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Buzzi

Member
Oct 25, 2017
55
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.

Yeah, pretty much. I mean, it actually does very little never before seen in this medium, and to reach that little you have to go through at least two hours of absolutely boring stuff which didn't seem well executed neither in foreshadowing what's gonna happen (it throws it into your face when loading and then waits too much to actually deliver something).
Nothing wrong with it, especially because it does
good tease for an interesting future project
, but the clamour it caused is quite strange considering we had similar things for years either in tone (Higurashi) or execution (MYTH). That bit of gameplay and F2P nature is enough for most to switch from "VNs are not games and I don't read on PC" to actually play and enjoy so much one of them?
 

Myradeer

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,427
Canada
Yeah, pretty much. I mean, it actually does very little never before seen in this medium, and to reach that little you have to go through at least two hours of absolutely boring stuff which didn't seem well executed neither in foreshadowing what's gonna happen (it throws it into your face when loading and then waits too much to actually deliver something).
Nothing wrong with it, especially because it does
good tease for an interesting future project
, but the clamour it caused is quite strange considering we had similar things for years either in tone (Higurashi) or execution (MYTH). That bit of gameplay and F2P nature is enough for most to switch from "VNs are not games and I don't read on PC" to actually play and enjoy so much one of them?
To be fair, F2P aspect is big. I consider myself heavy Visual Novel consumer but even I deliberate hard before making a purchase. The fact that it's free was probably significant factor in getting average gamers (most which even dismiss walking simulators) to give it a try.

Also it probably helps that Doki Doki is legitimately scary. I mean, I've played lot of "horror" visual novels but most of them are laughable or ridiculous... you'd think greater focus on narrative and ability to incorporate audiovisual medium would allow visual novel to be excellent method to convey terror, but only few contain real atmosphere building or well-executed jump scares. And some VN keeps getting recommended as horror when the title barely focuses on one (I'm looking at you Fata Morgana).
 

Aters

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
7,948
Started Fata Morgana, played for about 1 hour.

The "technical" stuff seems really... bad.
While it shows to play with headphones, the sound doesnt feel like its made for that? In other modern VNs, even Indie VNs, you have sound-effects, background sounds that sound natural. In Fata Morgana it seems its just songs on repeat. It doesnt feel like its "surround" sound at all. Also no VAs.
The game runs in 4:3, which looks kinda bad stretched.

If you are used to other modern VNs, it feels a bit outdated tbh.

Um, the thing is, it is an indie VN.
 
Oct 27, 2017
1,734
Hey guys
I have Chaos Child on Ps vita
Is it normal that the skip function skip text even though it's the first time I read it ? (Also I tested both of the dedicated options).

Thanks
 

Lusankya

Member
Oct 27, 2017
601
Hey guys
I have Chaos Child on Ps vita
Is it normal that the skip function skip text even though it's the first time I read it ? (Also I tested both of the dedicated options).

Thanks

No, it's not normal. L will force skip everything, while R should only skip already read text. Check the options if it's set this way as you can also set R to skip everything.
 

ShyMel

Moderator
Oct 31, 2017
3,483
When you say both options, do you mean both skip buttons? On the PS4 I know L1 skips everything, R1 is regular skip unless changed in the settings. Maybe the Vita has a similar setup?
 
Oct 27, 2017
1,734
Yeah R button is auto skip
And L button is skip so it stops when you release it

But I don't understand why it skips unread text.
 

Myradeer

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,427
Canada
Oh, Socery Joker is being released within a week? That's great to hear. I would easily recommend this title to anyone who likes chuuni.
 
Oct 25, 2017
3,784
Finished the Jabberwocky chapter in Subahibi. Nothing really mind blowing there, just going more in-depth with stuff that was already implied in the previous chapters while hinting at new mysteries that are still unclear.

I didn't realize how long this VN would be.
 

rickyson33

Banned
Nov 23, 2017
3,053
finally getting into umineko after doing the first half hour or so a month ago then stopping

finished the first episode and the "prologue" of the second so far and so far so good for the most part,although that pre airport section of the second dragged on a bit too long and it does feel like all this witch stuff will get on my nerves eventually

it's certainly been tough to put down thus far overall though
 
Oct 25, 2017
3,784
Finished Subahibi and... I really have no idea what to think of that ending. Pretty much none of my questions were answered with any kind of clarity. Reminds me of how much the lack of answers in Umineko pissed me off, but this is worse as at least that has a "canon" explanation that you can find with supplemental material, but this is just super-open ended, possibly to the point of being unfinished.

It's a shame how underwhelmed I was by the latter portions of the story because there were some legitimate high points in the middle that seemed to be building toward something much greater.
The shared experience between Zakuro and her suicide friends as well as Takuji somehow seeing their final moments despite her not being one of his personalities is what had me the most curious, but if it's really just Ayana being a crazy person creating stories in her mind, then that would be extremely disappointing.

I also feel like they REALLY overdid it with the existentialism. You can only talk about the meaning of the sky and relate it to vague concepts that philosophers from the 15th century came up with for so many hours before it descends into total gibberish. You don't need to tell me what shared consciousness means for the 80th time when I just want to know what happens in the story!

On top of all that, I think my desire for some very harsh catharsis kind of soured me here too, but that's more me being very particular about consequences for some truly hateful villains that have honestly made me more angry than any in recent history.
Yes, Shiroyama died by falling off the roof and Nishimura died from the stab wounds, but they deserved MUCH harsher punishment than that unless Shiroyama being tortured as a ghost actually happened and wasn't just Takuji's delusions. And yes, Tomosane regularly beat the shit out of them and took their drugs, but that didn't stop them from doing truly heinous shit like raping Zakuro. Tomosane should have fucking ripped off all their dicks and shoved them down their mouths the second he was "born". And where the hell was Numada's punishment? If he took part in the mass suicide, I wanted to see that and his face twisted in despair, but the guy just straight up disappeared when he was arguably the second worst after Shiroyama for taking part in Zakuro's rape. And this is all before we get into Megu and Satoko. Those bitches deserved what Senagawa got, not to be forgiven by Takuji, who had the right idea with those constant texts. By the time they actually died, they were too far gone to even care, making it far less satisfying.

I'm also not the biggest fan of the way the Takuji personality was portrayed (not real Takuji, he can go fuck himself). The story pretty much concluded that the guy was a monster, but he was mostly just a meek, awkward kid despite his bitterness and misanthropy, at least before he lost it with the cult shit. And even if he didn't get it as bad as Zakuro, he's also a victim of sexual assault and yet he never actually understands the revenge being dished out because Tomosane makes his life hell too, at least in his mind. But he's not portrayed as some disturbed youth with nobody on his side, he's portrayed as an awful person with no redeeming factors, all while the "true hero" is a massive bully to him. It just rubs me the wrong way.

So all in all, it has some high highs, but the overall experience is kind of meh. Might put it in my honorable mentions for 2017, but I doubt it would reach my top 10.

Amazing soundtrack though.
 
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deepFlaw

Knights of Favonius World Tour '21
Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,512
Root Letter "franchise"? A sequel? Why? Who wanted this?

I mean, it was always promised as a series, right? The characters are actually "actors" who would be reused in different games but with the same voice/appearance (there's some stuff you can unlock that's comments by these "actors"), with each game focusing on a different Japanese town as well.

I thought that part of it was really cool.

The game itself was... decidedly not.
 

Myradeer

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,427
Canada
I actually woule have considered Root Letter more favourably if it ditched side routes entirely and gave full attention to the main route. The game does each route is its unique universe! thing like Kamaitachi and Hayarigami where setting (such as character background and **personality**) and even genre varies between the routes, which I personally do not like because it harms consistency.
 
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Dandy Crocodile

Community Resetter
Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,742
The characters are actually "actors" who would be reused in different games but with the same voice/appearance (there's some stuff you can unlock that's comments by these "actors"), with each game focusing on a different Japanese town as well.
How many times did I play through the game for the Platinum and I STILL managed to either completely miss this or subconsciously force myself to forget it.
 

deepFlaw

Knights of Favonius World Tour '21
Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,512
I actually woule have considered Root Letter more favourably if it ditched side routes entirely and gave full attention to the main route. The game does each route is its unique universe! thing like Kamaitachi and Hayarigami where setting (such as character background and **personality**) and even genre varies between the routes, which I personally do not like because it harms consistency.

I don't know if they could have done the main route justice even then given just how bad it was, but I can agree that the side routes/endings are bad.

Some of them are ridiculously different in tone, some of them just aren't good, and even worse some of them have a better answer to the mystery than the true ending which made seeing the actual canon answer extra disappointing.

And all of them are annoying to replay to see.

In my opinion, if you wanna do quirky side stuff like this, make it post-True ending and make it actually change the game early on and just head into a side thing then.

How many times did I play through the game for the Platinum and I STILL managed to either completely miss this or subconsciously force myself to forget it.
Well I do not think you had to listen to any of the extra stuff (where this is discussed) for the platinum so there's that.

Yeah, it only comes up in-game at that point, but it was also heavily advertised pre-release, as they slowly, slowly announced each character/actor and talked up that aspect of the series.

It was part of why I was looking forward to the game.

I have so much regret.
 

Myradeer

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,427
Canada
I mean, putting same characters on different setting and looking at how they behave is fun concept (in fact, I think observing how characters behave differently according to changing situation can be major attraction of multiple routes when it's used for purposes other than "waifu" selector).

It's just that I do not anticipate Root Letter to utilize out the concept well, when character A does not have much similarity even between side routes within the game. Watching character act as police in one game(route), become gangster in another game(route) has appeal only when these two characters share basic principles that represent the character; he/she may have different background that may justify deviations in their action, but I expect them to possess one major common similarity - putting two characters that look the same, but have different personality and beliefs, is NOT good utilization. For example, if you advertise Phoenix Wright will be a major character in another game, but don't have him pursue truth or justice in some way, is there even point in putting him into this new environment?

Since they emphasize heavily on "actor" aspect (job which covers different roles), I guess they find these differences are the point. That having character A be completely be different person in another game adds shock factor or something? The lack of unity just makes me not interested in them to begin with, however, and honestly feels like a gimmick.
 

Deleted member 8861

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
10,564
mangagamer had their first status update

fatamoru fandisk is 58% edited

tsumihoroboshi (higurashi 6th chapter) is heading into beta testing finally. thank fuck

maggot baits is 69% translated lol
 

Deleted member 1055

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
770
The official response makes it sound like some sort technical issue, but it could easily be because them messing around with the publisher:
muvluvsas3e.png

http://steamcommunity.com/app/449830/discussions/0/3277925755440829194/
https://steamcommunity.com/app/449840/discussions/0/3277925755440832418/
 

weblaus

Member
Oct 27, 2017
944
So I got Psycho Pass on vita thanks to PS+, should I watch the anime before ? Thanks.

I've played it without having seen the anime and I feel I got the gist of things, but also that it's probably better if I did know more about it before - maybe I would have found the VN better then, because as a stand-alone experience I found it to be rather average.
 

Lain

Self-Requested Ban
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
1,068
So I got Psycho Pass on vita thanks to PS+, should I watch the anime before ? Thanks.
You should watch both seasons of the anime because the anime is great.
You could also read the manga adaption if you'd like, as it's a perfect 1:1 of the anime (at least for Season 1).
 

TinfoilHatsROn

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
3,119
Just finished Muv-Luv Extra and Unlimited and started the beginning of Alternative.

I can't believe I did a 180 on Takeru from the beginning of Extra to the end of Unlimited. He finally matured while keeping in character, from a harem protagonist sterotype to an actual character with depth. Well, a tiny bit of depth, surface level really. But it's a huge improvement when I can tolerate his rambling now.

I can't help but feel knots in my stomach when starting this. Not just from the hype but because the plot is finally popping off!

So playing Extra introduced me to all of the heroines and I... Well, tolerated most of the ridiculous aspects of the novel. It played out like a textbook example of Anime Harem Heroines, right down to the Rich Girl Who Falls In Love With A Rando Because He Was There As A Kid and The Cute Girl Next Door Who Secretly Loved MC The Whole Time. I had to take a minute to decide whether or not to actually continue Extra when it revealed that Meiya created a mansion after buying up all the houses.

You either bought into it or didn't so I decided to roll with it. It's a fairly average VN at that, choose a girl you wanna end up with, but the main two are the ones with the most screentime. Good production values though, enjoyed the music, VA, and art, even if it wasn't my particular taste. Typical events like cooking, sports club, whatever. I wished that it expanded more on Sumika's feelings of being a third wheel in a relationship and accepting it. That's an interesting perspective with this situation, how can she compare? It touches on this but I just wish it expanded on it a bit more. That was the most interesting part!

Muv Luv Extra - 5/10

Unlimited was where the story got interesting. I enjoyed Takeru's physical and emotional evolution as he accepted that he was stuck in this crazy world. Starting with the brutal training cause he was just an unfit dumbass. Learning how a gun works by taking it apart and putting it back together, building up his stamina, being fed large portions cause he was so skinny... All that's typical Character Buildup, right? The part of the Hero's Journey where he or she learns to become the badass they're supposed to be. But it's still satisfying to see even if it is just another iteration of that trope.

The VN kept me hooked by slipping small tidbits of information and letting me question the rest. Where is Sumika? Who is Kasumi? Is she a robot? Sumika and Kasumi are connected right? The lore of the world was also interesting and it was fun spotting the differences and similarities of the two worlds.

I enjoyed the character building that went on in the Visual Novel. But! The pacing is slow and having played Extra the situations and tropes are easy to spot. For example, the Class Rep and Ayamine fighting each other and learning to work together to succeed was incredibly predictable. Then jump skip 2 years later! What. The character journey was the important part for me.

Muv Luv Unlimited - 7/10

I can't wait to start it! Already there's some intrigue in Alternative.

I was debating on starting a thread for my Alternative reactions since I'm a first timer and this is one of the big ones that has some crazy stuff goin' down. Dunno if that's too narcissitic though...

I've been meaning to finish a lot of VNs I bought and started, but life gets in the way and then I have to restart to catch up. That's me though.
 

jonjonaug

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,700
So I got Psycho Pass on vita thanks to PS+, should I watch the anime before ? Thanks.
The game assumes that you've watched the first season of the anime. There are extra scenes in both scenarios with every individual member of the season one cast (including the main antagonist) that offer more details on both the characters and the setting, and these are meant to build upon what you would already know from watching the show. Some of the endings (especially the best ones) will also spoil many plot developments in the show and kind of assume that you already know their significance while also playing with expectations you may have from watching the anime.

Honestly I was surprised that it was licensed and released, these sorts of "visual novel expansions" to existing anime/manga/light novel properties are pretty common but we almost never get them. They also usually kinda suck too. But we got the Psycho-Pass one for some reason and it's also pretty good.