Community The Visual Novel Council | All Choices Lead To Here

Li Kao

It’s a strange world. Let’s keep it that way.
Jan 28, 2019
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"The Grisaia Trilogy launches for Switch in Japan on November 7. English and Japanese language options are supported."
...
Oooooooooooohhhhh ! :hushed-face:
 
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Exzyleph

Dark Eroge Lord
Oct 9, 2018
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Ciconia - despite all the game analogies - seem more similar to Higurashi rather than Umineko so far, which is something I appreciate. I personally disliked all the meta-magic stuff.
I'm maybe at the halfway point in Ciconia, I just got to "(temporary name)", so this post is is based on a lot of speculation.

I haven't read Higurashi yet, but I agree that Ciconia doesn't feel much like Umineko. In a lot of ways it reminds me more of Rose Guns Days, but it remains to be seen if that keeps up and it does seem to be heading in a very different direction. On the other hand, the Wisdoms and the prophecies(?) and perhaps even time-travel that are hinted at could bring the story closer to Umineko, but that is just conjecture.

One element where Ciconia does remind me of Umineko is (spoiler for content in the Ciconia demo) the battle scene between the two Gauntlet knights, which felt a lot like the duel between Beatrice and Virgilia, but that is of course a relatively minor element in Umineko's overall meta-narrative.


I liked Dies Irae a lot, I enjoy chuuni stuff though
You and me both.
It did get a little bit ridiculous with some of the monologues, but overall I found the novel to be a very enjoyable read.
 
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Li Kao

It’s a strange world. Let’s keep it that way.
Jan 28, 2019
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Sorta in the mood to try Fate Stay Night VN, but just parsing through the different version is uhhhh.
I can't read a fucking 50+ hours VN with reading OCD, what could go wrong. Somnium Files is tempting too.
 
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Kvik

Crossbell City Councillor
Dec 6, 2018
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Downunder.
I'm in the mood for a short(ish) horror visual novel and Death Mark is on sale right now. Is it a sign?
My playthrough took about ~15hrs. There weren't many text in the game, and you spent time more exploring and solving puzzles, mostly. It features more creepy and disturbing atmosphere, rather than jump scares (although there's a little bit of that as well). 50% off is a decent discount, I'll say.
 
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Exzyleph

Dark Eroge Lord
Oct 9, 2018
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LAMUNATION! has finally been submitted for approval on Steam:



It was originally meant to be released back in April, but was delayed due to the developers porting the game to a completely new engine (from Siglus to KiriKiri):
 
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Exzyleph

Dark Eroge Lord
Oct 9, 2018
878
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Looks like we'll be getting a Kickstarter for Rewrite+ soon:

Steiner will be taking over translation duties from Conjueror (who passed away recently):

For anyone out of the loop, it has been over two years since the translation was originally announced, so it feels a bit odd with a Kickstarter now.

On the other hand, I am a sucker for Physical editions of VNs and Sekai Project somehow managed to be one of the only publishers to deliver rewards in a reasonable amount of time (for A Light in the Dark), so I am strongly tempted to back it.
 
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Myradeer

Rayon de Soleil
Apr 17, 2019
320
498
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Great news about Rewrite+. Rewrite is one of my Top 5 visual novels even after so many years.
 

Kvik

Crossbell City Councillor
Dec 6, 2018
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Downunder.
Speaking of Kickstarter, the Dei Gratia KS isn't going well at all :02sad:

I'm backing Rewrite+ too, but I'll be extra sad if both fail.
 

Exzyleph

Dark Eroge Lord
Oct 9, 2018
878
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Speaking of Kickstarter, the Dei Gratia KS isn't going well at all :02sad:

I'm backing Rewrite+ too, but I'll be extra sad if both fail.
The Dei Gratia was in a hard spot from the start, unfortunately.
Not only was the goal is quite big for a relatively unknown title, but their maximum pledge was also only $100 (and that that involved paying $10 to get your name in the credits), meaning that diehards didn't drag up the average and help give the campaign momentum. They've added more levels at this point, but I doubt that it is going to make it.

Rewrite+ looks a lot better despite the much higher goal: It is only the second day, and it is already at 36%.
It merely needs a daily gain of 2.3% funding over the next month in to reach its goal and that doesn't seem unrealistic.
 
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Kvik

Crossbell City Councillor
Dec 6, 2018
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Downunder.
Rewrite+ looks a lot better despite the much higher goal: It is only the second day, and it is already at 36%.
It merely needs a daily gain of 2.3% funding over the next month in to reach its goal and that doesn't seem unrealistic.
Yeah, about Rewrite+, people will see that it's a Key VN and they're a known quantity. It's now almost half-funded with 26 days to go, so I'm now feeling pretty optimistic. Meanwhile, Lemnisca still need to raise $51K in 9 days for Dei Gratia, and that's a tall order.

Also, TIL Lemnisca is the one who translated Raging Loop. I heard good things about it, so hopefully Kemco will update the PC version as well.
 
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Exzyleph

Dark Eroge Lord
Oct 9, 2018
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There's no more Muv Luv left. :p
Maybe Schwarzesmarken
Altered Fable would be nice.
There's only a partial fan-translation of that.


Is it a recommended VN ?

It's a puzzle-game/VN hybrid and it is quite good from what I've played (about 1.5 hours).

The way the game works is that you are presented with a time-line showing a set of events (light goes out, I drop my phone, a door opens, I get out of bed, etc.), and your goal is to arrange those events in order to help the people involved. For example (this is not an actual example from the game), you might move a door opening from the start of the time-line to the end of the time-line, so that it doesn't open right in the face of a character walking by. The game also introduces timelines that that affect each other and events involving multiple persons and hence time-lines that you can swap events between.

The main critique I had is that it quickly becomes quite complex, with a lot of possible combinations of events and a large number different endings, and it started to feel a bit opaque with regards to how you'd find the sequence of events leading to a good or perfect ending. My recommendation would be to try to find the good/perfect endings yourself for each time-block and then look at a walkthrough if you want to see the other endings.
 
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Kvik

Crossbell City Councillor
Dec 6, 2018
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Downunder.
Well, what do you know. We're getting more Muv-Luv after all.


Also, they're making an Alternative anime, apparently.
 
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Exzyleph

Dark Eroge Lord
Oct 9, 2018
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This just popped up on Steam:

Fruitbat Factory is (co)publishing again by the looks of it, so it is probably the same deal as before, where the original company licensed the all-ages (console) version of the game and Fruitbat Factory helped with QC and such. It's a shame that we won't be getting both versions of the game, but the quality should at least be good, going by the first title.

VNDB:
 
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Kvik

Crossbell City Councillor
Dec 6, 2018
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Downunder.
The situation with Arunaru is regrettable to say the least. I don't have any problem paying a little more than $60 for a VN, but I'd love for translators, editors and manager to be paid fairly for their services. For such a niche genre which barely move units, I don't feel Mangagamer can change their business practices to be more sustainable for their workers either considering they have a lot of projects in the pipeline. I'm not sure what the solution is. :02sad:
 

Exzyleph

Dark Eroge Lord
Oct 9, 2018
878
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I'm gonna take the liberty of quoting my own comment from the book club thread, and I hope that you all don't mind.

The reason is that I think this VN deserves a lot more attention:

My last game for Spooktober ended up being a recent release by Sekai Project, Nanairo Reincarnation:


Briefly, Nanairo Reincarnation is the story of Mokoto, a university student who upon moving into his departed grandfathers home discovers that said grandfather was a spiritualist who used demons to helped ghosts with lingering regrets depart to the other side. Motoko starts summoning his own demons and hijinks ensue, though the story takes a dark turn when Motoko finds the ghost of a girl thought to have run away from home.


The game was released without much fanfare, but it quickly cemented itself as one of my favorite reads this year, and I have read a lot so far. If you are looking for a very funny, little bit scary, and occasionally heart-wrenching story, then I strongly recommend giving Nanairo a try!

The main strength of the novel is probably the central cast of colorful characters, including both humans and non-humans, with the main heroine (Kotori, bottom-left in CG below) easily stealing the show. Granted, none of the characters are particularly deep, but I ended up enjoying every moment spent with them:



Not only is the voice-acting superb, but the art is great and the sprites are wonderfully expressive:



This is a very funny game, but I will warn up front that it also features some rather disturbing content (my poor eyes will never unsee that evil spirit, among other things). The music is pleasant but not particularly memorable, and the engine is fully featured. The game even features a skip-to-next-unread button, that I wish was available in more VNs.



For anyone considering reading this, I would strongly encourage you to read the true route first, so as to maximize the impact of events in that route. Look up a walkthrough (there's one on Steam), as getting both ends on that route can be a bit of a pain.


The novel is not without its issues, however, the biggest of which is the fact the side routes felt like little more than excuses for H-scenes. There are still good (non-H) scenes in the side routes, but nothing that tops the true route. The Steam version supposedly adds additional scenes to the side-routes and alternative CGs instead of the H, but I have not yet read that version of the game, so I cannot comment on those. There are also some technical issues (in one scene the voices/sprites/text go out of sync for a bit), but SP are working on that with the developer.

Finally, I'd recommend that everyone get the Steam version of Nanairo, regardless of which version of the game you intend to read (all-ages or 18+). Sekai Project only sell the all-ages version on Steam, but have released a free 18+ patch for the Steam version, which means that buying the game on Steam gives you access to both the all-ages and the 18+ version of the game.
 
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Li Kao

It’s a strange world. Let’s keep it that way.
Jan 28, 2019
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:blobdrool:

Wait... this will be digital with no possibility of discounted keys like Somnium ? :loudly-crying-face:
 

Theswweet

Dirty Weeb
Mar 12, 2019
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Finished Fata Morgana, and posted my thoughts in a LTTP on Era:

 
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Exzyleph

Dark Eroge Lord
Oct 9, 2018
878
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Noraneko 2 is out on Steam:

Note that this is based on the all ages console version and that there is no 18+ patch, supposedly due to the original developer not wanting to/being able to license the voices.
 
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EdwardTivrusky

Good Morning, Weather Hackers!
Dec 8, 2018
7,277
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Free key for "Without Within 2" if anyone wants it.

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Exzyleph

Dark Eroge Lord
Oct 9, 2018
878
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Rewrite+ KS campaign is ending in 4 days with $31K to go. Will it be funded in time? :02eyes:
It seems pretty likely to meet the goal at this point.
There will probably be 11-12% left when it hits 48 hours and the burst of pledges that you usually see at that point should be more than enough to bring it over the edge.
 
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Exzyleph

Dark Eroge Lord
Oct 9, 2018
878
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LAMUNATION is out and it is surprisingly cheap for a medium sized VN, on top of having a 25% launch discount.
I haven't played it yet, but the translation was handled by Blick Winkel, so it should be good/punny.

Available on Steam, Denpasoft, MangaGamer and JAST:


And MangaGamer has released Funbag Fantasy 2 on their store and on Steam:
 

AHA-Lambda

MetaMember
Oct 9, 2018
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Ok I finished Song of Saya now, but one question:

was it ever established definitively why Fuminori could see the world the way he did? It seems a heavy coincidence that it would just be due to the treatment he got from the accident 🤔
 
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Kvik

Crossbell City Councillor
Dec 6, 2018
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Downunder.
Ok I finished Song of Saya now, but one question:
Basically it's implied that while the experimental surgery saved his life, the side effect of the surgery left him permanently brain-damaged. There's a medical condition called 'Visual Agnosia' which Fuminori's condition was likely based on (although his condition as depicted in the game is entirely fictional). It's because of this same condition he was able to perceive Saya differently.
 
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Exzyleph

Dark Eroge Lord
Oct 9, 2018
878
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The visual novel book club for December is up and the novels are Hatoful Boyfriend and the sequel/DLC Holiday Star:


If you don't already own these, then you still have about 48 hours to grab them for cheap on Steam or on GOG.

EDIT: The original game is also free with Xbox Game Pass for PC.
 
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AHA-Lambda

MetaMember
Oct 9, 2018
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Only just started Stein's Gate LBP and it's very strange how it just drops you right into the story with zero context at all to how anything fits with the rest of the series?

I'm aware it's a set of non canon side stories but if I hadn't known that before I'd already be very confused as to what is going on 😕