Eranox Posts
Really? Higurashi no Naku Koro ni showcases some of the most clever usage of sound effects of its time, and while the 'gore' doesn't compare to the anime - I think they overdid it to the point it's just hilarious -_-" - this IS the original, and thus remains an excellent read that you should go through for the VN's sake.
Continuing from my previous review on Kimi e Okuru, Sora no Hana. This time I'm playing Kanae's route, so let's talk about her briefly. So I'll just state it out bluntly here: I don't like her. Once again I feel strongly about the age gap - supposedly all the heroines are at least 18 years old to obey the law for age of sexual consent, but they just don't feel like it! Kanae's thoughts are extremely childish and innocent that she feels closer to 11 to 15 years old. Her issue basically revolves around seeing one of the ghosts disappear, and that she feared the pain and sadness of living in such an environment because she cares too much. When I put it this way it sounds pretty solemn, but her entire character, starting from her most jarring voice (sorry, I know it's cute, but I just can't stand it for some reason) to the way she ACTIVELY tries to run away from the problem irks me to no end.
However, by no means I am saying that the storyline is bad; this is just my personal prejudice against a character whose weakness was one of the types that I dislike a lot. Again, there wasn't really any surprises in this route but the story was properly told with the message and issue clearly conveyed, which was much better than many other VNs could boast of. Not spectacular, but certainly complete.
Continuing from my previous review on Kimi e Okuru, Sora no Hana. This time I'm playing Kanae's route, so let's talk about her briefly. So I'll just state it out bluntly here: I don't like her. Once again I feel strongly about the age gap - supposedly all the heroines are at least 18 years old to obey the law for age of sexual consent, but they just don't feel like it! Kanae's thoughts are extremely childish and innocent that she feels closer to 11 to 15 years old. Her issue basically revolves around seeing one of the ghosts disappear, and that she feared the pain and sadness of living in such an environment because she cares too much. When I put it this way it sounds pretty solemn, but her entire character, starting from her most jarring voice (sorry, I know it's cute, but I just can't stand it for some reason) to the way she ACTIVELY tries to run away from the problem irks me to no end.
Spoiler:
However, by no means I am saying that the storyline is bad; this is just my personal prejudice against a character whose weakness was one of the types that I dislike a lot. Again, there wasn't really any surprises in this route but the story was properly told with the message and issue clearly conveyed, which was much better than many other VNs could boast of. Not spectacular, but certainly complete.
Okay, first impressions for ã‚ミã¸è´ˆã‚‹ã€ã‚½ãƒ©ã®èŠ±, Kimi e Okuru, Sora no Hana.
So when I first downloaded this game, I was expecting something unique because it uses ghosts as the main theme of the VN. Your generic protagonist can see ghosts, and one day he accepts an offer from a ghost girl to attend a school where half the students are all spirits. So yes, I have found it interesting and decided to try it out.
So let's go straight for the FAULTS of this VN, because I very nearly quit the game - would have, if I hadn't decided to at least play till the end of one route and suddenly found a gem hidden in all these rocks. Now, I'm pretty sure that ten minutes into the game you'll find yourself annoyed by the system of the game. Let's go through them one by one:
1) Long opening delay. This is pretty common in many VNs, but for some reason this VN gave an even worse impression of it. It's probably the somewhat cheap feeling video opening (which was pretty beautiful if you wait it out, but just downright choppy if you decided to click past it).
2) Adjustable window size. Even under normal circumstances this is a hit or miss feature - at least I prefer fixed window size so that I don't need to readjust them - but this VN doesn't even include a return-to-normal-size option. Or at least, it's not obvious and when I first played it I had to spend the first hour just searching for the damn option, and failed. Restarting your computer seems to fix it, but seriously?
3) Exit the game. It's buggy, period. I don't quite remember them now, but you can bug the window to just hang there forever even though you've clicked the X button. And the delay (to allow Matsuri say goodbye to you - sigh. Takes WAY TOO LONG man; personally I would've ommit the entire voice altogether because I just wanna quit the game) when you're trying to quit the game is just plain annoying.
4) Delays in config for voice. I mean seriously, just open the config screen for me while the voice is playing, NOT wait until the voice finish first. In fact almost every option requires around a second delay which just damages the overall experience.
I seldomly find faults in the system category, but this is just riddled with much discomfort and impatience. It was an issue big enough to drain away my initial interest - I should've finished this a month ago >_> - and it needs a FIX.
Next would be art style. It's a hit or miss, but the somewhat chibi art style sprite for some heroines may turn people down. Also, for some reason the graphics feels... I don't know, cheap somehow. Grainy? It's like watching some low quality film; there's just that sense that something is wrong that I can't describe.
Voice is overly sweet for some characters. Some lines are just downright embarrassing, and considering that these characters are actually of appropriate age (since they can be sexed ^^) the forced attempt to make their intellect... questionable is a little hard to swallow.
Also, the story goes pretty slow (and somewhat pointless) for the first hour of the game. I had felt extremely unmotivated to play it because it sounds very nearly like your generic high school romance - it is actually - even though they've ghost heroines in it. Thank god that wasn't the case, but yeah, the first half, I literally cringed as the sugar high voices pierced through my ears. I thought the sprites were turning into rainbow rabbits and ponies.
Now that's done, let's talk about the goods of this VN.
So I'm following a walkthrough, and I've just finished Setka's route. I had NOT expected it to be this good. So Setka is a timid ghost girl who can't remember how she died, and always preferred solitude at the school rooftop than mingling with people. The protagonist made many positive attempts to communicate with her (now THAT'S a man, I like it that the girls don't just fall for you by god's verdict, and the protagonist actually has to make a real effort) and eventually they became friends. In her route however, things went wrong when Setka began to grow obsessed with the protagonist and completely disregard any other people's existence other than him. And considering that she's a ghost, that's pretty darn scary. I won't reveal too much spoilers, but let's just say that the girl had a rather bleak past and she came to recall it over time in this route.
Besides the fact that the storyline was surprisingly good, they actually put a proper effort into crafting the endings. Most heroines have 2 endings, the sister have 1, and Matsuri (supposedly the true heroine I'm guessing) have 3. And from my experience of Setka's route, there are 1 good end and 1 bad end (which meant that Matsuri's probably is good, normal, bad). The bad end is written unexpectedly well as you see the protagonist... well... read it yourself. The good end doesn't just end with the typical 'oh-we-love-each-other-let's-be-together-forever' stuff, but actually reminds readers strongly that these are spirits we are dealing with here. There's a line that you could never cross no matter how you wish for it, and while the ending was not unexpected, it had definitely left a good taste in my mouth. I love it, so I'm going to finish by the walkthrough, each other girl's routes. Originally I had just wanted to play Matsuri's route and that's it, but now that my interest is revived I'd like to see more from this.
Reviews on the characters will be given later on.
So when I first downloaded this game, I was expecting something unique because it uses ghosts as the main theme of the VN. Your generic protagonist can see ghosts, and one day he accepts an offer from a ghost girl to attend a school where half the students are all spirits. So yes, I have found it interesting and decided to try it out.
So let's go straight for the FAULTS of this VN, because I very nearly quit the game - would have, if I hadn't decided to at least play till the end of one route and suddenly found a gem hidden in all these rocks. Now, I'm pretty sure that ten minutes into the game you'll find yourself annoyed by the system of the game. Let's go through them one by one:
1) Long opening delay. This is pretty common in many VNs, but for some reason this VN gave an even worse impression of it. It's probably the somewhat cheap feeling video opening (which was pretty beautiful if you wait it out, but just downright choppy if you decided to click past it).
2) Adjustable window size. Even under normal circumstances this is a hit or miss feature - at least I prefer fixed window size so that I don't need to readjust them - but this VN doesn't even include a return-to-normal-size option. Or at least, it's not obvious and when I first played it I had to spend the first hour just searching for the damn option, and failed. Restarting your computer seems to fix it, but seriously?
3) Exit the game. It's buggy, period. I don't quite remember them now, but you can bug the window to just hang there forever even though you've clicked the X button. And the delay (to allow Matsuri say goodbye to you - sigh. Takes WAY TOO LONG man; personally I would've ommit the entire voice altogether because I just wanna quit the game) when you're trying to quit the game is just plain annoying.
4) Delays in config for voice. I mean seriously, just open the config screen for me while the voice is playing, NOT wait until the voice finish first. In fact almost every option requires around a second delay which just damages the overall experience.
I seldomly find faults in the system category, but this is just riddled with much discomfort and impatience. It was an issue big enough to drain away my initial interest - I should've finished this a month ago >_> - and it needs a FIX.
Next would be art style. It's a hit or miss, but the somewhat chibi art style sprite for some heroines may turn people down. Also, for some reason the graphics feels... I don't know, cheap somehow. Grainy? It's like watching some low quality film; there's just that sense that something is wrong that I can't describe.
Voice is overly sweet for some characters. Some lines are just downright embarrassing, and considering that these characters are actually of appropriate age (since they can be sexed ^^) the forced attempt to make their intellect... questionable is a little hard to swallow.
Also, the story goes pretty slow (and somewhat pointless) for the first hour of the game. I had felt extremely unmotivated to play it because it sounds very nearly like your generic high school romance - it is actually - even though they've ghost heroines in it. Thank god that wasn't the case, but yeah, the first half, I literally cringed as the sugar high voices pierced through my ears. I thought the sprites were turning into rainbow rabbits and ponies.
Now that's done, let's talk about the goods of this VN.
So I'm following a walkthrough, and I've just finished Setka's route. I had NOT expected it to be this good. So Setka is a timid ghost girl who can't remember how she died, and always preferred solitude at the school rooftop than mingling with people. The protagonist made many positive attempts to communicate with her (now THAT'S a man, I like it that the girls don't just fall for you by god's verdict, and the protagonist actually has to make a real effort) and eventually they became friends. In her route however, things went wrong when Setka began to grow obsessed with the protagonist and completely disregard any other people's existence other than him. And considering that she's a ghost, that's pretty darn scary. I won't reveal too much spoilers, but let's just say that the girl had a rather bleak past and she came to recall it over time in this route.
Besides the fact that the storyline was surprisingly good, they actually put a proper effort into crafting the endings. Most heroines have 2 endings, the sister have 1, and Matsuri (supposedly the true heroine I'm guessing) have 3. And from my experience of Setka's route, there are 1 good end and 1 bad end (which meant that Matsuri's probably is good, normal, bad). The bad end is written unexpectedly well as you see the protagonist... well... read it yourself. The good end doesn't just end with the typical 'oh-we-love-each-other-let's-be-together-forever' stuff, but actually reminds readers strongly that these are spirits we are dealing with here. There's a line that you could never cross no matter how you wish for it, and while the ending was not unexpected, it had definitely left a good taste in my mouth. I love it, so I'm going to finish by the walkthrough, each other girl's routes. Originally I had just wanted to play Matsuri's route and that's it, but now that my interest is revived I'd like to see more from this.
Reviews on the characters will be given later on.
Played æ‹å‰£ä¹™å¥³, and finished two routes: Yasui (I think? red haired) and Touko's. Mixed reviews this time, with more criticism than praise unfortunately.
As usual, the goods first. Stunning visuals and amazing graphics. I personally think that the Save/Load interface and the Album/Memory interface is extremely space wasting (You can see only 3 slots on one page of the Save/Load file, for example), but it manages to convey its beauty as meant. The opening towards title screen was some of the best I've ever seen - short, simple, effective, and beautiful. The characters, while kind of stereotypical as usual, were absolute eye candies to watch and sometimes I just paused to admire the art. There is really nothing to complain here, as art wise it is the best of its style as of now.
Its music is just a tad bit weaker compared the art, but then again you have to remember that the latter had set a really high bar there. It is by no means weak at all, and most of its soundtrack and theme song are memorable on its own. The guitar solo was my favorite because it reminded me keenly about a similar soundtrack from Kira Kira, which also featured a guitar solo, and coupled with a clear sounding headphone I could almost dance on top of my bed. Which is unwise, but let's leave that aside.
Solid background study. The first half of its story, right up to the point the battles have ended, were very well done. They're not special, and I believe that they could definitely spice up their battle scene animations a lot more (since they went through so much effort to make the VN visually appealing), but the pacing, narration and storyline up to that point was acceptable and rather interesting. At that point you'll find yourself intensely intrigued by the mystery behind Yasui's shitty low power, Touko's secret, the gadgets lab girl might create if you go through her route and tsundere Eve. The CGs were absolutely top notch - then again, why does a sub male character get to show off his powers in all glory in a CG (practically never appears after his part in the first half), and the protagonist never get a battle CG for his own? Weird decision making - and even if the narration of the battle kind of fall off sometimes they CG more than make up for the excitement the VN wants us to feel.
System. As far as I'm concerned, everything's working. Not much to say, but a bugless VN always deserve a mention, and this seems to be one of it.
Character wise, everyone felt alive. Sub characters remain as they are, but they perform their function well and er, I really liked Yasui's route. Her story just felt natural and unforced, and right up till the end her growth, while expected, left me with a sense of good fulfillment and recharged me for the next route.
... Which is about as far as the good goes, as far as I'm concerned. We're going to start with the bads now.
So first, a waste of background. Time and time again I see Visual Novels with delicately crafted backgrounds that showed so much potential only to be wasted completely on a bland storyline. We have a world here where most people wields magic (it's called differently but basically the same thing) with actual detail about the origins of the magic, which I liked a lot. The 'Kotona' (Dragons apparently) that once haunted the land were exterminated by these magic wielders after a long and harsh war, and now is the time of peace where everyone lives in happiness. That was fine - as I've said, they've put a solid effort into the background story, and it is awesome. I could easily see this VN go Muv Luv and turned everything to hell on earth. I could easily see this VN dive deep into the human psych and talked about the differences between magic users and normal people. There are a tonne more scenarios that pop into my mind even as I type here now, and that's just how much potential we glean from the well constructed background.
... which they did not bother to use at all as we go into the individual girl's route. I suppose that I understand that this IS a pure romance VN and I'm not to expect blood and gore and sadness and misery out of it, but seriously, the background work is just WASTED. Your hotblooded battle scenes practically ends after the first half, and some girl's route - take Touko's for example - there are no fights at all. To put it bluntly, the magic element REALLY WASN'T MADE GOOD USE OF. For example, there are many types of magics such as Fire, Ice, Movement, Life, etc. One of the sub characters have an extremely plot potent magic that is to 'Lifesteal', but the character was forever crippled with a shittily weak body who can't take beyond a loud shout and terrible tsukomis. Even in Yasui's route where the magic battles actually occur rather frequently, I was forced to see again and again she using the same fire magic with zero - ZERO - variations at all. You would think that they could at least get smart and say, coat her sword with goddamn fire and make up some explanation why that would be awesome, but nooo, we must stick to swordfight (everything explained as uber sword skillz) fireballs and the ULTIMATE FIREBLAST ONLY. I thought magic was suppose to be at least innovative. The latter half of this VN just made me think that they could've just thrown away the entire background completely, since they don't even try to utilize like 10% of its true potential.
Putting magic aside, you would think that they would at least talk about the hardships between magic wielders and non-magic wielders, but there's nothing. It's surprising really, when at the beginning there was a scene where the protagonist was thought to be a non-magic wielder and the bullies had looked down on him mercilessly like he's an ant. It's a classic plot device, sure, but it NEVER gets old, not to mention human conflict is practically our everyday life, but nah, we need to stick with the generic and mediocre because that's what the Japanese populace (I seriously doubt it, but a company believes in whatever they like) wants.
There are a plenty sub characters in this VN, but NONE of them was ever fully presented beyond some gag lines and cool phrases. Take the twins for example... actually I feel sad for using them as an example. The sister does nothing beyond lusting for women and the brother was too busy failing his own health. Take the protagonist's roommate as an example. They gave him a girl's sprite and a girl's voice but insist that he's a male (I don't even understand why go through the trouble), and beyond being a nice advisor he was nothing. We were clearly shown that the teachers are extremely capable and powerful at the first half of the story, but beyond the stereotypical sports-looking teacher -> aggressive, gentle teacher -> ara ara~, we learn nothing. Even the rivals that hated (friendly style) the protagonist so much lost all of their aggressiveness and went full friend mode at the latter half of the story. And oh, the female one fell for our protagonist. OBVIOUSLY I SHOULD'VE KNOWN. RIGHT.
But all these, all of these faults I could turn a blind eye on, if not for the singular, hilarious piteous disaster that is Touko's route. Oh, my, fucking, god. I'll try to refrain from writing in capital too much. WHY, on BLOODY EARTH, did you turn such a strong-looking, supposedly hiding some dark secret COOL girl, INTO a PUPPY who does absolutely... NOTHING? WHY? To put things spoiler-free, basically her dark secret turned out to be SUPER cheap, she loves cute things to death, she is cute, she is so cute the protagonist is willing to act like a dog because she miss her puppy, BY THE FUCKING GOD. WHY. Cuteness is a great positive factor, IF DONE CORRECTLY. Her route wasn't just mediocre, it was just downright HORRENDOUS with NO plot at all, and the fact that they made a FOOL out of my favorite character in the first half of story made me quit the VN completely. Didn't finish Eve or lab girl's route, sorry, though I pray to the heavens that they're better than ANYTHING that's in Touko's route. I got a save file and took a peek, and I'd recommend going with lab girl's route since there's a CG involving her in great danger. That means plot, and plot means something, no matter how terrible it might turn out to be. I repeat, even if you love cute and sweet stuff to death do NOT play Touko's route, or you will suffer. Even now my mind is being raped by how they handled the climax, and to put it mildly, it wasn't pleasant. The other way was to fill this post with such terrible expletives that I have to be banned from the forum.
I had initially wanted to praise how this VN singlehandedly defeat my prejudice for poor or generic plots with just astounding visuals alone. I am now left with a wretched heart cursing whoever wrote Touko's route in such distasteful fashion that it nearly wiped out any good feelings I have for the VN.
As usual, the goods first. Stunning visuals and amazing graphics. I personally think that the Save/Load interface and the Album/Memory interface is extremely space wasting (You can see only 3 slots on one page of the Save/Load file, for example), but it manages to convey its beauty as meant. The opening towards title screen was some of the best I've ever seen - short, simple, effective, and beautiful. The characters, while kind of stereotypical as usual, were absolute eye candies to watch and sometimes I just paused to admire the art. There is really nothing to complain here, as art wise it is the best of its style as of now.
Its music is just a tad bit weaker compared the art, but then again you have to remember that the latter had set a really high bar there. It is by no means weak at all, and most of its soundtrack and theme song are memorable on its own. The guitar solo was my favorite because it reminded me keenly about a similar soundtrack from Kira Kira, which also featured a guitar solo, and coupled with a clear sounding headphone I could almost dance on top of my bed. Which is unwise, but let's leave that aside.
Solid background study. The first half of its story, right up to the point the battles have ended, were very well done. They're not special, and I believe that they could definitely spice up their battle scene animations a lot more (since they went through so much effort to make the VN visually appealing), but the pacing, narration and storyline up to that point was acceptable and rather interesting. At that point you'll find yourself intensely intrigued by the mystery behind Yasui's shitty low power, Touko's secret, the gadgets lab girl might create if you go through her route and tsundere Eve. The CGs were absolutely top notch - then again, why does a sub male character get to show off his powers in all glory in a CG (practically never appears after his part in the first half), and the protagonist never get a battle CG for his own? Weird decision making - and even if the narration of the battle kind of fall off sometimes they CG more than make up for the excitement the VN wants us to feel.
System. As far as I'm concerned, everything's working. Not much to say, but a bugless VN always deserve a mention, and this seems to be one of it.
Character wise, everyone felt alive. Sub characters remain as they are, but they perform their function well and er, I really liked Yasui's route. Her story just felt natural and unforced, and right up till the end her growth, while expected, left me with a sense of good fulfillment and recharged me for the next route.
... Which is about as far as the good goes, as far as I'm concerned. We're going to start with the bads now.
So first, a waste of background. Time and time again I see Visual Novels with delicately crafted backgrounds that showed so much potential only to be wasted completely on a bland storyline. We have a world here where most people wields magic (it's called differently but basically the same thing) with actual detail about the origins of the magic, which I liked a lot. The 'Kotona' (Dragons apparently) that once haunted the land were exterminated by these magic wielders after a long and harsh war, and now is the time of peace where everyone lives in happiness. That was fine - as I've said, they've put a solid effort into the background story, and it is awesome. I could easily see this VN go Muv Luv and turned everything to hell on earth. I could easily see this VN dive deep into the human psych and talked about the differences between magic users and normal people. There are a tonne more scenarios that pop into my mind even as I type here now, and that's just how much potential we glean from the well constructed background.
... which they did not bother to use at all as we go into the individual girl's route. I suppose that I understand that this IS a pure romance VN and I'm not to expect blood and gore and sadness and misery out of it, but seriously, the background work is just WASTED. Your hotblooded battle scenes practically ends after the first half, and some girl's route - take Touko's for example - there are no fights at all. To put it bluntly, the magic element REALLY WASN'T MADE GOOD USE OF. For example, there are many types of magics such as Fire, Ice, Movement, Life, etc. One of the sub characters have an extremely plot potent magic that is to 'Lifesteal', but the character was forever crippled with a shittily weak body who can't take beyond a loud shout and terrible tsukomis. Even in Yasui's route where the magic battles actually occur rather frequently, I was forced to see again and again she using the same fire magic with zero - ZERO - variations at all. You would think that they could at least get smart and say, coat her sword with goddamn fire and make up some explanation why that would be awesome, but nooo, we must stick to swordfight (everything explained as uber sword skillz) fireballs and the ULTIMATE FIREBLAST ONLY. I thought magic was suppose to be at least innovative. The latter half of this VN just made me think that they could've just thrown away the entire background completely, since they don't even try to utilize like 10% of its true potential.
Putting magic aside, you would think that they would at least talk about the hardships between magic wielders and non-magic wielders, but there's nothing. It's surprising really, when at the beginning there was a scene where the protagonist was thought to be a non-magic wielder and the bullies had looked down on him mercilessly like he's an ant. It's a classic plot device, sure, but it NEVER gets old, not to mention human conflict is practically our everyday life, but nah, we need to stick with the generic and mediocre because that's what the Japanese populace (I seriously doubt it, but a company believes in whatever they like) wants.
There are a plenty sub characters in this VN, but NONE of them was ever fully presented beyond some gag lines and cool phrases. Take the twins for example... actually I feel sad for using them as an example. The sister does nothing beyond lusting for women and the brother was too busy failing his own health. Take the protagonist's roommate as an example. They gave him a girl's sprite and a girl's voice but insist that he's a male (I don't even understand why go through the trouble), and beyond being a nice advisor he was nothing. We were clearly shown that the teachers are extremely capable and powerful at the first half of the story, but beyond the stereotypical sports-looking teacher -> aggressive, gentle teacher -> ara ara~, we learn nothing. Even the rivals that hated (friendly style) the protagonist so much lost all of their aggressiveness and went full friend mode at the latter half of the story. And oh, the female one fell for our protagonist. OBVIOUSLY I SHOULD'VE KNOWN. RIGHT.
But all these, all of these faults I could turn a blind eye on, if not for the singular, hilarious piteous disaster that is Touko's route. Oh, my, fucking, god. I'll try to refrain from writing in capital too much. WHY, on BLOODY EARTH, did you turn such a strong-looking, supposedly hiding some dark secret COOL girl, INTO a PUPPY who does absolutely... NOTHING? WHY? To put things spoiler-free, basically her dark secret turned out to be SUPER cheap, she loves cute things to death, she is cute, she is so cute the protagonist is willing to act like a dog because she miss her puppy, BY THE FUCKING GOD. WHY. Cuteness is a great positive factor, IF DONE CORRECTLY. Her route wasn't just mediocre, it was just downright HORRENDOUS with NO plot at all, and the fact that they made a FOOL out of my favorite character in the first half of story made me quit the VN completely. Didn't finish Eve or lab girl's route, sorry, though I pray to the heavens that they're better than ANYTHING that's in Touko's route. I got a save file and took a peek, and I'd recommend going with lab girl's route since there's a CG involving her in great danger. That means plot, and plot means something, no matter how terrible it might turn out to be. I repeat, even if you love cute and sweet stuff to death do NOT play Touko's route, or you will suffer. Even now my mind is being raped by how they handled the climax, and to put it mildly, it wasn't pleasant. The other way was to fill this post with such terrible expletives that I have to be banned from the forum.
I had initially wanted to praise how this VN singlehandedly defeat my prejudice for poor or generic plots with just astounding visuals alone. I am now left with a wretched heart cursing whoever wrote Touko's route in such distasteful fashion that it nearly wiped out any good feelings I have for the VN.
You want something weird? Go find a death porn H game; it'll top everything you bizarre things you've seen because there's actual realism in that kind of games. These tentacle things are the one you look at and laugh innocently. ^_^
Still, I wonder how many episodes are they and how they're going to charge payment. $5 for each episodes...?
Lol... Well, if only they'll get that Utawarerumono 2 out eh?
Currently playing What a shining braves. This time they use a pretty simple but creative way of displaying sprites, and as usual the music and art just makes your brain float in the air. The story feels a little like Power Ranger (solo!), but this is an adult's version and VERY entertaining.
EDIT: So, a review on what-a-shining-braves.
So first, the goodies. Absolutely worth the read with an excellent story about a most arrogant superhero. I did not mean sarcasm, and every word is a praise. I have never read a more beautiful - pretty much the only way to describe most Liar-soft's Visual Novels, honestly - adult's version Power Ranger (Ultraman or whatever!) story in my life.
The plot talks about a normal girl named Neon Stellar who has a pair of Golden Eyes, meets with a man named Nicholas Tesla. Unlike previous series such as Shikokku no Sharnoth - despite showcasing 6 people at once, excluding Neon, all having a single Golden Eye - Neon had never awakened or come to realize her powerful abilities beyond some rare moments where she caught a glimpse of 'the Truth of all things' (Normally this could be considered a spoiler, but heck, it's so hard to keep track of the lore that I really think we SHOULDN'T spoiler facts like these).
The story follows a slow but steady pace as Neon, having saved by Tesla, slowly saves one by one the students of the Academy she's studying in. Among them included 4 of the 6 rulers of the Academy (yep, the Golden Eyes!), and it is a most fascinating experience to see all sorts of emotions and powers play about. I won't spoiler anything about the story, but it has one heck of an amazing ending (it caught me completely by surprise alright, and I LOVE IT!) alright. I like the fact that the battle scenes against the students and Rulers were well written and detailed, but when Tesla battles the final enemy, they made it shorter as if to say that, 'the students are the focus here. NOT you, the bastard who's been toying with people's heart!'. The VN's length is just right, and the episodes well organized that it wouldn't feel awkward or overly long. Just excellent, excellent insight and writing skills.
The characters are vivid and life-like. Granted, there will always be a few shunted characters who could not shine beyond a few lines, but that's just life. Feelings were well portrayed, dialogues were handled expertly, and the voice acting was amazing (I'm extremely impressed with Izumi's and Neon's, and Tesla's character is just... DAMN). If there's one thing Liar-soft is good at, it would be that perfect combination of art, writing, and style which makes the entire fantastic world come ALIVE.
And oh, the sex scenes. Usually you DON'T see sex scenes in the series, but this time they actually put them in, and they're... Think I could nosebleed at Neon's one. Oh, Emily's was amazing too. Ahh, let's just say that I usually CTRL-skip sex scenes because they involve a lot of repetitive, unnecessary moanings, but these ones are something that I clicked slooooowly to the end. Oh yeah.
There's really no point discussing about the art and music. Spectacular. Absolutely spectacular. The only advice I can give is to play it.
Now, to the bads. The music can get a little buggy sometimes where 2 different BGMs played together (they're not meant to), and you'll have to restart the game sometimes to fix the problem. Another one would be that the final few scenes could feel a little rushed, though I personally believe it's because the writer wanted to gun for feelings rather than hotblooded scenes. Finally, there was Neon Stellar in the end who was acting a little too childish for her age (I'm not going to comment on how she was veeery jealous of Tesla going out on a date with another girl, but) and it was frustrating to see how she'd tried to run away from the core issue instead of confronting the truth. But this is just a personal nitpick and could definitely be a good point for the others.
In short? Play it already! Liar-soft BANZAI!
Currently playing What a shining braves. This time they use a pretty simple but creative way of displaying sprites, and as usual the music and art just makes your brain float in the air. The story feels a little like Power Ranger (solo!), but this is an adult's version and VERY entertaining.
EDIT: So, a review on what-a-shining-braves.
So first, the goodies. Absolutely worth the read with an excellent story about a most arrogant superhero. I did not mean sarcasm, and every word is a praise. I have never read a more beautiful - pretty much the only way to describe most Liar-soft's Visual Novels, honestly - adult's version Power Ranger (Ultraman or whatever!) story in my life.
The plot talks about a normal girl named Neon Stellar who has a pair of Golden Eyes, meets with a man named Nicholas Tesla. Unlike previous series such as Shikokku no Sharnoth - despite showcasing 6 people at once, excluding Neon, all having a single Golden Eye - Neon had never awakened or come to realize her powerful abilities beyond some rare moments where she caught a glimpse of 'the Truth of all things' (Normally this could be considered a spoiler, but heck, it's so hard to keep track of the lore that I really think we SHOULDN'T spoiler facts like these).
The story follows a slow but steady pace as Neon, having saved by Tesla, slowly saves one by one the students of the Academy she's studying in. Among them included 4 of the 6 rulers of the Academy (yep, the Golden Eyes!), and it is a most fascinating experience to see all sorts of emotions and powers play about. I won't spoiler anything about the story, but it has one heck of an amazing ending (it caught me completely by surprise alright, and I LOVE IT!) alright. I like the fact that the battle scenes against the students and Rulers were well written and detailed, but when Tesla battles the final enemy, they made it shorter as if to say that, 'the students are the focus here. NOT you, the bastard who's been toying with people's heart!'. The VN's length is just right, and the episodes well organized that it wouldn't feel awkward or overly long. Just excellent, excellent insight and writing skills.
The characters are vivid and life-like. Granted, there will always be a few shunted characters who could not shine beyond a few lines, but that's just life. Feelings were well portrayed, dialogues were handled expertly, and the voice acting was amazing (I'm extremely impressed with Izumi's and Neon's, and Tesla's character is just... DAMN). If there's one thing Liar-soft is good at, it would be that perfect combination of art, writing, and style which makes the entire fantastic world come ALIVE.
And oh, the sex scenes. Usually you DON'T see sex scenes in the series, but this time they actually put them in, and they're... Think I could nosebleed at Neon's one. Oh, Emily's was amazing too. Ahh, let's just say that I usually CTRL-skip sex scenes because they involve a lot of repetitive, unnecessary moanings, but these ones are something that I clicked slooooowly to the end. Oh yeah.
There's really no point discussing about the art and music. Spectacular. Absolutely spectacular. The only advice I can give is to play it.
Now, to the bads. The music can get a little buggy sometimes where 2 different BGMs played together (they're not meant to), and you'll have to restart the game sometimes to fix the problem. Another one would be that the final few scenes could feel a little rushed, though I personally believe it's because the writer wanted to gun for feelings rather than hotblooded scenes. Finally, there was Neon Stellar in the end who was acting a little too childish for her age (I'm not going to comment on how she was veeery jealous of Tesla going out on a date with another girl, but) and it was frustrating to see how she'd tried to run away from the core issue instead of confronting the truth. But this is just a personal nitpick and could definitely be a good point for the others.
In short? Play it already! Liar-soft BANZAI!
That's a really tough limit you set there; there ain't much VNs that are 2GBs below these days. 百機夜行 can be fun if you like military setting and RTS gameplay. As for older games, I can't remember so can't help you there.
Random ramblings: Alicesoft games seemed to be going downhill these days since Sengoku Rance - perhaps Daiteikoku was good for some people, but the protagonist was one the blandest hero I've ever seen yet, and the CG progression was to be honest, a lot less engaging than let's say BBA; there's no sense of real progress and excitement...
Finished in an instant: Justy Nasty. Bland, bland, and bland everything else. The moment I completed a single route and clarified that it's just a generic pure romance VN with a completely bland plot - the only selling point was the art (and perhaps music, though it was just okay for me), and it wasn't even that good (the wallpaper was better >_>) - I just downloaded the savedata. No true end, no hidden story, nothing. I had some expectations because of how entertaining (even though it's a rather cheesy plot) 竜翼ã®ãƒ¡ãƒãƒ‡ã‚£ã‚¢ -Diva with the blessed dragonol- was, but this VN is just a cash milker. Not worth buying.
EDIT: Oh. My. God. Once upon a time I reviewed a 時計仕掛ã‘ã®ãƒ¬ã‚¤ãƒ©ã‚¤ãƒ³ complaining that it was incomplete and ended in the most abrupt way possible.
Behold the sequel, not so far off in the future: 時計仕掛ã‘ã®ãƒ¬ã‚¤ãƒ©ã‚¤ãƒ³ ï¼æ®‹å½±ã®å¤œãŒæ˜Žã‘る時. Actually, it continues right off where things ended.
I suspect they're going to make a VN for each 'chapter' of 時計仕掛ã‘ã®ãƒ¬ã‚¤ãƒ©ã‚¤ãƒ³. Money milking at its' best.
Random ramblings: Alicesoft games seemed to be going downhill these days since Sengoku Rance - perhaps Daiteikoku was good for some people, but the protagonist was one the blandest hero I've ever seen yet, and the CG progression was to be honest, a lot less engaging than let's say BBA; there's no sense of real progress and excitement...
Finished in an instant: Justy Nasty. Bland, bland, and bland everything else. The moment I completed a single route and clarified that it's just a generic pure romance VN with a completely bland plot - the only selling point was the art (and perhaps music, though it was just okay for me), and it wasn't even that good (the wallpaper was better >_>) - I just downloaded the savedata. No true end, no hidden story, nothing. I had some expectations because of how entertaining (even though it's a rather cheesy plot) 竜翼ã®ãƒ¡ãƒãƒ‡ã‚£ã‚¢ -Diva with the blessed dragonol- was, but this VN is just a cash milker. Not worth buying.
EDIT: Oh. My. God. Once upon a time I reviewed a 時計仕掛ã‘ã®ãƒ¬ã‚¤ãƒ©ã‚¤ãƒ³ complaining that it was incomplete and ended in the most abrupt way possible.
Behold the sequel, not so far off in the future: 時計仕掛ã‘ã®ãƒ¬ã‚¤ãƒ©ã‚¤ãƒ³ ï¼æ®‹å½±ã®å¤œãŒæ˜Žã‘る時. Actually, it continues right off where things ended.
I suspect they're going to make a VN for each 'chapter' of 時計仕掛ã‘ã®ãƒ¬ã‚¤ãƒ©ã‚¤ãƒ³. Money milking at its' best.
Finished 百機夜行. It was an overall pretty interesting game, except for that one absolutely retarded bug where the final boss' second form doesn't show up and hence you can't kill her and win the game. Pissed. It features some pretty cool CGs and the atmosphere and music was almost perfect. My only complains would be that the story pretty much used every worn out plot line you can possibly imagine (memory loss, hinting the 'death' of your first love extremely obviously, another memory loss, a shadow organization who manipulated everything blah blah blah...) despite it's enormous potential to be unique. It was a pretty good game too, the simple change of camera perspective where you either go 1st PoV and control a single machine directly or the usual 3rd person RTS perspective and control and battle with many machines at once. A shame.
Now GunKnightGirl. The intro can be, how to say...? You enter the title screen almost immediately after the usual introduction stuff almost TOO quickly, and it's the same when you click start game. It doesn't bother to create an atmosphere, well, play and you'll know what I mean. The story is definitely worth the read though. Despite a romance game at its core, the dark and seditious atmosphere was handled very well. Mashiro was probably one of those happy, cheerful heroines that I DON'T hate because she's not one dimensional.
As for Renka's route, I'm going through it right now, and I'm pretty pissed that no one has figured out who was behind the incidents that's happen so far in her route. It was SO obvious - granted that it has been throwing the hints at my face since the PROLOGUE - that it gets irritating.
EDIT: Wow, I can't believe how idiotic the situation has become, like, even if you SUSPECT a person has personality disorder, would that person PURPOSELY make his/her standpoint 100 times worse than before? It was such obvious MALIGNANCY towards Renka and yet nearly EVERYONE but the protagonist suspected that Renka's the one playacting the entire incident? There such a fundamental lack of common sense here for the sake of the plot that it's damaging, ugh...
EDIT 2: Final Verdict on Gun Knight Girl.
Excellent storytelling. There's honestly not much I can pick about here, except for maybe that the True Route's epilogue could be handled a little bit better. Every other heroine's epilogue was VERY well thought out as the writer went into extra lengths to ensure that each story ended properly. For example, Nanami's and er, Fubuki?'s epilogue continue for about fifteen to thirty minutes of length discussing about their resolution and feelings. The True Route actually lacked that and opted for a more generic ending as if they don't have time to make proper closure... which is a little disappointing in my opinion. Still, overall excellent storytelling, because I seldom find myself completing every girl's routes unless necessary (almost never did it on pure romance VN unless they're super epic).
Characterization is awesome. The thought process of the protagonist was very well written, as well as his behavior. I especially like the fact that his speech pattern is pretty unique and does not fall into the generic type of joker. The most annoying character would be the girl childhood friend, but well, she is realistic that I DO know a few people whose behavior could be even more immature than her... whereas Ken has the potential to be an interesting character even though they never really develop him much, which is unfortunate. He is the guy who looks coolly onto everything with little emotional attachment and cares only for his girl. His one single statement he said to his girlfriend (though they don't really admit it), "Everyone else here can die but you." makes me really want to see more character development with Ken, but too bad.
The sub characters (including one heroine), that is the two superiors, are REALLY entertaining to watch near the end of True route. They were extremely interesting characters to begin with, but I cannot help but laugh when dear Mrs Eagle Eye went into serious 'murder' mode; the only thing lacking was a whip and unfortunately no battle scene. I would've enjoyed watching them both absolutely MURDER the opposition much more than the protagonist and his friends playing hero lol.
The heroine themselves are all pretty good themselves. Some people might find the tsundere a little too timid for their taste, but I for one felt her story was told really well. I'm also glad that for once, there's a moral message that tells its reader, "it's okay to be weak." once. As for the true heroine... I can't say I like that kind of type much, and well, I suppose that if you play through the other heroine routes you'll realize what I'm trying to say. >_> I just can't really like her.
The bads. As I've said before, the abrupt opening title and jump into game can be a hit or miss. The sprite animations doesn't do the storyline justice to be honest, as they're a little too normal with no real 'customized' effects. The fight scenes can even be seen as bland if not for the excellent voice acting and text that covers up that problem. Fate/Stay Night has much better sprite animation and usage than this VN, though then again anything from Type Moon is pretty much out of league for most people to create. >_>
All in all, a really good read. The title can be deceptively shitty (Gun Knight Girl IS a shitty name, in my opinion) but the contents are most definitely not. Give it a try, folks!
Now GunKnightGirl. The intro can be, how to say...? You enter the title screen almost immediately after the usual introduction stuff almost TOO quickly, and it's the same when you click start game. It doesn't bother to create an atmosphere, well, play and you'll know what I mean. The story is definitely worth the read though. Despite a romance game at its core, the dark and seditious atmosphere was handled very well. Mashiro was probably one of those happy, cheerful heroines that I DON'T hate because she's not one dimensional.
As for Renka's route, I'm going through it right now, and I'm pretty pissed that no one has figured out who was behind the incidents that's happen so far in her route. It was SO obvious - granted that it has been throwing the hints at my face since the PROLOGUE - that it gets irritating.
EDIT: Wow, I can't believe how idiotic the situation has become, like, even if you SUSPECT a person has personality disorder, would that person PURPOSELY make his/her standpoint 100 times worse than before? It was such obvious MALIGNANCY towards Renka and yet nearly EVERYONE but the protagonist suspected that Renka's the one playacting the entire incident? There such a fundamental lack of common sense here for the sake of the plot that it's damaging, ugh...
EDIT 2: Final Verdict on Gun Knight Girl.
Excellent storytelling. There's honestly not much I can pick about here, except for maybe that the True Route's epilogue could be handled a little bit better. Every other heroine's epilogue was VERY well thought out as the writer went into extra lengths to ensure that each story ended properly. For example, Nanami's and er, Fubuki?'s epilogue continue for about fifteen to thirty minutes of length discussing about their resolution and feelings. The True Route actually lacked that and opted for a more generic ending as if they don't have time to make proper closure... which is a little disappointing in my opinion. Still, overall excellent storytelling, because I seldom find myself completing every girl's routes unless necessary (almost never did it on pure romance VN unless they're super epic).
Characterization is awesome. The thought process of the protagonist was very well written, as well as his behavior. I especially like the fact that his speech pattern is pretty unique and does not fall into the generic type of joker. The most annoying character would be the girl childhood friend, but well, she is realistic that I DO know a few people whose behavior could be even more immature than her... whereas Ken has the potential to be an interesting character even though they never really develop him much, which is unfortunate. He is the guy who looks coolly onto everything with little emotional attachment and cares only for his girl. His one single statement he said to his girlfriend (though they don't really admit it), "Everyone else here can die but you." makes me really want to see more character development with Ken, but too bad.
The sub characters (including one heroine), that is the two superiors, are REALLY entertaining to watch near the end of True route. They were extremely interesting characters to begin with, but I cannot help but laugh when dear Mrs Eagle Eye went into serious 'murder' mode; the only thing lacking was a whip and unfortunately no battle scene. I would've enjoyed watching them both absolutely MURDER the opposition much more than the protagonist and his friends playing hero lol.
The heroine themselves are all pretty good themselves. Some people might find the tsundere a little too timid for their taste, but I for one felt her story was told really well. I'm also glad that for once, there's a moral message that tells its reader, "it's okay to be weak." once. As for the true heroine... I can't say I like that kind of type much, and well, I suppose that if you play through the other heroine routes you'll realize what I'm trying to say. >_> I just can't really like her.
The bads. As I've said before, the abrupt opening title and jump into game can be a hit or miss. The sprite animations doesn't do the storyline justice to be honest, as they're a little too normal with no real 'customized' effects. The fight scenes can even be seen as bland if not for the excellent voice acting and text that covers up that problem. Fate/Stay Night has much better sprite animation and usage than this VN, though then again anything from Type Moon is pretty much out of league for most people to create. >_>
All in all, a really good read. The title can be deceptively shitty (Gun Knight Girl IS a shitty name, in my opinion) but the contents are most definitely not. Give it a try, folks!
I've looked through the plot, and I'm very curious about the ending. As we all know that, well, everything GOES TO HELL with Grey Christmas and with Baldr Sky Dive 2 we pretty much know that:
So, the question is:
Spoiler:
So, the question is:
Spoiler:
Given how epic Witch of the Holy Night was, I really can't wait to see what Type-Moon will produce this round honestly. Though... I'd probably be more interested if they can just get going with Tsukihime 2 already...
I've read through Cross Channel quite a long time ago, though not Saihate no Ima. It's pretty decent and really absorbing when I first started out VNs, though I must say that it does not have replay value due to the way it's written.
Actually I'm in university, and downloading Gigabytes of stuff means extra money for broadband limit and very unstable line, so I try to minimize my downloads as much as possible here and download all of them at once in my home. Also, my final exam is very near haha.
First impressions on Witch Garden.
So first, my worries were unfounded. Witch Garden is definitely not your generic kawaii-selling VN that has boring storylines. I hereby apologize to the VN for my previous doubts (though not for the E-mote system) and praise it to be one of the must-reads if you're interested in romance/fantasy.
So first, the story is good. I've read through it for a couple of hours, and I must say that it painstakingly builds up its plot slowly, carefully, while never cutting corners as it worked on the details. For example, one major fault in many VNs is that they try to focus on one major character at a time - which is fine, but - completely cutting out the other characters' existence, inevitably causing some readers to wonder just where the heck everyone else has gone.
This VN had so far managed to fix that problem that the contact look realistic and believable. One, the characters are not overly affectionate that they stick 24/7 with you. For example at the beginning few hours, while Ayari was shown genuinely liked the protagonist, it was not the romantic or I-wanna-have-sex-with-you unrealistic type but of a friendly relationship. Some VNs like to make the girls reluctant to part with you every single time the protagonist parts with them, but this does not show here. A friend is a friend, and Ayari was shown to mingle with other characters, do her own things off screen, able to carry herself etc... The characters felt real. They're definitely not a stereotype even if their character design might initially give off such an impression.
Such as the Ice Girl (I forgot her name lol). She basically little to no contact with the protagonist at all, and hence her attitude towards him was just dutiful and amiable, and it has never changed from that because, well, there really isn't much contact at all. That's good. It's in character, and reflects the real world more correctly than, "I'm slowly falling for you because you're always so polite when talking to me once in a blue moon" thing.
Before I start on the E-mote system, I'd like to talk about the Auto Mode. It's impressive to be honest. I know that a lot - actually, most if not all of them - simply set a global timer on the text (reach end of text, wait 1 second, next line) and that's it. Hence it usually feels incredibly unnatural to read with Auto Mode because some text/dialogues either skips too fast or too slow, which is annoying.
But Witch Garden's Auto Mode seems to be more refined. This is just a guess after testing it for around fifteen minutes, but it seems that they've given put 2 different timers for the Auto Mode - one for dialogues and one for passages - and hence when the text flows everything feels incredibly good. The two characters talking are actually talking to each other instead of giving the feels that they're just reading lines.
Now, about the e-mote system. For one, I must say that the characters do look pretty fluid most of the time, barring some moments where the animator/programmer suddenly decide to use static sprite movements when they could've been 'e-moted'. However, there are of course some faults that people cannot help but notice:
1) Sprites are blurry due to the need to make 3D-ish movements.
2) I assume that turning off the E-mote system would switch the system back to normal static sprite and the normal animation stuff, but no. Never turn it off, because the sprites remain blurry and the animations become incredibly horrid that it would completely crash your experience.
3) As I've said before - perhaps due to the fact that this is the first time they implemented the system, hence of course not everything can be perfect - certain animations that they could've e-moted or 'made real' were instead replaced with simple Dissolve transitions.
... But that's about all the faults I can find from this VN, and if there are, at the moment I can't remember any and that's good. While I suspect that certain plotlines would always remain predictable (such as Ayari's true identity etc), it is definitely epic enough for newcomers that they would not forget this experience.
EDIT: Ah, hmm. Final verdict on Witch Garden.
Have to say, in the end this VN really isn't my type of story. A little too much romance/fooling around/treating serious matter as if they're a joke. Ayari's normal route actually read better than the True route, and that kinda infuriates me to no end.
And even then, despite its outward 'happy' appearance, Ayari's true route had actually ended rather dark and ominous:
In short? True route is lousy. Read Ayari's normal route and be satisfied with it, because I personally think that it has the best storyline out of all the others. True route is incredibly the absolute lousiest out of all of them. And I must say that all the sub heroine routes are also moderately good and interesting, unlike the true route which was just... man... sigh.
So first, my worries were unfounded. Witch Garden is definitely not your generic kawaii-selling VN that has boring storylines. I hereby apologize to the VN for my previous doubts (though not for the E-mote system) and praise it to be one of the must-reads if you're interested in romance/fantasy.
So first, the story is good. I've read through it for a couple of hours, and I must say that it painstakingly builds up its plot slowly, carefully, while never cutting corners as it worked on the details. For example, one major fault in many VNs is that they try to focus on one major character at a time - which is fine, but - completely cutting out the other characters' existence, inevitably causing some readers to wonder just where the heck everyone else has gone.
This VN had so far managed to fix that problem that the contact look realistic and believable. One, the characters are not overly affectionate that they stick 24/7 with you. For example at the beginning few hours, while Ayari was shown genuinely liked the protagonist, it was not the romantic or I-wanna-have-sex-with-you unrealistic type but of a friendly relationship. Some VNs like to make the girls reluctant to part with you every single time the protagonist parts with them, but this does not show here. A friend is a friend, and Ayari was shown to mingle with other characters, do her own things off screen, able to carry herself etc... The characters felt real. They're definitely not a stereotype even if their character design might initially give off such an impression.
Such as the Ice Girl (I forgot her name lol). She basically little to no contact with the protagonist at all, and hence her attitude towards him was just dutiful and amiable, and it has never changed from that because, well, there really isn't much contact at all. That's good. It's in character, and reflects the real world more correctly than, "I'm slowly falling for you because you're always so polite when talking to me once in a blue moon" thing.
Before I start on the E-mote system, I'd like to talk about the Auto Mode. It's impressive to be honest. I know that a lot - actually, most if not all of them - simply set a global timer on the text (reach end of text, wait 1 second, next line) and that's it. Hence it usually feels incredibly unnatural to read with Auto Mode because some text/dialogues either skips too fast or too slow, which is annoying.
But Witch Garden's Auto Mode seems to be more refined. This is just a guess after testing it for around fifteen minutes, but it seems that they've given put 2 different timers for the Auto Mode - one for dialogues and one for passages - and hence when the text flows everything feels incredibly good. The two characters talking are actually talking to each other instead of giving the feels that they're just reading lines.
Now, about the e-mote system. For one, I must say that the characters do look pretty fluid most of the time, barring some moments where the animator/programmer suddenly decide to use static sprite movements when they could've been 'e-moted'. However, there are of course some faults that people cannot help but notice:
1) Sprites are blurry due to the need to make 3D-ish movements.
2) I assume that turning off the E-mote system would switch the system back to normal static sprite and the normal animation stuff, but no. Never turn it off, because the sprites remain blurry and the animations become incredibly horrid that it would completely crash your experience.
3) As I've said before - perhaps due to the fact that this is the first time they implemented the system, hence of course not everything can be perfect - certain animations that they could've e-moted or 'made real' were instead replaced with simple Dissolve transitions.
... But that's about all the faults I can find from this VN, and if there are, at the moment I can't remember any and that's good. While I suspect that certain plotlines would always remain predictable (such as Ayari's true identity etc), it is definitely epic enough for newcomers that they would not forget this experience.
EDIT: Ah, hmm. Final verdict on Witch Garden.
Have to say, in the end this VN really isn't my type of story. A little too much romance/fooling around/treating serious matter as if they're a joke. Ayari's normal route actually read better than the True route, and that kinda infuriates me to no end.
And even then, despite its outward 'happy' appearance, Ayari's true route had actually ended rather dark and ominous:
Spoiler:
In short? True route is lousy. Read Ayari's normal route and be satisfied with it, because I personally think that it has the best storyline out of all the others. True route is incredibly the absolute lousiest out of all of them. And I must say that all the sub heroine routes are also moderately good and interesting, unlike the true route which was just... man... sigh.
Right. And the very first line of your post encourages newbies to try out hard carries first *because it's easier*. And in nowhere did you mention what makes up a 'good' team composition, and since a newbie is a newb, the poor dude most definitely might think, 'We have 5 Agi WE WIN!' and proceeds to lose the game.
The fact that a team should consists of a bare minimum of 2 strong early game gankers/supporters and here you are encouraging new players to 'play carry' is quite the annoying contradiction.
And to your low MMR comment? Do you know that a decent support/ganker would die up to at least 8 to 9 times in a normal game to setup ganks and eventually the win? Do you know that supports almost never have a positive K/D ratio, and in hard games not even positive D/S ratio? Do you know that the fact your 'carry' got this farmed is because supports are dying out there for your sake so you can go 13-0 and win the game? Are you so obnoxious that you think just because of some stupid shit like low MMR you think all supports of that level are stupid? Or maybe it's the goddamn carry themselves who actually did a horrendously shitty job (LIKE A NEWB) and fed like hell and lost us the game despite beautiful ganks and team-based deaths?
I probably forgot to mention that most support/gankers have at least 1 form of hard CC that helps with escape. That with the fact that Force Staff is like so goddamn core among supports to run that even a newb would get it after a few games, and the fact that most carries DON'T get an escape item (BKB does not count), and that DotA relies STRONGLY on utility items to win a game, that I can conclude that you're one of those pubstompers who think they're so awesome in a CC owning noobs while the rest of the team did the hard job of accommodating your attitude.
The fact that a team should consists of a bare minimum of 2 strong early game gankers/supporters and here you are encouraging new players to 'play carry' is quite the annoying contradiction.
And to your low MMR comment? Do you know that a decent support/ganker would die up to at least 8 to 9 times in a normal game to setup ganks and eventually the win? Do you know that supports almost never have a positive K/D ratio, and in hard games not even positive D/S ratio? Do you know that the fact your 'carry' got this farmed is because supports are dying out there for your sake so you can go 13-0 and win the game? Are you so obnoxious that you think just because of some stupid shit like low MMR you think all supports of that level are stupid? Or maybe it's the goddamn carry themselves who actually did a horrendously shitty job (LIKE A NEWB) and fed like hell and lost us the game despite beautiful ganks and team-based deaths?
I probably forgot to mention that most support/gankers have at least 1 form of hard CC that helps with escape. That with the fact that Force Staff is like so goddamn core among supports to run that even a newb would get it after a few games, and the fact that most carries DON'T get an escape item (BKB does not count), and that DotA relies STRONGLY on utility items to win a game, that I can conclude that you're one of those pubstompers who think they're so awesome in a CC owning noobs while the rest of the team did the hard job of accommodating your attitude.
scrubmycar wrote...
Personally, I think it's actually better for people to be playing hard carries (with escape skills) when they first start out. If they have no MMR/ELO ratings, they will be matched with similar beginners who will most likely have no idea what they're doing. They won't be able to push or defend as a 5 man effectively, thus causing the game to stretch for a longer duration of time. If you play a hero like am or void, all you have to do is literally get uncontested last hits for much of the mid game, back when the lanes are too pushed, and blink/time walk out of danger. Even if you're auto attacking, you should still be able to get better GPM than the other players running around the map. They'd still need a good team/lane composition though.
If you play squishy hard supports like CM, Venge, etc, you'll be a huge target for the entire duration of the game. Once heroe with multiple nukes maxes out their active burst damage at around lvl 8~, you'll be an easy target for the rest of the game. Without proper warding and lane control, you won't be able to do anything. Heroes like NA can just burst you down every team fight/gank.
If you can't last hit well, then maybe playing support is a better option. Playing support means buying courier/wards, baby sitting your carry, pulling/stacking, and rotating to other lanes if needed. Don't ever steal the last hits/kills from your carry unless they won't be able to get it otherwise.
Just to fix several misconceptions you have that greatly contributes to the level of terrible play in DotA 2.
One. If everybody picks a carry, there would not be enough farm for everyone, and since carries are meant to carry late the game is most likely going to drag past 50 minutes. Most games do go past that point, but 5 carries 99% will drag past that time period. Boring.
Two. Crystal Maiden and Vengeful Spirit are one of the absolute best supports/gankers with their utility, and their role is to protect + feed the carry, make ganks, and die for the team. Every time you are targeted by the enemy team instead of your carry, you are winning the game. I have NO idea why you don't want to die (positively) for the team when playing as those heroes.
Three. Unlike League of Legends, there is no gp/10 items that could increase your gold, and every time you die your gold count is reset. Then you also have to consider the fact that the enemy will deny creeps. To remain useful, you HAVE to farm at least a certain amount of gold and acquire basic items like Boots/Wards/Wands + 1 escape/utility item if possible. Thus, your job is to ensure that you harass either the enemy heroes out of lane, or at least secure the creep kill before the enemy could take it, by combining your hits with your carry. There is no need to worry that your carry would not get sufficient farm (and quite frankly, if a carry could not last hit better than the support even though those type of heroes usually have strong basic attacks, the gold might be better on you instead) as there will be a blank period of time about 10 ~ 15 minutes where they will get to farm without hindrance. Assuming the enemy isn't completely steamrolling you of course.
amorim wrote...
Zolnir wrote...
Lol. I'm at the point that I'm scavenging Flash games Visual Novel/RPG/good-ol-SimGirls to pass time. I didn't expect the symptoms to hit so hard after a week hiatus to do work. >_>The symçtoms are pretty strong around there lol I'm not feeling much of it since I'm busy with my recent aquisition, Assassin's Creed Anthology that has the 5 games released so far :p
Hum, did you read J.Q.V Jinrui Kyuusai-bu ~With Love From Isotope~ yet?
If you liked Cross† Channel or Saihate no Ima I'm pretty sure you'll like it since the style is very similar to the one that Tanaka Romeo (writer of Cross† Channel and Saihate no Ima) uses.
Hmm, I've looked into the synopsis for the VNs you've said. To be honest J.Q.V Jinrui Kyuusai-bu ~With Love From Isotope~ read like a (Yeah I know, I noticed that I'm growing into a pretty lousy cynic >_>) joke, but I'll give it a try since it's supposed to be a serious story. The other one looks better, but I remember going through a similar VN once which narratives and execution was rather horrible, so I'm feeling rather repellant, but at this point WHO CARES! I'LL DOWNLOAD IT! *self-destructs*