Community The Visual Novel Council | All Choices Lead To Here

Knurek

OG old coot
Oct 16, 2018
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It hasn't been officially translated (yet, I seem to recall Spike making a Switch port announcement?).
You're not missing much, though. The best of the side stories there is, like, on par with the weakest one in LBP.
 
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Kvik

Crossbell City Councillor
Dec 6, 2018
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Downunder.
Cyber Monday sale (even though it's Wednesday already lmao)


I bought Cartagra and Kara no Shoujo 2 plus an Alicesoft game.
 
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Exzyleph

Dark Eroge Lord
Oct 9, 2018
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Totono finally got a release date (feb. 2020):

Sadly it doesn't seem like it'll be coming to Steam.

EDIT: Going by a comment an admin on their discord (Yasu), they are still trying to get it on Steam:
We are trying!
yeah! We want to release Totono on STEAM!!!!!!

But speaking of Steam, Seven Days finally got a release date, December 13th:
 
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Kvik

Crossbell City Councillor
Dec 6, 2018
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Downunder.
I'll pick up Raging Loop tonight after work. It seems there are no impressions yet in the Steam Community forum. Also, I like the fonts they're using for the EN release.
 

Kvik

Crossbell City Councillor
Dec 6, 2018
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Downunder.
A few weeks ago I finished Muv-Luv Alternative. My time reading it was an enjoyable one, while the time investment made across three games can't be called small, I feel the payoff was proportional and well earned. If I think about how Muv-Luv Extra started and how I was relatively lukewarm towards Takeru's character initially, I'm a little surprised that he gradually becomes aware of his shortcomings and how his relationship with his peers helped shape him into the person he ultimately becomes in Alternative. He managed to achieve most of the things he set out to do at the beginning of the game, but at the same time, if we're already familiar with these kinds of stories, chances are he'll be doomed to fail, or the result would be a pyrrhic victory.

The world of Muv-Luv Alternative is a harsh one, therefore even if everything is going Takeru's way, the loss of lives is not something that can be avoided. And when a mistake was made, we were reminded that the sheer absurdity of its ensuing effect will transform our protagonist's resolve into hopelessness. Up to a certain point in the game, Takeru is full of confidence, ready for any challenges to be thrown at him. But when the going gets tough and shattered his confidence, he wallows in self-pity and refuses to listen to his peers who tried to reach out to him. Ultimately, he did something unthinkable for a protagonist by running away to his supposedly 'safe space'. Kasumi, in particular, speaks for the audience when she told Takeru what she thinks about his action. This one particular arc stood out to me because running away from responsibility is a completely human reaction. Takeru's character in Extra is one of an under-achiever. However, his peers in Alternative expects him to be something much more, as Meiya exclaimed, he is destined for great things, and he must be able to answer their expectation, for better or worse. The development of Takeru's temperament related to these expectations and how it influenced his peers' in return across three games is something Muv-Luv as a series truly excels at.

Since Alternative is mostly plot-driven for the second half of the game, Takeru didn't spend as much time with his original squad members, however, his interactions with the rest of Isumi's Valkyries played a big role in affirming his resolve. His conversations with Captain Isumi and how she copes with the loss of her squadmates put a lot of perspective into Takeru's point of view. One particular conversation which stood out to me was the conversation they had before the attack on Sadogashima Hive about their personal goals, and the importance of sacrifice. If we recall Takeru's struggle to rationalise human sacrifice during the early game of Unlimited, to have him finally be able to grasp the point of views of his peers' is something of an inspiration.

The ensuing attack on Sadogashima Hive is also a major highlight of the game. It's good to finally see Takeru with a newfound conviction and confidence once again. Of course, not everything goes to plan, since they had to defend their base from another BETA attack almost immediately with reduced fighting strength. Again we were reminded about the nature of sacrifice and the cost of victory. The tension from this point onwards didn't let up until right to the end of the game, with the only respite is the pre-mission memorial visit, which of course triggered a bunch of death flags.

If we're not already aware of how costly sacrifices can be in this game, we can be sure that it won't pull any punches in the final confrontation between our heroes and BETA forces in the deepest recesses of Original Hive. And then, comes the epilogue. Learning the truth about the nature of Takeru's Causality Conductor status is almost to be expected, although I won't say that I saw it coming from a distance. There's plenty of touching moments right up until the end of the game, and there's also plenty of catharses which left me feeling pensive and fulfilled at the same time.

While I enjoyed my time with the game immensely, I'm still not sure if it actually deserves the top spot in Vndb. It deserves its fair share of accolades, for sure, but 7th Expansion's titles would probably be more deserving for the top spot, in my opinion. Although perhaps, it all comes down to my personal taste. Regardless, Muv-Luv Alternative is a great read, I can heartily recommend it, and I'm looking forward to reading both photonflowers* and photonmelodies♮ , and hopefully, someday soon, Integrate.






 

Exzyleph

Dark Eroge Lord
Oct 9, 2018
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DIVINATION is out on Steam with additional content and quality-of-life improvements compared to the initial release on itch.
It's a pretty neat OELVN that took me about an hour to read and one that I will gladly recommend at the low asking price:


In addition, it seems that Key has submitted Summer Pockets for review on Steam.
It's all-ages so hopefully it wont have any problems getting through the review process, but you never know:
 
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Li Kao

It’s a strange world. Let’s keep it that way.
Jan 28, 2019
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Trying for the third time to read Steins;Gate (just finished ch.1).
The necessary introduction of every characters, or at least a good part of them, is a slog, But I’m hooked enough to ask : is there a point to play Elite ? New routes ?

I prefer to ask here instead of using Google, don’t want to be spoiled a gazillion hour read.
 

Exzyleph

Dark Eroge Lord
Oct 9, 2018
878
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Trying for the third time to read Steins;Gate (just finished ch.1).
The necessary introduction of every characters, or at least a good part of them, is a slog, But I’m hooked enough to ask : is there a point to play Elite ? New routes ?

I prefer to ask here instead of using Google, don’t want to be spoiled a gazillion hour read.
From what I understand there is no additional content added in Elite, while the content that was not covered in the anime likewise had to be removed from Elite. So there does not seem to be any reason to read it, not unless you really dislike the original art or unless you are re-reading Steins;Gate and want a new'ish experience.
 

beep boop

MetaMember
Dec 6, 2018
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While Li Kao is trying SG again, I’m giving SG0 another chance. I like the game at times, but what a wasted potential.

I can deal with games doing the obligatory shower scene, but this has fan service in quite literally every scene. It dominates almost every interaction when things aren’t getting real. Entire pointless scenes are constructed around it when I’d like the story to just move on. It’s as if it was written by and from the perspective of Daru. Meanwhile Daru himself seems way worse in this.

SH0 also somehow gets both a lot more predictable and convoluted. I really like Okabe in this one though. Shame. Haven’t seen the anime, but I wonder if it’s milder. Maybe an “Elite” version of this game would be better.
 
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Li Kao

It’s a strange world. Let’s keep it that way.
Jan 28, 2019
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Hnn, pretty annoyed to see there won’t (?) be a 18+ version.
But that’s a strange feeling seeing that I don’t usually read VN and am not in it for the porn. And some of the girls are really young looking :thinking-blob:

Still annoyed.
 
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Ascheroth

Ascheroth

Chilling in the Megastructure
Nov 12, 2018
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Tbh I've never heard of Baldr Sky.
But it has mechs, so count me interested.
 
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Kvik

Crossbell City Councillor
Dec 6, 2018
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Downunder.
Yea it's not a big deal about the H-stuff. I mean, I'll apply a patch if it's available, but I'm not worried so much that it'll be detrimental to the story. It's important to actually support the release rather than yelling at the cloud 'MUH CENSORSHIP' etc.
 
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Exzyleph

Dark Eroge Lord
Oct 9, 2018
878
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December 20th is going to be absolutely stacked:



Hnn, pretty annoyed to see there won’t (?) be a 18+ version.
But that’s a strange feeling seeing that I don’t usually read VN and am not in it for the porn. And some of the girls are really young looking :thinking-blob:

Still annoyed.
Judging on the information that Doddler has let slip, it seems that Giga isn't interested in doing an 18+ release in the west, so from what I understand there also won't be an 18+ patch.

The same was the case with the developer of The Princess, the Stray Cat, and Matters of the Heart, who are also working on an all-ages release now. I wonder if this is merely a coincidence or the signs of a larger trend in the Japanse VN industry.
 

Li Kao

It’s a strange world. Let’s keep it that way.
Jan 28, 2019
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The fuck ? Just finished Steins;Gate chapter 2. The game has me, hook, line and sinker :blobdrool:
 

beep boop

MetaMember
Dec 6, 2018
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The fuck ? Just finished Steins;Gate chapter 2. The game has me, hook, line and sinker :blobdrool:
I quite liked the beginning but there was lull where it felt like it was really dragging up until things went into overdrive. So if you're enjoying it already that's good!

- - - - -

Meanwhile, I'm continuing to push myself through SG0. It's like they didn't learn from the first game and decided to only make the last 30 minutes of every route interesting. There is so much filler everywhere. And the fanservice smothers character development, tension, drama, touching moments -- everything. Some choice examples below. Spoiler-free of course.

A character is bleeding out in the arms of another character who they've really bonded with this route. So sad. However, the CG depicts said dying character with a single stream of blood trickling from their mouths into their titilatingly framed large bosom, where it starts pooling a little . Fucks sake, Steins Gate.

Okay, okay. A character has a nervous breakdown once they have a moment to unwind a little. Gosh, I hope they pull thr-- And a male character accidentally gets a peek of the goods when they check if everything is okay, because of course this all takes place in a shower. Should've seen it coming.

Character is walking down a street and hears footsteps behind them. They speed up their pace; the footsteps behind them do too. Classic. They call a friend for help. However, their conversation suddenly cuts off and we switch perspective to the one taking the call! As they arrive on the scene, we see it's actually an acquaintance with comically large breasts who wanted to give a surprise boob hug. The other character also gets boob hug and notes the softness of the two round objects. (<-- not actually a spoiler)



I'm not going crazy, right? They did not go nuts like this in SG. I can remember exactly two scenes like this total in that game.

When the 'goofy things happening' theme starts playing my eyes just glaze over, and I've started buttoning through. I've been (rather slowly) playing for 25 hours now and maybe a fifth or a sixth of that has been plot-relevant content, The times that it's proper Steins Gate, it's so good, but the game really needs a directors cut that gets to the point.
 
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ZKenir

Setting the Seas Ablaze
May 10, 2019
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December 20th is going to be absolutely stacked:




Judging on the information that Doddler has let slip, it seems that Giga isn't interested in doing an 18+ release in the west, so from what I understand there also won't be an 18+ patch.

The same was the case with the developer of The Princess, the Stray Cat, and Matters of the Heart, who are also working on an all-ages release now. I wonder if this is merely a coincidence or the signs of a larger trend in the Japanse VN industry.
launching games that by all accounts already don't sell much right before the winter sale starts...
 
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Exzyleph

Dark Eroge Lord
Oct 9, 2018
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Sekai posted a blog-post describing the changes they had to make to Baldr Sky on behest of Giga:

The TL;DR is that they removed the sex scenes and a few bits and pieces out-side of those:
To provide an accurate gauge on the amount of content the skipped sex scenes works out to, the count is that in the main story 3680 out of the total 87877 lines of the script are removed, amounting to about 4% of the game's lines.

Again we want to apologize about the cuts. If we were given the option to release a fully uncut version, we would in an instant. We stand by our opinion however that Baldr Sky is absolutely worth your time playing, and we have the utmost faith that the version we've presented here will be just as enjoyable as the original release.
But somebody is supposedly already working on a fan-patch to restore those scenes (pastebin), so that will hopefully be an option for those who want that content.


launching games that by all accounts already don't sell much right before the winter sale starts...
Yeah, it seems like a strange decision.
But considering that we have three companies doing it, two of whom are old-timers on Steam, you have to wonder if it actually has a negative effect on the sales of those games. There being a big Steam sale may well mean that a lot of people will be buying something else, but it also means that even more people are checking out the store at that point and seeing those titles, so maybe that makes up for it.
 

Li Kao

It’s a strange world. Let’s keep it that way.
Jan 28, 2019
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Just skimmed the blog post but they seem to have handled the cut in the best way they could.
 
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beep boop

MetaMember
Dec 6, 2018
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Back on SG0, again. Sorry for chronicling my love/hate relationship with this game, but I didn't want to come off as too down on it now that I've progressed some more.

In true SG fashion, it really picks up in the last section. The game basically has two broad branches that you can go down, which each have multiple endings, and until recently I'd primarily explored one of these two. When I picked it back up I was about halfway into the second branch. Once it gets going, the other branch is really fun and doesn't go off-rails as much as the other. The caveat being that this is basically around three sub-branches of ending chapters, one of which looks like it's the setup for the true ending -- which is where I'm at now.

So depending on which major branch you start, it seems like it can take even longer than SG for the ball to get rolling proper. Lots of fun pseuso-science technobabble and light metaphysics now. Really enjoying it. Still wish they'd condensed the game so it was better paced, but I feel a bit more positive about SG0 in general now.

Looked at the credits and it seems like people were shuffled around a bit for SG0 after SG. Some Chaos;Child folks were also brought on, which may explain my dislike of some of the stuff in SG0 as I did not get on with Chaos;Child at all.
 
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skLaFarebear

MetaMember
Dec 4, 2019
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I'll probably still use the patch if it comes out quickly enough because why not if it's available and easy to use (and doesn't break anything), but I couldn't care less if the h-scenes were removed since according to many who played it they have almost no importance to the story outside of maybe a bad end? Not sure what you can do when the JP developers of the game you're publishing specifically tell you to remove them, so you can't really blame SP for this.

It seems that many are pretty understanding of this and good on SP for being very clear up front with it, but you'll always have that vocal minority that would rather see the entire VN genre disappear off the face of the map if it means they can't have their h-scenes in every single VN they play.
 

ZKenir

Setting the Seas Ablaze
May 10, 2019
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There being a big Steam sale may well mean that a lot of people will be buying something else, but it also means that even more people are checking out the store at that point and seeing those titles, so maybe that makes up for it.
Their only hope is not being completely drowned out because they have a small discount going during the sale. I still don't believe that to be a wise move that said with Bokuten and VBF coming out my actual concern shift to what to purchase and play first.
 
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beep boop

MetaMember
Dec 6, 2018
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Steins:Gate 0 completed. Finally!. Aaand I think I'm back to the opinion that this doesn't really need to be played. Somehow the ending makes SG more confusing? Super weird. Enjoyed the last fourth of the game a lot, outside of the mind-bending true ending. The rest of the game... Eh. Too much fluff.

Next up, I'm thinking about Muv-Luv (if it gets a nice sale on PSV), Doki Doki Literature Club, or Root Double -Before Crime * After Days- Xtend Edition (what a mouthful -- I'm guessing this one is pretty bonkers based on its title alone). I snagged Steins Gate LBP when it free for a hot second at SGE's launch, but I think I need a break before I start that up.
 
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beep boop

MetaMember
Dec 6, 2018
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I want to play Muv-Luv, but I want to play it on Vita....
If anyone of you is secretly huge on Twitter, can you bug PlayStation EU about why the fuck there are more native PSP games on sale than Vita ones? I'm so sad right now. Look what they've done to my boy D:
 

Li Kao

It’s a strange world. Let’s keep it that way.
Jan 28, 2019
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Chapter 3 of S;G started full cylinder on filler. Then the dream (?) sequence.
Steins;Gate is teaching me patience.

As long as it keeps reaching these highs I’m ok with slow chapter starts.
Well, the worst was the entire first one, but what can you do, gotta introduce a shit ton of folks.

I’m... not sure I’m ready for the heartbreaking, though.
 
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ZKenir

Setting the Seas Ablaze
May 10, 2019
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------------------------------

In the latest KS update the dev mention that they're working on getting the latest build for VBF approved on steam
 

beep boop

MetaMember
Dec 6, 2018
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Cool, bundles. I like those! Chea--

It won’t come cheap, priced at 39,900 yen (roughly translating into $364.5) plus taxes. Three limited eitions labeled Silver, Gold, and Platinum will come with all of the above plus four more bonus games on top of AyuMayu Alternative, Haruko Maniax, and Kimi ga Nozomu Ma’ai. They will be priced respectively 100,000 yen ($913.5, limited to 100 units) for the Silver edition, 200,000 yen ($1,827 limited to 5 units) for the Gold edition, and a single Platinum edition priced at 300,000 yen. That translates into approximately $2741.




Anyway, I decided to get on that Higurashi. God help me. Seems like I could like it though.

Chapter 3 of S;G started full cylinder on filler. Then the dream (?) sequence.
Steins;Gate is teaching me patience.

As long as it keeps reaching these highs I’m ok with slow chapter starts.
Well, the worst was the entire first one, but what can you do, gotta introduce a shit ton of folks.

I’m... not sure I’m ready for the heartbreaking, though.
You won't be ready. Don't even try! There's no escape from the tears :')
Chapter 3 is still relatively easygoing still. If you haven't lost your patience yet, you're on track for really getting into it. I think I already took a break from it once by that point.
 
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skLaFarebear

MetaMember
Dec 4, 2019
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About higurashi, is it better to wait for all the chapters to be released and buy the bundle?
The games individually go for cheap enough that i doubt a bundle would be saving much in the long run. With that being said, even if you pick them up now, I wouldn't recommend playing up through chapter 7 yet as while most of the other chapters are pretty "self contained", chapter 7/8 are meant to be played back to back for reasons I won't spoil.
 
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