Visual Novels

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Do you play visual Novels?

  • No, because that’s fucking gay

    Votes: 83 15.7%
  • Yes, because I read them for the plot

    Votes: 195 36.9%
  • No, because they’re not really video games

    Votes: 34 6.4%
  • Yes, because anime girls are better than real women

    Votes: 116 21.9%
  • No, but I think about playing them

    Votes: 68 12.9%
  • Yes, but I do it ironically

    Votes: 33 6.2%

  • Total voters
    529
Advanced more in Raging Loop.

Have gotten the second ending and have progressed a bit in the third big path

Still really liking it. The route also actively fucked with me for thinking I was clever, I found 2 wolfs on my first 2 picks only to make the first one irrelevant due to Mamiya revealing herself as the fake snake and the second time it meant, I couldn't reasonably lock the simple majority for humanity. I was expecting Chiemi to be a wolf there, she just seemed kind of unhinged during the whole loop and was acting a bit too damn lustful to Haruaki when the only thing she could have is some sort of phantom affection from the prior loop, that it was all supposedly an act to unbalance the scenario made sense. And well, the Mocchi behaving like a sociopath was unsurprising, specially when someone that seemed as kind and noble like Yassun during the second loop was already shown to be an uncompromising killer in the first when he was a wolf. What I did NOT expect was Chiemi and Mocchi packing heat and fucking everyone up. I also liked how in the next doover it was a "yeah, fucked up a couple of more loops trying to distract Chiemi and fuck with her guns, but screw it, I did it". What I also did NOT expect was that winning the game means fuck all about Haruaki's situation and that what seems like another purge happened mere days after with everyone dead.

Now I'm in path 3 where Haruaki is a wolf and I'm thrilled they went there. That his wingladies are Kaori and Haru which are both different brands of crazy adds to the fun. Though Chiemi has again already completely fucked with me by blowing her brains out, and that's where I left off for now. Also, the FAT MAN COMMETH and I'm loving his flow. Managed to get Kanzo to mellow out a bit, yet I'm convinced that fat fuck will be a huge problema and should be killed ASAP, but Chiemi and the deal with Kaori already fucked with that plan. And if Takumi really is the snake, Haruaki's plan of taking him down and becoming the snake takes priority, though I'm convinced that will go south for sure.

On other notes, I still like Haruaki, but there is something definitely wrong with him and the loops are clearly sending it into overdrive. Though I probably shouldn't talk to much shit seeing how I agreed with his "hey, lets kill one and cut the limbs from the other". Motherfucking chad put so much the fear of GOD inte them that Chiemi prefered to just sudoku, hardcore. But yes, it's clear he's becoming more and more unhinged. Though he may see the aspects of other loops in a sort of "distanced way", it's still clearly screwing with him. I'm also very intrigued by wolf god Haru and her taunting, just learned that Shi'nai is actually 3 gods, which kind of connect with what Mamiya was saying about faiths just getting smashed together.

As for DA WAIFUS. Rikako was incredibly fun to fuck with, I never got tired of the "oooooh!" gag from her. I do prefer Chiemi... till in path 3 she suddenly blew her head off, so I'm starting to doubt more and more that "she can be fixed". They both have their charm in their own way and though something tells me there won't be more variances, I would have loved to see Rikako as a wolf just to see how coocoo for cocoa puffs she could go.

So yeah, still having a blast. Kind of dreading when the game "suppodedly turns bad", though I'm very much in camp "this shit is supernatural". So I prefer the "a wizard did it" ending instead of a super elaborate bullshit session. I'm kind of afraid of a twist where the people fromt he main town set all of this shit up via an incredibly obtuse system of drugs and suggestions and so on. No fuck that shit, I'm fine with divine retribution.
 
People sleep on EXTRA too much because of how good Alternative is. It's a very fun rom-com with a funny cast and great moments. The only issue I had when reading Extra is that it ran a bit TOO long and some of the other routes other than Chizuru's are boring. I still recommend doing all of the routes though.
Extra is good. Never finished it tho. I'm afraid I forgot where I am and as such, my save file is just stuck on the... purple haired girl like in the middle of the route (its been a minute lol). I need to finish it tho.
 
Another quick update on Raging Loop but I never expected Badger Meiko would bring me so much joy. Seeing a raging toddler screaming they should all hang (and she's hungry) AND that for some reason I can't muster she's obsessed with hanging Haruaki first is just hilarious.
 
I do honestly wish the game was a bit more graphic though. Some more explicit imagery of the fucked up shit the text narrates yes, this may be edgy of me, but I do enjoy some gore in my horror here and there and the game plays it very safe with that from what I've seen.
I can understand that. I think the music, sound, and descriptions do a lot of heavy lifting for your imagination though. It's kinda disturbing at times.

???
Fata Morgana has incest bait, lez bait, pedo "romance", and ultimately massive amounts of woman-hate. But no troons.
It wasn't even really incest bait, just straight-up incest. And that pedo romance was dreadful, not only are you supposed to think their situation was romantic but to look past that he literally tortured her.

But anyway, the main character is a chick, but magically became a dude. Everyone thought it was a curse, but it's not really explained how this happened; I guess it's implied she was intersex or something (had weird Barbie-like lack of genitals based on the description) and that's somehow supposed to explain how she went from being a girly girl to a big ripped guy virtually overnight...

Idk, it's retarded. But I do know his brother who became trapped as a painting or something gives you a speech about gender identity and accepting people's identity, I'll have to find the scene again. I'll post it if I do.

Now I'm in path 3 where Haruaki is a wolf and I'm thrilled they went there. That his wingladies are Kaori and Haru which are both different brands of crazy adds to the fun. Though Chiemi has again already completely fucked with me by blowing her brains out, and that's where I left off for now. Also, the FAT MAN COMMETH and I'm loving his flow.
Man, I absolutely love that part. It's fun hearing your experience with it. I felt the same way about basically everything.
 
I can understand that. I think the music, sound, and descriptions do a lot of heavy lifting for your imagination though. It's kinda disturbing at times.
Definitely disturbing. I've seen a few of the kills from the wolf perspective and it's absolutely psychotic. Cutting Takumi's head with Kaori and Haru going full Omedeto and then Haruaki just pubting the head in a weird frustration was quite the scene. you are probably right that the text does enough work.
It wasn't even really incest bait, just straight-up incest. And that pedo romance was dreadful, not only are you supposed to think their situation was romantic but to look past that he literally tortured her.
... happy I removed it from the wishlist.
Man, I absolutely love that part. It's fun hearing your experience with it. I felt the same way about basically everything.
I enjoy living vicariously through others playing and experiencing stuff that I enjoy, so I'm happy to share snippets of my own and hopefully someone will get a kick out of it.
 
Definitely disturbing. I've seen a few of the kills from the wolf perspective and it's absolutely psychotic. Cutting Takumi's head with Kaori and Haru going full Omedeto and then Haruaki just pubting the head in a weird frustration was quite the scene. you are probably right that the text does enough work.
The kills that have personal connections are the craziest ones, it really portrays madness prety well.

... happy I removed it from the wishlist.
Good. It's way too edgy for it's own good, whole thing's that way. The negatives outweigh the positives, but at least I pirated it :story:

Still, there were some very memorable scenes. Best one was this extremely vengeful bitch sabotaging her friend for revenge while acting as if she still likes him. After thoroughly fucking him over she finally tries to kill him in this climactic scene with a really cool song playing over her reveal. The lyrics are spiteful as hell and she looks cool after shedding her "modest housemaid" persona, she's like the physical manifestation of the saying "hell hath no fury like a woman scorned".


I enjoy living vicariously through others playing and experiencing stuff that I enjoy, so I'm happy to share snippets of my own and hopefully someone will get a kick out of it.
Yeah, that's always fun. What do you think of the music?
 
Definitely disturbing. I've seen a few of the kills from the wolf perspective and it's absolutely psychotic. Cutting Takumi's head with Kaori and Haru going full Omedeto and then Haruaki just pubting the head in a weird frustration was quite the scene. you are probably right that the text does enough work.
Third route is where shit really gets real, especially with how dysfunctional your allies are. You can't really mention it without spoiling the role reversal.

... happy I removed it from the wishlist
I don't remember Fata Morgana being that bad. The incest has a good reason for it rather than the writer's fetish and it's a minor character. Ditto the trans is more of a cursed person to male rather than pooner.

I did read the prequel beforehand which I'm not sure if it adds to the experience or makes it worse.
 
Yeah, that's always fun. What do you think of the music?
I'm liking it as well, specially the one that plays when Haruaki is alone thinking things. But the main "deliberation" theme is also great.
Third route is where shit really gets real, especially with how dysfunctional your allies are. You can't really mention it without spoiling the role reversal.
Definitely, though getting there has been a great ride as well non retarded Fatrick has been taken down now and I've already seen that the camera play taping the murder failed, so seems like it's pretty closed to locked unless Mamiya pulls something out of her ass or Meiko ruins the wolf tie in her badger rage.
I don't remember Fata Morgana being that bad. The incest has a good reason for it rather than the writer's fetish and it's a minor character. Ditto the trans is more of a cursed person to male rather than pooner.

I did read the prequel beforehand which I'm not sure if it adds to the experience or makes it worse.
Meh, just sounds too edgy for it's own good. Doesn't mean I don't mind edgy here and there, but Raging Loop is very much scratching an itch right now. Next time I'm going into Utawaramemaru: Prelude to the fallen since I've always heard good things about it.
 
I don't remember Fata Morgana being that bad. The incest has a good reason for it rather than the writer's fetish and it's a minor character. Ditto the trans is more of a cursed person to male rather than pooner.

I did read the prequel beforehand which I'm not sure if it adds to the experience or makes it worse.
I don't remember any good reason for the incest, seemed like shock value for shock value's sake at best. And it wasn't minor characters, it was the twins. But it was Jacopo's treatment of Morgana and how that was portrayed as forgivable which was the dealbreaker to me, like "oopsie daisy, my bad, I locked my child lover in a tower and tortured her to death but she forgave me so we're all good". Someone actually thought that was good writing. And, of course, George's Reddit-esque pro-tranny speech (even if Michel isn't strictly a tranny).

I didn't know there was a prequel though. What's it called?

Next time I'm going into Utawaramemaru: Prelude to the fallen since I've always heard good things about it.
It starts off a bit slow but stick with it, it's one of the best VNs/TRPGs I've ever played.
 
Just found out the VN Far Away finally has an English translation, been waiting a long time for it to be translated, will need to finally finish Muv Luv Unlimited first (ended up skipping the non main duo because I was too curious for Unlimited, as much as I like them as characters they aren't as waifu materials as the main duo).
Meh, just sounds too edgy for it's own good. Doesn't mean I don't mind edgy here and there, but Raging Loop is very much scratching an itch right now. Next time I'm going into Utawaramemaru: Prelude to the fallen since I've always heard good things about it.
Utawarerumono is the shit. Can't recommend it enough. Though with Prelude I think it's one of the few cases where the anime is superior even after the remake because it cuts surprisingly little. I want to post some anime scenes but there's a lot of minor spoilers.
I don't remember any good reason for the incest, seemed like shock value for shock value's sake at best. And it wasn't minor characters, it was the twins. But it was Jacopo's treatment of Morgana and how that was portrayed as forgivable which was the dealbreaker to me, like "oopsie daisy, my bad, I locked my child lover in a tower and tortured her to death but she forgave me so we're all good". Someone actually thought that was good writing. And, of course, George's Reddit-esque pro-tranny speech (even if Michel isn't strictly a tranny).

I didn't know there was a prequel though. What's it called?
The prequel is The House in Fata Morgana: A Requiem for Innocence. As for incest, wasn't it the witch fucking up with the boy for his sins (as all the main characters are basically cursed for their past)? Weird I played it in 2020, probably wrote about it here, but I'm usually with very little patience for overt pro tranny shit. The prequel also shows in depth what happened between Jacopo and Mograna in the far past (which I ended up fast forwarding when reading the novel) and it was way more sympathetic for the guys.
 
Sooooo, I finished Raging Loop, haven't done the extra bits yet nor seen the expanded scenes, but good enough to do a write up.

I'll go by blocks

Finishing scenario 3

This was a great roller coaster. The payoff of Meiko being the badger being flipped on it's head when Mamiya and Rikako suddenly went "we are the wolves" was great and had me chuckling at how hard Haruaki and Haru got played. Then did the "follow god's lead" plan and that one was a lot more bitter sweet. Haru is indeed a good girl and Haruaki managed to avoid going into the jailbait (while also wondering if his attraction was to Haru, god or the combination of both), so good on both. Very satisfying last stretch of the scenario, a broken and victorious Haruaki wins the scenario. I did find it kind of dumb that he was packing heat to just nuke Mocchi in the "win scenario" yet did not have the gun in the lose scenario, I was hoping for a full chimpout instead of quietly getting hanged.

Anyway, Rikako admits defeat, Mocchi gets a buckshot for his efforts. Some weird interactions with god... and then we get giant meat monster that will destroy Japan... OK... and the sheep enters the scene as a character... OK. So at this point I'm just rolling with the punches. Also, lots of talks about "dreams", so seems like this is how we get our super duper happy ending.

Looking for other keys

This part started great. Well, alright since I did the occult chat with Mamiya first, something something about spiders never being gods proper and a lot of very dense folklore talk. Sure, fine.

But then I did the "chatting with Chiemi" block and my god what a ride! Chiemi is the first yandere I've ever found enjoyable and it was quite the trip! Their 50+ attempts at escaping, their other 70 where Chiemi went full psycho bitch killing Haruaki till he just got tired, called her a niusance and she took it poorly in the good sense accepting that her way of showing "love" might not have been the best and we still get the impression of Haruaki just being a manipulative asshole with charm. Kind of patch things out, a bit of teasing. They are both mentally broken at this point but still bounce off so well off of each other. Loved this segment.


Then went to have adventures at the Nosato mansion. The exchange were they both noticed they are Otaku had me rolling. But then we reach the secret room and everything goes to shit. So I'm led to believe the Miguruma are such amazing motherfuckers that they can fake the whole feast... yeah, exactly what I dreaded the most, going full "facts and logic" to explain the supernatural. Was also getting annoyed at the few insinuations in the past that Haru was just crazy and god was just a coping mechanism when the fucking thing clearly had power and knowledge that was not warranted in any other context BUT the supernatural, aside from the looping. We suddenly go to "naw dog, the feast is a lie, but my looping is totally real and Haru is a god's receptacle or not depending on how I'm feeling at any point in time". Also, fuck you at having electronic locks, cameras, microphones and gas dispensers in every lodging and nobody noticing, fuck you.

Final nail was the old guy's revelation. Also incredibly retarded. If the Miguruma are so fucking savage and cruel to set this shit up, they would have fucked the hobo, tortured him for days, gotten the Tokyo contact and killed the fucker. Having one of the players be the superviser is absolute retardation due to how erratic people get during the feast, and him being the werewolf? Fuck you, it's a 95 year old scrawny fuck. It also makes the 50+ loops Haruaki and Chiemi did just trying shit not make any sense as well as the hundreds by Chiemi herself where she was just killing indiscreminitaly. So she never ended up in a situation where the old man dies, and the corruption is just some dogs with rabies that she buckshots away? And when with Haruaki never were in a situation where the werewolf was a head shorter than Haruaki? They never considered just bringing a bucket of water and splashing it around to keep the rabid dogs away? Jesus FUCK what a fantastic way to fuck things up. That's without going into how the mists fuck with distance like in the first story were unable to reach Saranaga or how Chiemi ends up corroding to death. At this point I went full speed reading at how annoyed I was with this "twist".

Final route

At this point I have all the keys and just go with it. Haruaki does his "extra time" with the sheep, meets the clerk and clarifies it's the Sheep (expected the clerk to be a god, but I expected the sheep to be related to Meiko, not her) and off he goes on his plan. This part perked me up again. At the end of the day, gods are still as powerful as the adoration and reverance they get, so Haruaki playing storyteller with all of his acquired loop knowledge was a nice way to put a bow on things. Was it hammy? Very much so, but I honestly enjoyed that segment and the one to one with all of the villagers. Meiko was also adorable during the whole thing. I also appreciated how Haru/god called him Haruaki when it's something she would only be aware of from loop 3, again, making it clear that god is real and not some derangement.

But then I'm wondering "where is Rikako?". She was either the dream fucker, or for a moment I had the hope that he talked to her earlier to do the role of his "wife". Yet to my surprise, the wife is the clerk AND it's Haruaki's ex... and she has the sheep power... My eyes rolled to the back of my head at that point. This had a stench of "we don't want to make more character models, guess it's you". So yeah, guess Rikako is the big bad... So Haruaki meets up with her, got a good chuckle out of me with "how did you know?" "you didn't come to the tree when I asked" and her going "oh shit, really?!" but then it goes into wank. It's not as bad as "Miguruma can do whatever the fuck they want because money" but it's pretty dubious, that we get the flesh giant being a spider god of sorts and then we get the scooby gang joining with Chiemi and friends and the scene is mostly a mess. The "my name is fake BITCH!" was also a copout, Haruaki may have faked his name, but the wording of the promise was very deliberate to set up a logical trap, very "twist cause I want one", I did chuckle a bit at how pathetic Rikako becomes once she loses her power because... reasons, not a single damn explanation about that. I also find her plan incredibly obtuse and adding how she basically raped the whole town is just Shadow level edge, so getting 13 people in bumfuck nowhere to kill each other revives spider Yog Shoggoth? Yeah, sure, whatever...

So after that, it's Haruaki and Chiemi with a shotgun against the Miguruma. And oh look, our journofriends finally come into the scene! And it devolves into beating up a bunch of loser faggots that I've been led to believe prior to this point that they are smooth operators making the best LARPS in town. Things are getting long and everyone wants to just go home, so Haruaki says some bullshit, the lead snake says "yeah, sure, whatever, fuck it, I'm tired of this faggotry too" and everyone peaces out.

Some more weird as fuck dialogue with Haruaki's ex, who now sounds like a fed of sorts. With magical dream powers... whatever. Meiko just vanishes because nobody knew what to do with her at this point when she would have worked so much better as the sheep or the catalist of the flesh god invocation and everyone fucks off on their own merry way, with Rikako throwing one last "bakka" to close it off.

Timeskip, Chiemi finds Haruaki, we get a final reveal of what he actually is (name still seems fake though) and they ride off into the sunset.

Final impressions is that I think most of the ending is ass, but I don't think I hated it as much as others. That I happened to really like Chiemi probably helped a lot with that. Was also hoping for something a bit more meaty on why Haruaki behaves like a sociopath without batting an eye a few times. The VN itself is incredibly linear. Not a bad thing per se, Fate was the same way and I loved it, but would have appreciated things being more obtuse to get or proper branching so that depending on what you do, you end up in one of the 3 scenarios from the outset and scrambling through (and yes, I understand it complicates dialogue trees a lot more). The hint corner was a formality for the most part since it's impossible to not know what to do next.

Till the end of story 3 it was a page turner. After that, except for the segment with Chiemi's 100+ iterations with Haruaki and the "Ookami sama pelp talk", the rest was pretty blegh. I expect insane random shit to get explained in insane random ways in Danganronpa, Raging Loop was too "grounded" for it's own good and created the atmosphere of fokklore and spirits and old gods and demons too well to go full "power of science BITCH!", specially when there were still supernatural things, they wanted to have their cake and eat it.

I still have to do all of the additional scenes and extra content and looking forward to it. I do like most of the characters and their little stories.

In summary, I get why people say the ending lets it down. I would consider it as a whole a possitive experience though. Any other VN similar to this one though?
 
Are there any VNs akin "sing yesterday for me", ie. melancholy, adult topics that aren't just sex and romance? I genuinely enjoy manga and all those weebs mediums when the stories are any kinds of relevant. Losers, I guess, who try to make it through life without achieving everything and a big happy ending.

Yet all VNs Ive looked into are EDGY DEATH MURDER MAYHEM or "which cripple do you wanna fuck?"
 
Are there any VNs akin "sing yesterday for me", ie. melancholy, adult topics that aren't just sex and romance? I genuinely enjoy manga and all those weebs mediums when the stories are any kinds of relevant. Losers, I guess, who try to make it through life without achieving everything and a big happy ending.
Clannad, Planetarian, White Album, Musicus
 
In summary, I get why people say the ending lets it down. I would consider it as a whole a possitive experience though. Any other VN similar to this one though?
I would recommend Gnosia to unwind. It's a bit divisive but pretty good in atmosphere and setting, and and it's fun to slowly chip at it until you get the ending.
Basically it's also amongus but randomly generated with the jobs given randomly. Each session is pretty quick and you get the plot from getting specific scenarios (it will edge you towards them so the RNG isn't too bad). The main issue is that it works more of a stat check a lot of times than actual logic game (since you have stats that you increase as you play more and more).
999 I already had gone through, but what is Island?
Island is pretty good but it starts pretty generic, though the time loop in it is way less pronounced than usual. I recommend it and it's better to be .

Top quality milf material in that game.
 
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