So I have finally read Type-Moon's Tsukihime and F/SN

In the long journey of life, I have always followed a path that has made meet up with a stranger who would always attempt to tell wondrous stories and vivi- I can’t do this kind of introduction crap. Somehow I was always getting the best grades in writing back in the day and yet I always thought my own writing was lacking in some cases. I will though give you my account on a journey that I have taken and would like to share.

I have recently ventured into territory that I would never think I would ever tread, visual novels. Now I will admit that I am not unfamiliar with visual novels. I have had my experience with VN's to an extent but they were more for the H-Scenes than anything else. The closest thing to a more story driven VN was Dividead which will forever haunt me for it's intriguing but lacking plot and splendid CG. So here I am after playing two VN's from the same company and has had a presence on almost every forum I have ever gone to. These two VN's are Tsukihime and Fate/Stay Night and these two have left me in awe.

So let's begin with the answering of one minor question that few may have: "It's 2011, these VN's have been around since 2001 and 2004. Why are you getting into them now?" To answer this question, it is because I always looked at these as big H-Games that everyone has worshipped because of their H-Scenes. I didn’t want to associate myself with such people and avoid contact with VN’s. I kept on doing this for five or six years until I finally decided to give these VN’s a try as the community I frequented had help to change my opinion.

My story though begins in January where I had the usual sudden urge to find a good vampire anime/manga/story. If one is to ever look at any recommendations for vampire related anime, Shingetsuan Tsukihime would at least appear on the list. I had once watched the anime but I can't for the life of me remember what the anime was about or even understand what the anime was attempting to achieve. Thinking about it now, it was pretty bad. In any case though, I finally decided to take a look at the visual novel of Tsukihime in hopes of finding what I was looking for. I didn’t actually get into the VN until four or five months later when I finally had enough free time to read them. While I didn't find the vampire story I was looking for I did find a story that really engrossed me and had me feeling sad at the end of every True Ending.

It was a story of mystery. It was a story of love. It was a story of reality. It was a story about a student named Tohno Shiki. It was not an adrenaline pumping story about some guy who finds a vampire girl and then is given the choice to be normal or be a badass who kicks down doors and fires guns at people while wearing an awesome red coat and sunglasses. It was a complex story told through five different routes that all explained important pieces of information that all deal with the events that happened eight years prior to main story. Each route deals with one of the girls in the story and their background and almost every route has two endings, a True Ending or a Good Ending. The True Endings feel like there is a major accomplishment at the cost of the loss of a character in the story. The Good Endings feel forced, as if to show how things could be if everyone lived happily ever after. And yet the Good Endings feel like they should never happen because they are too good to be true.

The art of this is splendid, helping to add to the mood the of each scene in the VN and helping to further make characters come to life with each sprite to show emotions of sadness, anger, joy, and even embarrassment. I really liked many of the sprites of Arcuied as there was always something about them that seemed to reflect her carefree nature. I also came to enjoy Ciel’s sprites which helped to show her kind and loving side and then her cold and almost emotionless side. I could go on about the art for all the characters but that would take a while and I don’t have anything all to lucrative to add at this point.

After reading Tsukihime, I went into research mode and researched as much as possible on it. I found out that there was an anime called “Kara no Kyoukai” that was based on the VN authors previous work of the same name. I spent a couple days watching the anime Kara no Kyoukai as I wanted to explore more of Kinoko Nasu's works and thoroughly enjoyed the anime. Takashi Takeuchi's art is also quite splendid and I feel that any other artist would never be able to fully bring Nasu's work to life like his.

There isn't much of the films I want to discuss here but I will say that the animation is quite nice, I loved many scenes where characters had to run, and I felt that this was a very faithful adaptation of Nasu's original light novels, even if I have never read the Light Novels before (sadly). After finishing the films I then decided to move onto Fate/Stay Night. I felt that after Tsukihime that Fate would never be able to top it. I felt that Tsukihime’s characters and world could never be matched by Fate, even if they all take place in the same universe. Tsukihime presented itself so well that there can’t be any way possible that Fate/Stay Night could be better.

I was wrong. Oh man was I not prepared for Fate.

“It was thrust like lightning.
A spearhead thrust to pierce my heart.
Trying to dodge it would be useless
Being lightning, it’s invisible to the human eye.

But…
The lightning that tries to pierce me…
…Is repelled by a moonlight that saves me.”

In the mirror moon translation of the VN, this is the first few lines of text for Fate/Stay Night. It is a scene in which right before being stabbed in the heart by Lancer, Saber is summoned and saves our protagonist, Emiya Shirou. This then moves into the main part of the prologue where we meet the heroine of the story, Tohsaka Rin who helps to explain to us about Magi, the Holy Grail War, Servants, and just about all the basics of this world and how it works. I will have to reveal that sadly I haven’t seen all the endings of Fate/Stay Night yet, which is a shame. The only ending I got so far is the “Continuation of the Dream” True Ending and I got to say that this ending left me sad. Like real sad. I know that I am not really spoiling anything when I am typing this but I just can’t bring myself to do so.

The art for Fate/Stay Night though is phenomenal. It really shows where all the money goes when the VN is doing close ups on a characters sword and makes you believe you are watching an animation of the character swiping it in the air. Add that with some well done sound effects and music and you get a real nice adrenaline pumping action scene. The character design is real nice and beautiful. I mostly liked the sprites of Saber, Rin, and Fujimaru. There was something about them that I can’t quite explain. Well Fujimaru’s is actually explainable, her sprites reflect her highly energetic and free spirited personality and I really liked her as a character too. One difference between this VN and Tsukihime is the background, every background in Fate is drawn where the background in Tsukihime was either photographed or a computer rendering (my money is on photography). There isn’t much to say about the backgrounds other than the redundant “It’s nicely done”. Over all, the artwork is nice and really helped to nuke my expectations of the VN after reading Tsukihime.

Characters in Fate/Stay Night seemed more well rounded than the characters in Tsukihime. I don’t know what it is but I seemed to feel more for this cast of characters. I guess it’s because the environment is more friendly and lively than that of Tsukihime, you have Rin basically teasing Shirou and Saber and Fujimaru Taiga going around being highly energetic. Archer unluckily did not have a lot of screen time in the play through I had but in the prologue he was basically a very sarcastic guy that conflicted with Rin’s personality. Actually he died half way through in what I assume was an epic fight. Overall, highly enjoyable cast that helped bring me into the story.

There is one thing to ask about Fate/Stay Night and that my friend is: “Does this VN deserve the recommendation that it gets?” It is a fantastic VN and grand experience. I’m sure that as I explore VN’s I will find something that I find better than Fate/ Stay Night but until then Fate will be on top of the list for a while. So the answer is “Yes”, this VN deserves all praise and recognition it has gotten over the years and I am glad to have finally taken a look at it. I am looking forward to the remake of Tsukihime and the new VN from Type-Moon and look forward to more works from them.

The curtain falls as I wrap up this post and yet for Fate/Stay Night it has only risen again so that it may show more of its plot and secrets. Tsukihime’s shall rise once more to show me the same story but with more money to put into to the art. Where I will go next is a predictable mystery. For I will forever roam looking for some new anime and manga to keep me entertained and in some cases to pull me in with its narrative.

I prefer G-Senjou no Maou, the beginning is kinda boring, but right at the end of the prologue, you know things get epic and the opening theme plays. (took me about an hour to get to the end of the prologue) And then everthing else along the main route is absolutely awesome.

After looking into your suggestion I have decided to go swimming into the sea of visual novels.

[joke]THERE's NO TSUKIHIME ANIME[/joke]

If you feel that you completed Tsukihime, when you have the time, go continue reading "Kagetsu Tohya"
It's actually a sequel to Tsukihime, One year after the events of Tsukihime.
[synopsis]
One year after the events of Tsukihime, Shiki Tohno is a victim of an accident. After this accident, Shiki awakens into a strange dream wherein he repeats the same day over and over. There are infinitely many endings to the day, but it always begins anew after each day. Eventually, Shiki discovers that he must find Len, the creator of the dream, if he wishes to escape.

After that, try playing Melty Blood, a fighting game with the characters from Tsukihime.

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Oh, FYI, there are plenty of VNs that can top Fate/Stay Night, but many of them are not translated or in progress of translation.

Others that is on par/higher than Tsukihime or Fate/stay night
-Ever17, It's translated and it's pretty much legend tier now.
-Baldr Sky, -not translated-
-Clannad
-Little Busters, the original version is translated (the EX version adds new characters)
-9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors a NDS game written by the same guy who wrote Ever17.
-Chaos;Head
-Steins;Gate -not translated-

BTW, For reference


and Don't underestimate VNs that have H-scenes Some might take you by surprise.

Believe me man, I have come to understand not to underestimate VN's with H-Scenes.

I have been looking at Melty Blood and Kagetsu Tohya but I can't help but feel... something about them. It's not a good feeling at all.

As for the next VN I'll take a look at I think I vaguely know where my next destination will be.

thnx for the list sir!

Kagetsu Tohya is a fan disc but its story is still worth the read, especially when you loved Tsukihime.


Also, I could truly feel your passion after reading through that wall of text. I believe you haven't finished F/SN yet? Well, keep on going, since you'll probably have your time of your life.

is 999 really THAT excellent? Coming from Kaimax and topping off FSN?

G Senjou got the legendary S rank...well I did buy a new external..

Yes. Check the game votes at vndb and the discussion thread there.

And by the way, if the game was written by the same guy that wrote Ever17 it can only be epic. So go read it ASAP.

Thanks man, I think I will check out Kagetsu Tohya after F/SN.

As for F/SN, yeah I really haven't fully finished it yet. I'm going through a second playthrough now and I already knew I would be having the time of my life.

As for the writing itself, I did really pour my passion for these VN's in here. In one way though I consider this my big thanks the community of FAKKU. If I had never been with an enjoyable community like this I don't think I would have went on to explore Type-Moon's VN's and then go further.

I felt like you should only play Kagetsu Tohya after play Cross Channel, only since the mechanics resemble each other. KT was a ton of fun to play and the best part is all the stories you can unlock after you complete it! Tons of cool backstory, a , and even a cool horror story that made me laugh. Don't underestimate it's value :p

G Senjou is something I just started playing and it's really good. It's like Death Note...but really not that much. Ever17 was something I only enjoyed after I got to the final route, otherwise the only route I enjoyed was Tsugumi's. And Cross Channel, mentioned above, is possibly my favorite visual novel for the amazing characters and pretty touching/disturbing story. Saya no Uta is a great story, but it's gross and vile and disgusting in a whole new dimension.

KiraKira is something to check out if you want to enjoy a more casual story and some fun J-rock. The story is actually pretty good too, even if it's just slice of life.

Planetarian ~Chiisana Hoshi no Yume~
Swan Song
Yume Miru Kusuri
True Love

Those are also good, but I don't want to bother explaining all of them :p

Ah, Fate/Stay Night and Tsukihime were also first VN's, and even though I've read some other excellent ones since then, those two have really stuck with me.

Have fun finishing Fate, it's truly a great read.

And, while not a VN, I would suggest reading Fate/Zero after Fate/Stay Night if you're into the series.

Right on.

Now I'm here with more tales of VN's with Kagetsu Tohya. I'm really tuckered out because of the music of this game. It's not that the music is bad, it's that the musics default ripping process is HORRENDOUS! The music tracks will always have the first one or two seconds of the next track and the next track is always missing those seconds. I think I spent half an hour trying to correct this as the first time I fixed it I somehow screwed up in my odd encoding process and had the music sounded like I lowered the pitch.

The process I went by doing all this is simple to say. I first got EAC to make a single continuous track of all the music in the game in WAV format. Then I took that and put it into Audacity where I would copy and paste tracks into a second instance of Audacity and save them manually as OGG files (Set to the highest quality possible) and name the files Track02, Track03, .... and so on.

Because of how big a bitch this process was to me I have the audio backed up in a 7zip file on an external hard drive so I never have to put up with this AGAIN. I am tempted to upload this hard work and post it in the User Uploads area for the future purpose of this endeavor and for entertainment reasons.

If you have never had this issue when doing the music for Kagetsu Tohya then that's fine. My eyes are burning right now and I really should keep my room well lit when on the computer. Completely forgot about the pain in my eyes while doing this.

Don't joke around like that. There is no Tsukihime anime.

Tohno Akiha forever. And you shall never be forgotten, Yumizuka Satsuki. And Akasen, calm down.

Don't tell me to calm down bro. I am so calm. So calm that I'm drinking pool water.

I have properly read this, Kaimax, and now I want to go apeshit on the person who made this. I will literally wreck everything he knows and loves. How did Sengoku Rance get four stars for ero? How did Sekien no Inganock get five stars for writing when it's answers got presented so poorly as well as many other open-ended questions? And also ATIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII, GODDAMMIT. I am happy with Cross Channel getting an S.



Nigga don't bust a nut. Take it one step at a time. Never forget, and so long as you don't, they'll always be alive.

So after futzing around with the music, all the effort I I went through this morning was a waste. None of the music actually matched the scenes. Basically... IDK how this happened. And I don't care anymore.

Currently in the epiphany of "A cat is fine too"

Nice chart! Definitly gonna play all of this! And I agree on the Ratings. Especially Sharin no Kuni, it deserves an S.

Lol, everyone has it's own preferences. Like usual you are allowed to deny his opinion. lol

Sengoku Rance = 4 Stars
-Honestly, there are other VNs that have a higher amount of ERO than Rance. IF RAnce has 75 Ero scenes, the 5 Star might have more than just that.
for example Amatsukaze, the amount of ERO is whomping.

About writings, I can't give an explanation since I lack the knowledge

It's not just the amount of pictures of Ero, it's the quality! The way it's written and presented! The way it feels!