Community The Visual Novel Council | All Choices Lead To Here

rickyson33

Junior Member
Apr 26, 2019
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it took me about a year to finish it since I stopped two separate times for long periods of time(which was a pretty weird way of reading it I guess, I blitzed through like a third of it in a few days then stopped for like 6 months then did that again, stopped for another like 6 months, then did it again to finish it) but I finally got around to finishing Muramasa and figured i'd post some final impressions on it since I posted some in here when I started reading it

personally when it comes to VNs I have a definite type; I don't read them very often usually like 1-2 a year but when I do read a VN I like the big dramatic ones with a heavy plot focus and a lot of twists and turns and such and this lived up to that

but as for more specific stuff:



first what I would probably call it's main strength: the combat

i'm the sort of person that normally when I get to a combat scene in something my eyes will kinda glaze over a bit and i'll skim read it(and not just in VNs but with books too, and even with something visual like a movie more often than not i'll kinda zone out and half pay attention) but something about the cerebral way the combat was written with this really clicked with me, the bandit sword fight in particular stands out as something that just might be my favorite combat scene in anything i've ever read but it was overall very strong outside of that as well

my VN backlog is extremely long for the pace I read them at so it'll probably be a while before I get around to it but I definitely intend to read Hanachirasu at some point

if anyone knows of anything else aside from Hanachirasu with a similar feel to the combat i'd be interested in hearing about it whether that's another VN or even some other sort of media entirely


another area where I felt like it stood out compared to other VNs was the overall production value of it, it definitely had a feeling of having a lot more work and budget put into that area than the norm kinda like how I felt about Muv-Luv

the worldbuilding also felt pretty strong, the characters were mostly pretty good( Sorimachi probably being my personal favorite, he kinda disappeared for most of the game in between the common route and the end but I really felt like he fit the games themes well) and as a general rule humor can be pretty hit or miss but when this VN was trying to be funny it usually landed with me whether that was the moment to moment stuff or stuff like the couple dream sequences they did

it wasn't perfect, some characters felt a bit cartoonish at times like the bandit's brother and the monk in the hero route(although I felt like his character mostly worked overall by the time I finished the other routes), some of the plot points felt a bit too silly to take seriously, there were a few moments where the choices were kinda annoying, and when the philosophical stuff didn't click it had a tendency to feel a bit preachy

but overall I think it's the first VN i'd give a 9/10 to which puts it below my 10s in Fata Morgana and Saya no Uta but above the 8 I tend to put stuff that I overall really enjoyed at like Remember11/Subahibi/Umineko/Muv-Luv among others

 
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AHA-Lambda

MetaMember
Oct 9, 2018
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Any news at all on if Mahoyo will be released physically in Europe?

I wouldn’t be shocked if not but the lack of info either way is very frustrating

PS: will it get any DLC?
 

Li Kao

It’s a strange world. Let’s keep it that way.
Jan 28, 2019
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Intrigued by Witch on the Holy Night, the very little (one session) I read of Tsukihime was pretty great.
 

Kvik

Crossbell City Councillor
Dec 6, 2018
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Downunder.
Intrigued by Witch on the Holy Night, the very little (one session) I read of Tsukihime was pretty great.
Tsukihime (2000) was my favourite Type-Moon VN before I've read Mahoyo. Of course, when we look at both of them from a strictly technical perspective, Mahoyo will come up on top, since the former was made during their doujin circle days. While the latter has one of the most extravagant production value I have ever seen in any VN.

Still, the character writing in Tsukihime is strong, and Nasu has visibly improved his prose a lot in Mahoyo. The chuuni bits are still self-indulgent as ever, though, and the EN localisation was rather spotty at best, since it feels like that they rushed it a bit to meet the JP release date. However, the character dynamics in Mahoyo are probably the most enjoyable I've seen so far.
 

Li Kao

It’s a strange world. Let’s keep it that way.
Jan 28, 2019
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Can anybody confirm that Tokyo Necro has serious issues on Deck ? The protondb page isnot reassuring.
 

ExistentialThought

Coffee Lover ♥☕
Feb 29, 2020
1,561
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Can anybody confirm that Tokyo Necro has serious issues on Deck ? The protondb page isnot reassuring.
I followed what Maverick posted on Steam forums and also posted on protondb. playing under Proton GE 7.42 and using Protontricks I installed xact (both 32 and 64 bit), WMP11, and lavfilters.

So far it has been working, but I have only played about 30 mins. Seemingly no issues with sound, movies, or the 3D scenes so far, but it will not surprise me if it has random issues or crashes. It is one of those things that there may be issues I am not even aware of as well.
 

Kvik

Crossbell City Councillor
Dec 6, 2018
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Downunder.
Does the MSAA in Tokyo Necro actually work? It's still jaggies-o-rama no matter what resolution.

For now, I set 720 full screen with dgvoodoo2 stretch scaling it to 2160p, plus nearest neighbour. Seems to be sharp enough for my needs. :flare_mogu:

As for the game itself, I played through the prologue. The technobabble is extensive enough to make even an average chuunige enjoyer foaming at the mouth. :flare_lmao:

I like the popup panel for the glossary. Coming from Chaos;Head Noah where we need to open a full window to examine the TIPS, this is an improvement, and a welcome change. I like reading these, even if I do feel it can break my reading pace, sometimes. Oh, and the music player is such a neat feature. And the BGM has quite a few bangers already.

Looking forward to sinking my teeth into this over the weekend. :flare_smirk:
 

Li Kao

It’s a strange world. Let’s keep it that way.
Jan 28, 2019
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As I‘m extremely doubtful I can finish one of those Lord of the Ring x24 in size VN (and so salty to have lost my Muramasa save), I decided to try a short one, namely Fantasy Tavern Sextet vol.1

I… don’t know what I was expecting but Shakespeare it is not.

Joking aside the translation and typos level is pretty shit.
 

Knurek

OG old coot
Oct 16, 2018
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Can anybody confirm that Tokyo Necro has serious issues on Deck ? The protondb page isnot reassuring.
Works fine on my WinDeck setup.
Didn't even try under SteamOS, it's Nitro+, it will work like shit on Linux no matter what you do.
 
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Li Kao

It’s a strange world. Let’s keep it that way.
Jan 28, 2019
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Hmm, I suppose I couldn't make my deck dual boot with a certain sd card and only a certain sd card. Think I'm asking for too much here.
 

malfatan

Junior Member
Jul 25, 2022
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Can anybody confirm that Tokyo Necro has serious issues on Deck ? The protondb page isnot reassuring.
I tested it for a bit and it seems to work fine after installing xact and some codecs. You can try installing GE-Proton and then add a file named "2183070.py" in "/home/deck/.local/share/Steam/compatibilitytools.d/GE-Proton7-xx/protonfixes/gamefixes" with this content:

Code:
""" Game fix for Tokyo Necro
"""
#pylint: disable=C0103

from protonfixes import util

def main():
    util.protontricks('klite')
    util.protontricks('xact')
It will automatically install klite and xact on first boot. If it still freezes after playing for a while i would bet on f/esync needing to be disabled, but it didn't seem necessary. Otherwise it looks like a normal VN using quartz? no reason why it shouldn't work.

Edit: no need to do this since GE-Proton7-51 already comes with that game fix.
 
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ExistentialThought

Coffee Lover ♥☕
Feb 29, 2020
1,561
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Latest proton GE 7.51 apparently has some fixes for Tokyo Necro, cannot test it yet:


Edit:
I lied, I apparently do have time to quickly test. I deleted out all of my old protontricks fixes and cleared out my proton files for the game. I used only Proton GE 7.51 and lo and behold it launches into game.
 
Last edited:
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AHA-Lambda

MetaMember
Oct 9, 2018
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Hmm, I'm currently on chapter 3 of Death Mark but debating on whether or not to continue

Didn't realise this isn't a strictly traditional VN and is more Danganronpa like, not a bad thing at all just a surprise.

But it's pretty slow and the story basic too so far. It's definitely got the creepy aesthetic down though.
Gameplay wise, is split between exploration (again it's slow) and puzzle like boss battles (which I don't know how you're supposed to figure out without a guide frankly to get the best endings which I believe the final chapter is locked behind getting all of those)
 
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sprinkles

Junior Member
Dec 8, 2018
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Finally had the time to finish Chaos;Head Noah.
It's not a bad VN, but out of all the Science Adventure games I have played it has the weakest story. The main character starts off annyoing and... stays this way until the end.
It felt pretty short too (100% after 36 hours), but after checking Steins;Gate and both Robotic;Notes games were sub 30 hour Visual Novels for me.
Still, I am happy this game is finally available in English. Chaos;Child (my fav Science Adventure) is built on the events of this one, so I always wanted to experience this story.
 
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Kvik

Crossbell City Councillor
Dec 6, 2018
4,149
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Downunder.
The main character starts off annyoing and... stays this way until the end.
I think Takumi redeemed himself in the final route, though. He even got rid of his stutter. :flare_smirk:

You can draw parallels with Takuru in the beginning as well, although I feel Takuru is less insufferable in his Negative Delusions.
 
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Mivey

MetaMember
Sep 20, 2018
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What made C;H a lot more annoying to me is how annoying it was to get to the true ending. In Steins;Gate this was handled much better about this. Even Robotics Notes didn't force me to go through the same chapters before again and again, that was really complete nonsense in the first game. I hope they aren't repeating that in Child.
 

Knurek

OG old coot
Oct 16, 2018
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What made C;H a lot more annoying to me is how annoying it was to get to the true ending. In Steins;Gate this was handled much better about this. Even Robotics Notes didn't force me to go through the same chapters before again and again, that was really complete nonsense in the first game. I hope they aren't repeating that in Child.
You still need to repeat the game IIRC (you can just use the skip function to save a lot of time though).
 

Mivey

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Sep 20, 2018
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You still need to repeat the game IIRC (you can just use the skip function to save a lot of time though).
annoying. Sure, skip helps, but it's still like 15 minutes of boredom that shouldn't exist. Just let me jump a head to where I need to go. 999 was great about that.
 

Knurek

OG old coot
Oct 16, 2018
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annoying. Sure, skip helps, but it's still like 15 minutes of boredom that shouldn't exist. Just let me jump a head to where I need to go. 999 was great about that.
Sadly, only a few VNs have a flowchart option.
 

Kvik

Crossbell City Councillor
Dec 6, 2018
4,149
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Downunder.
Tsukihime (2000) is my favourite Type-Moon work. The remake took the best things from the original and gave it an almost perfect polish that can stand toe-to-toe with Mahoyo. Even though I already have a Switch copy, with TsukiRe finally coming to PC, I'll gladly double-dip.

Hopefully this would mean the second half of TsukiRe will make it to PC as well.
 

Mivey

MetaMember
Sep 20, 2018
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coming to PC now too
But that only confirms a Japanese PC port, it seems. Of course, I'm not sure if there is much of a physical PC market anymore, so this might already confirm that it's getting released on Steam too.
 

KingKrouch

Junior Member
Dec 14, 2021
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Nice that Tsukihime is finally getting an English release. Was one of those things that was up in the air due to Nasu's statements (that either sounded out of touch or ignorant, for example the surround sound statement) over the past few years. Now only if they'd release the Realta Nua versions of Fate/Stay Night alongside Fate Hollow/Attaraxia on Steam. Possibly even pulling what happened with GeoFront by buying the rights to use the Mirror Moon translation, which from my time playing the first story arc was fantastic. I'd be interested in those, and as far as I can tell, they don't legally sell the game digitally (or physically) on Amazon Japan anymore.

On another topic, since it's partially related to the topic of Visual Novels (due to context), got caught up with the story mode content in Blue Archive (an RTS gacha game by Nexon), spent around 20-30 hours doing so, and I was left pleasantly surprised by the writing, and the amount of world-building and character development that is done. Probably one of the better games in that subsection of mobile games just for that alone, alongside the fact that you can play it entirely F2P without a sweat, and the fact that Nexon has been killing it with the content updates and reversing controversial decisions. Cautiously optimistic for the anime adaptation that's coming. Just wish they'd do a proper PC release, so I don't have to mess with Android emulators that either don't work well or are Adware/Spyware/Crypto-miners to get it working somewhat. A modified image of Windows Subsystem for Android (that has Google Play) works well on my desktop (Although there's the problem of not being able to map things to keys), but runs terribly on my laptop for example.
 
Reason: clarification on the strategy genre

Kvik

Crossbell City Councillor
Dec 6, 2018
4,149
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Downunder.
I'd be interested in those, and as far as I can tell, they don't legally sell the game digitally (or physically) on Amazon Japan anymore.
Yeah, sadly the PC version of Realta Nua was only available for a limited time, iirc. But fortunately the internet remembers, and the Ultimate Edition mod is still getting worked on. And Mirror Moon's localisation work, while serviceable for its time, is definitely showing its age, especially when compared with other fan translation work that came after it.

It would be interesting to read the new fan translation of Fate/SN when it's completed, because when I read its first few chapters of Fate route, I feel like it still need an editing pass or two.
 

Ibuki

MetaMember
Dec 9, 2018
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Colorado, USA
I'm considering checking out Muv-Luv since it's on sale on Steam. Anything I should know? I'm a relative newcomer to the VN genre, the only real traditional ones I have played are Steins;Gate and House in Fata Morgana. I've played some more hybrid stuff like Danganronpa and Zero's Escape before as well. Is Muv-Luv something most of you would recommend?
 

Knurek

OG old coot
Oct 16, 2018
2,438
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I'm considering checking out Muv-Luv since it's on sale on Steam. Anything I should know? I'm a relative newcomer to the VN genre, the only real traditional ones I have played are Steins;Gate and House in Fata Morgana. I've played some more hybrid stuff like Danganronpa and Zero's Escape before as well. Is Muv-Luv something most of you would recommend?
Everything you need to know about Muv Luv:
 

Li Kao

It’s a strange world. Let’s keep it that way.
Jan 28, 2019
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Can anyone confirm Retro Mystery Club vol.1 is Deck compatible ? It seems the game is so fucking niche that I didn't find a definite answer.
 

AHA-Lambda

MetaMember
Oct 9, 2018
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Ok not entirely a VN but close enough

I’m playing 13 sentinels right now and probably cos of the hype it’s had I feel like I’m missing something?

First the battles are pretty basic, that’s well understood as not the games string point and it works well enough as a palette cleanser, so fair enough.

But the core VN experience while I know it’s told non linearly and can be experienced in whatever order you want, is left feeling me a little cold.
I’m intrigued by the mystery of the story but it all feels so disconnected and “bitty”, I’d have thought it would have started to gel a bit more now 12 hours in but it hasn’t

I’ll finish it, as I say I’m intrigued but it doesn’t feel a very cohesive experience, something akin to a 30 hour long sci-fi Her Story VN is my vibe right now
 
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C-Dub

Makoto Niijima Fan Club President
Dec 23, 2018
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Ok not entirely a VN but close enough

I’m playing 13 sentinels right now and probably cos of the hype it’s had I feel like I’m missing something?

First the battles are pretty basic, that’s well understood as not the games string point and it works well enough as a palette cleanser, so fair enough.

But the core VN experience while I know it’s told non linearly and can be experienced in whatever order you want, is left feeling me a little cold.
I’m intrigued by the mystery of the story but it all feels so disconnected and “bitty”, I’d have thought it would have started to gel a bit more now 12 hours in but it hasn’t

I’ll finish it, as I say I’m intrigued but it doesn’t feel a very cohesive experience, something akin to a 30 hour long sci-fi Her Story VN is my vibe right now
This is how I felt. I stopped playing, and a few months later sold my PS5, so I never got to try it again.

I’m gonna try the Switch version at some point.
 

Mivey

MetaMember
Sep 20, 2018
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coming to PC now too
I had another look at this, since it's seemingly the only source that confirms a PC release. The Japanese text on the bottom left does not mention a PC ersion at all, talking only about the upcoming Switch and PS4 versions in the West. The only hint at a PC release is the blue tag here:


I could see this being a simple mistake. It's a tiny infographic that is easy to miss, and it's possible that whoever made the initial graphics for that page just assumed that there's going to be PC version too, no one else up the chain noticed the inclusion and it ended up in the final thing.
 

Li Kao

It’s a strange world. Let’s keep it that way.
Jan 28, 2019
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Witch on the Holy Night is marked as Playable on Steam, but ProtonDB has recent feedback saying that the game doesn't play movies.
So which is which ?