Those... are actually valid remarks. Still, I hope that you will press forward.
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Visual Novel Community Thread: No Auto Read Required
- Thread starter Vylash
- Start date
Woah, that's really weird. The sound effect quality was actually one of the noticably good things when I played it. The raindrops pattering on the glass sound very natural that at first I thought it's actually raining outside. There are also other incidental effects like door creaking and footsteps going away that sounded really great and directional.
Why would you stretch 4:3, what kind of monster are you?
Don't stretch it
Fata's art is quite detailed, I imagine stretching would RUIN it.
Also, oddly, I also recall the sound being really quite immersive. Silly question, but are you playing in the dark?
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Oof... Hopefully they'll be able to sort the both of them out... Like Shizuka says though that's not the best start to the year...
How do they even do those obscured photo backgrounds in Fata Morgana? Was probably going to do something like that when I start making my own VNs.
Since localization quality is topical, I decided to dig deeper into the backlog past some historically hyped stuff that's only half held my interest.
Now reading Fashioning Little Miss Lonesome, since it's pretty short and I figure I can finish it before Sorcery Jokers drops and I get my dose of bi-yearly chuuni wizard fight nonsense.
I feel like I should probably erect a shrine to Verdelish somewhere, because this is some of the strongest moment to moment English writing that I've ever seen in localized Japanese media. She has an inherent grasp of comedic delivery that's incredibly rare to see in the field and is serving the characters very well.
Which is to say this shit is goddamned hysterical and Ema is my spirit animal.
Guess I'm adding her to the list of localization staff for whom I'll actually consider reading or playing something entirely on name recognition, alongside the likes of Alexander O. Smith, Hatsuu, koestl, Conjueror/Gare, and a handful of other freelancers whose names are escaping me right now. I wonder if we'll ever hit a point where companies are routinely held responsible for doing subpar work, because we have some damned talented virtuosos working on niche Japanese games at this point, but the average level of quality in moment-to-moment writing (read: prose, comedic delivery and stuff--the things a localization team is directly responsible for) would still be inexcusable for native English writing and I feel sometimes like it's only accepted because of virtual Stockholm syndrome.
Now reading Fashioning Little Miss Lonesome, since it's pretty short and I figure I can finish it before Sorcery Jokers drops and I get my dose of bi-yearly chuuni wizard fight nonsense.
I feel like I should probably erect a shrine to Verdelish somewhere, because this is some of the strongest moment to moment English writing that I've ever seen in localized Japanese media. She has an inherent grasp of comedic delivery that's incredibly rare to see in the field and is serving the characters very well.
Which is to say this shit is goddamned hysterical and Ema is my spirit animal.
Guess I'm adding her to the list of localization staff for whom I'll actually consider reading or playing something entirely on name recognition, alongside the likes of Alexander O. Smith, Hatsuu, koestl, Conjueror/Gare, and a handful of other freelancers whose names are escaping me right now. I wonder if we'll ever hit a point where companies are routinely held responsible for doing subpar work, because we have some damned talented virtuosos working on niche Japanese games at this point, but the average level of quality in moment-to-moment writing (read: prose, comedic delivery and stuff--the things a localization team is directly responsible for) would still be inexcusable for native English writing and I feel sometimes like it's only accepted because of virtual Stockholm syndrome.
Why would one subject themselves to such a thing?
Toss a photograph into an image editing program, run a bunch of filters on it, and tweak the hue as desired. Often combined with layering a lower opacity texture of corroded metal or something on top of the image for added flavor. Fata Morgana makes extremely heavy use of the last bit on both its background art and in some of the character art, especially in CGs.
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I'd assume aggressive blurring + dithering + filters + extreme contrast. I don't know shit though.
I just finished fault - milestone two side:above... What a ride, can't say if better or not than part 1 but was so amazing! So much tears, tensions, sadness and laughs like first chapter... They really did fantastic job with especially lore. Can't wait to see next chapters.
I'd recommend fault - milestone for every VN fan!
I'd recommend fault - milestone for every VN fan!
Man, Mil part was so fucking intense, especially with credit arts... T-T
I'm hardly a visual novel fan, as the few that are technically VNs that I have played have had active elements, ala Danganronpa and Ace Attorney (if you can even count that).
But Steins;Gate 0 interests me. I loved the anime, so I'm interested in playing this midquel or whatever 0 is supposed to be. Are there a lot of choices to make in the game? I'm not asking for a Danganronpa style shoot em up + minigames, I just want a nice VN that also has some amount of choice and branching off points.
Same question for Chaos;Child since I just found out it's somehow in the same universe as Steins;Gate(?)
But Steins;Gate 0 interests me. I loved the anime, so I'm interested in playing this midquel or whatever 0 is supposed to be. Are there a lot of choices to make in the game? I'm not asking for a Danganronpa style shoot em up + minigames, I just want a nice VN that also has some amount of choice and branching off points.
Same question for Chaos;Child since I just found out it's somehow in the same universe as Steins;Gate(?)
Steins;Gate 0 is probably the branchiest in the Science Adventure series in terms of having a very substantial length of content in each branch. Though there aren't a huge amount of major choices.
All of the VNs in the series have some smaller choices interspersed that let you change how scenes play out, or do some small character development on the side (like in the Steins;Gate titles you can interact with other characters at certain points using your phone).
On the other hand, they're still hugely narrative focused with often long portions of reading and nothing else.
For S;G 0 not really. It does have a few choices but not so many, so the choices you do make are more impactful. calc84maniac describes it well above. Can't say for Chaos;Child. If you loved the anime though, S;G 0 would be worth the read, and you might find that to be the case for S;G, too (since it can expound on things the anime can't really due to time).
Welp, that's the end of Looking Glass Insects in Subahibi. Can't remember the last time a story in any medium fucked me up this much. Certainly blows DDLC out of the water on that front. You gotta be pretty twisted to come up with something like this. I'm jealous.
Feel like I need a break from this shit before I start the next chapter, but I want to finish it before GOTY voting closes. Guess I should work on other potential top 10 stuff like Cuphead.
After a certain point in MYTH after mostly smooth sailing I was completely and hopelessly lost with what the fuck was going on, it's a mindfuck among mindfucks but I don't really mean that in a good way......kind of........I don't fucking know....that's all I can say about MYTH.Have anyone read MYTH?
I'm a few hours in, and it is an utterly baffling experience. Loving it so far.
Thanks!
MYTH is kind of a baffling game that does a lot of weird things and plays with some interesting themes, but doesn't really stick the landing on anything.Have anyone read MYTH?
I'm a few hours in, and it is an utterly baffling experience. Loving it so far.
Thanks!
It's a real disappointment. My favorite part of the game is the cover art.
I'd post my usual rant about it but I'm about to fall asleep (which, hey, reminds me of Root Letter).
It's really disappointing and a waste of time to play. There's nothing offensive or gross about it; it's just incredibly boring with a protagonist who's a jerk for no reason. The only part I enjoyed was the true ending and some of the other what-if endings still explained the mystery in a more satisfying way than that. The localization, while not outright terrible, also isn't good, which means it's that much worse to read.
That's basically it.
07th-mod have released a couple of patches for the first version of the Chiru PS3 mod:
Just finished Chaos;Child, man what a great game. It's nearly as good as Steins;Gate.
While I am usually not into too much romance in plots I am general a sucker for emotional scenes and cry a lot when I care about the characters. So a little bit of romance is always nice to have. One specific ending in VLR brought me to tears, Steins;Gate brought me to tears and C;C as well, and that's basically my seal of approval.
It's really funny how on the surface you wouldn't expect anime to convey so many different feelings, especially sad ones. You see all these cute characters, get all the fanservice scenes when watching the positive delusions of the protagonist, but in the end you care for them and the sad scenes hit you very hard. VNs are better than books in this regard as the combination of visuals and music really enhance the experience.
Only bad thing is that it usually takes so long to finish a VN and that I heavily prefer to read on a handheld device compared to a PC while most VNs are on the PC.
Next VN is probably going to be Psycho Pass which was included on PS+ for January. I heard it's quite good, although I don't expect it to overflow me with emotions.
Edit: Oh, yeah, Hinae was probably my favorite character. Her constant trolling of Taku and everyone else was just hilarious. Her chapter was also really good, imho only Nono had a better one. Although best voice acting goes definitely to
seiyū just for her range.
While I am usually not into too much romance in plots I am general a sucker for emotional scenes and cry a lot when I care about the characters. So a little bit of romance is always nice to have. One specific ending in VLR brought me to tears, Steins;Gate brought me to tears and C;C as well, and that's basically my seal of approval.
It's really funny how on the surface you wouldn't expect anime to convey so many different feelings, especially sad ones. You see all these cute characters, get all the fanservice scenes when watching the positive delusions of the protagonist, but in the end you care for them and the sad scenes hit you very hard. VNs are better than books in this regard as the combination of visuals and music really enhance the experience.
Only bad thing is that it usually takes so long to finish a VN and that I heavily prefer to read on a handheld device compared to a PC while most VNs are on the PC.
Next VN is probably going to be Psycho Pass which was included on PS+ for January. I heard it's quite good, although I don't expect it to overflow me with emotions.
Edit: Oh, yeah, Hinae was probably my favorite character. Her constant trolling of Taku and everyone else was just hilarious. Her chapter was also really good, imho only Nono had a better one. Although best voice acting goes definitely to
Serika's
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Ditto.
I couldn't agree more about the handheld aspect. Well, let's hope that the Switch will get its fair share of visual novels (as far as I know, only Steins;Gate Elite has been announced for Japan, along Necrobarista and Kentucky Route Zero).
I am almost finished with Utawarerumono: Mask of Truth and boy what a ride this is. It seems i have taken my VN-virginity with a grand series :p
How is it? Been debating about buying it but I have been generally disappointed with VN stories (other then Steins;Gate, Ace Attorney and 999/VLR). I haven't gotten to Muv-Luv Alternative though since I couldn't slog through the first 2 parts yet.
Also, reading positive comments about Fault May finally push me to read through (have both parts on Steam).
I thought those games were turn based strategy games like Disgaea?
They're visual novels with gameplay, if you ask me. It's 80% story, 20% gameplay.
Well, you would certainly think that from watching Atlus's trailers...
Battles are like 10% of the game.
Edit: I read slowly and listen to all of the voice acting so the VN sections are comparatively longer for me, heh.
I'm going to repost a little long something I posted on Fuwanovel because I think the discussion is worth it.
@@@ SPOILER ALERT @@@
This post contains spoilers of: Katawa Shoujo, Dream Daddy, Kimi to Kanojo to Kanojo no Koi and Doki Doki Literature Club
@@@ SPOILER ALERT @@@
Here is an interesting thread on Twitter.
It argues that
- Doki Doki Literature Club succeeded as a critique/subversion of the traditional dating sim/stat juggling model, but this model has been discarded in the scene, both Japanese and Western, decades ago and only ever persists outside the genre
- Dream Daddy did the same things DDLC did and more, actively trying to avoid tropes associated with visual novels, but people criticized it and its "cult end"
- DDLC only ever succeeded and is exempt from criticism because it has cute girls, not really subverting anything as it reinforces the stereotypes even with all its shenanigans
- Thus, it shouldn't be assumed that DDLC appeals to those interested in subverting visual novels
Let's dissect these talking points, because I feel they can give us insight into what are VNs right now as a genre, particularly in the West.
So, first, let's talk about the dating sim model.
It's true that as visual novels evolved, they stripped themselves from any and all exposed mechanics (you don't see the numbers that you have to use in order to win the girls' hearts, you have to "feel it"). Flags are still a thing, of course, but several VNs came up with several solutions to try and make the immersion in the story matter more than the material act of playing, be it associating story branches to characters (Fate/Stay Night); totalizing and neutralizing player agency before proceeding with "what really matters", that is, enforcing a playing order by exhausting player possibilities (Clannad); or doing away with any kind of choice (Kinetic novels in general). Still, materializing relationships as numbers never stopped being a staple of how games deal with romance and no ove ever cared about it. Even Catherine, a game about these things, never dropped a flavored number system to determine your relationships throughout the game in favor of the player's subjectivity.
But one thing absolutely didn't change -- even in the absence of numbers, people still play to win, not to express themselves.
When Katawa Shoujo presented itself to the visual novel community as a deconstruction of the genre, it did so through the sheer power of its morals and stories. It is still, structurally, the most basic of the visual novels. The general idea behind the routes' writing is that by choosing what you'd choose in any other romance VN, you'd get a bad end. So what is subverted here is not the material act of playing, but the values you put in and get back by playing. What Four Leaf Studios never expected was that the great majority of players wouldn't play according to a supposed self that was in line with other visual novels (as in, men thought they should save women and that's why they picked choices accordingly), but according to the rules the game presented; most people, even seasoned visual novel players, got good endings the first time they played. The common story about the game isn't of getting the face smashed in by a bad ending and learning from that, but is that of adapting to the values and rules the game had in order to win, due to our notion that a good ending is a truer ending than a bad or a neutral one. That is to say, the moral values were always second to the rules of the game, even when the bad is more "genuine" to you and your choices.
So by subverting values but not rules, Katawa Shoujo ended up not being a subversion at all. What's more, we learned something about games: we'll assimilate a game way before we'll try to make it assimilate us to see what happens. And that means we'll be sociopaths, as has been pointed out by Dream Daddy developers.
So here, this will start to get complicated. The developer tried, in Dream Daddy, to address inherent values of the material act of playing, or at least how he perceives them. So in Dream Daddy, you choose who you'd like to date so as not to fuel players' unavoidable sociopathy. Also, the game tries to deny the players the feeling that good ends are necessarily about conquering love and also that they are more valid to the game's system than bad endings. In short, "winning" not necessarily meant "good things happening", as we're all aware is the case with many visual novels the cool guys like to call utsuge, but necessarily meant "choosing to win", which is not the case of said visual novels. Dream Daddy does dismantle the genre's traditional structure at first, but untimately its subversion lies in values.
The important point to discuss here is that, while the stereotypes associated with visual novels -- that they are romance games made to satisfy desires by allowing a player to date whoever they want -- were challenged as values in most successful Western visual novels. Most prominent titles try their best to be unconvential. In fact, there's no successful conventional visual novel made by Western developers. The closest the community has ever had to offer in this aspect was -- oops! Huniepop, which is not a visual novel but a full-on dating sim, accepting the mechanical nature of love in games and embracing it as much as its budget and (probably) the law allowed. The rules behind how values are accepted by players in visual novels were never really challenged.
Not until Doki Doki Literature Club.
The Untranslated VN Club had already seen Kimi to Kanojo to Kanojo no Koi, sure. KKKK is a game in which winning ultimately depends on deleting an entire route and character from the system and this is done through a lot of shenanigans that don't really matter here, but that escape the traditional magic circle. One of the characters talks to you as a player, you're forced to go through a rape/NTR scene simply because it's on the gallery and you have to complete the gallery to continue and, in the end, the girl you don't choose is completely erased from existence, forever. This can be seen in a number of ways. It's a very extreme tactic to make immersion in the story overcome the system, the final frontier of visual novels' history of rejecting numbers by finally accepting but swallowing them, as the system as a whole and the material act of playing are now part of the story; it's also a very casual dismissal of any value the player may want to put in the game, since you absolutely have to win, you have to choose everything in order to progress even in you don't like it and there's a confluence of good and bad endings: the good ending of a girl is necessarily the bad ending of the other. No excuses, no mercy; it's the strongest attempt in visual novels yet, after all, to try to make the player "feel it", the romance, even beyond the ability or will to win.
However, KKKK is still still bound by its own rules.
The mechanical nature of love was finally accepted, but ultimately the game still tries to dissociate its values from the fact that you're playing. Doki Doki Literature Club doesn't. DDLC first accepts the mechanical nature of its system, but places winning as a value within the story, not the other way around. Winning is how you get closer to the characters, even if the game has to completely ignore the traditional systems, stat juggling or otherwise, it first presented to you. And the characters never try to be more than files in a folder. In fact, it's by laying its numbers completely bare once again (though not really; as far as I know ren'py games don't have .chr files for characters. They're just dummies) that Doki Doki Literature Club subverted the rules of visual novels although it didn't subvert or even try to subvert its values. After all, maybe cute sad girls helped, and we already have lots of cute sad girls around. What DDLC did, though, was present them to you as rules, as numbers, not as moral or romantic values. By burning the rules into its skin, Doki Literature Club subverted them. And to subvert the material act of playing is universal -- it's not restricted to a genre, people don't really care if they're psycopaths here or elsewhere. This is the real reason why it appeals to more people, people who don't really care what visual novels are usually like. Where every other deconstruction tried to hide their nature as games, DDLC embraced it, and this is why it succeeded. I'm not saying it's the greatest, not at all. Far, far from that. Including and especially Katawa Shoujo, there are a lot of visual novels made in the West that are better. However, Doki Doki Literature Club may be the first true Western visual novel.
(Or maybe it's all just because it's free.)
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That's an amazing write-up, Palas . Thank you. I'll need to brood a bit over it, but I get the gist of what you're saying- practically all other visual novels/games lead you toward some sort of progress, development, or ending- that you're *supposed* to get, but DDLC subverts that by making the very act of continuing to play detrimental to everything, and it isn't what the game wants you to see or do. The very act of winning, the very act of playing, is the moral stance the audience takes. At least that's how I understood it.
Also, don't forget the spoiler alerts. :)
Also, don't forget the spoiler alerts. :)
I don't want to be dismissive or rude, but I could barely follow that by the end and I've reread the last part several times. Are you saying DDLC is subversive because it's so simplistic that its characters are just a means to an end?
I would argue that the reason it's popular is that it's free, it's horror that plays well for streaming, and the horror also lets people go "Oh, it's not really some of that anime garbage" (is this what you meant by calling it "the first true Western visual novel"?), mixed with the cute girls for waifu wars nonsense fuel for those who actually do already like anime/VNs. I absolutely think people do care "if they're psychopaths" - I've seen numerous people act like the content warnings alone make it ~fucked up~ and cool, let alone the actual execution of any of that. But I'll be the first to admit that I'm also cynical and do not like the game that much, which means maybe I'm being too harsh on it.
I'd also note that you throw that Dream Daddy quote in there as if it's apt, and not something that got them heavily criticized at the time for a judgemental lack of understanding of other VNs (where, say, the game might intend for you to see everyone's true endings, building up to a final route). I see your overall point there, though, even if I don't agree with it.
(And finally, I do appreciate the link to the original Twitter thread, as I appreciated their critique too.)
I would argue that the reason it's popular is that it's free, it's horror that plays well for streaming, and the horror also lets people go "Oh, it's not really some of that anime garbage" (is this what you meant by calling it "the first true Western visual novel"?), mixed with the cute girls for waifu wars nonsense fuel for those who actually do already like anime/VNs. I absolutely think people do care "if they're psychopaths" - I've seen numerous people act like the content warnings alone make it ~fucked up~ and cool, let alone the actual execution of any of that. But I'll be the first to admit that I'm also cynical and do not like the game that much, which means maybe I'm being too harsh on it.
I'd also note that you throw that Dream Daddy quote in there as if it's apt, and not something that got them heavily criticized at the time for a judgemental lack of understanding of other VNs (where, say, the game might intend for you to see everyone's true endings, building up to a final route). I see your overall point there, though, even if I don't agree with it.
(And finally, I do appreciate the link to the original Twitter thread, as I appreciated their critique too.)
In my opinion as a novice of the genre itself but an avid player of story-focused JRPG's up to this point it is amazing. I find it hard to think of a description of the game because i feel like all of it would be spoiling the general outlines of the plot. The world itself is very interesting being set in a post-apocalyptic world that is now roamed by demihumans after humanity perished. Humanity was more advanced than our current civilisation but there are still traces of their heritage left around the world. Mask of Deception is very character driven to create bonds between all characters at play leading to the cliffhanger ending which will lead immediately into Mask of Truth which fleshes out characters and relations further but it is not the main focus due to the setting of the story it starts in and will go in.
What i want to say is that the writing is exceptional, the localisation seems to be done with utmost care which helps a lot. Every character is very fleshed out, dimensional, some tropes happen as they are nigh inevitable nowadays but the characters rise above said tropes. Pacing wise i MoD tends to be structured with a story segment > slice of life segments (basically bonding events) > story segment > slice of life segment > story segment with battle. All in variable length and balance. The later you get in the game story segments are longer and slice of life is shorter. I think i would balance it about 40% story 50% slice of life and maybe 10% of battles. Said battles are following an sRPG scheme and quite sparse in general, it usually would take more than three hours to reach a fight segment. MoT has a lot more Story segment and more battles too. If you worry about the battles i personally find them a lot of fun because of the variety in playstyle you can adapt to.
I am not very familiar with DDS but I was under the impression it is just a western made yaoi dating sim where you created your own dad to date the other dads. I heard that it had a cult ending, but I never came across any in dept criticism of the ending and just took it as a joke ending. DDLC is at first glance a heterosexual dating sim/vn, which broadens its market, and once the word go out that it was more than just that, it broaden the market more to even those who do not care for typical vns. The DDLC subreddit actually did a demographic survey which we got the results to recently. While the survey is skewed more towards the general reddit demographics, it does show that most players are straight males who were introduced to it by a YouTuber or friend. The survey had a question about other vns and Katawa Shoujo was the most named title (666) while DDS had 41. The second title was Steins;Gate at 217 for reference.
I did add them sowwy :<
Also yes, when playing by itself becomes a choice within the game, we can start talking about subversion.
Acknowledging its own system is anything but simplistic though. Uh, let me quote something else I just said about the issue here:
No -- there are a lot of EVNs that ditch anything even remotely related to anime. My favorite among them are Solstice and Cave! Cave! Deus Videt. But they live in the shadow of VNs, acting as counterpoints to them while not really building a ground for themselves or being made with mechanics made for or because of the audience we have here or the conjuncture we have here. Any VN can be as anime garbage as it wants, that's not really the point.
Being a "psychopath", in this case, is anything but being a psychopath. Playing according to the rules you've perceived in the game and because of the game is morally detached from your normal self. It's like when you wield a cursed sword in an RPG and don't (morally) care about it being cursed until the game somehow reacts to it with numbers. You're still the hero of the story, after all, and in the end it boils down to it wielding a cursed sword being worth it or not.
I don't understand how the reaction to the quote is important, though.
It's good critique.
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The cult (EDIT: whoops typo) end (which is not accessible normally; I believe it was either removed or meant to be a Halloween bonus thing?) was actually a big scandal. When the script was discovered in the game's files, some fans of the game reacted badly to it because (if I'm remembering correctly) they felt it was mean spirited and turned the relevant character into a villain?
Perhaps making it relevant to this discussion, it personally felt like people not familiar with joke/noncanon ends feeling betrayed by a game suddenly having one?
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Thank you for letting me know! Interestingly enough, when I searched Google about it one of the prefill results was about it being noncannon, so perhaps you are onto something there.
Meh, personally I think DDLC got popular because 1) It's free 2) It has cute girls in it (Somehow it managed to grab the attention of people into waifus despite the cast being intentionally awful) and more importantly 3) It caught the attention of several Youtubers that spread word of mouth.
It's pretty much "first meta visual novel" for quite a lot of people.
It's pretty much "first meta visual novel" for quite a lot of people.
Well, that's quite intriguing. Going to put it on my wishlist on Amazon/PSN. I am certainly not worried about battle segments as I love SRPGs ad log as they are done right. Heck I would have preferred a heavier tilt toward SRPG sections.
Edit: Amazon has the physical version for $28. Going to grab it.
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The SRPG sections are deeper than you might think, though I feel like they don't really get their chance to shine until Mask of Truth. I didn't really play the post-game levels in either game, though.
Sting makes great SRPGs (...mostly), and while neither game's story campaign has a large amount of fights, once you toss in post-game they're pretty robust and elegantly designed SRPGs even by the criteria of someone who'd skip the story segments (which you obviously shouldn't).
They're simple, but it's because they cut a lot of the superfluous mechanical fluff that much of the genre is known for without really losing anything in encounter design in the process, not because they're badly made or "dumbed down." Each character is very distinct, and the skill design is strikingly unique compared to the norm, with every character's skillset being small, but none of those skills duplicating another's function or serving no purpose as you often find in games that are more complex. Several characters don't really come into their own until the back half of the pair of games, granted, but every one of them ultimately has some kind of distinguishing mechanic or quirk shared by nobody else in the cast.
I have an extremely high opinion of them both narratively and as games, even if the two aspects kind of run counter to one another sometimes with periodic stretches of "oh god another three hours of talking?!" or an occasional "why is there another fight now, get back to the talking!".
They're simple, but it's because they cut a lot of the superfluous mechanical fluff that much of the genre is known for without really losing anything in encounter design in the process, not because they're badly made or "dumbed down." Each character is very distinct, and the skill design is strikingly unique compared to the norm, with every character's skillset being small, but none of those skills duplicating another's function or serving no purpose as you often find in games that are more complex. Several characters don't really come into their own until the back half of the pair of games, granted, but every one of them ultimately has some kind of distinguishing mechanic or quirk shared by nobody else in the cast.
I have an extremely high opinion of them both narratively and as games, even if the two aspects kind of run counter to one another sometimes with periodic stretches of "oh god another three hours of talking?!" or an occasional "why is there another fight now, get back to the talking!".
Finished up MYTH and the various side-stories.
I don't think that the "mindfucks" were necessarily poorly executed or incomprehensible, in fact trying to pierce everything together was quite enjoyable. However, I do agree that the conclusion was somewhat lackluster. The story just seemed to peter out at the end. That said, I think it is a VN that I will have to return to later and try to systematically connect the dots from start to finish.
I also gotta add that the music was really good. The main theme fit the mood of the game eminently well.
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Been wanting to ask this for some time.
Does MoD / MoT suffer from the same issue Tears to Tiara 2 does? Namely, pretty rough, late PS2 / early PS3-gen looking 3D along with possibly performance issues in the battles? Fairly sure Sting worked with Aquaplus on that as well so I'm wondering if perhaps they were able to improve on it in the time between releases.
It's by no means a looker from a technical perspective, but it runs smoothly (at least on PS4), has solid art design and animation work in its attacks, and most importantly has a much better, more streamlined UI (though you can toggle it to use a standard, more menu heavy SRPG UI if you want to for some insane reason). Ironically it's the plot segments that I noticed a few brief performance issues in a handful of times, not the gameplay.
Included below is a video of all the finishers in the first of the two games just as a visual showcase. I'd uh, be careful of related video thumbnails and stuff if I were you, though. If you're gonna look at it maybe do so embedded and don't watch the whole thing.
If you played Tears 2 my biggest criticism of the game will have better context. The game has rewind but no scoring or bonus objective system, meaning that it has all of the forgiveness of being able to rewind whenever you want without the "puzzles" of trying to S Rank a map, which was often challenging enough to make you thankful for the rewind function, and kept things engaging despite it.
Enemies are balanced such in late game (read: mass AoE one shots, especially on Hard) that it's difficult to completely forego ever rewinding unless you really like replaying fights a lot, but at the same time without that extra level of imposed challenge it kinda just makes the entire thing feel wonky to a degree. Like it's easy but the kind of easy where you fail a lot and failure just doesn't mean anything.
I really enjoyed S Ranking Tears 2 on a mechanical level, and it was a shame Utawarerumono didn't present the same engaging challenge.
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The Vita version has some performance problems when doing effects-heavy moves. But at least you can instantly rewind any flubbed timing.
I am stretching it because Im playing on my surface.
And before that I played Bai Qu and Companion and compared to that the 1 hour of Fata Morgana, just from a technical perspective, seem really outdated. In Bai Qu e.g. when you are in the room, you have background noises, you can hear the TV of your neighbour, while left of you in the appartment you can her a couple arguing in a damped way, in the 1 hour of Fata Morgana it was just songs right now that repeat themselves pretty obviously.
Keep in mind that I am not saying its bad, just compared to other VNs I am reading right now, the technical site of the game feels a bit outdated.
And before that I played Bai Qu and Companion and compared to that the 1 hour of Fata Morgana, just from a technical perspective, seem really outdated. In Bai Qu e.g. when you are in the room, you have background noises, you can hear the TV of your neighbour, while left of you in the appartment you can her a couple arguing in a damped way, in the 1 hour of Fata Morgana it was just songs right now that repeat themselves pretty obviously.
Keep in mind that I am not saying its bad, just compared to other VNs I am reading right now, the technical site of the game feels a bit outdated.
Interesting comments about MoD, I am more justified now for adding onto the backlog! I do hope storytelling/writing/characters are good as I have yet to encounter that post Steins;Gate (maybe I will try Chaos;Child eventually).
I actually may have Tears to Tiara 2 still in shrink wrap come to think of it. Grabbed it a while back for pennies and never got to it. Might have to give that a try as well.
I actually may have Tears to Tiara 2 still in shrink wrap come to think of it. Grabbed it a while back for pennies and never got to it. Might have to give that a try as well.
They're excellent. I like them better than the S;G crew, but that's likely due to the setting being one I tend to prefer.