Visual Novel Community Thread: No Auto Read Required

ara · Apr 24, 2018

Fata Morgana can be surprisingly creepy, too. The back log fuckery in particular.

"Images are slithering into my head replacing memories before they can surface." Geez.

e: finished the fourth door. Wow. Holy shit. This one was amazing in a lot of ways. It's a bit late so I'll have to stop for today, but I'm definitely continuing as soon as I get home from work tomorrow.

Deleted member 8861 · Apr 24, 2018

ara said:
Fata Morgana can be surprisingly creepy, too. The back log fuckery in particular.

"Images are slithering into my head replacing memories before they can surface." Geez.

e: finished the fourth door. Wow. Holy shit. This one was amazing in a lot of ways. It's a bit late so I'll have to stop for today, but I'm definitely continuing as soon as I get home from work tomorrow.

Hhaahahaha

HAHAHHAAHHAHAHAA

HAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAA

Knurek said:
New Higurashi chapter on horizon!!!

No, obviously I'm not talking about #5, that's still years off. But the 07th-mod team has finished translating Tsukiotoshi, and are currently 12% through editing.

You had me for a second there

Shizuka · Apr 24, 2018

Maybe when we get the console releases, I'll remember to check the backlog for Fata Morgana. I didn't know about it the first time and now I'm curious.

Curler · Apr 24, 2018

New VN developed by the Newton Apple and Vampire Princess guys:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/breaking-e-gene-18270196

deepFlaw · Apr 25, 2018

By chance I somehow caught the backlog stuff immediately, and it was really cool to read as I went, yeah.

ara · Apr 25, 2018

Yep, happened to spot it purely by chance pretty early on too and I'm glad I did.

Funyarinpa said:
Hhaahahaha

HAHAHHAAHHAHAHAA

HAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAA

You know, I was actually wondering if I was getting near the end. Clearly that's not the case lol.

sprinkles · Apr 25, 2018

So Chaos;Child is currently on sale on EU PSN. I am tempted to get the Vita version, there is no English Steam release planned or is there?

Shizuka · Apr 25, 2018

sprinkles said:
So Chaos;Child is currently on sale on EU PSN. I am tempted to get the Vita version, there is no English Steam release planned or is there?

Not right now.

Knurek · Apr 25, 2018

sprinkles said:
So Chaos;Child is currently on sale on EU PSN. I am tempted to get the Vita version, there is no English Steam release planned or is there?

Not officially, no.
(Commitee of Zero might release a patch soon though)

calc84maniac · Apr 25, 2018

sprinkles said:
So Chaos;Child is currently on sale on EU PSN. I am tempted to get the Vita version, there is no English Steam release planned or is there?

The guy on the Spike Chunsoft stream said something along the lines of "I want to put as many MAGES. titles on Steam as possible, starting with Steins;Gate 0". So I think it'll happen eventually. But not as soon as we'd like, with all these other things they're releasing.

Vita version is certainly not a bad choice, anyway.

Deleted member 1055 · Apr 28, 2018

Saw this elsewhere and thought I'd give it a shout-out:

YOU LEFT ME is a short, surreal VN that deals with loss, depression, and suicide. The art style is frankly gorgeous, and is complemented by a great low-fi soundtrack. It is also free, so if you can spare half an hour or so then I would highly recommend checking it out.

InceptionLoop · Apr 28, 2018

Exzyleph said:
YOU LEFT ME is a short, surreal VN that deals with loss, depression, and suicide. The art style is frankly gorgeous, and is complemented by a great low-fi soundtrack. It is also free, so if you can spare half an hour or so then I would highly recommend checking it out.

Sounds really interesting. Thanks for the recommendation!

Aters · May 1, 2018

I got into a very passive mood lately. Any game that is not a VN is too much work for me.

Currently playing Clannad and I have a question: does anyone else think the game has a weird pacing? I almost feel like I'm reading a synopsis of a VN. Everything goes so fast. The protagonist didn't have a care in the world last week, and now he's deep in love, after talking to the girl five times? The story, the dramas, the motivations are all there, but I feel like they are not given enough time to develop. The game has a massive cast, that's probably part of the reason.

This is funny because I never see anyone complain that a slice-of-life VN is too fast, they are always too slow.

When the protagonist first kissed Tomoyo I was shocked.

iceblade · May 1, 2018

Aters said:
I got into a very passive mood lately. Any game that is not a VN is too much work for me.

Currently playing Clannad and I have a question: does anyone else think the game has a weird pacing?

I've felt that Clannad's pacing is too slow. Like you say it feels like it has the "guts" there for a good story but it takes ages to get anywhere. Every time I finish a VN I think of going back to it but I can't seem to bring myself to do so, and that's because of the pacing.

I've also never really bought the explanation for the strained relationship between the MC and his dad - especially how the dad is nice to him superficially.

Something tells me when I get back I might need to reread the common route...

deepFlaw · May 1, 2018

iceblade said:
I've felt that Clannad's pacing is too slow. Like you say it feels like it has the "guts" there for a good story but it takes ages to get anywhere. Every time I finish a VN I think of going back to it but I can't seem to bring myself to do so, and that's because of the pacing.

I've also never really bought the explanation for the strained relationship between the MC and his dad - especially how the dad is nice to him superficially.

Something tells me when I get back I might need to reread the common route...

I played the game + watched the anime probably like... 7, I think, years ago, if not more? So I can't speak much to pacing. But for his father, and spoiler-wise I'm obviously not 100% sure when this was stated (I think Nagisa's route?), but it's just...

that his dad abused him (or at least, they had a physical fight) and permanently injured his arm, isn't it?

And I believe his dad was more or less an alcoholic + gambling addict besides?

Palas · May 1, 2018

Aters said:
I got into a very passive mood lately. Any game that is not a VN is too much work for me.

Currently playing Clannad and I have a question: does anyone else think the game has a weird pacing? I almost feel like I'm reading a synopsis of a VN. Everything goes so fast. The protagonist didn't have a care in the world last week, and now he's deep in love, after talking to the girl five times? The story, the dramas, the motivations are all there, but I feel like they are not given enough time to develop. The game has a massive cast, that's probably part of the reason.

This is funny because I never see anyone complain that a slice-of-life VN is too fast, they are always too slow.

When the protagonist first kissed Tomoyo I was shocked.

Clannad's common route is the weirdest thing I've ever seen in any kind of game ever. There's a LOT going on, so it feels slow because we're given insight into the smallest of details about Okazaki's daily life; but absolutely nothing ever happens, so it feels way too fast because some routes are hardly developed at all.

That one girl in that one room, for instance. I completely forgot her name. Their relationship goes from "so uh you skipping class too?" to "yeah my brother died please come to his grave with me also please kiss me while we're there" in, what, two scenes because everything else in that route is a cluttered mess of nonsensical scenes

Also I'll never forgive how horribly Kyou's route is delivered.

deepFlaw · May 1, 2018

Exzyleph said:
Saw this elsewhere and thought I'd give it a shout-out:

YOU LEFT ME is a short, surreal VN that deals with loss, depression, and suicide. The art style is frankly gorgeous, and is complemented by a great low-fi soundtrack. It is also free, so if you can spare half an hour or so then I would highly recommend checking it out.

Oh, so I did get around to playing this the other day. I'm extremely into the art + aesthetic and the soundtrack's great too, but I have mixed feelings overall.

I know it was done for a game jam so the length isn't surprising (if anything the work they did for it in that time is), but I stumbled into the best ending + explanation of what was happening right away which was unfortunate. Then

the way it drops you back to the main menu and things change slightly after that made me think there was a buildup to a "true" ending, but I think it was just trying to block you out of doing the same endings so that you saw more things? I think it would have been more satisfying if you had to see some of the other endings before the best one, or have to do things in a more specific order you'd only learn through mistakes, and so on. Or at least if it was clear that you'd seen everything and should stop playing.

I also have issues with the pill bottle ending, but the creator explained it was just due to their own bad experiences with doctors and they didn't think through the implications in the itch.io comments, so at least I know what they were going for.

Deleted member 1055 · May 1, 2018

deepFlaw said:
Oh, so I did get around to playing this the other day. I'm extremely into the art + aesthetic and the soundtrack's great too, but I have mixed feelings overall.

I know it was done for a game jam so the length isn't surprising (if anything the work they did for it in that time is), but I stumbled into the best ending + explanation of what was happening right away which was unfortunate. Then

the way it drops you back to the main menu and things change slightly after that made me think there was a buildup to a "true" ending, but I think it was just trying to block you out of doing the same endings so that you saw more things? I think it would have been more satisfying if you had to see some of the other endings before the best one, or have to do things in a more specific order you'd only learn through mistakes, and so on. Or at least if it was clear that you'd seen everything and should stop playing.

I also have issues with the pill bottle ending, but the creator explained it was just due to their own bad experiences with doctors and they didn't think through the implications in the itch.io comments, so at least I know what they were going for.

Those are very reasonable complaints.

It is certainly not difficult to get the "true" ending from the get-go. On the other hand, the game is short enough that you'll want to explore the rest even after seeing that end, and the individual scenes are certainly worth worth seeing. Though obviously a more structured unfolding of the story would have been more compelling.

I also agree that some sort of 'end X of Y' indicator would be nice. I ended up checking the source code to the game in order to convince myself that I had not missed any scenes, which is kind of silly. Normally I'd go looking for walkthroughs at that point.

However, I never took the pills bad end (and indeed the entire narrative) to be anything other than the author's personal perspective, though I can see why somebody could take issue with it. That is probably part of why my experience was more positive.

That said, this is still one my of favorite OELVNs so far, despite the small scope and despite the flaws. I hope that we'll see more from this author in the future, and that she'll be able to address some of these complaints.

Curler · May 1, 2018

I think playing VNs during my work lunch breaks was a bad idea :x VNs tend to make me sleepy, especially when I read in the middle of the afternoon. Was already nodding off....

Reading is just too relaxing... had some good naps during my Sakura Wars: So Long My Love and Steins;Gate play throughs :x

user__ · May 2, 2018

I've just started Doki Doki Literature Club, I'm in love. I wanted to impersonate a female character but the game doesn't allow you, that's a bummer. It's really well done, the two hours I spent in the game fled away like nothing. I love reading aloud the text, trying to intonate the lines, I feel more immersed that way. I can't wait to continue it.

Knurek · May 3, 2018

Funyarinpa said:
You had me for a second there

And it's out
Will they finish all of the console exclusive arcs before Mangagamer releases CH6 on Steam? *thinkingemoji*

Deleted member 8861 · May 3, 2018

Knurek said:
And it's out
Will they finish all of the console exclusive arcs before Mangagamer releases CH6 on Steam? *thinkingemoji*

probably

I have a feeling that MG don't want to release the rest of the chapters and hope it will get forgotten or some shit.

user__ · May 3, 2018

I really love this game. The characters are incredibly depth and the story is so nice, I'm at certain point in the story where

I'm screwed, aren't I. They just took my soul and shred it in tiny little pieces. I'm being pessimistic but I feel like they aren't giving me back any. I hate myself a little right now.

I'm really looking forward to see where this story goes!

Esfolia · May 3, 2018

riveria said:
I really love this game. The characters are incredibly depth and the story is so nice, I'm at certain point in the story where

I'm screwed, aren't I. They just took my soul and shred it in tiny little pieces. I'm being pessimistic but I feel like they aren't giving me back any. I hate myself a little right now.

I'm really looking forward to see where this story goes!

Hope you enjoy it! The game has great meta elements.

user__ · May 4, 2018

Thanks, I really hope too.

This game has gone from refreshing light entertainment to hell's premises in no time.
It's a fun little piece of code.
After the end of the first ending, the game gave me the chance to reload the last save, but didn't use it and tried to begin again. And then goodbye saves. Now I'm dying of curiosity but how the hell could I be so heartless to continue like nothing happened.

ShyMel · May 4, 2018

riveria said:
Thanks, I really hope too.

This game has gone from refreshing light entertainment to hell's premises in no time.
It's a fun little piece of code.
After the end of the first ending, the game gave me the chance to reload the last save, but didn't use it and tried to begin again. And then goodbye saves. Now I'm dying of curiosity but how the hell could I be so heartless to continue like nothing happened.

Please continue to post your thoughts as you play! I love reading people's thoughts when playing for the first time.

Curler · May 4, 2018

"Harvest December. Petit Novel series? Ok this should be short! Oh, 13 chapters? How long is this whole thing?" *roughly 30 hrs*

Well, I started it, so I might as well finish it. Such an odd way to start the story off though. It's very awkward... Especially Yuki.

user__ · May 4, 2018

ShyMel said:
Please continue to post your thoughts as you play! I love reading people's thoughts when playing for the first time.

I'm sorry there's not much to add.

I kind of finished the game. Now I'm stuck with Monika in some kind of void. I really hoped all of this wasn't her fault, that she was a victim as the others. It turns out that not only it was all her doing, but that she manipulated the other characters as well to reach their extremes as quickly as possible.

I saw Sayori's and Yuri horrible demises, and I'm not sure there has been ever any chance to save them. I just feel lucky I didn't see the Natsuki's ending too. Those scenes were very traumatic, I wasn't prepared at all to see the level of madness this game could reach.

I don't have any strong feeling toward Monika or the authors of the game. They are just there, being delusional to have reached some kind of goal, while I feel Intimidated to shut down the game again as this seems to really annoy Monika. For now I just suspended the PC with the game running, what she has to say is interesting after all.
I can't believe a fictional character can be so strong to manipulate a person this way. But it happens, it happened to me with some other game too.

Now I admit I'm a little curious to rename her character file just to see what happens. Or something like downloading the game and starting again but this time without the Monika's file. For now I'm just hoping in vain that Monika gives me back what she stole. To give the game a chance to redeem itself.

deepFlaw · May 4, 2018

riveria said:
I'm sorry there's not much to add.

I kind of finished the game. Now I'm stuck with Monika in some kind of void. I really hoped all of this wasn't her fault, that she was a victim as the others. It turns out that not only it was all her doing, but that she manipulated the other characters as well to reach their extremes as quickly as possible.

I saw Sayori's and Yuri horrible demises, and I'm not sure there has been ever any chance to save them. I just feel lucky I didn't see the Natsuki's ending too. Those scenes were very traumatic, I wasn't prepared at all to see the level of madness this game could reach.

I don't have any strong feeling toward Monika or the authors of the game. They are just there, being delusional to have reached some kind of goal, while I feel Intimidated to shut down the game again as this seems to really annoy Monika. For now I just suspended the PC with the game running, what she has to say is interesting after all.
I can't believe a fictional character can be so strong to manipulate a person this way. But it happens, it happened to me with some other game too.

Now I admit I'm a little curious to rename her character file just to see what happens. Or something like downloading the game and starting again but this time without the Monika's file. For now I'm just hoping in vain that Monika gives me back what she stole. To give the game a chance to redeem itself.

I admittedly actually pretty strongly dislike the game myself, but I've enjoyed reading your thoughts. So I'll say...

You're not done quite yet. There's an action you can take...

Shizuka · May 4, 2018

Curler said:
"Harvest December. Petit Novel series? Ok this should be short! Oh, 13 chapters? How long is this whole thing?" *roughly 30 hrs*

Well, I started it, so I might as well finish it. Such an odd way to start the story off though. It's very awkward... Especially Yuki.

Such an underrated visual novel, I think mine's the only review for it on Metacritic (if my old editor remembered to submit it on time).

Shizuka · May 8, 2018

If anyone was waiting, Shin Hayarigami's translation update is up.

Dandy Crocodile · May 8, 2018

Shizuka said:
If anyone was waiting, Shin Hayarigami's translation update is up.

Love the Play Store patch notes.
"Fixed the dialogue"

Shizuka · May 8, 2018

Dandy Crocodile said:
Love the Play Store patch notes.
"Fixed the dialogue"

I'd like to know how extensive it was fixed. They mentioned more are coming, so what did they fix?

Knurek · May 8, 2018

Key localization survey hints at possible Air/Kanon releases.

Shizuka · May 8, 2018

Knurek said:
Key localization survey hints at possible Air/Kanon releases.

I wonder if it'd be self-published or not.

Curler · May 8, 2018

Harvest December is one of the weirdest things I've ever read.... Still on Pt 1 but

I never thought I'd read a VN involving sexual assault of the male MC. He doesn't know what he wants, just kinda agrees to having girlfriend(s). Then again... is it sexual assault when when the 16-17 year old girl is forcing him to "make a baby" but doesn't even know how sex works??? It's... really a bizzare character. Shiro is so far the only good/realistic-ish character. Has more of a personality... has god powers... but needs compainionship cause gods get lonely. Still forceful, but Yuki is just awful.

Shizuka · May 8, 2018

iceblade · May 8, 2018

Shizuka said:

Excellent news. I really hope this is the beginning of bringing some of the console-exclusive SciAdv titles to PC, perhaps eventually even day-and-date with the console Western releases.

Actually on that note, would that mean that PQube won't be handling the series anymore, or might they be doing so only for Europe or something else?

deepFlaw · May 10, 2018

Shizuka said:
I'd like to know how extensive it was fixed. They mentioned more are coming, so what did they fix?

If no one else checks (did anyone else even buy it?), later today I can run through the same first few minutes that I played at its release to see if anything's actually changed.

EDIT: ...huh, I did that Key survey, and you know, that's sorta not a survey I expected to include a non-binary option when giving your gender at the end? Good on them!

Shizuka · May 10, 2018

Palette Swap · May 10, 2018

Whoa, itshappening.gif.
And PQube even knows about PEGI!

Curler · May 10, 2018

Muv-Luv is so close now!

Apparently the rest of my Grisaia disks are on their way, but USPS hasn't updated tracking details -_-

OniBaka · May 10, 2018

Who's making the fata morgana requiem for innocence ot?

deepFlaw · May 11, 2018

Ok, I only just remembered to do this now, so I'll wait to post images in the morning as it's past midnight already, but I ran through the first few minutes of Shin Hayarigami again.

It's somewhat better? At least compared to the (arbitrarily taken, since I was trying to get both ok and bad lines) screenshots I have of the original translation, they cleaned up lines here and there, including a few that were completely retranslated/localized. It's still pretty stilted, though. In particular, lot of the dialogue I saw still does not read like something anyone would say; someone fluent in English should have done an editing pass where they just tried to read the lines aloud.

So it's still disappointing, and still not something I'd want to spend time reading as it is now, but it's better than it used to be.

Also, weirdly, the tutorial screen seems to have gotten a new translation but it's not actually better? Like it's entirely different, but just as bad, or worse in some areas. Huh.

...and are iOS apps even allowed to have a way to quit the app from inside of it? Because there's an exit button on the main menu that does that, and I've never seen that before.

upandaway · May 11, 2018

Looks like Muv Luv is rolling out in June

rickyson33 · May 12, 2018

took a long time and i've been annoyed by a great many things about it throughout(enough so to make me stay away from it for 4 months after finishing episode 2 and the first couple hours of the third one) but just finished episode 3 and feel like umineko finally "clicked" for me

hopefully I don't have too much of a change of heart on that,i'm a little worried about chiru based on vague impressions of it i've heard and the things i've disliked thus far

Xagarath · May 12, 2018

Anyone else have thoughts on this slightly enigmatic kickstarter?

The 13th Month

Deleted member 1055 · May 12, 2018

Xagarath said:
Anyone else have thoughts on this slightly enigmatic kickstarter?

The 13th Month

It looks pretty interesting, but I am hesitant to back.
All in all, the campaign page is rather lacking in details regarding the release.

In particular, the fact that they only list Windows 10 (on the front page and when asked specifically) makes me wonder if they are planning a mobile game released via the Windows Store. That would also be in line with the other platforms targeted being iOS and Android, and the lack of a physical release (it is not actually on the USB-disk that is part of one of the tiers). I wouldn't mind it being targeted for mobile devices, but I do prefer playing VNs on my PC and I'd rather avoid the Windows Store if possible.

It is also not clear where the translation into English fits in their development schedule, but I suppose that is also part of the "Script Writing" block. And I'll give them credit having such detailed development plans for a Kickstarter.

rickyson33 · May 12, 2018

think i'll take a wait and see approach on that as well but the general idea sounds like it should be fantastic if it's handled even halfway competently

getting strong fata morgana type vibes from the whole thing,and not just because of the unusual art style

cosmicblizzard · May 12, 2018

Xagarath said:
Anyone else have thoughts on this slightly enigmatic kickstarter?

The 13th Month

Megami Tensei creators? Shouldn't this get it's own thread? Seems notable.

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