap between in the form that nobody in my regular life really has an interest in hearing me talk about or discuss what I do the other... Mainly though, don't know exactly how to convey this idea, but it's like I leave my own body and go somewhere and then when I'm done, I just move to the next place.... maybe it's the same for everybody, but I do this so much everyday and have for a long time that it has become like this... Maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, I do watch some show or movie with my girlfriend and very occasionally get to talk about what I'm reading or playing with her, my friends or family. but for the most part, like 99% or so, it's just me and the stories, I finish them, think about them and then just file them away inside my head as I go into the next one. That sums up my imaginary life, I guess it could be called? These two run parallel, one where my feet are on the ground and I share a regular life along with others... And the other, perhaps the real one for me, where I go to many places, but always alone. Bad poetry aside, these two last sentences are the closest I've come to describe myself. I guess I saved myself some psychologist' fees by writing them. I don't know why, maybe it is the effect these VNs are having on me and the fact that as I write this I'm listening to Clannad and Tomoyo After's OSTs , making me look inside of me and bare my soul in front of strangers... Ok, mmm, enough with those words , that's me in a nutshell (actually it was long eh, guess the meaning of some expressions continue to elude me)... If you're still reading so far, then you know a little more about me. Now on to the topic of VNs, and how I found them... Like I said before I had played every game that held some interest for me, and it was becoming hard to find new ones to play... while doing some "research" I came upon a game called Bible Black... while I found the game a bit too dark for my taste the kind of story telling intrigued me so I tried to find some that shared it's storytelling techniques but with lighter tones... As I searched, I found some games that, while catering to certain needs, felt shallow and unremarkable in my eyes. And then, I found Deardrops... As I kept reading and reading, I came to the pleasant realization that the story was actually very good and I was getting invested in the characters themselves... their struggles and triumphs. I felt myself being sucked into the protagonist POV... The journey kept on and became even greater... the blend of good storytelling, music and art was just perfect. I kept playing and then I reached the end. I don't know exactly how to describe the way I felt at that exact moment. It was a really good feeling, like joy, mixed with longing, excitement, it's difficult to put into words, I was happy to be alive and receiving such a treat! I stormed the forums to look for any and all things DearDrops related. I found out that I had played Riho's route (yeah, I learned the specific terms in this genre as well), according to many, the best path along with Kanade's. I started playing that then, with a guide this time, but while good, the story seemed off somehow... I guess my mind wasn't ready for the suspension of disbelief required for branching routes. Took a couple of days off to process it and tried again, was able to advance a bit but again, I couldn't continue. Call me weird but somehow in addition to not enjoying the story much , I felt that somehow I was betraying all the journey I had made before. That feeling of wrongness got the better of me eventually and I stopped. Instead I got the fandisk and aside from feeling lost a bit with the new characters, my journey was able to continue into a very satisfying conclusion. Somehow I felt that I had come home. More excited than ever, I searched for the next stop and that was Kana Okaeri, and wow, again, another masterpiece. This time around there was a lot more emotion involved and a particular ending left me wanting for me. So I searched some more and found out what fandisks were, Read one and felt really good, fulfilled. Read the 2nd one and didn't like certain things of it, decided to stop there. Somehow though after reading the first one, I decided to email the author, congratulating him and thanking him for what he'd done. Unfortunately, before his answer came I had already read the second one and since I was already in the mood, I sent him another email as well, thanking him but adding some remaks about what I didn't like. Surprisingly, he was nice when answering and after a couple of more emails we politely agreed to disagree on our vision of what was right for the characters but the exchange was really good. After that I made an attempt to bridge the gap in my lives, by having my girlfriend play Kana with me besides her, in part because I wanted her to share the experience, hoping that by the time we got to that certain kind of stuff, she would be invested enough not to mind it and partly because I wasn't ready to face the other endings alone yet. Anyway, it didn't work out, we played maybe 2-3hs in the course 2 weeks, her telling she liked it and everything but hey lets go watch some tv or let's just go to bed. I insisted the best was ahead, that we should go bit a further, but she was set on having her way and by bribing me Tomoyo style, she took me back to my regular life. Actions speaker louder than words so I decided to continue alone again. I sailed into the next port, where a sign with the inscription "Welcome to Clannad" greeted as I was leaving the ship. And wow that was just too much, happiness, sadness, hope, suffering, so many emotions together. While I was playing nice with all the cast, trying to decide between whether I would follow Tomoyo or Kyou's route, I suddenly realized the game had dragged me into the default Nagisa route. Don't get me wrong, I liked her character and all but for me she felt more like a little sister (and not in a Kanaish sort of way exacly)... I wanted to help and protect her, not get involved in the way the game was pushing me. (In deardrops the choices had been a little less obscure ) Still, when in Rome..... so I just went along... I liked the story, really moving too especially towards the end. Curious about it, I got the anime version of the 1st season, I wanted to see the story in a different medium. While I was on it, I realized it that while they had remove many things, they also had added many interesting side stories as well. I was hooked. Somewhere between Chapter 7 or 8, some moisture got into my eyes, something I hadn't felt there for like 13 years, on that occasion after a particularly sad breakup. I kept going and while that specific reaction never came back, by the time I was finished I felt a certain warmth inside of me. It was time to go back to the main story then and choose my own path this time, with the proper tools (thanks for the guide btw!)... Deciding on doing Tamoyo's first, I took a nice little detour into Misae's as suggested and wasn't disappointed with what I found there. Not wow material, but fairly good. In contrast Tomoyo's route was, for lack of a better word, spectacular. How they got together was beautiful, it just felt right. It my choice this time, which certainly added to the appeal of the path. Their feelings of happiness when things worked out, the fear and sorrow that they might lose each other, the conflict in their hearts, it was just so real. The brief comic reliefs bringing some rest too as I continued on. I can't really comment on the ending here because I don't want to spoil it for other other people, all I can say is that it was great. Surely after the fact we can all think of ways they could have handled their problems better, but for them, in their situation, with their feelings, their values, they did the best they could and ..... well... it worked for me. They got together, they were together, they fought together and it was all there for me to see it with my own eyes, all of this accompanied with some great music to strengthen the mood. Restless for more, I played their After Story right after that and wasn't disappointed in the least... or maybe I was, with certain elements, but that's beyond the scope of an introduction.... mmmm a lot of the stuff here probably is beyond as well, so I'll behave now and leave this one out.. The last part if my intro foray into VNs was almost done, the only thing left to do was to go along the other path I originally intended, captivating that lovely tsundere's heart. Now, this story, I loved it as well, but it was not as good as Tomoyo's, not the heroine herself... I can't and will probably have a hard time deciding on one over the other. Both were a very good match for Tomoya on their own way... The switch from Tomoyo to Kyou didn't didn't have the feeling of wrongness that I had noticed when I had switched from Rihu's to Kenade's on my first true VN. The magic was still there. It was a different story for sure, different issues were raised and the ending was certainly good. The route itself and how it was presented could have been different... It was certainly believable, full of emotions and conflicts, happiness and feeling. However and without going into spoilers territory I thinki that maybe a whole different approach might have worked better. Failing that on the canon story, I felt that were was a little bit too much of a certain thing and too little of another, maybe some of you guys felt that as well... I also felt that control was taken away from the me and some of the choices didn't really make sense I remember thinking, what is going on here?, enough with this already!, let's get things back on track! Imo they forgot to write an important part of the story too, maybe they got lazy idk... any particular fanfic you can recommend that fills this void??? I have something in mind I'd like to write but I've never done it so not so sure... Anyway, so that's it, I wanted to share with you guys how I felt as I got into this new world... I certainly feel different, different somehow, like inspired... Am i going crazy or have you guys gone through a similar experience??? Looking forward to meeting you all! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eclipsed Posted April 11, 2015 Share Posted April 11, 2015 Congratulations, you win the award for longest introduction on the forums ever Welcome to the forums! Looks like you've had a pretty normal life so far ME2's suicide track is definitely a theme that gets the adrenaline pumping. Supernatural's one of the only TV shows that I still watch. ~~ Seems you got to enjoy a decent amount of VNs, too. Try making a VNDB account so you can organize all of your completed VNs! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yuuko Posted April 11, 2015 Share Posted April 11, 2015 Too long didn't read all lol xD But hey welcome to the forums Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yuri Hunter Posted April 11, 2015 Share Posted April 11, 2015 I can't read this '-' but welcome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sawmacrisis Posted April 11, 2015 Share Posted April 11, 2015 i stumbled on this after searching rune factory forums glad i found is it looks pretty cool Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinovaA Posted April 11, 2015 Share Posted April 11, 2015 Welcome, welcome! Enjoy your stay! You get points in my book for having a specific section of your intro dedicated to Clannad. Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HMN Posted April 11, 2015 Share Posted April 11, 2015 welcome to Fuwa! hope you enjoy your time here! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Life Posted April 11, 2015 Share Posted April 11, 2015 Welcome to the party! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimbus Posted April 12, 2015 Share Posted April 12, 2015 Welcome to the community, feel free to ask any questions you may have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sawmacrisis Posted April 12, 2015 Share Posted April 12, 2015 oh how do u change your pic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sawmacrisis Posted April 12, 2015 Share Posted April 12, 2015 never mind Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kosakyun Posted April 12, 2015 Share Posted April 12, 2015 That was hella long. Welcome to Fuwa, boy! I do hope you're still a boy inside, even if you're 15 years older than me. <3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flutterz Posted April 14, 2015 Share Posted April 14, 2015 Welcome to the forums! Hope you enjoy your stay! That's one hell of a long post... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Posted April 14, 2015 Share Posted April 14, 2015 OMG Wall of words But hey welcome to Fuwa enjoy your stay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoulJustIn Posted April 29, 2015 Share Posted April 29, 2015 Greeting , Redemyr-san Welcome to the Fuwanovel Forums . Enjoy your stay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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