Visual Novel Community Thread: No Auto Read Required

ZKenir · Aug 1, 2020

MangaGamer:

Room No. 9 launches next Thursday on MangaGamer store and Steam (10% discount pre order on MG)

Other titles:

Sona-Nyl of the Violet Shadows: 100% translated and 100% edited. "Refrain" bonus content 76% translated.
Rance Quest Magnum: Wrapping up beta
Rance 02: Out of beta
Fxxx Me Royally!! Horny Magical Princess: Now in beta
MUSICUS, AKA Secret Project #1: 100% translated and edited. Image editing in progress

---------------------------------------------------------
Nekonyan:

Hello Lady! -Superior Entelecheia- Translation & Edit 100% QA 50% Engine work still in progress by the dev.
Riddle Joker 90% Translated, 90% Edited QA 35%
Kinkoi: Golden Loveriche 85% Translated, 45% Editing Engine port to Unity in progress - playable test version soon!
IxShe Tell 100% Translated, 100% Edited QA 70%
Aokana Extra 1 90% Translated, 50% Edited
Melty Moment 35% Translated

edit: removed embedded tweet to avoid people clicking on MG website by mistake

Lavenza · Aug 1, 2020

Dee Dee said:
impressions

Thanks for sharing! Do hope you can tell us more about how you feel about the game when you're further in.

Am definitely interested to get it since i love the game's concept/presentation. Only thing holding me back atm is the price point and having no idea about the developer's track record.

AllenShrz · Aug 2, 2020

Done with Muv Luv extra and unlimited.

Now off to the main dish -Alternative- I hope it lives to hype.

Kind of funny that Im using a PC with a ryzen 3900x, 1080ti, 32' 4k monitor, 32GB ram, 5TB of m.2, water cooling with LCD display and all RGBed to death to play a VMs that can run on a potatoPC.

Dee Dee · Aug 3, 2020

Buried Stars impressions Pt II.:

I got the first "Normal End", which after getting into a new path on my second playthrough I suspect is the forced outcome on your first playthrough. I think it took around 8 hours.
It was... sure something. Felt the urge to hug some plushies after that one - I've seen Bad Ends that were more life affirming than this "Normal End". *sob*

The game made sure to really hammer home where I went wrong - my sanity meter was too low to deal with the shit it threw at me.
The game lets you do a "New Game+" kinda run (999 flashbacks...) where you have the benefit of seeing the effect on your rapport level for each conversation topic you tried before with each character. (The rapport level is like Persona's S-Rank where you unlock special scenes with each character when reaching a specific point.)
Unfortunately you do NOT see the effect on sanity, so my second run consisted of me starting an overly complicated spreadsheet to keep track of who keeps tanking my sanity by being a negative Nancy (fvcking Seil!!).

I branched of the "Normal End" path now and I'm doing murder mystery investigations full force, awesome.

An issue I have so far, is that you can only save and load during the conversation scenes, which makes reloading to retry specific stuff in other options a pain in the ass.
The Fast Forward however is quick and painless BUT it also skips NEW DIALOGUE, which is awful. I nearly missed a completely new bit in the New Game+ playthrough around the time you first discover the first victim. (A bit that clearly plays a big role and that ended up saving me from another Normal End as well.)

Anyway, I'm still massively enjoying it, and I really hope the non-normal end has slightly less casualties, ouf.

Noire · Aug 3, 2020

Dee Dee I've been playing Buried Stars too and really enjoying it, but I am way behind you right now probably in terms of progression. I am pretty sure I had subtitles for recordings in game. Probably some option in setting for it ?

Dany1899 · Aug 3, 2020

Dee Dee said:
The game lets you do a "New Game+" kinda run (999 flashbacks...)

So in this game isn't there a flowchart you can watch, showing how routes branch after a decision for example?

Dee Dee · Aug 3, 2020

Noire said:
Dee Dee I've been playing Buried Stars too and really enjoying it, but I am way behind you right now probably in terms of progression. I am pretty sure I had subtitles for recordings in game. Probably some option in setting for it ?

Yes, you're right.
When I first got access to the phone, I only checked the recordings in the ring tones (you can set them as ringtones), and they weren't subtitled there.
I didn't think to check them again in the "recordings" app, where they have subtitles!

Dany1899 said:
So in this game isn't there a flowchart you can watch, showing how routes branch after a decision for example?

No flowchart, at least none I've seen. You get "achievements" that tell you you reached a branched path, and your conversations and profile additions are stored in a specific new section in the collection. But it doesn't tell you where you branched of or lets you easily redo the section.
I have a feeling it's more like the first 999 (on DS, with no flowchart) where you will end up replaying the game a bunch and it will change simply because you replay it.
Since you build rapport levels, some ends might be locked behind maxing out rapport with certain characters - it doesn't easily let you check those levels though, it's just indicating whether rapport is high or low somewhat, but not in detail so you don't know how far off you are from unlocking a rapport event (which is helpful, since those restore some sanity).

I only reached one end yet, it might get more obvious when stuff branches out later in the game (kinda like how it was obvious in Steins;Gate maybe?). I don't think I've hit any big decision points since the initial replay to get past the first normal end yet. I know for sure that the main character ignored some stuff automatically that I didn't want them to ignore, that's why I get the feeling I'll have to replay this again at least once (next time letting me take action) for a better ending soon.

Deleted member 48434 · Aug 4, 2020

Vylash said:
We've got an official discord! quote this post for the link

[Hidden content]

Edit: Seems it's dead.
Aww.

Dee Dee · Aug 4, 2020

I should have made the OT for Buried Stars, damn it.
Unfortunately that means I'll keep ranting here for now.

I unlocked a rapport event with Gyu-hyuk Lee that hit too close to home for me. I didn't expect them to unnerve me so with real world problems of the stars, but they sure did.
God, I hope he doesn't die soon, I am now way too invested in his wellbeing.

I'm apparently on "Route A" and everything went from "Murder Mystery with Detective Do-yoon" to "Do-yoon fights trolls on Twitter by analyzing photo metadata". And... it's pretty awesome so far.
They pace it really well, you don't get to think about inconsistencies or issues long enough until they give you something else to dwell over, which should allow for some pretty interesting reveals later on, when all the stuff I am ignoring now eventually comes back to bite me in the ass.

I also appreciate the little visual flairs they put in the portraits. The main character put his watch down and stared into the void a bit when he argued with someone on messenger, and I... felt that exhaustion in his face.
When you talk to someone, they often put the back of your head in the shot as well, and they put a little view of your facial expression in the upper corner at times to give you a better understanding of the presence and feelings of your character in the conversation. It just feels really good to see the characters react to the topics.

--

I really need to get on Raging Loop after this, don't I?

Shizuka · Aug 4, 2020

Dee Dee People have been asking for impressions here, maybe you could share them there for those people as well: https://www.resetera.com/threads/ko...wide-for-switch-ps4-vita-on-july-30th.247579/

AllenShrz · Aug 4, 2020

10 hrs in Muv Luv alternative..............

Nothing.

I dont see how this is the best VM according to rankings..... I will continue.

Shizuka · Aug 4, 2020

AllenShrz said:
10 hrs in Muv Luv alternative..............

Nothing.

I dont see how this is the best VM according to rankings..... I will continue.

There aren't a lot of visual novels in the top that start with a bang. Most of them want to get you emotionally invested before shit hits the fan.

InceptionLoop · Aug 4, 2020

I haven't read MLA yet but sounds weird to me to expect an extremely long VN to get to the much better stuff 10 hours in.

Knurek · Aug 4, 2020

AllenShrz said:
10 hrs in Muv Luv alternative..............

Nothing.

I dont see how this is the best VM according to rankings..... I will continue.

It starts to really pick up during the coup chapter.
And then it goes from great to MF AWESOME when a certain scene happens.
And it gets progressively better until you reach the end from then on.

Deleted member 1055 · Aug 4, 2020

Bokuten is back on Steam after MangaGamer cleaned up the adult content that was accidentally left in the game files:

Bokuten - Why I Became an Angel on Steam

One day while practicing archery, Tomoe shoots an angel out of the sky. While he doesn't believe in love, the angel Aine literally sings its praises. Like it or not, Tomoe will have to help Aine play cupid to bring together all of the distressed couples they encounter.

store.steampowered.com

AllenShrz · Aug 4, 2020

Shizuka said:
There aren't a lot of visual novels in the top that start with a bang. Most of them want to get you emotionally invested before shit hits the fan.

Yep, but this one take the cake, haha. I did read Extra and Unlimited before Alternative. It wasn't that bad but it was not too good either but I did made me laugh a lot sometimes - the boss for one day- was just great.

Knurek said:
It starts to really pick up during the coup chapter.
And then it goes from great to MF AWESOME when a certain scene happens.
And it gets progressively better until you reach the end from then on.

Not sure which chapter I am right now, Im on december 3rd but I will continue, Im interested on the story but not hooked yet.

purseowner · Aug 5, 2020

Exzyleph said:
Bokuten is back on Steam after MangaGamer cleaned up the adult content that was accidentally left in the game files:

Bokuten - Why I Became an Angel on Steam

One day while practicing archery, Tomoe shoots an angel out of the sky. While he doesn't believe in love, the angel Aine literally sings its praises. Like it or not, Tomoe will have to help Aine play cupid to bring together all of the distressed couples they encounter.

store.steampowered.com

Just saw the blog post about what happened: https://blog.mangagamer.org/2020/08/04/bokuten-back-on-steam/

purseowner · Aug 5, 2020

Dany1899 · Aug 5, 2020

10 games? How is it possible? Even if we suppose most of them are mobile games, I don't think they have anything announced except Anonymous;Code currently.
Instead I am already in for an Avengers like SciADV visual novel - with Robotics;Notes getting a localization in October, and possibly Chaos;Head is in the pipeline, this is the perfect moment to do it.

purseowner · Aug 5, 2020

Dany1899 said:
10 games? How is it possible? Even if we suppose most of them are mobile games, I don't think they have anything announced except Anonymous;Code currently.
Instead I am already in for an Avengers like SciADV visual novel - with Robotics;Notes getting a localization in October, and possibly Chaos;Head is in the pipeline, this is the perfect moment to do it.

I think the buzz around Hajimari no Kiseki (and Cold Steel IV to a lesser extent) has left MAGES wanting to do similar with Sci;Adv. Which sounds really cool, to be honest.

Shizuka · Aug 5, 2020

purseowner said:

10 games next year?

AllenShrz · Aug 5, 2020

Muv Luv Alternative update.

It got political and a bit hard to follow

The Shogun being guarded by the Imperial Guard? Makes no sense - The Sei-i Taishogun has a PM? What? The military just doing what they please, is surprisingly accurate.

The best line so far:

Richardi · Aug 5, 2020

Eva Elite and Madoka Elite, is he smoking crack?

purseowner · Aug 5, 2020

Shizuka said:
10 games next year?

The twist is he's counting each Memories Off title in the collection as one game.

Richardi said:
Eva Elite and Madoka Elite, is he smoking crack?

I imagine he's joking. If not, I want some of what he's smoking.

Shizuka · Aug 5, 2020

Richardi said:
Eva Elite and Madoka Elite, is he smoking crack?

And what does that even mean? Turning the existing anime into a visual novel?

jonjonaug · Aug 5, 2020

AllenShrz said:
Muv Luv Alternative update.

It got political and a bit hard to follow

The Shogun being guarded by the Imperial Guard? Makes no sense - The Sei-i Taishogun has a PM? What? The military just doing what they please, is surprisingly accurate.

So in MLA's universe the Meiji Restoration never happened. Instead the Shogun's extended family joined forces with the anti-Shogunate factions to install a new Shogun. WW2 also still happened and Japan still lost it, but without the use of nuclear weapons and their surrender to the US was conditioned on the things they wanted in real life before the atomic bombs were dropped. Things are a bit weird as a result.

The actual original intent back when Muv Luv was first released was that Yuuhi would be the Emperor, not the Shogun. But by the time of Muv Luv Alternative they changed this, and also changed a few lines in the older games in later releases. Not quite sure why this was changed, maybe to justify making her family situation more complex.

IamAwake · Aug 5, 2020

Hey VN Community,

Has anyone ever played any games from this publisher: Giiku Games? https://www.giikugames.com/

Seems they publish Asian visual novels in western areas of the world, but I've never heard of them until recently.

deepFlaw · Aug 5, 2020

...the idea of SciAdv Avengers is both exciting and something where I'm worried about how well they handle it, but I guess R;N Dash kinda has that started so it's going there no matter what. Even C;C was heading right for it as beyond the obvious things connecting to C;H directly - like the sudden twist that Takumi from C;H was just uhhhh in contact with one of your classmates the whole time - there was also stuff like Daru being referenced later on. Going back further, a paper that's discussed in C;H is revealed to be written by Kurisu in S;G. And so on. So... yeah, might as well just bring them together at this point.

as long as Takumi is vaguely tolerable, this time

Knurek · Aug 5, 2020

deepFlaw said:
as long as Takumi is vaguely tolerable, this time

Richardi · Aug 5, 2020

Shizuka said:
And what does that even mean? Turning the existing anime into a visual novel?

Yeah like S;G elite, a bit late to the party considering the franchises, maybe he wants that because 3.0+1.0 and the Madoka gacha game?

deepFlaw · Aug 5, 2020

Knurek said:

Hey, listen...

He seemed not totally horrible in the scene where you talk to him in C;C! Even implied he was working with a group against the Committee, IIRC?

granted, he was typing and he's probably still going to be annoying to be around, but... he may be able to speak to a room of other people, and also hopefully not be someone you have to be in the brain of, so. he can't be as bad, right?

...I should stop talking before I doom us

Deleted member 1055 · Aug 5, 2020

purseowner said:
Just saw the blog post about what happened: https://blog.mangagamer.org/2020/08/04/bokuten-back-on-steam/

MangaGamer is doing a lot of spin here (my underlining):

As some of you may already be aware, on July 28th, Valve suddenly removed Bokuten Why I Became an Angel from the Steam storefront for false, invalid reasons. However, thanks to the support this title received from fans and the community, Valve was willing to meet with us and discuss the matter.

After further investigation from both sides, a valid issue with the previous Steam build of Bokuten was discovered and corrected, so now the title is back on Steam for everyone to enjoy!

The invalid issues: MangaGamer did not add porn to the game on Steam, after it had been reviewed by Valve. And they probably also disagree with Valve's assesment of the characters' ages.

The valid issue: The porn had been there all along. Not only that, it was "activated" by the patch that MangaGamer provided, just like Valve told the Daily Dot.

Granted, it was pretty obviously a mistake on MangaGamer's part, since it was just a small subset of files that were overlooked in the Steam version of Bokuten, but it was also something that absolutely could have and should have been caught by MangaGamer themselves, long before they submitted Bokuten to Steam.

deepFlaw · Aug 5, 2020

I guess I've not seen more about it since the initial news beyond posts here, but regarding being "activated" - are we just talking about CGs left in that were also in the patch files? Or did the patch expect those ones to already be there?

The former's a very bad oversight to say the least, while the latter's more damning. Either way, shitty that they let that happen when it's kinda just going to make the situation worse for others.

Deleted member 1055 · Aug 5, 2020

deepFlaw said:
I guess I've not seen more about it since the initial news beyond posts here, but regarding being "activated" - are we just talking about CGs left in that were also in the patch files? Or did the patch expect those ones to already be there?

The former's a very bad oversight to say the least, while the latter's more damning. Either way, shitty that they let that happen when it's kinda just going to make the situation worse for others.

The second: There were files that should have been in the patch, but were not, and were only accessible once the patch was installed. However, since it was a random smattering of files out of everything that should be in the patch (most of which was in the patch), it definitely looks like an oversight, and not something done intentionally. There are games were the developers just left everything in and released a tiny patch to activate the adult content, but this was not the case here.

Chairmanchuck (另一个我) · Aug 5, 2020

Lets not beat around the bush. It wasnt just porn, but CP, lolicon sex.

ZKenir · Aug 6, 2020

Shizuka · Aug 6, 2020

Still can't believe they're localizing two full fledged visual novels and selling them for the price of one game.

Dany1899 · Aug 6, 2020

I think many of the people who will get the Robotics;Notes double pack at D1 would have bought the two games, even if they had been sold separately at full price. So I really appreciate this Spike Chunsoft's decision.

ZKenir · Aug 6, 2020

oh right also Room N.9 is out on both Steam and MG store

edit: not steam, 3 hours still

purseowner · Aug 6, 2020

Yeah, the Robotics;Notes thing is surreal - insanely generous given the amount of localisation effort that must go into two big-budget full-length VNs.

ZKenir · Aug 6, 2020

ShyMel · Aug 6, 2020

Ten Mages releases gives them ten tries to release the enhanced version of Occultic;Nine with better box art than what the original got. On a nicer note it would be awesome if one of those releases was a new title in their otome line. And Spike or PQube localized it.

AllenShrz · Aug 9, 2020

OMG the patch for Muv Luv Alternative does not work!

I got a part -on a battle- and the audio and text didnt match, turns out the steam ver was patched due to publisher changes and now the patch doesnt work.... God damn it! So many hours invested to know this at this time.

What Im supposed to do now? search on the internet for a pre patch ver of MLA with the +18patch?

OMG, Im so mad right now.

Deleted member 1055 · Aug 9, 2020

AllenShrz said:
OMG the patch for Muv Luv Alternative does not work!

I got a part -on a battle- and the audio and text didnt match, turns out the steam ver was patched due to publisher changes and now the patch doesnt work.... God damn it! So many hours invested to know this at this time.

What Im supposed to do now? search in the internet for a pre patch ver of MLA with the patch?

OMG, Im so mad right now.

An updated patch was released for Kickstarter backers and on Denpasoft, but if you didn't get it from either of those sources then you are out of luck at the moment. I believe that the developer is working on making the 18+ patch available again, but are having legal issues due to it being uncensored and due to them being Japanese, meaning that they cannot simply publish it themselves.

But to be honest, I would suggest that you play the all-ages version of MLA first and then (if you are still interested) skip through the 18+ version for the additional content. There is one particular scene that is just utterly and hilariously dumb in the 18+ version, so much so completely derails what is otherwise a very emotional scene. I would not recommend having that as your first experience.

Chairmanchuck (另一个我) · Aug 9, 2020

Also, every appearing character is over 18 years old.

Checking VNDB at least one character is in middle school. How does that work?

AllenShrz · Aug 9, 2020

Exzyleph said:
An updated patch was released for Kickstarter backers and on Denpasoft, but if you didn't get it from either of those sources then you are out of luck at the moment. I believe that the developer is working on making the 18+ patch available again, but are having legal issues due to it being uncensored and due to them being Japanese, meaning that they cannot simply publish it themselves.

But to be honest, I would suggest that you play the all-ages version of MLA first and then (if you are still interested) skip through the 18+ version for the additional content. There is one particular scene that is just utterly and hilariously dumb in the 18+ version, so much so completely derails what is otherwise a very emotional scene. I would not recommend having that as your first experience.

What do you mean by "skip through the 18+ version for the additional content"? The steam version has more content?

Deleted member 1055 · Aug 9, 2020

AllenShrz said:
What do you mean by "skip through the 18+ version for the additional content"? The steam version has more content?

No, I mean the other way around. Sorry if I was unclear.
I would suggest that you start by reading all ages version, which IMO is the best way to experience MLA for the first time.

Then, once you have done that, you can fast-forward through the 18+ version and see the scene(s) you missed out on.
And to be clear, the 18+ patch/version doesn't add a whole lot. It is basically just __two__ scene(s), IIRC.

But that is just my take on it, so if you'd rather start with the 18+ version then go for that.

AllenShrz · Aug 10, 2020

Muv Luv Alternative update.

Just got to the part in which

Sumika is first shown on the the fucked up version of that world.

HOLY SHIT!!!! Sumika!!!

I mean is all over the promotion material, it has been foretold since the begging of unlimited but still...

Edit.

Wait! Hold on! Haruka and Akane and Mitsuki from Kimi ga Nozomu Eien are in this world too!!!
I though they used the MVP Akane in Extra just as a cameo!!!

Pack it up rest of the girls, Best Girl Akane is here.

ZKenir · Aug 11, 2020

baldr sky supports DS4 natively, I'm impressed

purseowner · Aug 11, 2020

https://www.gematsu.com/2020/08/cor...teases-heavenly-host-elementary-series-finale

New Corpse Party tease.

Don't have anything to add personally, as I never finished the first one and the other two on Vita are in my backlog. I should go back to it someday.

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