Visual Novels

[HexFag]

I haven't quite finished the route yet, but I paused it for another one. The route really just hammers down the fact that Yuuji has no individuality, and that he really is a conduit for the behavior of others. Its such a critical character flaw that turns him into a complete idiot. Here I was thinking he had some self respect, but he just lets this crazy bitch go full nympomanic on him. She legit makes me scared with her obsession.

You REALLY should finish Amane's route. If you're still on the sex scenes you're barely into it. 75% of it is literally her backstory which goes into great depth into everything. Also her good route ending is easily the best one by a country mile.

Yumiko. Haven't done Makina/Sac Route yet but I'd wager she is the best route. Of all the girls, she unironically seems like the most normal in terms of progression and backstory. Although they differ a bit, she reminds me of Senjoughara from Monogatari. Good ol' hedgehog syndrome.Might even say the novel, in general, is a bit of a Monogatari in some ways since they focus on girls with many personality disorders and family problems.

You're probably thinking a lot of Senjougahara because the same character designer for her, Michiru, and Chizuru are the same. They stick out like sore thumbs compared to all of the other characters in the VN. In the anime she even does the Shaft head tilt before promptly telling Yuuji to fuck off. But yeah she's pretty plain in comparison to the other girls and is definitely my least favorite for how little she participates in the other routes (she's a literal gag character in the Michiru route). I do dig the Oniisama E... reference with the box cutter. I still like her route and her ending felt very complete in comparison to the other routes minus Amane's.

 

[Frederica Bernkastel]

I don't know why that hits me so hard,

I dunno. I just didn't fit her struggles not too realistic or in at least the way its presented. A condition like hers works a lot better if the novel is denpa.

Yumiko's issue is that she's vanilla compared

That's true, but her story just seems to be the most realistic? It neatly raps up the story. The other girls I played just seemed so forced in their roles. I can imagine a girl like Yumiko being real... the others not so much.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

I dunno. I just didn't fit her struggles not too realistic or in at least the way its presented. A condition like hers works a lot better if the novel is denpa.

It's the opposite of denpa, rather than being a crazy person thinking he's sane, she's a sane person acting like a clown.

That's true, but her story just seems to be the most realistic? It neatly raps up the story. The other girls I played just seemed so forced in their roles. I can imagine a girl like Yumiko being real... the others not so much.

I never really think of realism in media, nevermind visual novels, unless it's it's a central point of the work. If media was realistic it wouldn't be interesting (of course up to a point where it's just stupid).

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

Started playing Heaven Burns Red. So far the writing is funny as hell and there's enough mystery to keep the overused setting interesting. The VA work is phenomenal and really helps the comedy. I really like that you have different text way after dialogue choice depending on what you said minutes before, just great attention to detail. Also fantastic music.

Battle system so far is meh, but having something more than PNGs is as good as it gets in gacha land, and I got lucky enough to have 4 different SS rank support types right off the bat (which is usually the better outcome starting out, since beatsticks tend to be powercrept hard, while the supporters stay useful especially when early game balancing isn't too good).

Battle system is also like Limbus in having multiple versions of the same character, which is really fantastic.

Kinda want to give it its own thread here to not shit here too much and the general Gacha thread is dead. Just hope the game won't die with no resolution.

 

[Frederica Bernkastel]

Spoiler

Angelic Howl

Things don't really pick up until the seventh day. Kazuki seems to contradict herself. She spent day three scolding Amane about taking on unnecessary responsibilities. However, Kazuki criticizes Sakashita for not wanting to prioritize the needs of the wounded as a form of "escapism." I'm also starting to see where Yuuji got some of his submissiveness from. Kazuki seems to paint herself as a master of negotiation, but she is really just afraid of confrontation. If anything, Sakashita took too long to reach her decision, while I expected Kazuki to reach it sooner because of her intelligence. But even she is not an automaton and has consideration for others. I enjoyed the Kazami family reminiscence on her part too.

Ironically, Angelic Howl makes me happy Amane was the one who did survive because her humanism, in spite of it being a liability in this situation, makes me appreciate the world is only hospitable because such people exist. It is tragic that the harshness of the world doesn't select for these people, but Howl makes you realize there are great reasons to prioritize their survival. People like that are truly special to the world. I just wish the early parts of her route made her magnanimous so you wouldn't develop the wrong opinion of her, like I did initially.

Not done, but I'm trying to guess about the end of this using some clear foreshadowing hints from earlier.

 

[Nobody In Particular]

Started playing Heaven Burns Red. So far the writing is funny as hell and there's enough mystery to keep the overused setting interesting. The VA work is phenomenal and really helps the comedy. I really like that you have different text way after dialogue choice depending on what you said minutes before, just great attention to detail. Also fantastic music.

Battle system so far is meh, but having something more than PNGs is as good as it gets in gacha land, and I got lucky enough to have 4 different SS rank support types right off the bat (which is usually the better outcome starting out, since beatsticks tend to be powercrept hard, while the supporters stay useful especially when early game balancing isn't too good).

Battle system is also like Limbus in having multiple versions of the same character, which is really fantastic.

Kinda want to give it its own thread here to not shit here too much and the general Gacha thread is dead. Just hope the game won't die with no resolution.
View attachment 6674898

Ruka is such a colossal tard. I love her.

 

[Nobody In Particular]

First impressions. I like it. Keeping up with Key tradition by making the main character an autistic psychopath. Like she just takes a nap mid-conversation and wakes up like she just finished giving her whole spiel.

View attachment 6660865

Alright. I'm done with chapter 1 and my impressions so far are pretty positive. Even if you were put off by the game being a Gacha game, it would probably still be worth your while to check out the story segments on YouTube or something (I'm told by JP fans that the game has managed to avoid being a colossal anus about power creep and fomo. And thus, tends to be much less egregious than fgo or genshin would be.)

If you want a story synopsis, imagine Starship Troopers in a post-apocalyptic setting with the cast of Angel Beats as the cental characters and you'd probably be pretty close to Heaven Burns Red. Music is godlike, but that should go without saying. I eagerly await the moment when cute anime girls start getting eaten by space bugs set to heart rending music, followed by an entirely out of nowhere side-story about baseball.

 

[HexFag]

Now that it's been patched and the randomization feature got removed, is the FSN remaster better than just using the Ultimate Edition? I'm probably not going to read it any time soon, but it'd be nice to know if I could ditch my Ultimate Edition install that I've had for years. I also heard that the translation/localization got a noticeable improvement from the mirror moon one.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

Alright. I'm done with chapter 1 and my impressions so far are pretty positive. Even if you were put off by the game being a Gacha game, it would probably still be worth your while to check out the story segments on YouTube or something (I'm told by JP fans that the game has managed to avoid being a colossal anus about power creep and fomo. And thus, tends to be much less egregious than fgo or genshin would be.)

If you want a story synopsis, imagine Starship Troopers in a post-apocalyptic setting with the cast of Angel Beats as the cental characters and you'd probably be pretty close to Heaven Burns Red. Music is godlike, but that should go without saying. I eagerly await the moment when cute anime girls start getting eaten by space bugs set to heart rending music, followed by an entirely out of nowhere side-story about baseball.

After chapter 1 and the shop girl arc, god damn both got me tearing up. I'm happy that they didn't pull some big shocker moment at the end, like killing character or claiming that there is no humanity being protected. Still the game gives a really good mystery vibe that there is some underlying wrongness that will probably be expanded on, biggest question is if the whole cat room is after the game events, so it's all a flashback, or that it's during the game event and it explains how your team becomes exponentially stronger over two months. Just for the writing alone it's worth dropping money on, though unless it lets you choose characters in the gacha it's not worth it unless you have enough pulls.

 

[Nobody In Particular]

After chapter 1 and the shop girl arc, god damn both got me tearing up. I'm happy that they didn't pull some big shocker moment at the end, like killing character or claiming that there is no humanity being protected. Still the game gives a really good mystery vibe that there is some underlying wrongness that will probably be expanded on, biggest question is if the whole cat room is after the game events, so it's all a flashback, or that it's during the game event and it explains how your team becomes exponentially stronger over two months. Just for the writing alone it's worth dropping money on, though unless it lets you choose characters in the gacha it's not worth it unless you have enough pulls.

I totally believe the login screen will come into play narratively. Metaphorically, I've seen this fucker cook a 3 course meal with nothing but a flute and dots on the title screen. No way Ruka isn't some sort of 4th dimensional being whose consciousness is split across multiple instances in time or some crazy shit.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

I totally believe the login screen will come into play narratively. Metaphorically, I've seen this fucker cook a 3 course meal with nothing but a flute and dots on the title screen. No way Ruka isn't some sort of 4th dimensional being whose consciousness is split across multiple instances in time or some crazy shit.

It would be lame if it's only a Little Busters scenario where there's a pocket dimension where they literally grind for the real thing.

It could be that Ruka got captured and is communicating with cancers via memories, or is a cancer possessing her. Both are also kind of overused.

I am dreading the game going darker, though with gacha you can't really kill characters.

 

[Frederica Bernkastel]

We gotta talk about these scam kickstarter visual novels. There's so many of them.

 

[helvetika]

We gotta talk about these scam kickstarter visual novels. There's so many of them.

mucho gracias for dollaris idiota


Seriously people need to stop preordering and supporting DOA games (in general, not just VNs)

 

[Nobody In Particular]

We gotta talk about these scam kickstarter visual novels. There's so many of them.

The Sharin no Kuni laptop is my personal One Piece. I will one day wield the power and influence I need to get together a crew of elaborate psychopaths and sail the world's oceans in search of it.

This and the Mecha MewTwo prop from the 2000s Pokemon musical.

 

[Frederica Bernkastel]

Spoiler: Archimedes' principle

[Tsugumi] "You don't understand, Takeshi."
[Tsugumi] "Life is a nightmare. This world is littered with ugliness."
[Takeshi] "Cut your poetic garbage!" *Wham!* Again, I pummeled the bed with my fists.
[Takeshi] "Life! It's the most important thing in this world!"
[Takeshi] "Life is a miracle."
[Tsugumi] "You're wrong! This is no miracle!"
[Tsugumi] "In this ever-expanding universe..."
[Tsugumi] "...Continuing infinitely... This phenomenon called 'life' is no miracle." "It's unnatural."
[Tsugumi] "And it's an accident that we awoke in this disgusting world."
[Takeshi] "Wrong. You are wrong, Tsugumi." I hesitated for a moment.
[Takeshi] "You are so unbelievably wrong."
[Tsugumi] "Where am I wrong?"
[Tsugumi] "Come on. Tell me where I'm mistaken..." All the emotion left her face. She spoke plainly and precisely.
[Tsugumi] "Life is just a cluster of empty desires. We build our lives on the corpses of others."
[Tsugumi] "We kill cows, pigs, birds, fish, plants and even humans...and if we don't, we die."
[Tsugumi] "Our appetites are whetted by the slaughtering of others. Our desire for sleep only proves our laziness."
[Tsugumi]"Our sexual desires are expressed through obscenity and sin."
[Tsugumi] "All the things that keep us alive, the things that drive us, are filthy."
[Tsugumi] "We can't live without them."
[Tsugumi] "There is no such thing as a life of purity. Ultimately...from the moment we are born, we are already corrupted."
[Takeshi] "And that's why you want to die?"
[Tsugumi] "Yes."
[Takeshi] "...Heh."
[Takeshi] "I thought you were smarter than that... but I guess I overestimated you."
[Tsugumi] "........."
[Takeshi] "You do have a point, and I think you are sorta right. I'll admit it."
[Takeshi] "In order for us to live, it's true that we must commit some atrocities."
[Takeshi] "Sometimes people do terrible, despicable things."
[Takeshi] "But do you really think 'living' is a sin?"
[Takeshi] "Thinking living is a sin is the result of arrogance."
[Takeshi] "You don't really think it's a crime for a bird to snatch fruit from a tree, do you?"
[Takeshi] "Does a tiger feel guilt for eating its prey?"
[Takeshi] " Is it really a terrible thing to create new life?"
[Takeshi] "Everything that is necessary to continue living is not only right, but I believe it is sacred."
[Takeshi] "The birds, the tigers, the ants, even the grass..."
[Takeshi] "...They all work so hard to live. It's a beautiful thing. And to love the lives of others is just as important as loving yourself."
[Tsugumi] "........."
[Takeshi] "You have to realize that, don't you?"
[Tsugumi] "It's ridiculous." Tsugumi frowned.
[Takeshi] "Stop pretending to be so cold!" I wanted to kick the bed over, yet I resisted somehow.
[Takeshi] "Alright, so why did you protect Coco? Why did you sacrifice yourself to save Coco?"
[Tsugumi] "........."
[Takeshi] "I don't know exactly what happened back there, but I do know that you are avoiding the truth."
[Takeshi] "You are desperately trying to deny life."
[Takeshi] "Everyone's desires are born out of life. You only want to believe they're wrong to prove your selfish point."
[Takeshi] "You're holding on obstinately, living while all you want to do is die..."
[Takeshi] "Your logic is completely backwards! Life should be unconditionally embraced."
[Takeshi] "Everyone lives for the sake of living."
[Takeshi] "By definition, living beings must love life."
[Takeshi] "If love is beautiful, then so is life."
[Tsugumi] "........."

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

Finished second chapter of HBR and starting to get on the fence. First chapter was absolutely solid in pacing, but chapter two is meanderings as hell and the gameplay doesn't improve at all. I'll continue until I hit a solid wall in progression, but you can only pull the same gags until it's just not very funny, and the dungeon crawling is just boring.

mucho gracias for dollaris idiota
View attachment 6682849

Seriously people need to stop preordering and supporting DOA games (in general, not just VNs)

I'm okay with preordering if it's a small time studio that at least tries to innovate. Less so for big publishers.

 

[Waifu Denier]

Seriously people need to stop preordering and supporting DOA games (in general, not just VNs)

Unfortunately, VNs are a niche medium that often struggle to justify releasing to its even more niche overseas market, plus the Kickstarters are often the only time physical merchandise and copies are available in the West.

The Sharin no Kuni laptop is my personal One Piece. I will one day wield the power and influence I need to get together a crew of elaborate psychopaths and sail the world's oceans in search of it.

And to think that the top line model has a sixth gen Intel CPU and a GTX 1060, what a powerhouse.

 

[00R-Gundam]

Started playing Heaven Burns Red. So far the writing is funny as hell and there's enough mystery to keep the overused setting interesting. The VA work is phenomenal and really helps the comedy. I really like that you have different text way after dialogue choice depending on what you said minutes before, just great attention to detail. Also fantastic music.

Battle system so far is meh, but having something more than PNGs is as good as it gets in gacha land, and I got lucky enough to have 4 different SS rank support types right off the bat (which is usually the better outcome starting out, since beatsticks tend to be powercrept hard, while the supporters stay useful especially when early game balancing isn't too good).

Battle system is also like Limbus in having multiple versions of the same character, which is really fantastic.

Kinda want to give it its own thread here to not shit here too much and the general Gacha thread is dead. Just hope the game won't die with no resolution.
View attachment 6674898

Came for the Artstyle, stayed for the writing. Ruka is such a fun character amd the game, despite being a a gacha, its relaxing to play and i dont have to worry about stuff. I hope the game gets a thread or atleast more attention

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

Came for the Artstyle, stayed for the writing. Ruka is such a fun character amd the game, despite being a a gacha, its relaxing to play and i dont have to worry about stuff. I hope the game gets a thread or atleast more attention

In a bout of exacerbation, sunk about 100$ to get that fucking Seika, somehow got Yuina 3 times... Hopefully this will be the only money spent besides passes. At least I can rationalize it as giving back to Key after a decade of pirating their stuff.

 

[Nobody In Particular]

Had this interaction in my group chat. Wanted to share.