Can't say for sure why I like DeSu2 other than I found it fun. Maybe it was more fair than DeSu1 (Beldr will always be the bullshit fight) and the story is serviceable enough, it was a nice change of pace from "God is angry, again" and I think the cast had more chemistry than the first one's because in DeSu1, once you complete a character's arc, they just hang around. I'll give you that they don't do enough to integrate the demons into the plot though.
I actually prefer the first game over the second game. It has a sense of desperation for "survival" the DeSu2 lacks. The characters scramble aimlessly looking for supplies, having to spend the nights at a local graveyard and you literally see a countdown to your death. It is contained only in the Yamanote circle while the world outside still carries a sense of normalcy making run away a real option. Also Atsuro is literally the best best friend character who stay loyal to you no matter what you choose, while Daichi is a little bitch but you have to be nice to him constantly because he coincidentally need the most point to level up his fate.
In DeSu2 your needs got taken care of by the government by the end of the first day, most of the world is destroyed so there's really nothing to do aside from obeying those who knows the big picture better than you. The side characters in 2 are better though. I like them all except Keita and Fumi while the magical girl, the thug and the glasses in DeSu1 makes me want to end them myself.
Just want to vent a about Gnosia.
I tried "the demo" pretty quickly to see if I might enjoy the game.
It's a werewolf like Novel like Raging Loop.
Gnosia is randomized tho.
After 2 runs on character repeated the same line 3 time.
One character accused another one of being infected and then the next day said they had a role to see the role of someone and accused another character.
I though: why would she accuse someone randomly when she can just wait one night and check out their role.
Turns out I was wrong the game is just retarded.Having random roles really fucks up the narrative and overall logic.
I've been playing Gnosia for couple of hours and yeah there's some AI jank (a lot of times I feel like the SpongeBob logic meme) but it's actually one of the best cases of "show, don't tell" I've seen in gaming.
You see the nature of the characters in the game and that says a lot about them, whether they are manipulative, ruthless, hated or idiotic. You see it through the game. It even comes to gameplay when you can see immediately that the character is the impostor by it taking opposite steps (like a quiet character immediately going on the offensive). The downside is that the individuals loops feel unimportant and it gets repetitive.
So I finished Gnosia (which should be now on pc). Overall it's nice for the price and not overly long (around 20 hours) and kinda comfy to play along a podcast. The big problem with the backdrop of a Mafia game is that it's mainly a social game, but making it short and repeating removes those elements and you are left with cold logic that doesn't change that much.
Having "stats" is interesting but it leads to early games being annoyingly hard while late game you easily win (especially once you get a better tell of the characters), at least it feels satisfying.
I kinda wish that you had full on route loops rather than a collection of short events since it could had more characterization.
Also can't find a way to re-view cgis, wtf?
Finally there is some bullshit gender special, but from what I read it seems to be the fault of the translation team giving up against the trannies.
Also I'm close to finishing the first Grisia (literally last hour or Amane route). I played it first time like 6 years ago, finished Michiru and Yumiko and didn't continue. Continuing it I remembered why. The female cast is fantastic but god I dislike Yuuji and it's unnecessarily verbose, being especially bad when it goes full gun otaku. Like instead of "we took a train" it's several paragraphs of the time, train line and what they ate during the ride.
Yuuji can be alright when he has more wacky scenes/actions. But his writing is completely different between routes (especially the cringy parts in Makina's route) and his interaction with girls is basically insulting them and they immediately forgive him and fawn on him. Also specifically on the Amane route, it kinda fucks up the whole Lord of the Flies plot by having hypercompetent genius girl being consistently right and more moral, also why not burn the bus tires?
I kinda wonder how the sequels are, since I remember really liking the magical girl spinoff.
Radical Dreamers is coming along with Chrono Cross in the switch port bundle. Radical Dreamers is a curious VN originally launched for SatellaView on SNES (a exclusive nippon internet service provided through a hefty modem attached to the console). The premise is about Kid's gang of thieves orchestating a heist in Viper Manor, hoping to steal the Frozen Flame, they eventually confront Lynx and everything,
The characters scramble aimlessly looking for supplies, having to spend the nights at a local graveyard and you literally see a countdown to your death.
My gripe with this is that sounds more interesting than It really was in practice. You have little to none control over actually "scramble aimlessly" for supplies or allowing the death counter to kill you. You merely follow a series of scheduled events until next battle happens, reactivity only translates into having different allies and ending. But you can't actually make choices in regards of surviving, just thrown along the rest of game's exposition.
At least in the first DeSu the survival motto is anecdotal, in the second one is practically non-existent.
So I finished Gnosia (which should be now on pc). Overall it's nice for the price and not overly long (around 20 hours) and kinda comfy to play along a podcast. The big problem with the backdrop of a Mafia game is that it's mainly a social game, but making it short and repeating removes those elements and you are left with cold logic that doesn't change that much.
Having "stats" is interesting but it leads to early games being annoyingly hard while late game you easily win (especially once you get a better tell of the characters), at least it feels satisfying.
I kinda wish that you had full on route loops rather than a collection of short events since it could had more characterization.
Also can't find a way to re-view cgis, wtf?
you've gotta finish the game once, and while playing a round as a Bug, you should be able to visit Yuriko at night (she obviously needs to be alive).
I can't confirm it because honestly by the point I got the true ending, I was fed up with it.
Anyway, long rant time:
I've gotta say, I actually had to force myself to finish it (because I was 100 loops in and I sure as hell wasn't going to give up after that), and I don't understand what's the appeal, or why it has good reviews everywhere I see (and this is coming from someone who enjoys werewolflike games a lot and actually enjoyed VNs like Raging Loop, despite the shitty ending it had). It took me exactly 150 loops to finish it. It feels like a 15 minute werewolf game against the AI stretched to 15 hours and there's hardly any difference at all between the games (at the beginning you're a sitting duck who is at the AI's mercy who for some reason loves to go against you regardless of what you do or say, and once you get decent stats, you basically control the flow of the game, making it boring). The story is basically nonexistent (you get a bit of background from each character through their "events",
which is requiered to get to the ending
but the problem is that the way of getting them is hard as fuck because you need really specific conditions for them to trigger (you need to be friendly with X character, X needs to be a specific role and X and Y need to be alive). There's an event search option which in theory allows you to get them more easily, but again, due to the randomness of the game, it's still complicated. Oh, and if it's an event which has two-three parts and you or the character in question die for some reason, you might as well give up on that loop. The crew is really unlikable (with some exceptions, most of them are assholes or needlesly cryptic). One event in particular frustrated me a lot because
you have to protect Setsu from self destructing by going against Yuriko who is basically the boss of the game due to her stats. You can do this by talking a lot so that she doesn't have a chance to talk at all, but the problem is that in doing so, the AI gets mad at you and ends up voting against you.
Also, maybe I missed the point, but it has heavy transgenderism themes seeing how one characters wants to be human, another one wants to be a cat, and a non-binary one gives you a speech on gender stuff.
Playing Full Metal Daemon Muramasa, the first thing I found googling it is some Redditor predicting there will be TL shenanigans because the guy responsible is a crazy tranny, and then getting the expected downvotes. After "obtaining" the game, the translation is mostly fine but the use of newspeak like "white supermacy" with some exposition scenes is clearly the translator inserting his political bias where it shouldn't be. The game itself is alright but the first chapter really seems overly grimdark and I hope the following chapters won't follow that pattern.
House of Fata Morgana
Root Film
Doki Doki Literature Club Plus
Clannad and Clannad Side Stories
Fatal Twelve
The Letter
Love Esquire
Marchen Forest
Buried Stars
Grisaia Phantom Trigger 01 to 05
Centennial Case - A Shijima Story
The Wanderer Frankenstein's Creature (I've finished it)
Tokyo School Life
Aokana
The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles
Any suggestions on where to start?
I'm almost finished Xenoblade DE and would like something kind of short after such a long playthrough.
House of Fata Morgana
Root Film
Doki Doki Literature Club Plus
Clannad and Clannad Side Stories
Fatal Twelve
The Letter
Love Esquire
Marchen Forest
Buried Stars
Grisaia Phantom Trigger 01 to 05
Centennial Case - A Shijima Story
The Wanderer Frankenstein's Creature (I've finished it)
Tokyo School Life
Aokana
The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles
Any suggestions on where to start?
I'm almost finished Xenoblade DE and would like something kind of short after such a long playthrough.
Fata Morgana - It's around 30 hours, god tier soundtrack and alright story.
Doli Doli - About an hour, if you weren't spoiled on it there's no reason to not go on it.
Clannad - 60 hours with a lot of emotional damage.
Marche Forest - It's more of a RPG than VN. I didn't really care much for it since it's pretty generic.
Great Ace Attorney - each of the two part is about 20 hours. Didn't care for the first part, but the second is really good.
Fata Morgana - It's around 30 hours, god tier soundtrack and alright story.
Doli Doli - About an hour, if you weren't spoiled on it there's no reason to not go on it.
Clannad - 60 hours with a lot of emotional damage.
Marche Forest - It's more of a RPG than VN. I didn't really care much for it since it's pretty generic.
Great Ace Attorney - each of the two part is about 20 hours. Didn't care for the first part, but the second is really good.
Okay Full Metal Daemon Muramasa has a quirk that the hero essentially has to murder the person he loves most in each chapter, you have the two heroines and every chapter has an expandable girl to kill. So I guess I now need to replay the game as the schizo who hates everyone for the good ending with the two heroines living. Though it might be a fake out and sooner or later you'll be forced to kill all the girls irregardless.
Not a fan honestly, way too grimdark, which is a shame since the writing is solid.
actually have a shitton of VN in my backlog and went around to start actually finishing them, with two done so far : It's kinda relaxing to just have to read and forget about things about reflexes.
These are the ones I have with me rn and I'm planning on starting and hopefully ending:
-OPUS: Echo of Starsong (Half VN Half Adventure game, have to mention it because it's one of the best games I've played these last years)
-Synergia (Just finished it, ended enjoying it but nothing too special except the quite unique art)
-AI: The Somnium Files (Now the sequel is coming I came around to play it and so far, I'm quite enjoying it)
-Buried Stars (Funnily just saw someone mentioned it here, coincidentally enough)
-Our World is Ended (Nice art but I feel I may end not liking it because seems quite the "Wacky" and Horny game)
-Mamiya (The premise seems intriguing and the art is good)
-Raging Loop
-Hermitage: Strange Case Files
-Cafe 0 (No Idea what's about, came with a bundle)
-Companion (Ditto)
-OmniLink (Has a bit of Gameplay, but semes to be mostly VN, art os GORGEOUS, imo)
-NEEDY GIRL OVERDOSE (Seems interesting enough)
Apart from these I have a few games in my sights that have yet to come out but I'm expectant about:
-One Spirit (Eastern European VN, lel)
-Shard of Chaos (Meh, probably won't buy it but the demo was ineteresting)
-Afterlove EP (From the creator of Coffee Talk, I don't think it's actually a VN unlike CT but worth mentioning it, sadly the creator passed away so I fear it won't exactly as he envisioned it even if the project is going forward without him).
Just finished Full Metal Daemon Muramasa, I have a lot to unpack here but the tl;dr is that it has great character interactions, fight scenes and world building, but the plot itself is just confused and the game endlessly tries to preach about a message that is so basic there is no point. The game is paced alright until the final route which drags and outstays its welcome. The more "realistic" fights are usually great and have a lot of explanation about elements that I never actually thought of in a fight scene, while the outlandish fights feel more like a skill check for whenever the plot can progress with everyone involve having super armor until they don't. The game does make the VN sin of having the character talk at length on how a real fight is hard and dangerous, only to have a later fight scene when punches someone to the moon.
The plot is basically an Alternate History mid ww2 Japan. There are mechas made by alternate history Jews/Ainu (really) and currently Japan is stuck being controlled by a rogue military power while the British Empire (that includes the USA) is waiting for the chance to take over. It's actually surprisingly well thought, for example the reason the British still has the USA is because the mechas can only be made in the Europe and Asia, so the Americans can't compete and war for independence. There are some bizarre questions coming out of it (like why aren't the mechas only getting better but instead seemingly ancient ones are infinitely more powerful despite better tech) but it's not too bad. One thing that is jarring is that the translation having terms that are very anarchonistic considering ww2 didn't happen.
We play as a dude on a quest to stop a global genocide from a super mecha and his own super mecha comes with a curse - Whenever he kills a person he hates he must kill someone he loves. Though the game is never consistent how it works, sometimes it means he needs to kill someone equivalent to the hatred he had for his target, sometimes he needs to kill the waifu he has the most affection points with. It does make a plot hole since some of the people the protagonist kills are one he doesn't show hatred for but he still needs to kill irregardless. Anyways, this curse is the crux of the game's moral - By killing anyone you kill someone that is good (for some) and bad (for you and others). Now besides being basic morality 101 I'm going to sperg why it just doesn't work (there will be spoilers).
The idea of everyone having someone who loves them and that in their death you set the stage for sorrow or revenge just doesn't apply to the game. None of the targets the protagonist kills are redeemable or has a next of kin that takes revenge, the only two exceptions is a relative for a character we never see and both are mentioned in a single paragrath and a later route where the people feeling bad for the person are literal child prostitutes he had. The only blowbacks the protagonist has are by relatives of people he killed because of his curse. So the whole moral falls flat on its face since not having the curse would have meant not having a lot of troubles that pop up in the plot irregardless of the killings.
Another big issue is that the game doesn't acknowledge the difference between a kill and murder. Killing someone in self defence or by being forced into it is just not comparable to murder and the game autistically insisting that it is is just retarded and ignores that we, as a society, already pretty much decided on the philosophy behind the dividing line.
The game also has one route focus on the idea of relative morality, but again it just doesn't work. While the different sides in the global conflict are bad (the Japanese one cartoonishly so), the game pretty much seems to suggest that you should cuck to injustice since either "the devil you know" or that you might cause others to follow you and risk their lives (which is itself a ridiculous claim that pins the actions of other on you). Ironically the plot had a better setup for morality in the same route by having the protagonist find a loophole in the curse (which is never really well defined) and then having a far easier time killing a lot of enemies than previously attempting to always non-fatally wound them.
Another route has the topic of Revenge, but despite being a major part of the main morality, revenge actually has not a lot of weight on the main plot. The in-story revenge itself is ridiculous since it is enacted by a character who could have prevented everything and it is caused to a person that would have died anyways without the protagonist interfering. The message is the usual that revenge ends up with everyone hurting, but ironically the ending is pretty emotionally satisyfing for the characters involved.
Finally one route really boiled my blood with the moral of "you aren't allowed to a normal life once you took another's life". It is just mean spirited and feels made mainly to be edgy and have a darker tone for the ending (which already had the survivors being emotionally wrecked).
