The Visual Novel Thread

Guys, there's a chat thread for you to post this stuff in. Some of us would like to actually discuss visual novels.

Right, so I've been playing Kira Kira and I've been unimpressed so far. The text is bloody hard to read. Even when I made it bright green I have to really focus.

Not to mention all the characters ignorance of all things rock music irks me. Are Japanese kids really this uneducated when it comes to popular music? The idealogy of punk music is totally wrong in this game and it's frustrating seeing these stupid kids walking around saying "F*ck" all the time without a reason. Even the guy that is in a real band doesn't even understand what punk is, and he's supposed to be an expert. The characters are really not that interesting either.

The only props I can give it is the kids playing God Save the Queen. So is there any reason for me to continue despite all these things that annoy me about this VN?
 
Maxon wrote:
The only props I can give it is the kids playing God Save the Queen.
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Also, the writer namedropped The Clash (translated, amsuingly, as The Crash) and I think Joy Division. That's worth some cool points. The swearing thing, on the other hand, was played for laughs.

As for reasons to continue playing... I don't know. Personally I loved Chie and was prepared to endure some draggy moments in the first half of the game for her route, which was sweet but not the usual weepy melodrama if that's what you're looking for.

Apparently Kirari's endings are the most emotional, but I doubt I'll ever see them as her voice and general behaviour drive me up the wall.
 
I guess light-hearted VNs just don't suit me. I prefer things like Ever 17, Saya no Uta, Chaos;HEAd, etc. I like my stories dark, mysterious and full of mindf*cks.

fabricatedlunatic said:
Apparently Kirari's endings are the most emotional, but I doubt I'll ever see them as her voice and general behaviour drive me up the wall.
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I was hoping that the guy would smash her head in with his bass.
 
Maxon said:
Guys, there's a chat thread for you to post this stuff in. Some of us would like to actually discuss visual novels.

Right, so I've been playing Kira Kira and I've been unimpressed so far. The text is bloody hard to read. Even when I made it bright green I have to really focus.

Not to mention all the characters ignorance of all things rock music irks me. Are Japanese kids really this uneducated when it comes to popular music? The idealogy of punk music is totally wrong in this game and it's frustrating seeing these stupid kids walking around saying "F*ck" all the time without a reason. Even the guy that is in a real band doesn't even understand what punk is, and he's supposed to be an expert. The characters are really not that interesting either.

The only props I can give it is the kids playing God Save the Queen. So is there any reason for me to continue despite all these things that annoy me about this VN?
Click to expand...
Yes they genereraly have f*ck all knowlege about music, have you heard some of the crap Japan produces as pop.
It no stranger than a british person having little knowlege of j-pop.

Don't worry all the technical punk stuff is in the intro, you're not the only one that found those little details grating. After they actualy go on tour it turns into a fairly decent road-movie type plot. Kirari does seem a little too chirpy at first, thankfuly the characters actualy develop. Didn't actualy mind the others that much, they're fairly normal. Having a fairly beleivable plot is one of the strongpoints, no robots, ghosts, miko with magic powers etc. in sight.

Text readability, turn the transparency down on the textbox. Also play around with text colours, try the red/orange/ yellow range or wear shades. Tint can help a lot if you have trouble reading off screens.

I guess light-hearted VNs just don't suit me
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This light hearted ?!, it's a fairly serious one. Comedy bad end excluded.
Or my mind has been tainted by too much Key.
Mind it's nothing like Narcissu, that is just incredibly black.
 
Reaper gI said:
Maxon said:
Guys, there's a chat thread for you to post this stuff in. Some of us would like to actually discuss visual novels.

Right, so I've been playing Kira Kira and I've been unimpressed so far. The text is bloody hard to read. Even when I made it bright green I have to really focus.

Not to mention all the characters ignorance of all things rock music irks me. Are Japanese kids really this uneducated when it comes to popular music? The idealogy of punk music is totally wrong in this game and it's frustrating seeing these stupid kids walking around saying "F*ck" all the time without a reason. Even the guy that is in a real band doesn't even understand what punk is, and he's supposed to be an expert. The characters are really not that interesting either.

The only props I can give it is the kids playing God Save the Queen. So is there any reason for me to continue despite all these things that annoy me about this VN?
Click to expand...
Yes they genereraly have f*ck all knowlege about music, have you heard some of the crap Japan produces as pop.
It no stranger than a british person having little knowlege of j-pop.

Don't worry all the technical punk stuff is in the intro, you're not the only one that found those little details grating. After they actualy go on tour it turns into a fairly decent road-movie type plot. Kirari does seem a little too chirpy at first, thankfuly the characters actualy develop. Didn't actualy mind the others that much, they're fairly normal. Having a fairly beleivable plot is one of the strongpoints, no robots, ghosts, miko with magic powers etc. in sight.

Text readability, turn the transparency down on the textbox. Also play around with text colours, try the red/orange/ yellow range or wear shades. Tint can help a lot if you have trouble reading off screens.
Click to expand...
Well, I'll give Chie's route a shot at the very least. She was the only one that didn't come across as annoying.

Reaper gI said:
I guess light-hearted VNs just don't suit me
Click to expand...
This light hearted ?!, it's a fairly serious one. Comedy bad end excluded.
Or my mind has been tainted by too much Key.
Mind it's nothing like Narcissu, that is just incredibly black.
Click to expand...
Yeah but most light hearted ones have some drama in them anyway. I want VNs where there's an impending sense of doom or lots of horror constantly.

I tried Narcissu and I just gave up because I kept getting depressed.
 
Yumemiru is a decent VN to play, i didn't think it started that slowly. Aeka's arc is best arc by far, brilliant story, and i wouldn't bother playing the nekoko arc if you want story because it was bad. VN's are much like books, some start slow some don't.
 
Most of those I've played start slowly. It seems to me (and this is just a theory) that because these games cost so much money in Japan, the writers feel it necessary to pad them out with tedious ******** to increase the number of hours it takes to complete them.

Crescendo and Saya no Uta are perhaps the only games I've played where I didn't feel as though there was any need for an editor to have cut away some flab.
 
fabricatedlunatic said:
Most of those I've played start slowly. It seems to me (and this is just a theory) that because these games cost so much money in Japan, the writers feel it necessary to pad them out with tedious ******** to increase the number of hours it takes to complete them.

Crescendo and Saya no Uta are perhaps the only games I've played where I didn't feel as though there was any need for an editor to have cut away some flab.
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They don't cost big money in Japan, or no more than any other video game does. They can't do cheaper releases for most as they're tiny print runs, and aren't that cheap to produce.

The tendency of having a few hours of game in which nothing happens before you even get to the OP is fairly normal.
Might have something to do with that being what the demo version tends to contain, not wanting spoilers. Also how they're written, main plots can't start until you've picked a specific route, as they often have different writers. Having an intro in which not much happens feels less bad than one which may not be relavent to the bulk of the narative.
 
You know what's the most scary thing about Japanese video game prices? Mofoing 6000+ yen for DS games.

That said, it is way too easy to find new VN/ren'ai adventure/whatever games @ 9000+ yen to shake off the feeling of expense, despite the cheaper ones that are out there. Even in the old exchange rate days of 200 yen that's still pretty pricey.
 
ilmaestro said:
You know what's the most scary thing about Japanese video game prices? Mofoing 6000+ yen for DS games.

That said, it is way too easy to find new VN/ren'ai adventure/whatever games @ 9000+ yen to shake off the feeling of expense, despite the cheaper ones that are out there. Even in the old exchange rate days of 200 yen that's still pretty pricey.
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My friend Eiji has a few of these, I'll probably ask him again what the titles where

Update.
So he emailed me back and for anyone interested in buying Jap DS games:

Love Plus (2 versions)
Higurashi ga naku koroni DS (4 Volumes)
Inu Kami
Sora no otoshimono Forte Dreamy season
Doki Doki Majo Saiban (2 Volumes)
Moesta -Moeru Toudai Eigojuku
Princess Maker 4 DS
Sakura Wars DS
Days of Memories (3 Volumes)
Quiz Magic Academy series

A few anime based adventure games

Ookami to koushinryou (2 volumes)
Idol Master Diary stars
Strike Witches (2 volumes)
Ouran Koukou Host bu (Ouran highschool?)
Evangelion Ayanami Rei & Asuka Raising Project
To Love-Ru -waku waku rinkan gakkou-hen
Hayate no gotoku
Urusei Yatsura

Hunt to ones content
 
Yesterday I finished Sora's route on Ever 17. Man, Takeshi doesn't seem to get a proper good end from what I've heard about his bad and good ends for Tsugumi's route. Still need to get through Sara's and Tsugumi's routes, and Sora's route, like You's, raises more questions and succeeds in frying my brain. However, I'm thinking that they are in some sort of time loop due to seeing Coco's carvings on that statue from The Kid's perspective and seeing Coco actually do the carving from Takeshi's perspective. I'm glad there's at least something connecting the incidents.

I've also been reading Planetarian and it's really sad.
 
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Otaku-san said:
A few anime based adventure games

Ookami to koushinryou (2 volumes)
Idol Master Diary stars
Strike Witches (2 volumes)
Ouran Koukou Host bu (Ouran highschool?)
Evangelion Ayanami Rei & Asuka Raising Project
To Love-Ru -waku waku rinkan gakkou-hen
Hayate no gotoku
Urusei Yatsura

Hunt to ones content
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iDOLM@STER is a game series not an anime.
The anime is an alt universe mecha anime, Xenoglossia, by the group that did My HiME.
Yep that's Ouran Highschool Host Club.

Only one I have any interest in is Love Plus, which I'll probaly import 'cos it's realy cheap.
 
Reaper gI said:
Otaku-san said:
A few anime based adventure games

Ookami to koushinryou (2 volumes)
Idol Master Diary stars
Strike Witches (2 volumes)
Ouran Koukou Host bu (Ouran highschool?)
Evangelion Ayanami Rei & Asuka Raising Project
To Love-Ru -waku waku rinkan gakkou-hen
Hayate no gotoku
Urusei Yatsura

Hunt to ones content
Click to expand...
iDOLM@STER is a game series not an anime.
The anime is an alt universe mecha anime, Xenoglossia, by the group that did My HiME.
Yep that's Ouran Highschool Host Club.
Click to expand...

Yeah I knew, I just copy&pasted this whole list from the email, didn't bother to proof read it too much

Stuart-says-yes said:
Otaku-san said:
So he emailed me back and for anyone interested in buying Jap DS games:
Love Plus (2 versions)
Click to expand...

I played that once, I was interested in reaching the boobies but I couldn't understand japanese and promptly gave up,
I am tempted to take another crack at it though. I assume these probably and english patch floating around some-where on the internet by now though.
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There might be, say if you patched to a rom file and used an emulator/saved to SanDisk. But these practices are a "No No" on here.

Quite some time ago I tried out Kumatanchi on an emulator. A basic Tamagochi game that was created by the genius at Vanillaware. It's quite simple to play even if you can't understand the story (and a very basic one at that too)
<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/WbBRiuXylhQ?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/WbBRiuXylhQ?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>
And some gamplay footage
<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/9fku6tlXPPw?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/9fku6tlXPPw?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>
 
At the Moment MangaGamer has lowered their prices on most of their titles. Including De Capo being 29.95 euros instead of 49.95euros. Theses prices are now permanent

A translation for Deep in a thicket, and otome game Starry Sky ~in Spring~

links hereandhere
 
Kirrimir said:
Yumemiru is a decent VN to play, i didn't think it started that slowly. Aeka's arc is best arc by far, brilliant story, and i wouldn't bother playing the nekoko arc if you want story because it was bad. VN's are much like books, some start slow some don't.
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Well I just finsihed the game, did nekoko's arc last- and I have to agree with you it really didn't live up to the other two. I kinda preferred the Kirimiya plot over the Aeka one. But they were both excellent, the Aeka one did have a greater sort of impact though...
 
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