Visual Novels

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Do you play visual Novels?

  • No, because that’s fucking gay

    Votes: 84 15.8%
  • Yes, because I read them for the plot

    Votes: 196 36.8%
  • No, because they’re not really video games

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

    Votes: 116 21.8%
  • No, but I think about playing them

    Votes: 68 12.8%
  • Yes, but I do it ironically

    Votes: 34 6.4%

  • Total voters
    532
I'm currently playing saya no uta and it's fucking terrifying what i do love is seeing fuminori decent into madness.

He will sacrifice anything just to be with the woman he loves.if that thing even is human.
Outside of Saya, I am spooped by Ougi's basement and those cursed artifacts aren't even relevant to the overall plot.
 
Someone made a wish using the monkey paw because the absolute best visual novel ever produced finally going to have an official localization on steam. Too bad it's done by sekai project which is few hits and most of the time misses.
 
I'm in this strange state lately where it's hard for me to actually sit down to read for hours, even if it's a game I genuinely like. I think the only reason why I managed to finish Hashihime of the old book town without any large breaks is cause after the first 2 routes all the remaining routes are pretty short. I'd like to actually finish stuff again, though. Especially when I've become interested in trying Utawarerumono and I probably shouldn't start something new when I have unfinished games lying around.

I'm currently playing saya no uta and it's fucking terrifying what i do love is seeing fuminori decent into madness.

He will sacrifice anything just to be with the woman he loves.if that thing even is human.
I still think this game is scarier than a lot of actual high budget horror games out there. The building tension when one of his female friends entered his house and you just knew saya was in there too, waiting for a moment to strike, was excellent.
 
Are any of the VN on Switch worth getting into? I find myself very into the story itself of some anime to the point I started mangas to get more of it "faster" or more personally, and VN seem like an obvious next step or alternative. Sadly, most of them look generic as shit or extremely overpriced (Shillgate), and not really sure what the indication of a good VN is. Any review sites that aren't horny for just romance and boning?
 
Are any of the VN on Switch worth getting into? I find myself very into the story itself of some anime to the point I started mangas to get more of it "faster" or more personally, and VN seem like an obvious next step or alternative. Sadly, most of them look generic as shit or extremely overpriced (Shillgate), and not really sure what the indication of a good VN is. Any review sites that aren't horny for just romance and boning?
It's not billed as a VN but I'm playing Mary Skelter 2 on the Switch and it FEELS like a VN, the amount of dialogue is almost oppressive. I bought it to scratch a portable Wizardry-style dungeon crawl itch and the setting is pretty different(a bunch of animu girls named after fairy tales like Little Mermaid, Red Riding Hood, Alice, but they're vampires) but the sheer amount of talking is stifling my grind. Maps are big though, they're 40x40 potentially and the graphics are Persona 3/4/5 kind of zany for the set pieces.
 
so a sci:adv game was silently released last week, but it's another steins;gate spinoff, and it's a dating sim and it looks like noxious fan service.
 
Anyone of you ever played Raging Loop or Death Mark (and/or Death Mark sequel)? I'm looking into what i want to buy in PlayStation Store Holiday sales and (among other non-VNs games) i was wondering if they are worth getting and if which one first?
 
Anyone of you ever played Raging Loop or Death Mark (and/or Death Mark sequel)? I'm looking into what i want to buy in PlayStation Store Holiday sales and (among other non-VNs games) i was wondering if they are worth getting and if which one first?
I have played Death Mark (from Steam) it wasn't bad, I can't really say more without spoiling it but the story was really good and it allowed you to see multiple peoples stories.
I didnt know it had a sequel! I have never tried raging loop. Just grabbed NG, I'll let ya know how it is!
 
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Anyone of you ever played Raging Loop or Death Mark (and/or Death Mark sequel)? I'm looking into what i want to buy in PlayStation Store Holiday sales and (among other non-VNs games) i was wondering if they are worth getting and if which one first?
I haven’t played Death Mark or NG myself, but I have watched playthroughs. They’re both good and have some impressive enemy designs.
 
Unpopular opinion: Higurashi is garbage.

Ep 1 (Mangagamer sprites)

It starts promising enough. I'm here for children dying violently, and it sure sounds like someone is dying violently. I hate now knowing who or why, though, and to be fair, once the characters are introduced, I might look back at the scene with genuine regret.

On second thought, maybe not. Not one of these characters is remotely sympathetic. We've got Down Syndrome girl, sex assault girl, put-your-eye-out girl, and kawaii chibi girl. It's hard to say which of these I despise the most; the apparent harem anime protagonist is also in the running. At least he doesn't have Down's.

For a long, torturous stretch of the game, nothing fucking happens. The music is cringeworthy. The only mildly tolerable character is the constipated bodybuilder, whom the protagonist takes an inexplicable dislike to, which only adds to my distaste.

The flood of filler and cringe continues.


And of course the best character gets killed. There was also a promising nice lady who's missing-presumed-dead. I even reread the extra scene because I didn't catch her name the first time around. I like her.

Now things get kind of interesting. I find it very hard to sympathize with the protagonist who's so insistent on provoking his murderous classmates. (I know they're murderous because we're in Ep 1 of the series and if they weren't, it'd have never taken off. Not with that art.)

Suddenly, a sympathetic character appears! Well, more like "gets introduced". Satoshi is awesome. I like him. I like his introduction via the custom card - it's the best (the only good?) thing that happened in the game so far, and retroactively justifies at least some of the boring cringe. I start sympathizing with Keiichi, because I want him to live and preferably to avenge Satoshi.

He's too dumb to live. Sigh.


Ep 1, patched

A couple months later, I find out about the console patch and decide to give the series another chance. The important changes are:

- The writing is not as cringeworthy now that it's voiced.

- Satoko and Rika have funny verbal tics that aren't reflected in the translation and I listen for the tic when they're onscreen; consequently, I like these characters more. (Mion also has a tic ("this old man") but it looks awkward in the translation and I can't listen for it because I don't speak moon. I love her voice, though.)

- Downs girl has a cringey tic and an annoying droning voice. I hate her even more now. Fucking die already.

- Backgrounds are pretty!

- The intro movie is great!

- Almost everyone looks attractive! (Downs girl is still ugly though.)

- With the above, I try to invest more effort into liking the characters and am surprised to notice Rika is actually quite clever and wonderfully malicious. I like her.

- The dick-grabbing line isn't voiced, so I decide to discard it as non-canon and end up liking the boyish Mion, too. Indie authors without editors have brain farts every now and then.

- I also decide to read Satoko's retarded violence as "insert actually funny physical comedy scene the author is too incompetent to write".

- I notice subtle hints toward the malicious nature of the girls in the games they play which make the "filler" somewhat more tolerable.

- The teacher gets a very attractive sprite, which also serves to make the filler tolerable.

- I like Tomitake now that he isn't constipated, and I super like Takano - what a waste of a characterthat she goes missing!

- With the increased production values (voices, backgrounds, character art, an edit job), the game actually becomes playable. It's still a mystery as to how and why it reached that point, especially given the original body horror sprites.

So is it people or is it a legit supernatural cuuuuuuuurse? Well of course it's people, otherwise there'd be no point in trying to figure out anything. A better question would be "is it a single malefactor's continuing plot or a series of loosely connected events that might be interpreted as a curse by a modern religiously-minded person"? As for the last murder, obviously the girls did it (else the "filler" serves nothing), and Tomitake and Keiichi were drugged. I have no explanation for the footsteps, since the phenomenon is described as blatantly "supernatural" - nothing to base sane hypotheses on. If I had to, I'd go with "a hallucination of some Japanese cultural meme, like the Tell-tale Heart". There isn't really much in the way of fair mysteries and the murders aren't fun.


Ep 2.
(I play this and subsequent episodes patched.)

- I am (predictably) disoriented in the beginning, as I try to understand how this story relates to Ep 1. The commentary for Ep 1 likened the series to replaying a story with branching paths and a golden ending. I also think of musical variations. "Variations", as a standalone piece of music, consists of several short pieces - the basic theme and its, uh, variants, one of which (but usually not the last one) is in the opposite key from the rest. I wonder if this series will have a comedic ep 7 and a devastatingly tragic "real" ending. I think the latter option is too highbrow for weebs, but then this ep brings up death squads and canned long pig. Hmmm.

- Now this has an abundance of murders! Excellent.

- More rapey cringe. Not excellent.

- Mion's character ends up being the first casualty in this ep, as the cool boyish girl turns out to be cock-starved. All strong wammen are secretly cock-starved, don't you know, and you better put out or get killed.

- Takano is glorious. (IIRC she's pronounced dead in this ep, whereas she was missing in Ep 1. Too bad. Rest in peace, pretty lady.)

- Keiichi is too dumb to live. I guess it's retroactively good because the police might not have found the secret entrance and rescued Shion if he hadn't agreed to take a walk, but it didn't help her in the end.

- Downs girl lives. Fuck.

- I am thoroughly disgusted by the sweet saccharine "friends are the bestest" shit. Fuck no. People change. Your perception of people changes as you get to know them better. Tiny children grow up into shitty adults. It's okay to not be friends with murderers. You don't have to help out Ted Bundy if you went to school with him.

- There's no mystery to solve (except more footsteps, perhaps? I forget). Mion tried to escape and poetically fell into the well. Shion went mad, reinvented her sister and went to finish Mion's last job of murdering Keiichi, and (as Shion) committed sudoku afterward.


Ep 3.

Now I see why the series is popular. More of this, please.

One thing I forgot by now (and probably was tricked into not noticing) is the justifications everyone gave for not helping Satoko. Keiichi was thinking about how he couldn't burden his parents with another kid (which he couldn't - a kid is not a pet), but why couldn't Rika take her back? Teppei's authority and extortion (see ep 7) couldn't have been an issue, because then the financial burden wouldn't have come up.

- Keiichi bringing the golf club to a baseball match is actually funny.

- Oh god more rape shit, also starring: Larry Nassar.

- Satoko is great. I love her, I love Satoshi, I like this variation of Keiichi minus the rape shit.

- Takano is again glorious, and she gets an epic death.

- One great thing about this series is the detailed descriptions of the mental state of the lead character. Keiichi was a victim in Eps 1 and 2; here we see the logistics of committing murder as a normal, well-intentioned civilian. Here it's described like the awkwardness of commonplace misbehavior (like skipping school or stealing food from the office fridge) magnified a thousandfold. There's real evocative power behind the words and images. It's really, really awesome.

Finally, this chapter actually has a solid mystery.
My version is as follows:
- The clinic is cooking dangerous drugs for the yakuza based on what the Sonozakis learned during WW2.
- Takano accidentally comes into contact with the drug, becomes paranoid, and murders Tomitake.
- The yakuza realize she's dangerous (unpredictable, has the drug in her bloodstream), kill her and burn the body to destroy the evidence.
- After Keiichi arrives at the clinic and starts raving, Larry Nassar thinks Keiichi was drugged, is horrified that the drug is being used on children, and commits sudoku.
- The yakuza (because why not) dig out Teppei's corpse to confound the police further.
- Some believers kill Rika to purposefully trigger a demon invasion (maybe they got drugged, too).
- No explanation for footsteps, they are still described as thoroughly supernatural and present no launchpad for a theory. God I hope the eventual answer isn't idiotic.
- The three initial murders were a meme which got out of hand. Satoshi killed his aunt.
- The disaster is actually triggered by Keiichi dumping the motorcycle into the swamp. I like this guess, because it sustains the religious themes of the game - sin, punishment, authority, curses and consequences, "murder is bad", etc. Everyone is poetically "punished" for the ostracism and murder of the Houjou family and the overall atmosphere of hate.


The major take-home lesson of this ep is "Child abuse is bad". We even get real-world statistics with a picture of a crying Satoko. Remember this lesson well.

We also get a warning that this is the most fun part of the story because here the space for theorycrafting is the widest: have fun while you still can. This is sadly true: this ep is the only one that has any space for theorycrafting at all before the story goes down the shitter.


Ep 4.

A pointless diversion made worse by it destroying my version, above. So Rika knows what's going to happen. Someone - the Sonozakis? other Oyashiro cultists? - are playing n-dimensional mahjong and know human emotions sooooooooo well they will successfully manipulate Satoshi into [getting framed for] killing his aunt. Rika, as the priestess, is aware of the plan but can't do anything because she's thoroughly indoctrinated and scared into submission from birth.

Akasaka is immensely dumb and should have gotten killed:
- telling Rika about his pregnant wife was extremely embarrassing for me, secondhand
- the mahjong scene sort of redeemed him (I was willing to decanonize his blunder as an authorial brain fart, like I did with Sex Assault Girl and Satoko's haha funny violence; plus he was hot in cutscene art),
- the phone run permanently demoted him to too dumb to live.


Ep 5.

The major take-home lesson of this ep is: "Child abuse is fun for the whole family!"

Rika has access to the drug, so she could've been killed by well-intentioned people determined to stop the conspiracy in Ep 3 who didn't care that she was indoctrinated since birth.

- Satoshi is awesome, "Shion" (the sexy sister) is awesome, and she did nothing wrong. She was betrayed by everyone, endured the constant death threats, false imprisonment, isolation, horrific torture, [her family taking credit for] Satoshi's [apparent] murder, and did her best under the circumstances.

- Keiichi looks even dumber than in Ep 2.

- The second half manages to make murders boring, because we already know how everything ends.

The real kicker is the final scene, where we find that torturing and mutilating children is a fun tradition of the Sonozaki women. We also get an authorial lecture about how Murder Is Bad [tm] and if you sympathized with "Shion", you need to be put on a watchlist. Instead, someone should really ensure that this faggot never interacts with children and never breeds. I hate to say it, but if this piece of shit has daughters, they need to be checked for FGM.


Ep 6.

For the remainder of the story, the chirping of the higurashi is replaced by the slurping sounds of the author sucking his own cock.

Other than the metaplot bomb, this is a fanfiction-tier episode.

- Pointless sperging about which of the two bestest friends is the "bestester" so the other must deny their version of reality in a show of "friendship". Down girl's version has
Aliens.jpg
added to it for extra ridiculousness, as a sleight of hand, so readers would think it's a no-brainer whose version should win.

- Meanwhile, Keiichi's counter to ALIENS is PAST LIVES. It's bullshit against bullshit.

- PUA protip: rape threats are romantic! (because if the girl likes you, it's not really a threat!)

- One great thing about episodes 1-3 was the first person narration that dealt with the mental state of the character. In this ep, as the drama escalates, the narration gets divorced from the character, with Downs girl behaving more absurdly and therefore unsympathetically, and stretches of third-person narration.

- We get yet another helping of Murder Is Bad, Mmkay, undermined by "Mion" (the stupid sister) boasting about her family's expertise in committing murders and hiding corpses.

- The metaplot bomb instantly devalues other stories, other characters and their struggles, and this ep says so outright. What do you know, people don't actually die when they are killed, you'll just be sad about killing the victim in a future life, but the victim won't even notice. This is why it's bad, mmkay - not because it destroys the fabric of society and creates a ripple of tragedies, not because vigilantism can be misaimed. It's no more than a bad dream. The moar you know!

- Neither the plot nor the characters care about Tomitake and Takano by this point.

- "Shion" (the sexy sister) reappears and is bizarrely misused.

- Newsflash: "haha funny" pranks are so bad they leave a permanent stain on your soul. Gee, someone should tell Satoko.


Ep 7.

- The tragedies of the previous episodes are conveniently swept under the rug. We see the resolution of the dumbest one - the fakeout where "Shion" was pushed into insanity by "Mion" whining about a doll. The trigger is removed, but "Shion"'s tragedy is never resolved.

- Behind the scenes, downs girl talks to Daddy and resolves her tragedy. We get more lectures about how Killing Is Bad - except Downs girl accidentally killed the whore in completely justified self-defense. Without the self-defense, her impassioned plea to daddy would've amounted to her being opposed to daddy remarrying. (And we know from Satoko's story children can't be trusted with objecting to remarriage!) We don't get to read Downs girl's arguments, because no good ones exist.

- The big story is Satoko's rescue. From it we find that the bestestestest friends were indifferent to Satoshi and Satoko's suffering and did nothing. (Teppei appears rarely in 1983, but the 1982 tragedy is a constant. The cunt used to be able to rewind two years back. Cunt.)

- Everyone is too fucking lazy to save Satoko in 1983 and is cheerfully dismissive about their laziness. "Shion" is well-informed and could've sent Kasai to scare Teppei; "Mion" could've worked the Ritsuko angle, too. Ooishi could've gotten a search warrant in connection to the Ritsuko murder and "just happened" to see Satoko's injuries and living conditions. Finally, after Oryou got involved, they could've scared Teppei into running or surrendering straight away. The whole bureaucracy angle is fake drama.

- Once again the generational abuse suffered by the Sonozaki sisters is ignored. Torturing children is a quaint family tradition. "Haha you don't know how scary she could be." It's NOT NORMAL when children live in fear for their lives.

- And don't forget more of "Murder Is Bad, Mmkay".

- I am horrified by the cunt's abuse of Satoko. Satoko turns out to the the youngest character, by far. Sweet innocent bishounen Satoshi was about 13 (I think) when the abuse started and lived through most of his childhood in a somewhat better environment. Satoko is much younger and was abused by the villagers since she was a toddler. Everyone else is significantly older, and the cunt in particular is over 100 years old. The cunt claims to have "deep feelings" for her and to not want to live without her but hasn't noticed the village's abuse of Satoko for those 100 years.

- Satoko herself doesn't get to shine at all. I wish she thought of a trap to spring on Teppei and did so after regaining courage, for the dumb "lel i trap uuuuuu" filler to have some payoff (like the games in ep 1 had with Satoshi's card). As it is, she was too dumb to answer "yes" when the social worker asked "Do you have problems" on the phone - she said "help me" instead and got hit by Teppei for more fake drama so the deathfat cop could play the hero.

- Keiichi is a ridiculous Mary Sue, and the Sonozaki women are centipede-infested cunts who despise the girls, see FGM epidemiology. A Sonozaki sister would be tortured and mutilated for less.

- Akasaka looks like a troon and is lazy like one. (What a disgrace, he was hot in 4).


THE PLOT BOMB
was planted in the sewers, and it just exploded.

Ok, so Rika is a trashy braindead cunt, who has another braindead cunt as her servant. There's an alternating current of apathy flowing between the cunts, the polarity changing midsentence: "I don't care! No please care! Ok I will! No please don't, everything is futile!" This goes on for screens and screens and screens and screens. (And screens.)
And screens.

- Neither of them has managed to groundhogboost herself into competence over a hundred years.

- The horny cunt is a superspy who could've resolved ANY plot in a handful of cycles, but she's too much of a cunt to do it. (The drunken cunt could resolve this particular plot.)

- It shouldn't take a galaxy brain to realize you can talk to worshipers by making noise.

- Lel she can't remember the day of her death because she gets drunk. This story ffs.

- Keiichi was infected back in Ep 1 and went undiagnosed, what's up with that? Larry Nassar really dropped the ball there.

- Everything is stupid. "Undetectable pathogen" my ass; the mechanics of the disease are thoroughly retarded.

- Pedo bait knows all sorts of secret shit (how?) but can't camp the murderer of Tomitake dumping his corpse at the same spot every time. The investigation of mysteries is replaced by handouts.

- If the queen dies, everyone else would die "too fast to understand they're getting sick" - what about being in the absence of the queen, like in Okinomiya, or Downs girl further away - people don't die from that, how does it tell between dead queen and faraway queen? "Pheromones" my ass.

- Satoko was a terminal patient, yet pedo bait was telling her to man up.

> "Don't be suspicious of anyone."
> "Just think of all suspicious people as bad guys."

- "Takano is the culprit" - or she may have been kidnapped and the body faked so no one starts looking for her.

- 4 electricians is not too many. 3 is the safe minimum, because 2 people are needed to rescue 1 in case of an accident.

- No, you can't run to "Mion"'s house, it's in the middle of a huge walled property.

- Satoko can't raise her hand to point, but everyone can sure rattle their mouths (or move and focus their eyes to look at things).

TL;DR it's garbage (although I understand if you like the animu or mango for the depictions of violence).
 
Utawarerumono is finally escaping the Vita and getting released this month.

I'm assuming most people have played it in this thread, but if you haven't you're really missing out. If you're itching to get started watch the prelude anime (should just be called Utawarerumono) and then get started on the series but since a remake of the original game that the anime covers is coming out this year you could always wait for that.

The anime is not bad and covers most everything you need to know to get started. I'd only add that it glosses over who one character's parents are but other than that I fully understood what was going on in the sequels.

Personally, I think the game is fantastic and has some of the best characterization and world building I've experienced in a while. Lots of touching and funny moments. Couple of legit heartbreaking ones too.
 
I don't care a lot about the sequels but the news about utawarerumono remake makes me hard. Here's hoping it's not gonna be an exclusive.
What I wouldn't give for the chance to experience eruruw singing again.
 
I decided to give The House in Fata Morgana a try. Except like a dumb motherfucker I accidently played the prequel first and then the actual game, which ruined a lot of the mystery for me (but not completely).
The prequel is pretty good by itself. The main game is overall good but I think the pacing drags it down. It starts as an anthology of short stories, then has a massive story tying everything together that has a far more uplifting tone than the previous chapters. The problem is that the game makes you repeat the same actions and exposition over and over. Some of the plot could have been cut down without affecting anything.
Another problem in the game is that it can get too dark to a pure edgelord level. Yeah, we know humanity can be evil, but the game has the surrounding cast around the main characters acting evil to the point of parody. The game's idea of soul and fate can also be seen as making any idea of self-choice as impossible, you are born into a role that you will play.

Overall, it's nice but I don't see myself remembering it in a couple of months. The characters aren't really sympathetic and I don't really see the message the VN tries to tell.
 
Valentine is coming and since I don't really interested in spending it with corona chan, I decided to hole up in my room, put a bucket of kfc over my head and replay a game I really like that was recently translated and released on steam. Considered a masterpiece even. Baldr Sky Dive 1 'Lost Memory' and Dive 2 'Recordare'.

The game took place in a sci fi setting in the far future, where AI is no longer just 'artificial intelligence' but considered a race living and learning alongside human. Machines, equipments and even humans are constantly connected to the AI network to either search for information, entertainment or hack into infrastructure's security, hijack military vehicles and even murder. War moved from the real world to a virtual battlefield fought with Simulacrum, combat robots pilot by human, which effectiveness are directly proportional to the user's compatibility with the AI network. Thus Second Generation, a term used for human whose brain contain a bio-chip connected wirelessly to the net 24/7 ever since they were born, increase their brainwave function and compatibility, were considered perfect pilot for Simulacrum. They were feared alongside those who are wary of AI's rapid advancement as 'Alienist', however.

The story follow the Second Generation protagonist Kadokura Kou who was caught up in a big explosion followed a mission which led to him losing a large portion of his past as well as the tragedy that drove him to became who he was today. Supported by second lieutenant Kirishima Rain, Kou's journey to recall his lost memories, uncover the secrets behind the nanomachine Assembler and find the woman he love begins.

The most important aspect that contributed to the game success was its gameplay. Visual novel with gameplay elements between its story segment were not rare, however, contrary to others' RPG + turn based strategy approach, Baldr Sky is a real time top down action game. The player need to constantly moving around the map, dodging enemies' artillery and counterattack instead of just choosing a command and watch the animation play out.

Untitled2.jpg


As battles plays a big part, the game offers high degree of customization regarding the main character equipment. In battle, the character uses the weapons mapped with 3 buttons. When standing in range, pressing the button use the close range attack, outside of the range use the long range attack. Pressing the attack key while moving using the directional button or dashing let you use the normal dash attack. And pressing the same button after using close range attack let you use the surge dash attack. Map and positioning awareness play a big part here as there are many weapons that can be chained with each other to create a combo. When in doubt, hover the mouse over the weapon. the game will perform that skill in demonstration.
Force crash is the character's super move perform by holding A+B or B+C. More on this later.

Untitled.jpg


The bar on top is HP. The one below HP is the heat bar. When using weapons, this bar gradually fills up depend on the heat of the weapon. When the heat bar maxed out, you temporary can't attack until it cool down completely and all damage received will be critical hit. The more you use a weapon in battle, the more experience it will received and the less heat it will used when perform. The two bar on the side of the Simulacrum's icon is the Force Crash bar. These fills up when you hit the enemies and is drained when you are hit. You can use your Force Crash when they're full. They're usually high damage skill but they'll maxed out your heat bar and temporary stop the Simulacrum in its track upon use. If you kill an enemies with it, reward money is increased by 1.25x.

heat.jpg


Battle result screen. Green bar is how much heat the weapon used initially, yellow is leveled. Note satellite laser.

The most versatile Simulacrum in theory due to fully customizable weapons according to the player's need, can fill any role from close range attacker, long range artillery or supporter. In reality however, it's best to play attacker since you're alone for most missions.

Dedicated supporter. It's nice to have Rain on your side to chip down opponents and draw argo for you to focus on high priority targets on Hard and below. On Super Hard however, swarm of high armor high hp enemies can make short work of Rain if she is focused. Need to be protected to avoid game over on harder fights. Stun flare is always nice though.
Pretty annoying as an enemy since she can and will stunlock you constantly, but since she's a supporter, her damage is not that threatening.

She doesn't have a Simulacrum. Instead, Nanoha appears in battle as a 'Eye Runner' virus with no combat capabilities. In other words, it's everyone favorite, an escort mission whenever she's around.

Close range Simulacrum. Looks bulky but surprisingly fast and agile. Lack a reliable long range coverage aside from a weak sub-machine gun, but makes up for that with constant jumping and aerial dive combo into a flurry of kicks. Very good at anti air, something most of the Simulacrums in the game lacks.

Unlike Nanoha, Aki's Simulacrum has some basic combat capabilities. Like Nanoha, it's up to you to do all of the heavy lifting.

The best Simulacrum partner in the game. Equipped with optical wings, it can fly around infinitely, shooting laser and drop mini satellites to bombard the enemies. You can run around doing absolutely nothing and she will clean the fight for you. As an enemies it's a pain. Since the player's Simulacrum can't fly, without surface to air weapons to shoot her down most of your weaponry will simply missed the mark.

As hard as, if not harder than her sister. Main weapon is arrows that can stun. Imagine a much more aggressive Rain and much faster Chinatsu in one package. That's Sora in a nutshell.

The weakest Simulacrum pilot by a named character aside from Nanoha and Aki. More of a bother as an ally than an enemy, because he's like to Leeroy Jenkins himself into melee combat.

Uses heavy weaponry such as rocket missiles and large shotguns, average movement speed. Decent melee combat capabilities too, making it a well rounded both as ally and as enemy.

Thin sticks for arms and legs makes fast but low damage Simulacrum. The most damage she can do is break the 4th wall to induce dizziness in the player by zipping across the screen so damn much.

Provide long range support artillery. Most attacks has some sort of delay but can reach you from the other side of the screen. Heavy armor let him eats your attacks and counter immediately without being interrupted.

Looks intimidating with a foul mouth pilot to scare off new players, but actually garbage tier. It's more annoying to catch him than to beat him, as this guy has the tendency to run away the moment thing started to go south slightly. Uses a whip, nail gun and land mines. As long as you pay attention to where the mines at, you're gonna have an easy time.

Specialized in fast combos using his dual katanas. The same tier as Gilbert, all bark and no bite.

Mohawk on steroid. Equipped with heavy lasers and missiles, very heavy armor. Doesn't move around much and can chip down those who have no mean of getting through its armor. A major roadblock for those who neglect to train their weapons.

The most obscene Simulacrum in the game, with its chainsaw and time bomb. The sudden chainsaw from the ground is painful enough, but the time bomb is the most bullshit thing in this game. When detonate, it launches a chain that has the ability to drag you into the center of the blast from almost half the screen away. Can interrupt you mid combos, drag you into a horde of enemies and generally ruining your day.

It's a game released in 2009 so some might find the graphic does not hold out to modern standard. Character sprites are all static images with no eyes and mouth movement, so no competing against full modern live2d animation there. CGs are well done despite being locked to 800x600 resolution, from the individual heroines' CG to depiction of fierce battles between Simulacrum. One thing that standout compare to other VNs is that in dialogue scene, aside from the character sprites, the character face also appears next to the text. Even the protagonist. This coupled with the fact he is fully voiced, a rarity for main protagonist, makes Kadokura Kou an established character rather than an empty spot for the player to simply self insert to.

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While there were doubts about the visual, the music definitely stood the test of time. If I had to use one word to describe it, it's magnificent. None of the track sound off compare to the mood the scene were suppose to create. My personal favorite has to be 'paradigm shift', one of the best use of vocal insert song during a climax I had ever seen in a story.

To complement the BGM is the character voice. You can hear the character's personality from the way they carried themselves. Calm and collected Rain, crybaby Nanoha, Chinatsu always full of energy. But the most impressive has to be the main character. When Kou lost his memory, he is filled with anxiety everytime he has to join the battlefield paint a sharp contrast to the strong, assertive voice of a seasoned veteran who is hardened by the tragedy of his past when the truth came back to him.

TL;DR: I have been playing Visual Novel for more than a decade, and haven't been able to find a game that could be considered perfection. However, Baldr Sky comes damn close. If you're looking for a masterpiece, a truly good game to invest your time, chooses Baldr Sky and you won't regret it. Happy Valentine
 
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I've always been fascinated with Baldr sky cause of the action gameplay but never got around to trying it out yet. It actually made me envious of how these interesting gameplays twists on top of a visual novel are always done with male-targeted VNs. Of course I do understand why, considering Otome and BL games are a niche within a niche.
 
I know a visual novel called Pretty Please it holds a good message, (a bit ham fisted) but I like the horror aspect in this game. I like visual novels that start getting horrorish and more creepy.
 
Good news everyone, Stwam is having a visual novels sale right now, anything you would recommend as good or to avoid (Nekopara looks like something to avoid)
 
If you haven't played Clannad or Baldr Sky then just buy it then spend the next few days playing with a box of tissue. Or you can go for popular stuff like the Danganronpa/Stein;Gate/Zero Escape series. They are popular for a reason. If it's not your cup of tea then read on.
Note that most of these recommendation is based on the base game and I haven't play most of the localized version of these games.

Aokana
A Sky Full of Stars
If My Heart Had Wings
The Fruit of Grisaia (This one is pretty good, but have a crazy amount of sequels/spin offs so watch out if you're not into that)
Song of Saya
Narcissu (Original is free, re released version comes with some stand alone stories)
Chaos;Child (actually a sequel to Chaos;Head, but you can get away not playing that)
eden - there were only two on the planet
ef - a fairy tale of the two.
Utawarerumono (only if you played the prequel)

That's about it off the top of my head. Out of those my strongest recommend would be Song of Saya and ef. Also nekopara is a gentlemanly game for certified gentleman, you just have shit taste
 
Baldr Sky is really damn good. Make sure you find the 18+ Patch though to restore some content other wise you miss I think like 5% of the total dialogue.
 
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