418 replies to this topic

[gyokuran]

Inspired by this post, can anyone recommend some VN (and maybe it'll be too much of a stretch, but adventure/CYOA game that's mostly story and dialogues will be fine too) that's original from graphical presentation side? Like, all art it uses is sketchy and B&W, or it's 100% made of photos of places and people instead of using drawings.

One I recall where placeholders evolved into a feature was an old unfinished VN game by Aleema (currently a writer for winter wolves VNs) where majority of characters and their actions was depicted using silhouettes.

I'd recommend:

 

The World to Reverse

Planetarian: Chiisana Hoshi no Yume

 

 

You could also try Rose Gun Days. It uses both photos and drawings.

[Solipsist]

About Amane:

Spoiler

A lord of the flies setting...Huh...To be honest, I expected it to be more complicated than that.
Socio-economic disabilities, which leads to tension within her high-class school as an "unfit roach" alongside her family's business crapping out..Etc, etc...
The whole cannibalism finale was a tad over the top as well, as well as Kazumi's sacrifice. I also don't really get why she waited so long to run away if she had the right idea how to escape.

Okay, sure, I kinda get it.
In order to get Amane to move, the situation HAD to be dire and extreme to leave the injured behind; but surely she could at least give those tips to the teacher, right?
In a way, it's because that Kazumi, for some reason, had the uncharacteristic illogical hots for Amane that derailed everyone to their gruesome fate.

No. Really. Why was Kazumi so fixated on saving Amane? Some form of sign that she is not as strong as she gives out? That the small bonds of trust and friendship (vomit) was enough to reward Amane with survival? Sounds kind of like a long stretch to me...

I may sound apathetic to the whole story, but it was quite moving. I even felt guilty-sorta for having lunch while reading their wails over malnutrition. I even tried to get myself to be empathetic enough to cry, but it felt too....Melodramatic...Also, having a ...16(?) day flashback was kind of in a bad taste =|
It was completely detached from the direction of the narrative, it was a new arc within an existing arc. It's bad writing, imo.

This is a tad off-topic, but it kinda pissed me off that the narrative completely laid bear in plain sight in layman terms as to why Amane feels the need to punish herself and so on and so forth. It's not fun if they tell it to you straight out! <:

P.S: This is so inappropriate, but I laughed most of the time as she contemplated over her 'pathetic existence unworthy of survival' as the quintessential Shirou-Syndrome!

Ya'know, the guy from Fate/stay night whom

Spoiler

would jump infront of a moving train if was under the pretext of making his existence worthy for being the only survivor? In other words, Survivor's-Guilt.

Anyway, I'm going to hell for that.
And shit, that was quite a scroll...Sorry Phill. (I'm assuming at this point you're the only one reading this!)
P.P.S: I want to stress out that I really DID enjoy this thing. I enjoyed it enough to stay awake about...4 hours after my bed-time. And that bed-time is beyond midnight. I was glued to the screen the entire time, going : "Fucking Jesus why don't you all fester and die already!? Why is reading about them foraging for food is so interesting!?" =P
Beehh...Curses my love for the macabre and hunger-games-esque / lord-of-the-flies scenarios...

Oh, and: I like that they pretty much prompt a dichotomous, yes/no question to whether or not you want to start a particular route. What I hated about Clannad was the over complicated criteria for getting a particular route / ending..All it means is that you will just replay the same scenes over and over again...It's not much of a "novel" if you read the same stuff all of the time, you know? Eventually I resorted to a walkthrough.
Thank god Type-Moon has the ingenious function: "You've read through this scene, do you want to skip it?" my god I cannot shut up.
I guess this happens when you mash your head against the keyboard in 3am.

Edited by Solipsist, 16 February 2014 - 12:02 AM.

[Phil777]

Spoiler

I kinda admit that I was expecting Kazumi to move with the "escape through the forest" plan a lot earlier. Especially when you read further ahead that it only took Yuuji and Amane 3 hours to get back to where their camp was... >.>

 

It's not really funny to "laugh" at traumatic experiences, however fictionnal the setting might be. =/ But since this doesn't seem to be your first VN, I can understand how you'd grow ....jaded? (correct me there if I'm wrong) from having seen the same scenario unfold a few times, to the point where it becomes predictable. I've sometimes had that feeling myself, of knowing where the plot was headed. >.> Still, one should keep an open mind about these things.

 

Spoiler

Take of that what you will, but I've seen that in the sequel, there are extra ero-scenes which include what occured between the girls during the 16 days. I don't think I have to spell it out for you. ^.- Consider that as an additionnal Amane-Kazumi bond.

 

The 16 day flashback also did piss me off quite a bit. -.- But I was willing to let it pass for the sake of explaining Amane's current situation and state of mind.

 

I'm assuming you've finished both endings of the route now, because as you've probably guessed,

Spoiler

Yuuji's sis is still alive and obviously makes a comeback in the sequels, her arm's been cut off though and she has a mechanical one, nothing too fancy

.

[Solipsist]

I am still reading through it, so I didn't check out the spoilers  
Staying up at 4 am in the morning to read a book is hardly any good for my ability to appreciate the story  
If I'll stay up any longer I'll start to chew someone's face off
Oh, and I'm not going to 'spoiler' the rest of the comment...Too tired...You guys should know by now not to read these things...

Jokes aside,

 

It's not really funny to "laugh" at traumatic experiences, however fictionnal the setting might be. =/ But since this doesn't seem to be your first VN, I can understand how you'd grow ....jaded?

My cynicism is more born from natural lack of empathy, but what I did laugh from was the monotonous repetition of self-deprecation. It was just so much like Shirou, just without any subtly what so ever; I felt like I had no choice but to giggle at their over-the-top attempts to make me feel something. That is, I didn't laugh "AT" the traumatic experience, but at the way the narration kept hammering in that I should probably prepare some tissues because I am designated to cry in a few jiffies. See that cynicism? Strong and proud...
To be honest, when those kids started to go looney in the diary-story; I felt so much more empathy towards them and some dread was able to sip in. Really, the part that really stole my heart was when the owner of the little dog wept over its death, and when she eventually hung herself. It's those little things that suddenly crawl up at you....

P.S: Thinking about it more, do put some thought into it; when the duo escaped the rabid, sex-crazed couple of the teacher and the captain; the remaining two (head-injury girl, and tossing-her-cellphone girl) were totally into capturing and eating the fuck out of Kazumi and Amane. That form of "LET'S GO HUNTING!!" is way over the top, and was brought upon most likely in order to allow the readers to condemn the cannibalistic-tribe and wish, with complete certainty, for Amane to escape since she "obviously" has nothing left for her with those girls.

The whole "Eating people is so wrong, you will never rehabilitate" is such a thick, bloated farce I don't know if I should say : "Bad writing! BAD!",
or say : "Kazumi just pulled yet another veil over Amane's mind in order to trick her to do her bidding...Nice?"

Edited by Solipsist, 16 February 2014 - 01:08 AM.

[Phil777]

Well Kazumi was supposedly a genius, as you've seen, so I wouldn't put it past her to have had Amane take over her bro-con role or something... >.>

 

Go hunting? I thought it was more about not letting them escape or spill out the secret. :x

 

And well, what's the point of reading a visual novel (or anything) if you're not going to feel anything? =/ The goal here is clearly to convey a story, as emotionally striking (or not) as it may be, not to give you some facts and information (like a newspaper or article would...)

 

Also, say what you will, but I do think that full-blown cannibalism is usually frowned upon in most societies (even ancient societies only aimed for one part of the human body when they were conducting cannibalistic rituals). Now, I don't know about the social culture of Japan regarding such matters, but I'm assuming they shouldn't differ TOO much from what we're used to...

[Solipsist]

First of all, "Kazumi is a tensai" does not mean she's god. That's just how Amane saw her, and it does not mean she was capable of seeing the effin' future. <: Applying such an expectation due to a character premise is, as well, bad writing.

Secondly, the 'hunting part', you really think they thought that far ahead? They were merely drowned in their own ecstasy of superiority. They found a way to be "strong" again, and when Amane and Kazumi were trying to escape, they robbed them of two valuable 'facts' of their own elitism over nature. They're also saying by escaping : "We could always run away. You're wrong."
So, I can get why the two sex-crazed couple would chase them. But the other two? Their descent into darkness was too quick, thus, to me; it seems too contrived.
Again, to me it seems the authors were saying : "They're evil! They're unredeemable! Forget about them!"
Because, really, cannibalism has nothing to do with being evil.

Thirdly, as I said, I was feeling the entire diary-story; but not as much as you did. The over-stretched out flash-back story that diary gave out just worn me out, and how things developed just went into the usual simple-minded anime theme : "This is evil, this is good."
The way things went out just feels...Way, WAAAYY too cartoony.

Fourthly(?), cannibalism by its own rights is not wrong.
But that isn't the topic, right? Generally speaking, what ever the culture; in times of strife, people can understand that some rules may shift to accommodate survival. But anyway, how they will be "seen" post-case is hardly any motivation for anyone to not eat another person...
"What will my neighbors think!?", heh. Although that last part is very much Japanese. 

EDIT: 

Spoiler

God fucking DAMN IT. I absolutely HATE time-skipping someone's life. By jumping a person's entire life, it just seem all so hollow and pointless, completely unworthy of any attention; you're reducing a story down to : "They were born. They lived for a while. They died." Why invest any resources into something so ephemeral?
It was that type of melancholy so strong it just gave me a headache, it sure worked as a gripping ending; but it leaves one big fat bitter after-taste...In a very bad way... >_<
I feel like a teacher was trying to tell me that the class's pet was received with an already existing terminal disease and it will shortly die, so getting attached to it is down right foolish; but you get attached to it anyway, and soon enough; it dies. And then the teacher just pokes at you : "I told you so..You idiot.."
Goddamn time skips...Gah...It's like the devs are teaching me not to care about their characters because investing emotional resources will only result in betrayal.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nF_Ca45JRFs

Edit edit edit: Goddamnit I feel like vomiting every time I think about that epilogue...Guh...I only had it this bad when I read through most of Steins;gate in one day..
I was not expecting them to be so...Nihilistic. What's wrong with them.
I'm actually starting to become more enraged than upset as time passes. That ending just fucked up Amane's entire route for me.

More edits:
 

I'm assuming you've finished both endings of the route now, because as you've probably guessed..

Indeed...Although the reason "Why" she did it, evaded me. I guess they were just building the sequels with that one work, huh? Canonizing future work...Truly the work of clever fiscal-thinking. 
 
 

 there are extra ero-scenes

That's actually very, VERY interesting...Most of those characters developed off-camera, outside of Amane's perception, so getting some glimpse as to how they acted individually sounds titillating.

Edited by Solipsist, 28 February 2014 - 08:24 PM.

[LightYami]

So, I have recently finished Grisaia no Kajitsu, I didn't know that being busy would make it take this long to finish that visual novel with all of its routes, even if it was quite long ^^''

 

Grisaia no Kajitsu was very good in my opinion, though as I have said before, the common route is very, very long and is mostly slice of life and comedy before you actually start to get into the girls' routes and then the story turns very dramatic and serious ^^

 

After I finished Grisaia no Kajitsu, I have recently started to play Comyu: Kuroi Ryu to Yasashii Oukoku since the synopsis of the story made me interested about it, I'm on my 2nd route right now and it has been pretty good so far, a bit above average if I have to say precisely, but there are still 3 routes after this one so I won't be making my final judgement on this yet ^^

 

After finishing Comyu, my plan is to finish Yumina the Ethereal where I'm on the 3rd route, even though the story and change of setting made it quite interesting, the gameplay started to get a bit too boring for me ^^''

 

I also think that I'm going to check out that recently translated My Girlfriend is the President fandisc after I'm done with these two ^^

 

But I'm still waiting to read Seinarukana (Yes, I'll still be waiting for this even after all of these years), Fate/Hollow Ataraxia (I have heard that validation of script has stopped, I hope that's not true), Mahou Tsukai no Yoru and Aiyoku no Eustia (I haven't heard about updates for this one in a while, does anyone have any information on it?) ^^  

[I-Am-X]

I'm currently playing 3 atm.

 

Fate/Stay Night, Steins;Gate and the second Sono Hanabira ni Kuchizuke wo VN 'My dear Prince'

 

Stay Night is awesome, though like the anime, Shirou annoys the shit out of me with his old fashioned macho-sexist crap. While he has good intentions, not wanting Saber to fight because 'girls shouldn't fight' (we know he loves her and all but its irritating, especially since he's weak in combat, I know what he ends up growing into but still...)

 

Steins gate is currentely my favorite. I love how it was set up. With the phone interaction, the background music, how they have the characters mouths move when talking and actually make it feel more real. It's unique.

[Nicolets]

Not all VN's are eroge -_______________-

[TracReed]

Not all VN's are eroge -_______________-

Well that is obvious since they are called "Visual Novels"

 

Anyway I am currently playing Grisaia no Kajitsu, and hoshizora no memoria,

A VN I have finished would be Katawa Shoujo and Steins;gate I have started playing a ton but I always just stop playing them and then I can never seem to start playing them again, but well I guess that happens to everyone sometimes.

[RazzMaTazz007]

Finished Grisaia no Kajitsu 2 weeks ago and gonna continue Rewrite when i have time stalled this one for a long time now.

[kuroanimeotaku18]

I've played otome games/VN's before but this time i want a long one (like the 30-50 hour type long one XD)

I have played some before (please recommend PC games to me) and eroge is fine for me. But please don't recommend anything that literally focuses on sex  

[LightYami]

I've played otome games/VN's before but this time i want a long one (like the 30-50 hour type long one XD)

I have played some before (please recommend PC games to me) and eroge is fine for me. But please don't recommend anything that literally focuses on sex

 

A long otome VN or just generally long one? If it's the latter one, there is Kikouyoku Senki Tenkuu no Yumina (Yumina the Ethereal), Kono Oozora ni Tsubasa wo Hirogete (If my heart had wings), Comyu - Kuroi Ryuu to Yasashii Oukoku (Comyu - Black Dragon in a Gentle Kingdom), Fate/Stay Night, Fate/ Hollow Ataraxia, Kamidori Alchemy Meister, Bunny Black, Duel Savior, Eien no Aselia - Kono Daichi no Hate de (Aselia the Eternal), Grisaia no Kajitsu and Hoshizora no Memoria - Wish upon a Shooting Star ^^

 

Explaining what each of them is all about is a bit troublesome, but if you have questions about any of them like premise, genre or anything like that, I will try to answer to the best of my ability ^^

[kuroanimeotaku18]

A long otome VN or just generally long one? If it's the latter one, there is Kikouyoku Senki Tenkuu no Yumina (Yumina the Ethereal), Kono Oozora ni Tsubasa wo Hirogete (If my heart had wings), Comyu - Kuroi Ryuu to Yasashii Oukoku (Comyu - Black Dragon in a Gentle Kingdom), Fate/Stay Night, Fate/ Hollow Ataraxia, Kamidori Alchemy Meister, Bunny Black, Duel Savior, Eien no Aselia - Kono Daichi no Hate de (Aselia the Eternal), Grisaia no Kajitsu and Hoshizora no Memoria - Wish upon a Shooting Star ^^

 

Explaining what each of them is all about is a bit troublesome, but if you have questions about any of them like premise, genre or anything like that, I will try to answer to the best of my ability ^^

 

well i prefer like the ones where choices that you make are important, shoujo/school (where it's in the girl's PoV), and just generally a long one (preferably a REALLY long one) and i also like the kind where it's like the girl is with the popular guy or when it's a forbidden relationship

[LightYami]

well i prefer like the ones where choices that you make are important, shoujo/school (where it's in the girl's PoV), and just generally a long one (preferably a REALLY long one) and i also like the kind where it's like the girl is with the popular guy or when it's a forbidden relationship

 

I'm afraid that I don't really know any visual novel that fulfills those conditions since I don't play otome games ^^''

[kuroanimeotaku18]

lol thanks anyway XD 

 

I'm afraid that I don't really know any visual novel that fulfills those conditions since I don't play otome games ^^''

[lves]

lol thanks anyway XD 

Google or search Fuwanovel's Otome section instead.

[Shiroyabu]

I now believe I am the only one who has read/played the following VisualNovels:

-Sekien no Inganock -What a Beautiful People- (MY FAVORITE <3)

-Lux-Pain (in process)

-Shikkoku no Sharnoth -What a beautiful Tomorrow- (in process)

-Proffessor Laython and the Diabolical Box (in process)

-DanganRonpa 1 (in process too T-T)

and I bet am not the only one with the Phoenix Wright Series~

Yes, I have read Saya no Uta.

 

Also, I dunno if it is considered a Visual Novel, but BlazBlue has VN-like elements or even the Persona Series.... So I dunno....

The otome genre isn't really catchy for me.... nor eroge ewww D:

[Strawbellies]

well i prefer like the ones where choices that you make are important, shoujo/school (where it's in the girl's PoV), and just generally a long one (preferably a REALLY long one) and i also like the kind where it's like the girl is with the popular guy or when it's a forbidden relationship

How about.. though I have a feeling you may have already encountered it.. Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side First Love/Second Kiss/Three? It's more of an Otome Game than a VN though. There are several routes you can take and of course, the popular guy is always one of them.