- Joined
- Dec 20, 2022
I spend more time at work listening to the HBR sound track than I do playing it. I understand now why some people choose the NEET life.
Visual Novels
- Thread starter John Titor
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wtfNeedSignUp
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2019
Extremely good soundtrack for a mediocre game describes a lot of gachas.
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2022
I like HBR. I'd say it's the best if its kind. But I only say that because its main creative lead is a guy I've driven myself into a delusional psychosis appreciating for about half my life at this point.
There's a bit of a bias on my part is what I'm saying.
- Joined
- Jul 18, 2019
I dunno where the idea that 'DDLC is a heckin subversion' came from but I see it's made its way into this thread. FWIW Dan Salvato is an actual fan of the genre and mostly wrote DDLC straight without much irony. I don't think he felt like he was making any particularly deep statements other than, "yo what if you were trapped inside a slice-of-life anime for eternity? wouldn't that be kinda fucked up?" At least, that's the vibe I've gotten from the few streams and interviews he's done about it. And I don't think he really expected the game to be much of a hit given how short it is - it was more an exercise in if he could actually write a complete game in ren'py and maybe do a few neat fourth-wall breaks.
The notion that it's supposed to be ironic or subversive seems to be a product of midwit youtube picking it up as FOTM and writing a shitzillion video essays about it because they're wholly unfamiliar with this style of game and think they've seen something unprecedented.
The eternal problem of "retarded fans poisoning the well."
The notion that it's supposed to be ironic or subversive seems to be a product of midwit youtube picking it up as FOTM and writing a shitzillion video essays about it because they're wholly unfamiliar with this style of game and think they've seen something unprecedented.
The eternal problem of "retarded fans poisoning the well."
I mean, I get it. I've been pretty broke in the past and pirated a lot of games. But nowadays even expensive games are relatively small purchases compared to what I make so I don't have many compunctions about dropping 40 bucks on a visual novel just to help keep the genre financially viable.
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2020
Yeah a lot of it comes from secondaries or people who have never read a VN who maybe never read a Japanese VN thinking DDLC is hot shit because it isn't completely disingenuous ironic slop. I find it hard to hate DDLC (some part of me thinks that I would never have gotten into the medium proper if I never read it 8 years ago), but it really isn't anything special once you get slightly into the medium as a whole.
Yeah all jokes aside VNs are really the only thing I bother spending my money on Steam for nowadays. The last thing I'd want to happen is another Heaven Burns Red situation where an otherwise seemingly fantastic VN is stuck in one of the most soulless, evil, moneysucking, failed forms imaginable: a gacha game.
Poultry Enthusiast
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Aug 14, 2022
I feel the same way. English translations for VNs at least don't seem to sell, and I'm a lot more inclined to pay for them over games that sell a million copies no matter what. I don't want to wake up and see my cute anime girl storybooks vanish with freemium phone games entirely replacing them. It helps that most VNs are DRM free and don't have any odious monetization.
wtfNeedSignUp
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2019
It's not impossible but with subversion it's hard to know if it's from love or hate. It's then hard to argue with the people who use the game to criticize the "stereotypical VN player".
VNs are already usually cheap compared to video games, but with inflation just going to the cinema twice costs as much as a pre sale VN. Of course who goes to the cinema?
- Joined
- Jul 18, 2019
I just finished episode 4 of Umineko. What a fucking trip. I still have no idea what's really going on. Around this point in Higurashi, I'd started to feel like I'd gotten a grasp on the actual happenings in the story (such as some crazy illness driving people insane, Tomitake, Takano, and Irie being feds investigating the illness, Rika persisting between the loops, etc).
But with Umineko, I feel like I'm missing some core ideas that will make everything make sense despite being halfway through.
But with Umineko, I feel like I'm missing some core ideas that will make everything make sense despite being halfway through.
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- Joined
- Jun 7, 2020
Any subversion/deconstuction worth it's salt is usually done out of love or respect for the thing they are trying to deconstruct. Most of the times people try to deconstruct something out of pure spite, it usually never comes out well because they have no clue what the fuck they're going on about.
Any theories for who might've done it so far? It's always interesting seeing people's thoughts on the overarching mystery of Umineko before the answers arcs.
passthejuice
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2024
never understood how people can like umineko. i've read a few episodes and i just found it to be bloated pseud meta claptrap. i heard it gets even worse in the second half, the author practically ranting at the readers. when i'm on vndb and looking for recs i always ignore the opinions of anyone who rated it highly.
- Joined
- Jul 18, 2019
The Battler we know has been revealed to be an illegitimate child of some sort. We also know a mistress was, in fact, kept on the island up until 1968 the year that our Battler was born. Rudolf is also known to be our Battler's father. My thinking is that Kinzo took one of his servants as a mistress to be the substitute for Beatrice, that mistress was knocked up by Rudolf and gave birth to our Battler, and either a former lover of the mistress or a family member of hers showed up on the island and began carrying out revenge on Kinzo's family for the crimes against her. This started with the killing of original Battler, which put Rudolf in a precarious position so he swapped in the illegitimate child for his own son. As the illegitimate child had been raised with a completely false history in Kuwadorian, he was able to fully convince himself that he had been Rudolf and Asumu's child all along and invent false memories of a childhood.
Sometime between 1980 and 1986, this person with relation to the mistress appears, takes Krauss and Natsuhi hostage and offers them the chance to eliminate their family members (and thus simplify the inheritance) in exchange for letting him have his revenge. As the mistress is likely a former servant who was abused, the servants also all seem to be in on the scheme, allowing themselves to die to carry out the revenge cleanly as long as their families eventually receive some money in compensation. Kanon and Shannon were fine with this until they developed relationships with the Ushiromiya children which is why they seem so wishy-washy about things but do eventually go through with the plot.
Sometime between 1980 and 1986, this person with relation to the mistress appears, takes Krauss and Natsuhi hostage and offers them the chance to eliminate their family members (and thus simplify the inheritance) in exchange for letting him have his revenge. As the mistress is likely a former servant who was abused, the servants also all seem to be in on the scheme, allowing themselves to die to carry out the revenge cleanly as long as their families eventually receive some money in compensation. Kanon and Shannon were fine with this until they developed relationships with the Ushiromiya children which is why they seem so wishy-washy about things but do eventually go through with the plot.
I don't think this is necessarily correct but this the gut feeling I'm leaning towards right now.
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2022
Ever17 got released on Steam a few days ago with Never 7. They're getting negative reviews because Mages did the bare minimum in porting them across.
You can read this here for a complete list of changes but the PC version is a re-translation of the japanese exclusive X360 version. That version has it's story and character arcs changed so much that it's an inferior version according to the poster. It kinda sucks because I thought Mages would do at least token effort in porting across a game to Steam with a decent translation. It's the Aoi Shiro HD port all over again.
If you want to play the original, you can find a torrent on Nyaa and use the Himmel Patch.
Never 7 is in a similar state. One of the reviews says there's a grammar mistake in the first sentence in the game and the videos have been upscaled horribly with AI.
Speaking of Western, I found out something I played a decade ago actually came out. Way back in the days of 2014, I played Long Live the Queen, the stat based sim where you guide a new queen to make sure she doesn't have a bad ending. On a forum somewhere someone suggested Seven Kingdoms to me, another stat based Otome game that had some complexity to it. Managing relationships, factions and building a character with different backgrounds. (The hell VNDB, you have a page for this but not Long Live the Queen?). A Kickstarter came out for it in 2015 and the build I played was 3 weeks of 7 in the game so I thought I'd wait for it to be finished and check back on it.
9. Years. Later.
Apparently the creator bit off more than she could chew, she spent literal years pouring over code and writing all the dialog branches and skill checks that account for things like stats, relationships, major choices, major factions, reputation, who your engagement is and so forth. So many years passed that I forgot about this one and stumbled upon it again looking for stat based VNs to play. I check it out and finally a demo of the last 3 weeks is available to play.
I've played it and there's something about it, I think it's the writing. The sprites are flat, mirrored and pallette swapped in some CG. The stat checks and gains are blind. It's very much a product of it's time, the creator had a tumblr and it feels like it came from 2014.
Yet it has a reactivity that I don't get from other VNs. The dialog also has a brevity to it so no scene stays too long yet you feel like you did something like pass a skill check. It's still rough but I think it's been worth the wait.
You can read this here for a complete list of changes but the PC version is a re-translation of the japanese exclusive X360 version. That version has it's story and character arcs changed so much that it's an inferior version according to the poster. It kinda sucks because I thought Mages would do at least token effort in porting across a game to Steam with a decent translation. It's the Aoi Shiro HD port all over again.
If you want to play the original, you can find a torrent on Nyaa and use the Himmel Patch.
Never 7 is in a similar state. One of the reviews says there's a grammar mistake in the first sentence in the game and the videos have been upscaled horribly with AI.
It's western but Slay the Princess is a really good example I think. It's really well written with a simple premise that gets deeper and art that's animated from simple line drawings. It really stands out. Or if you're looking for something with Visual Novel elements, the Ace Attorney Games are up on steam along with Zero Escape and Danganronpa. Having gameplay go along with VN segments might be more your style till you can sit down and read a whole story.
Speaking of Western, I found out something I played a decade ago actually came out. Way back in the days of 2014, I played Long Live the Queen, the stat based sim where you guide a new queen to make sure she doesn't have a bad ending. On a forum somewhere someone suggested Seven Kingdoms to me, another stat based Otome game that had some complexity to it. Managing relationships, factions and building a character with different backgrounds. (The hell VNDB, you have a page for this but not Long Live the Queen?). A Kickstarter came out for it in 2015 and the build I played was 3 weeks of 7 in the game so I thought I'd wait for it to be finished and check back on it.
9. Years. Later.
Apparently the creator bit off more than she could chew, she spent literal years pouring over code and writing all the dialog branches and skill checks that account for things like stats, relationships, major choices, major factions, reputation, who your engagement is and so forth. So many years passed that I forgot about this one and stumbled upon it again looking for stat based VNs to play. I check it out and finally a demo of the last 3 weeks is available to play.
I've played it and there's something about it, I think it's the writing. The sprites are flat, mirrored and pallette swapped in some CG. The stat checks and gains are blind. It's very much a product of it's time, the creator had a tumblr and it feels like it came from 2014.
Yet it has a reactivity that I don't get from other VNs. The dialog also has a brevity to it so no scene stays too long yet you feel like you did something like pass a skill check. It's still rough but I think it's been worth the wait.
- Joined
- Sep 26, 2024
Raging Loop feels like Kiwifarms at times.
- Joined
- Oct 22, 2023
Does that mean there's schizokino in the vn?
- Joined
- Sep 26, 2024
Yes, absolutely. It's the perfect mix of Machiavellian mind games, cynicism, group mentality, and polarity shifts. Excellent case study of social psychology.
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- Joined
- Nov 26, 2024
I got Policenauts and Snatcher on my Miyoo Mini Plus.
wtfNeedSignUp
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2019
I don't really know if DDLC is good. It's memorable, that's for sure, and alright in giving creepy vibes but most people just remember the memes.
Same cycle. Start with wanting to help everyone, end up wondering who even deserves to be helped.
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2022
There's a government sanctioned maniac who lives a double life as a small time youtube content creator hiding in your anonymous chat room full of (alleged) racists and domestic terrorists who are all pretty chill dudes with decent taste?
- Joined
- Jul 18, 2019
Just finished Umineko episode 5
1. I was pretty proud of myself for realizing immediately what a massive fuckup Erika was making by trying to corner Natsuhi with the Kinzo humiliation after already exhaustively proving her to be the culprit and was very happy to see my noticing of that fuckup being rewarded during the turnabout section in the epilogue.
2. Per my last post, illegitimate child Battler with an axe to grind against the family was certainly on my radar but seeing it play so prominently in the epilogue makes me reflexively want to doubt it.
3. Golden Sorcerer Battler is pretty fucking dope.
4. It's hilarious to me how they can't talk about Knox's 5th Law because it contains a slur.
5. I wish I was unemployed so I could just mainline the remaining episodes into my veins instead of sleeping.
6. I find myself wondering how long Kinzo has not been Kinzo now. Was Kinzo as we know him ever real? He took part in the war and had a massive change in behavior during that time. Did someone find his corpse and decide to assume his identity for an easier post-war life?
7. Something I find very thematically interesting is how Kinzo's family is so western-influenced but the people who marry into it are overtly Japanese in their backgrounds. Hideyoshi is obsessed with sengoku-era Japan, Kyrie comes from some kind of very powerful traditional Japanese family (possibly yakuza?), and Natsuhi is from a family of shinto priests. Almost symbolic of the fantasy of the westaboo magician being actively intruded on by the extremely Japanese outside world.
8. I saw a pirate ship in the opening movie. I wonder if that has any connection to the gold.
9. I'm glad to get a break from Maria. Maria's a good character but the first half of episode 4 kinda left me Maria'd out.
2. Per my last post, illegitimate child Battler with an axe to grind against the family was certainly on my radar but seeing it play so prominently in the epilogue makes me reflexively want to doubt it.
3. Golden Sorcerer Battler is pretty fucking dope.
4. It's hilarious to me how they can't talk about Knox's 5th Law because it contains a slur.
5. I wish I was unemployed so I could just mainline the remaining episodes into my veins instead of sleeping.
6. I find myself wondering how long Kinzo has not been Kinzo now. Was Kinzo as we know him ever real? He took part in the war and had a massive change in behavior during that time. Did someone find his corpse and decide to assume his identity for an easier post-war life?
7. Something I find very thematically interesting is how Kinzo's family is so western-influenced but the people who marry into it are overtly Japanese in their backgrounds. Hideyoshi is obsessed with sengoku-era Japan, Kyrie comes from some kind of very powerful traditional Japanese family (possibly yakuza?), and Natsuhi is from a family of shinto priests. Almost symbolic of the fantasy of the westaboo magician being actively intruded on by the extremely Japanese outside world.
8. I saw a pirate ship in the opening movie. I wonder if that has any connection to the gold.
9. I'm glad to get a break from Maria. Maria's a good character but the first half of episode 4 kinda left me Maria'd out.
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2020
Just remember that if you didn't solve the mystery before the end of EP5 than a incompetent man solved it before you could.
Also not to backseat too much but in regards to #6, No person would mistake Ushiromiya Kinzo by sight. No matter what disguise might be used, they would not mistake Ushiromiya Kinzo by sight!
I hope you enjoy EP6 though, It's my personal favorite and on a reread I only ended up liking it even more.