What VN are you playing? What do you think about it?

Currently replaying Kara no Shoujo.

After they announced that we will get an English release of the sequel, as a devoted fan I had to replay this game (too bad you must get the bad endings to get all the infos on some characters, good thing I have a good memory for some things).

I didn't mean it in a literal sense *energetically shakes fist at internet for not conveying my hyperboles*, it's just me stating that patience is a virtue that's lost on me-a fact all the more obvious when someone dangles something like RWBY in my face.

Also I might have to retract my statement about the duration of the episodes; it might be between ten minutes to a quarter of an hour, it's hard to tell just by using speculation from the wiki, the RTX 2013 schedule and the developer panel following the premier on Youtube.

It should be around 10 minutes per episode. During RTX they released 1 and a half episode, and there are many who commented that Episode 2 was large incomplete (probably low quality rendering or something), around 18 minutes in total if I remember correctly.

And well, I'm not having issues with waiting (since I've already read the plot summary - it doesn't spoil anything important) since there's work to be done (not office work, mind you, those things are mostly very easily completed, which is nice - I can spend more time writing!).

Speaking about the wiki, I've posted some theories there - all pre-RTX - and a fan fiction called 'Mirror, Haunt'. My ID there is also Zolnir so feel free to visit and drop a comment, if you feel like it. =3

And now, THE EPIC REVIEW OFFFFFFF...

Drapeko! Review:

Let’s face the reality: Alicesoft has been screwing themselves up since recent years, and most of their games were a dial back from the epic they used to be. Rance 6 was one of the best dungeon-crawlers I’ve played even though it was just as torturous, and then there’s Sengoku Rance that still manages to baffle players with tonnes of joy despite being made in what, 2006? The thing is though, Alicesoft has been in decline. Daiteikoku was far more annoying than it was fun, Rance Quest was a complete bitch with high cost (level resets) and low return (1 or 2 CGs at most, BECAUSE THEY PUT A FUCKING CAP ON RANCE’S DICK, EVEN THOUGH THAT WAS THE WHOLE FUCKING POINT OF THE ENTIRE RANCE SERIES. WHO IN THE FUCKING FUCK MADE SUCH A STUPID DECISION??). Even Pastel Chime 3 with all that quality reuses the same few backgrounds for battles again, and again, and again. Honestly, they’re just depressing as of late.

Drapeko though, fortunately, was one incredibly refreshing Visual Novel that offers a rather unique and interesting system with basic gameplay. The story features a prince with godlike sex skills but infinitely better heart than Rance’s, and despite sounding suspiciously like the common, boring-as-hell protagonist, his incredible sexual appetite (and the need to visit bad end events, but more on that later) more than makes up for the potentially debilitating setup, and along with the ability to generate huge amount of hilarity Esto more than qualifies as the funniest protagonist in Alicesoft history (some may say that Rance is more hilarious, but Esto doesn’t give you a guilty conscience).

About the plot, it is not special. Long story short everything ends well, and I’ll just sum the beginning up here in a short summary, and if you’d like to avoid spoilers then don’t read it.

One of the reasons that made me nod to the story – I may be a diehard fantasy fan, but I do think know what’s good when I see one – was that it develops the characters really well. Every heroine was given ample amount of events (since its common route all the way until Chapter 6) for players to study their character and learn about their backgrounds, and many of the sub characters were properly conveyed too. More importantly, all of them are INTERESTING. The Dragon Kuu needs Esto’s body fluid to gain energy (basically eating food) so she drinks his sperm since it’s the best and plentiful (lololol), the Hero Toru is a pervert, masturbation maniac and an exhibitionist, the Ghost Hotel Owner Solsu is also a pervert and an avid fan of homosexual materials (she’s fine with both yaoi or yuri) and any immoral relationship AND nosebleeds very cutely, and finally Sekiei is a loli sadist sex maniac who gets off seeing people suffer. How ironic that the Dragon Kuu was actually the most innocent out of them all, and the other human heroines are in many ways more crazier than the protagonist’s sexual habits. =3

This was large successful because of one reason: The unique system. First, there is no save in the game. Instead you select from a tree map and go through the events of the story, and that means at any time you may jump back to any scene you want and reread the parts you missed (because of a split choice etc). The other part that greatly supplemented the NEED to use this system (because there are people who would prefer not to read them and just move on), was that by getting a Dead End, Esto will gain EXP and level up. While I’m sure some people can blitz through most of the battles (and there aren’t many) with even a 20 level differences, it would be far easier to just watch the Dead Ends instead.

This is genius because not only the players would gain more insight about the characters, it also give focus to one of the best points of Drapeko: Humor. You just laugh like hell (and be protective of your anus) when the gay rapes Esto into a homosexual (1 of the Dead Ends) and the other showing Esto cum under the gay’s super high level tongue technique, causing the poor protagonist to hang himself the next day (similar, but just as god fucking hilarious because well… oh my GOD that saliva-sucking-squishing-whatever-sound is going to haunt me for a long time). The damn good humor and jokes just makes the entire experience SHINE.

Onto the gameplay. As I’ve said above, it’s basically a Rock-Paper-Scissors game with one more option to, †˜Joke’, which you can use to lose the battle. Unfortunately there aren’t many fights at all in this VN, and this is just a mini game that serves to relieve some boredom and tediousness for impatient readers. I do believe that they could’ve added in a lot more fights, but whatever (like, you don’t even get to fight the final-final boss, what!?). All of the battles except one are not worth of mention (because they’re too easy) except the First Battle against Alma. This you must read if you’re playing the game, or you’re going to frustrate yourself to no end trying to beat her.

First, there are 2 major patterns that she uses. One is before Esto is level 20, and another is equal to or after level 20. The pattern will have random elements after a certain number of time intervals (no idea how many retries it would take though), but they mostly stay the same.

Before level 20, she mainly uses attack by pairs. For example: 2 -> 2 -> 1 -> 1-> 3 -> 3. If you played it correctly, it is possible for you to win by countering every one of her attacks, but if you take even a single counter from Alma – or even just a draw – you will lose.

After level 20, you have no choice but to level up Esto until at least level 25 or 26 (I’ve tried on level 25 and got everything right, but Alma was left with 2 HP left and I still lost, so 26 should be safer) before challenging her. This would frustrate the crap out of you because Alma’s pattern goes like this: 3 (100%) -> Absolute counter -> 1 (Can random change to 2 or 3) -> Absolute Counter -> 2 (Can random change to 1 or 3). You MUST beat her before you eat her 3rd counter or you will 100% lose otherwise. Basically you try to counter -> take a hit -> counter -> take a hit -> counter -> use 1 or 3 (because using 2 means you’ll come after Alma, and she’ll beat you). Sometimes you may get lucky and she will not absolutely counter you, but it happens so rarely that it’s simpler to assume otherwise.

Ironically the gameplay was the weakest part in the VN – again, even though Alicesoft was supposed to be damn good at this – because 1, there’s not enough fights; 2, you don’t get to fight certain final-final boss; and 3, it is BULLSHIT that they set up the stupid rule mentioned above that intentionally delays your winning just because they want you to read more bad ends. Sure I get to enjoy a better, more complete experience, but heck… this makes the boss un-fun; as if the †˜intelligent’ guessing wasn’t simple enough already.

All in all, a good and refreshing game from Alicesoft regardless, and it definitely injected a dose of hope into me that not all future Alicesoft games are going to be crap. 8 out of 10.

Currently going through Symphonic Rain. I'm doing Lise's route first, then Fal's, Torta's and the two final routes.

Besides the fact that I loved the music from the OP the story so far is average. However, I know I'll get the good stuff on the final routes. I'm still on Lise's route so I'm looking forward to finish Symphonic Rain.

Majikoi A-2 is out.... GODAMMIT.

played 君と彼女と彼女の恋？

reminder: if anyone is planning on playing try not to spoil yourself before completing the game

Already downloaded it, and so it's on my list.

Nitroplus being infinitely creative with anti-piracy stuff. You almost wish to see what they're going to pull next.

On some unrelated news, the first version of the restoration patch for If My heart Had Wings is released.

http://visualnovelaer.fuwanovel.org/2013/07/if-my-heart-had-wings-restoration-patch-now-available-restores-sex-scenes/

EDIT:

Literally finished now Torta's route from Symphonic Rain. Besides her route, I also finished Lise's and Fal's. I'm going for the last two routes starting tomorrow.

Lise's and Fal's routes are average but I gotta admit that I wasn't expecting that from Fal. It surprised me. However, I didn't found her route that engaging to read. I even felt that the route was rushed on the final part. Regarding Lise's route, it gradually grew in me a little bit. Although some events events on her route go to a ridiculous point, given what we learned it wasn't that surprising. I found Lise's route in general superior to Fal's.

Now, I was looking forward a bit to Torta's route and I'm not disappointed. Oh man, that ending, I WAS TOTALLY SEEING THAT TO HAPPEN! In fact, the ending just gave me some serious hype to read the final routes. This should be good.
Needless to say, I enjoyed the most Torta's route and thought that it was better explored than the others.

I'm very much looking forward to read the rest.

I'm at Chapter 5 of Dangan Ronpa, and oh boy I should've used PPSSPP much, much earlier. JPSP is a complete shit in every way compared to it.

The VN itself is totally fabulous and a heck lot better than 999 Hours, make no mistake. The controls can be a bitch to use on an emulator (especially during the MTBs), but it wasn't experience detrimental. Will give a full review later on, but right now I would recommend ANYONE at all to try out this game.

Also, I think this IS the VN I mentioned before, the one I said I couldn't remember what the title was. I kinda spoilered myself a bit when skimming through the prologue of its Side Story, but it coincides with 'that' scenario. Awesome.

Damn, the mysteries just kept me shivering with excitement! (even though most of them are incredibly easy to solve)

I'm playing Dangan Ronpa right now (Ch6) and I agree it's a great pick up so far. When I started meeting characters I sorted them into categories "To kill, Are killers and Domestic Animals (harmless)" Maizono was the first in my "To Kill" list. How did I know? I'm an esper! Just kidding...

Some tricks I learned about the game (not sure if this works in other versions besides The Best). I'll spoiler it if some people are concerned about maintaining the difficulty level, since some of these make the game a cakewalk even on Malicious.

I have all the mentioned skills lol; it's just that playing them on an emulator can be pretty frustrating . Do you know that you have to listen to the beat rather than following the screen (if on emulator) because the images don't catch up quick enough when the tempo quickens? It could be annoying ESPECIALLY when negative time happens. >_>

EDIT:

Now then, Dangan Ronpa review!

Whoever has a PSP and a fetish for Visual Novels should know this already, but this is one of the absolute best Visual Novels I've played this year.

Because I've just finished the game (and literally slept like, 5 hours per day just to get this done - my head hurts >_>), I literally don't have much words to describe my feelings other than, well, god DAMN this is good. Let's go by everything one by one, as usual.

Number one, the plot. The brief synopsis of the VN would be one: there are fifteen known high school students titled Super Duper Something that were trapped in this Kibo Academy. A weird-looking robobear then appears to tell them that if they want to leave this place, they'll have to KILL EVERYONE ELSE. Otherwise, they will NEVER GRADUATE and live within the Academy for the rest of their lives.

Even though the theme itself is kinda old already (I've played like what, Infinity series, 999 Hours, Secret Game series, read mangas like Judge etc, and they're all basically using the same setting... it's definitely an old theme for me now), the plot actually read pretty damn refreshing and nice, thanks to quite a number of bizarre elements that completely deviated from common sense.

Number one would be the Academy itself. First, you have freaking iron-sealed windows and exits that looked sturdy to take a couple of missile hits and more. Then you have freaking GATTLING GUNS just hanging around the corner like they're harmless little birds or something. Just by putting all these elements in, Dangan Ronpa has set itself up for one helluva ride, and it was up to whether the plot would disappoint or not.

And of course, it did not! Otherwise you would've seen me thrash talking it at the beginning *whistles*! Anyway story-wise this is beautiful. I can't really explain it, but things never really get stale, it never really gets boring, and it always manages to surprise with unexpected twists and turns that just keeps you GOING. Usually I'd be the first - being an obsessed reader and all - to sniff out how a plot's going to setup and unfold, but Dangan Ronpa has managed to outmaneuver my expectations in a surprisingly good way. While the ending and various unsolved mysteries (more on that later) can be a little underwhelming, it still did not fail its hype and managed to finish beautifully in the end.

Speaking of which, what is the final movie again? Apparently it's ??? when I check through the gallery, and I wonder if it's because I skipped through the ending video and so did not get it. If that's true then never mind, but if it's like a secret ending please let me know.

About the faults of the plot - though it's simply because the incident happen not to discuss about it, and so it is entirely acceptable - is that there are still a lot of mysteries in Kibou Academy that were unexplained. One would be the Malefaction something incident - just what exactly had happened that caused the entire world to screw up HUGE? While the End-of-the-World videos that Monokuma put up was certainly unreal (and possibly even fake or grossly exaggerated, but I can't tell without reading Zero first), it just... doesn't make sense. Even if we say the USA nuked Afganisthan, it still wouldn't affect the world to the level Monokuma had described. And to say it was all triggered by a simple mass murder in Kibou Academy? Not to say that it's not terrible, but heck, we have read newspapers where students murdered tens of classmates with a gun. Am I living a normal life? Yes I am, and I certainly don't give a damn about what's happening on the other side of the world.

I am aware that there are side stories that supplemented exactly the missing materials, but when Monokuma requested that Naegi solved ALL the mysteries, I thought they seriously meant EVERYTHING. Which they did not, meeeh. They didn't even say what the fuck happened in the old classroom where .

Which brings to the many small but existing contradictions in the VN. Let's take Monokuma for example. The dude always seem to be able to appear out of nowhere, and since this is a logical VN it HAS to come from somewhere. Let's assume that this somewhere is a hole or something. Let's even assume that there are such tunnel networks throughout Kibou Academy, and with multiple units of Monokuma set it many locations it can appear at anywhere and almost anytime. This almost certainly has to be true, because Monokuma has dropped by Naegi's place a million times and definitely NOT THROUGH THE DOOR.

So here's the question: Why did our protagonists never considered Monokuma's secret tunnel network as a possibility for escape? Of course, the possibility that these 'holes' are just storage space and a complete dead end, but to not even consider the possibility of something else is just... weird. They NEVER did investigate where Monokuma appear, you know.

The above is but one example, and to go on would be the ramble thousands of words without point. So let's move on to the gameplay instead.

Now then, there are several different stages in the game that keep things interesting. The first one would be a 1st person POV navigation style gameplay. You literally just walk around and interact with objects and people, and well, you get the gist. 'Investigation' basically involves Naegi running around and doing the above to solve mysteries. While the navigation is certainly basic, it is incredibly responsive would never fail to find an important object with a helpful button that reveals exactly what you need to interact. This is very good design, and something 999 Hours failed at (horribly), as I can't even begin to tell you how painful it is during 999 Hours where I failed to interact with certain objects in certain orders and things just doesn't goddamn progress at all. With a walkthrough, too.

But that's off topic. Next would be the Class Trial. There are several stages such as the prepare stage (equip skills and setup last minute review of information), Non-Stop Debate (you use evidences and testimonies you've collected called 'Ammunition' and shoot them at yellow highlighted texts called 'Weak Points'), Epiphany Diagram (Basically it's a word guessing game, though it can get surprisingly hard when you're staring down a fucking timer and cannot think), Choices (there's actually 2 different varieties, but basically it's make-a-choice lol), Machine Gun Talk Battle (a rhythm hitting game that's the most challenging part out of all), and finally Climax er, something (fill into the missing sequences of events with various images).

For anyone who has played the VN, there is no question: THIS is where Dangan Ronpa shines the brightest and made the game an absolute beast. Just play it out yourself and you'll know what I mean. You have to experience this, as words just won't suffice.

Sure, sometimes it's a freaking pain in the ass trying to get the Non-Stop Debate right (because the Ammunition you're using is sometimes pretty vague, and that the fact that you can convert people's Weakpoints into Ammunitions to target other Weakpoints make things quite confusing). Sometimes I feel like screaming into the monitor because I KNEW what happened, but couldn't quite find the right combination to get things moving. It can get frustrating too since the game just goes step by step in painstakingly slow fashion because it's trying to address to younger audiences as well. Pretty damn sure everyone felt Byakuya's pain at some point, "These IDIOTS."

While I feel like I didn't give the gameplay enough elaboration, it's going to be yet another thousands of words so let's just stop. Now, to the music! If it wasn't on a PSP I'm sure they could make it better, but I guess I'll just have to stick with the lower quality OSTs. They do suit the atmosphere wonderfully.

About the system. Polished, and while not without some faults, was pretty easy and comprehensive to use. By far the biggest SIN of the game was the need to unlock CGs/videos with Monokuma coins (sorry but like, FUCK man, FUCK THIS ACHIEVEMENT BULLSHIT) because there's literally no replay value to the game (you're just solving the same fucking mysteries after all), because that is the nature of a mystery: once you solved it it is GONE along with its potential of interest. Even if I just want to like, reread the story, it's still a pain in the ass to go through that many steps for it. Thank god this isn't a common occurance in VNs or the despair might just push me over. *wink wink*

In conclusion, a 9 out of 10. Speaking of which, Dangan Ronpa 2 looks to be equally as interesting, and I'll definitely get it when the NA version comes out. After all.

It's PUNISHMENT TIME! (Does that make sense to you? Oh and I JUST LOVE IT WHEN KIRIGIRI GOT SQ - *burns inner demon into dust*)

Yes there is an Epilogue epilogue scene following the credits that hypes up for Super Dangan Ronpa 2 and can only be viewed if the game was beaten on the hardest difficulty; however the ??? scene you are referring to can only be obtained by getting the extremely rare emergency exit button from the slot machine.

Well I would argue with any VN replayability is a problem because it's a genre that mostly depends on story, once you learn the story there's little point to relearn unless you feel nostalgic or missed something. Dangan Ronpa dances the line between many different genres of video games but still remains stagnant the second playthrough because of it's reliance on the story (as you said) and the minigames are not worthy enough to merit replaying. Frankly I'm amazed that the game is even playable with this many elements, so imagine my surprise when I found that it was enjoyable.

They likely left the disaster unknown so that there would be something exciting for Super Dangan Ronpa 2, after all the audience needs hope for the despair of waiting for the Super Dangan Ronpa 2.

Oh also after you watch the epilogue epilogue, take a look at the opening execution for Dangan Ronpa and recall the headmaster's build, as well as what state he is in by the end of the game. A Class Trial to live, A Class Trial to die..or you could just be lame and lower this spoiler

I didn't even know which execution video you're talking lol (because I'm way too lazy to check), but well I just have no interest beyond what's in store for the future. I can always read Dangan Ronpa Zero if I want to know exactly what happened in the past (though of course... they might reveal next to nothing at all).

On a side note the first episode of RWBY is out, and I'm not too disappointed beyond the fact that I swear I've seen that golden lady's character design somewhere before (in short: extremely stereotypical), and that the fight scene seemed a little... unnatural at parts. The ones I noticed were:

1) When Ruby rotated twice above her scythe and kicked the goon the camera seems... weird?

2) No recoil at all when Ruby shoots at the helicopter.

Other than that, just way too short to tell really.

Dangan Ronpa Zero contains portions that support Super Dangan Ronpa 2, so I'll be picking that up.

Well Glinda Goodwitch's appearance is generic because she's supposed to represent Ruby's generic ideal of a huntress-righteous and powerful, well at least thus far. Plus she seems the prideful yet modest sort so her underwhelming clothes (at least compared to people like Ruby) fit her rather well....unless you are referring to Yang, in which case I am entirely confused as to how you missed the Yellow trailer.

Unless you mean the fact that the camera zoomed under her skirt for a brief moment (showing only red, do not get your hopes up). I cannot find the inconsistency that you stated about Ruby's kick despite watching it three times. Can you be a bit more specific about the problem?

There is recoil, but it's pretty much nonexistent. I suppose it has to do with why she changed the scythe into it's portable form (otherwise why not just fire in scythe-form?) and the fact that Ruby took a proper stance to compensate (probably still not enough to reduce recoil that much). I do not know much about gunsmithing so I cannot say if adding weight to the barrel will affect recoil but there is also the magical answer of Dust(annoyingly enough).

I'm not surprised you found problems. There was plenty of instances where hair, clothes and similar objects cut through other solid objects or clung to each other in an unrealistic manner to retain their shape. Plain laziness with having the cookies instantly disappear upon contacting Ruby's mouth also looks like she's mumbling instead of inhaling giant cookies, without swallowing either. "Look you can see Signal from up here! I guess home isn't too far after all!" *looks at rows of plain, black blobs that are dotted by lit windows during daytime* so that's why you left. Maybe it's lore related, but for now I can only assume it's laziness, especially considering they had the resources for the detailed backdrop of Beacon seconds later. The biggest issue I found was when Glinda used fragments of the roof as a projectile and from the PoV of the helicopter the roof was completely intact, same with the helicopter after receiving Glinda's spells.

To their credibility I like that they are paying some attention to detail. The cutting problem usually occurs at the edges of the screen and you have to scrutinize the movie to find them. The helicopter fight scene made full use of the free-flowing materials on the characters and moved realistically (to an extent), commendably the effect gradually diminished as the helicopter flew away. The movements of each character has good impact/emotion behind them and while not flawless are certainly above average.

A note about the moon, the moon in this episode is only slightly shattered. If compared with the other moons in the previous RWBY trailers, I assume that if the moon's decay is time-related the episode occurs between the Red and White Trailer (probably an easy inference to make without the moons actually).

I couldn't spot the inconsistency now lol... it seems to have something to do with my computer lagging at that timing I guess. Or perhaps Ruby rotating twice made me wonder why the necessity to do so when she could just do it in one.

Oo Dangan Ronpa Zero's characters is in SDG2? Now that's something to look forward to.

I found a forum where you can read Dangan Ronpa/Zero (as well as Super Dangan Ronpa 2 so be careful to skip that), but it's only finished up to Book One. It's nothing compared to the feel of a real book with Dangan Ronpa's glorious artstyle included but if there was ever a free option to read the novel it's EDIT: Completely vanished into thin air, sorry it appears they just implemented a system where you can only access the Something Awful forum through a premium account.

Just finished Kara no Shoujo with the True Ending. Still one of my favourite visual novels ever, I can't wait for the sequel.

That said, I have to point out two (obvious) things:

I finished katawa shoujo and I GOTTEN everything. Wasted or used a mouths worth of time. I read Air Clannad and after story. I need more. Any recommendations? I am open to any.

Finished KonoOozora. Quite a lot of cliche lines, but awesome graphic, and very nice voice acting too. 2nd VN I played in 720p. All in all, not a bad ride.