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

Completed Tsukihime. Throw out half the game, cut to the final arcs with character interaction laced in between and I guarantee the game would be better. It is mind boggling how much time was spent describing pointless things like writhing in agony for five or more screens of text or explanations you already went through (the systematic style of the routes being as they are) that could have easily been shortened with a "told me everything about vampires" after the first route. This game should not be an Eroge, there are so many things wrong with the H-scenes that I get a mild headache thinking about it. Now the parts of the story that are not disposable are great-storytelling was good and some parts were unique; generally the outcome was predictable but how you got there was different. If I had to say ctrl is probably the most important key while playing this VN, otherwise it's not too bad.

Starting Fate Hollow/Ataraxia. Finally! I get to see badass survivors of the Holy Grail War live on from the harrowing route ends where the permanent deaths of their friends/foes changed their lives forever.....

Still tryinh to finish KonoOozora. First route Kotori is good, second route Amane is good (because onee-san), but it starting to get repetitive. Ageha route is downright boring (even though Ageha herself isn't). The bad translation at her route didn't help. Problem with this VN is that they used 80% same premise for each route, making it nose-dive the more you read.

Now my only motivation is the 3p in Yoru route.

I'm playing Fortissimo EXS//Akkord nachsten Phase and finish up Sakura's route, and outright epic for the battle scene of Sakura and Nagisa and the final battle against Odin also have it's epicness but not as much in Sakura vs Nagisa match up.

I'm looking forward to finish Momiji's route.

2 more routes to go
Momiji's route and Sayuki's route

I decided to pull the stick out of my ass and use machine translations. It's not as bad as I thought it would be, after downloading a handful of accessory programs and coping with the grammatical faults it's competent translation that I should have probably used ages ago.

Baldr Sky Dive One: Lost Memory started. I spent about five minutes playing with the clicking and whirring noises the menu makes when you hover over the options, little quirks that add to the game. Gameplay is kinda fun but it's irksome how you cannot map the same attack to multiple keys, I am not sure how well the gameplay will hold after 50 hours because the gameplay seems like it would get repetitive. Artstyle is pretty good, it's not often that someone can blend between grit and clean cyberpunk to a reasonable degree.

Same thing I did for 3 years back in 2007. The misconception that you use it as it is and can't do anything about the translation is seriously wrong.

I agree and add that the biggest reason people do not use machine translations is probably ignorance and/or intimidation (having felt both at some point) thus I encourage anyone to at least try machine translations-there is nothing to lose if you find a competent guide like the one on Amaenboda that does all the work for you. Of course to each his own.

Edit.
I finished Rain's route. I am not sure why people say the story is really amazing though so far it's okayish plot moments botched completely by these horrid mistakes that I intend to elaborate on in full detail later on, but I must say the gameplay is entertaining I expected things to die down but heat management is really fun and satisfying when mastered.

Technically speaking this shouldn't be here, but TAM Music apparently made remade some of the soundtracks from Baldr Sky and 辻堂さんのバージンロード. Pretty damn cool especially with strong bass.

New to VNs, so did what everyone did: Tried Fate Stay Night.
Summing, couldn't finish it. Saber route was interesting and all(good to see Saber fiding peace. I discovered that i have a weak point for lovey-dovey-cute endings, it was this in a way), but besides wanting to punch Shirou every 5 seconds, the writing was too slow for me. Maybe i return to it, Rin was making it worth '-'
Explaining: Looks like in Japan Rin(real, not the image of her in class) would be considered a bad girl, without refine, the opposite of yamato nadeshiko... Still that's exactly what i loved about her, blunt, powerful and a tease master. One more reason for me to punch mr Emiya...


After some time browsing the web, a friend recomended Katawa Shoujo.
Played Emi(no guide, just answered like i would, especially if i had a dying heart), then Hanako's route. Felt the "KS Effect", now i'm wanting to start getting fit and am considering some changes in attitude.
Oh, the VN, right.
By the end(2 routes, remember), maybe i wouldn't give it a prize for writing, but it made me think on human relations, if i had read another sci-fi book i would probably be here thinking on the next best way to change the world. Without actually doing anything...go away kenji spirit! *crazy spirits-banishment dance*
I actually liked almost half the soundtrack(wow! '-')

And then there's this:


Will look into the recomendations topics, maybe i will pick one serious, and one for WAFF feelings. Maybe not the last one, it's a terrible drug...

Why not pick a VN with both? G-senjou no Maou is a nice beginner Eroge, Grisaia no Kajitsu is an excellent Eroge and Steins;Gate...IS THE MOST AMAZING VISUAL NOVEL EVER TO GRACE MANKIND. FOR THE LOVE OF SCIENCE PLAY IT. Oh welcome to the VN/Eroge community, nice to meet you.

Baldr Sky update. This eroge keeps defying all my initial expectations I hit Chinatsu route and things got darker than a oil painting of a blackout during the new moon. Also SUDDDOOUUUUUUUUUU!

Interesting, will look them.
Will also think about mixing it, just afraid of the brain not taking it well. You know, maybe the most "erudit"/"heavy" i've read where The Raven(Edgar A. Poe) and The Dark Tower(Stephen King), and even tough i loved the dark feelings/musing over it, i dont consider it a thing to pass time. It can give you a bad mood sometimes...
So since i now came over it and admit that i like WAFF things(to a point '-'), it will be good to clean the mouth haha.



Ty sir :)

Completed Baldr Sky. What is it with this game and crushing my cynical expectations? I call the gameplay boring, it introduces Force Crushes and awful bosses like Naoki. I call the story bland, I get to Chinatsu's route where everything goes crazy. I complain about the H, Pedophile certificate was the best use of 1000F I have ever used...which is actually not saying that much the H throughout was average. I must say though that a pretty big problem I had was that during some end sequences they constantly broke away from the action to show certain flashbacks that shattered the mood and just made me annoyed. Also ranged combat is just superior to melee combat, in fact later on it's necessary especially against bosses like Chinatsu which kinda degraded the amazing potential of combos with heat management into "how many rockets can I fire while strafing an enemy for the 10th time?". There are tons of unexplained plot mechanisms but that is what Dive 2 is for, hopefully. Despite these shortcomings it's a very well made eroge that I will definitely be playing the entirety of the series for.

I have a question for Baldr Sky

I have completely forgotten everything about the other routes, except the Ultimate Sora Route. You reminded me that I should reinstall Dive 1+2 again because my current file somehow got corrupted.

Btw, while during Dive 1 it's easier to play using Ranged Weapons, melee attack has always, ALWAYS been downright OP in every single Baldr Sky game. I'm not sure if Dive 1 has the Shoulder Charge yet, but if you have that, well, GG.

And honestly, the difficulty level ROCKS, especially in Dive 2. I think I've beaten the absolute final boss for only THREE times, using someone else's 100% save file (since I've already finished the game and ALL its endings, good or bad) with fully unlocked weapons, on Very Hard level. It was awesome as fuck.

I still remember somewhat the events in Dive 2 though. For Akine's route, you're going to be fighting non-stop (I meant that literally; with the exception of Sora route there's so many combats you could actually get sick with it). For Sora's sister route, you'll get the entire 'truth' of all the events in Dive 1, leaving you to wonder exactly what else is left in the Final Sora Route, since you already know everything.

But obviously, since Baldr Sky Dive 1 + 2 is the very few VNs that I'd give a full 10/10 for enjoyment, they obviously did NOT disappoint me. At all. So. Finish your 100 hours of gameplay, and report back a week later. Likely you're not going to end it in a few days, even if you read as fast as me.

Correction, Melee attack has always ALWAYS been downright OP in every Baldr Game...
Can't use it much on the final boss of Force EXE since touch=death.

Back to Pokemon... :P

XY? Or Black/White?

It looks like I've officially graduated from Pokemon though... Haven't played Black/White on my computer even though I've had it since a year ago...

The biggest problem I have with melee compared to ranged in Baldr Sky is risk, if you miss a rocket from long-range: wait till the heat wears off, boosting now and then to avoid return fire. If you miss a combo then not only are you up to around 20%-70% heat (varying on what high-dmg combo you build) but you are probably being combo'd into what will be a heat-based Force Crush. Which might translate into instant death, I am fine with that sort of risk-taking for high damage output but considering how the only time I have ever come close to death was when I LET the boss come near me I think that ranged is OP simply because of how safe it is. There are also many more AoE friendly options for ranged. There are long range oriented bosses but most of the time they were so slow that I just chain stunned with rocket/shotgun.

Well the new one, X specifically. Never played BW, but did finish White 2. Even though I was on/off (didn't play Gen 4), but it's always fun to play and I don't see any good reason for "graduating".

Let me tell you just one thing, my dear man.

In Baldr Sky Dive 2, you will never. Ever. Beat the Final boss if you don't melee, in Very Hard mode.

Never. And trust me, I was the ranged specialist due to my own tactical tendencies. I've long since switched to the OP melee then. Besides, I'm not asking you to go pure melee - there are some ranged weapons that has incredibly useful knockbacks.

Now, some complains. Baldr Sky Zero was fun and all, but I really hated that when you tap V repeatedly (twice in a row to be exact, which happens very often in an emergency), you would leap into the air. It bloody sucks especially when you're fighting a boss.

Also, Dash has a delay-before-action now, unlike the previous games, and far less smooth than it was before. I really question if this is a good idea, because it makes combat a lot more clunky that I would've liked, and when comboed with certain skills you just fly to goddamn nowhere (sword slash for example, makes you jump to at very random directions when used with Dash).

The maps especially are dull and uninspiring. This has never happened when during Baldr Sky Dive, but Zero reused its maps a little too much, not to mention its already dull and depressing background. I can't believe how much I miss the Infinity Virtual Ocean - which incredibly is a full patch of black in Zero. Unless my graphic cards are playing games with me, which I believe it's not since the story describes it so too. Another weird anomaly.

THIS. This is a serious motivation breaker for me. I haven't continued after the first fight because of this.

EDIT
LC2_APPEND-LIFE_OCTOBER
http://www.mediafire.com/?lyyb6hsmlh8cge8

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYY

Okay I'm going to pull back a bit on what I said about melee, since I finally figured out how search dash worked. Tweaked that a bit to double the damage output of my melee combos, it's painstaking using basic moves (since my melee is underused) to fight bosses like Mohawk or Naoki who have great reach/dmg in close combat or just a mob of medium-sized shurikuramu but the game is more fun than it was before, which is saying a lot.

I am not sure what Shoulder Charge is but Tackle is probably the closest thing I can think of, it's counted superior to all but the heaviest knockbacks/disables so you can just charge through enemies-an amazing initiator.

oh shi... thanks Kai. bunny wakoto so hnnnggghhh

Meanwhile I'm continuing Swan Song, haven't played any VN since KanColle keep distracting my attention.