Community The Visual Novel Council | All Choices Lead To Here
- Thread starter Ascheroth
- Start date
There's this nice comparison writeup between the official localisation of Summer Pockets and Fan Translation made by Alka.
TLDR; both have their strong suits, but the official one is consistent in terms of quality, while Alka's has good flow in some cases but inconsistent in others.
TLDR; both have their strong suits, but the official one is consistent in terms of quality, while Alka's has good flow in some cases but inconsistent in others.
The VN's published by Aniplex.
steamdb.info
steamdb.info
徒花異譚 / Adabana Odd Tales · Adabana Odd Tales · AppID: 1094820
"This is a tale of 'flowers' that never bloom." Shirohime, a girl who has lost her memory, and Kurofude, a mysterious boy, traverse through classic Japanese fairy tales within the land of Adabana, a realm of illustrated books. What awaits them after they mend the distorted tales? 徒花異譚 / Adabana...
ATRI -My Dear Moments- · AppID: 1230140
"As the world sank, I found you." In the near future, a sudden and unexplained sea rise has left much of human civilization underwater. In a little town slowly being enveloped by the ocean, an unforgettable summer is about to begin for a boy and a mysterious robot girl... ATRI -My Dear Moments-...
Because Aniplex is shit, regionblocking is why I left manga and anime and now I mostly focus on VN, ofc Aniplex and other publishers had to fuck it up as well at some point.Fucking why?
I rarely complain about stuff but I fucking hate them for this (and fuck you too Liar-soft)
Surely there's a reason why Adabana is blocked but ATRI isn't.
But I haven't been able to find anything.
I wonder if they are gonna block ATRI on steam as well.
If it isn't blocked in NA I expect the reason to be because of licensing (and thus because Aniplex is shit), if it's blocked in NA as well Aniplex is still shit.
forums for the game can still be accessed even if regionlocked it seems
steamcommunity.com
it seems to be available in Brazil? For whatever reason they're targeting Europe specifically
Adabana Odd Tales General Discussions :: Steam Community
Adabana Odd Tales - INTRODUCTIONA visual novel brought to you by Liar-soft, the makers of "Gahkthun of the Golden Lightning" and "Kindred Spirits on the Roof."STORYA girl finds herself in a dark and unfamiliar forest when a monster appears out of nowhere and attacks. A mysterious boy, wielding a...
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Will be up on nyaa 10 minutes after they go up on Steam, so if the publisher actively doesn't want your money, I don't see any reason not to passively give them the middle finger.
Personally I'd rather not having to download the game as piracy has inherent risks which I'd rather avoid.
I'll make a conscious effort not to be obnoxious and spout a tide a bile, if there's one thing that really pisses me off is region loked media, being from liar-soft is doubly frustrating for me.
I'll make a conscious effort not to be obnoxious and spout a tide a bile, if there's one thing that really pisses me off is region loked media, being from liar-soft is doubly frustrating for me.
I'm not gonna pretend to be a saint when it comes to piracy, but I'd really do prefer to buy my VNs.
I actually own physical copies of Inganock and Sharnoth because of that.
So I'll probably just take a wait-and-see approach if Adabana and ATRI are still region-locked by the time they launch on Steam.
I also have enough highly rated titles in my backlog that I can easily put off reading those two for a good while.
I actually own physical copies of Inganock and Sharnoth because of that.
So I'll probably just take a wait-and-see approach if Adabana and ATRI are still region-locked by the time they launch on Steam.
I also have enough highly rated titles in my backlog that I can easily put off reading those two for a good while.
it's not about being a saint or not, I want:
1) conveniency - press a button and done
2) downloading knowing a third party (valve in this case) checked for potential malicious software
I don't get that from a download that johnny uploaded
1) conveniency - press a button and done
2) downloading knowing a third party (valve in this case) checked for potential malicious software
I don't get that from a download that johnny uploaded
ATRI is region locked for you?
Right now the store page for ATRI isn't region locked, but the websites for Adabana, ATRI, and Aniplex.exe are all region locked.
So I'm basically assuming that ATRI will also be region locked by the time it is released on Steam.
The two titles aren't blocked in Australia at least, but knowing Aniplex blu-ray pricing in the past, they'll charge exorbitantly for the pleasure of owning it.
OP
So there has been drama brewing around Sol Press on Twitter today:
For a bit of context, Sol Press has been know for paying poorly compared to other localization companies in the business. For example, translator Steiner tweeted that he had turned down a contract from Sol Press, after Sol Press attempted to give him a pay-cut of more than 75%. And when translator Arunaru released a public statement explaining that he would no longer work for MangaGamer due to the low pay, it was revealed by editor and former contractor for Sol Press, Decay, that Sol Press offered even worse rates than MangaGamer.
Last month this was followed by tweets by translator koestl, warning against working for Sol Press:
This warning appears to have been motivated, in part, by the experience of Hirei, the project manager for the visual novel Under One Wing (also known as Hitotsuba). In a series of tweets, Hirei accused Sol Press of refusing to pay $5,000 that Hirei and their team were owned for the localization of Under One Wing. Supposedly, this project suffered from some sort of delay due to a "impossible deadline", which Sol Press then used to justify greatly reducing their payment, something Hirei was not in a position to contest in court due to not being located in the US:
And now a bunch of other localizers have tweeted in support of Hirei, including Decay, who explained exactly how Sol Press supposedly takes advantage of their contractors, translator Evan, who touched upon the same thing, and Steiner, who had reacted to Herei's initial series of tweets, as well as translator Tom James, and more.
I've purchased VNs from Sol Press (including Under one Wing) and backed two of their kickstarters, which have been an emotional rollercoster in themselves, so it is fairly disappointing to see how they have been behaving behind the scenes.
For a bit of context, Sol Press has been know for paying poorly compared to other localization companies in the business. For example, translator Steiner tweeted that he had turned down a contract from Sol Press, after Sol Press attempted to give him a pay-cut of more than 75%. And when translator Arunaru released a public statement explaining that he would no longer work for MangaGamer due to the low pay, it was revealed by editor and former contractor for Sol Press, Decay, that Sol Press offered even worse rates than MangaGamer.
Last month this was followed by tweets by translator koestl, warning against working for Sol Press:
This warning appears to have been motivated, in part, by the experience of Hirei, the project manager for the visual novel Under One Wing (also known as Hitotsuba). In a series of tweets, Hirei accused Sol Press of refusing to pay $5,000 that Hirei and their team were owned for the localization of Under One Wing. Supposedly, this project suffered from some sort of delay due to a "impossible deadline", which Sol Press then used to justify greatly reducing their payment, something Hirei was not in a position to contest in court due to not being located in the US:
And now a bunch of other localizers have tweeted in support of Hirei, including Decay, who explained exactly how Sol Press supposedly takes advantage of their contractors, translator Evan, who touched upon the same thing, and Steiner, who had reacted to Herei's initial series of tweets, as well as translator Tom James, and more.
I've purchased VNs from Sol Press (including Under one Wing) and backed two of their kickstarters, which have been an emotional rollercoster in themselves, so it is fairly disappointing to see how they have been behaving behind the scenes.
Gotta unlock the bad endings now to clear out these achievements ...
Marco finished! Around 6 hours to complete, I could see some folks taking less and some a bit more, especially on auto mode. All around just an extremely fun read, great music, amazing animation, awesome CGs (the over 1000 is no joke), lots of options, and overall high quality. I think I would have liked it to be a tinge longer, though only because I enjoyed my time with it so much. The story is not necessarily going to go down as a classic per se, though the high quality of everything else is going to be a hard shake for any VN to follow.
I finished Marco yesterday and while I really loved the presentation, humor, and basically everything else, I found myself mixed about the story-telling:
The biggest problem I had was probably that it did not do a good job of transitioning between scenes/that it jumped too quickly between subplots. This was exacerbated by the emotional whiplash that occurred every time the game jumped to/from scenes involving Astaroth; he was, simply put, too evil for the rest of the story and the extreme (and sometimes literal) stakes did not mesh well with the comedic nature of the rest of the story. I think that a Rita Repulsa-esque villain would have been a better fit for the story and more in line with the other antagonists, compared to the nihilistic and genocidal maniac that we got with Astaroth.
Part of the problem was probably the short length; while I expect that it was a trade-off due to the high production values, it unfortunately led to a lot of things that should probably have been explored more in depth sorta being glossed over. For example, at one point the game drops the bombshell that Rakka is unable to feel emotions, and then does nothing with it. Similarly, Haqua's story arc amounts to a few glimpses into her backstory that don't really go anywhere and then she just goes missing at the end. The entire arc involving The Love also felt weirdly out of place. Perhaps if Marco had been told in a more rigidly defined episodic format, this would have made more sense as a monster-of-the-week kind of deal where The Love could be given more time, but due to the overall short length and frantic pace of the novel it just ended up feeling like a gag that got drawn out for too long.
I'm also a bit mixed about the ending. If it was meant to be the setup for a sequel, then I'd be willing to take it (and buy the fuck out of the sequel the moment it goes on sale), but if it was meant to be the final ending then I don't think it is very satisfying: The story is basically back to square one and Marco is once again on an adventure looking for somebody precious to her that she has no memories of. The only character that felt like they got a proper resolution to their arc was Gargouille, in that Astaroth gets killed and in that she shows character growth by showing mercy towards Haqua instead of taking revenge.
This all ended up sounding quite negative, but I did have a really good time reading Marco. Despite the short length I still ended up with more than a hundred screenshots of CGs and random gags, more than any other VN I have read, and I am hopeful that we'll get a sequel to Marco that can improve on these flaws.
Part of the problem was probably the short length; while I expect that it was a trade-off due to the high production values, it unfortunately led to a lot of things that should probably have been explored more in depth sorta being glossed over. For example, at one point the game drops the bombshell that Rakka is unable to feel emotions, and then does nothing with it. Similarly, Haqua's story arc amounts to a few glimpses into her backstory that don't really go anywhere and then she just goes missing at the end. The entire arc involving The Love also felt weirdly out of place. Perhaps if Marco had been told in a more rigidly defined episodic format, this would have made more sense as a monster-of-the-week kind of deal where The Love could be given more time, but due to the overall short length and frantic pace of the novel it just ended up feeling like a gag that got drawn out for too long.
I'm also a bit mixed about the ending. If it was meant to be the setup for a sequel, then I'd be willing to take it (and buy the fuck out of the sequel the moment it goes on sale), but if it was meant to be the final ending then I don't think it is very satisfying: The story is basically back to square one and Marco is once again on an adventure looking for somebody precious to her that she has no memories of. The only character that felt like they got a proper resolution to their arc was Gargouille, in that Astaroth gets killed and in that she shows character growth by showing mercy towards Haqua instead of taking revenge.
This all ended up sounding quite negative, but I did have a really good time reading Marco. Despite the short length I still ended up with more than a hundred screenshots of CGs and random gags, more than any other VN I have read, and I am hopeful that we'll get a sequel to Marco that can improve on these flaws.
Oh, and a quick heads-up in case anyone likes physicals:
The Japanese version includes English support, so you can import that if you want a physical edition of Marco.
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The Muv-Luv CODEX has gotten a Steam page:
I'd love to own that in book-form, but unfortunately they were a Kickstarter exclusive and go for hundreds of dollars when they pop up on eBay
I'd love to own that in book-form, but unfortunately they were a Kickstarter exclusive and go for hundreds of dollars when they pop up on eBay
I'd like to dip my toes into visual novels. I like narrative games with interesting characters, dialogues and an engaging story: Firewatch, Red Strings Club, Tacoma or even Soma.
I wonder, do the following titles classify as visual novels? Ace Attorney, Death Mark, Doki Doki Literature Club, Tokimeki check in? The first two still have a decent amount of gameplay, the latter ones are more akin to dating sims.
I'd like to point out that I really like my first four examples, from the other four I only fully enjoyed Ace Attorney (zany courtroom drama) and DDLC (the genre twist).
Can you recommend a shorter VN that is not too japanese in its writing?
With "not too japanese" I mean clunky english translations, prudish humour or sexism and that obnoxious 'tough guy' stereotype - all those turned me off Death Mark.
I hope someone has an idea. Available platforms are Nintendo Switch and Mac/Steam.
I wonder, do the following titles classify as visual novels? Ace Attorney, Death Mark, Doki Doki Literature Club, Tokimeki check in? The first two still have a decent amount of gameplay, the latter ones are more akin to dating sims.
I'd like to point out that I really like my first four examples, from the other four I only fully enjoyed Ace Attorney (zany courtroom drama) and DDLC (the genre twist).
Can you recommend a shorter VN that is not too japanese in its writing?
With "not too japanese" I mean clunky english translations, prudish humour or sexism and that obnoxious 'tough guy' stereotype - all those turned me off Death Mark.
I hope someone has an idea.
Available platforms are Nintendo Switch and Mac/Steam.
I can definitely agree with your issues with the story.
Part of the reason I took a tiny bit longer was having to replay one section to make sure I understood the time frame. The other points you brought up are also extremely on point, the shifting tones were jarring at times, though the length is definitely the culprit. Based on the ending, I am definitely hoping for a sequel, though it would have been nice to have it have more closure. It thankfully has sold fairly well based on charting and number of reviews, though I have to imagine it will take years for anything to follow
I also had no idea there was a physical version, I may have to keep an eye on its pricing.
EDIT:
I would completely classify all of those as visual novels. I consider Ace Attorney and Death Mark as a VN with gameplay elements. Though I would be completely receptive to folks arguing to the contrary.
If you want something short, and liked Ace Attorney, you may like Aviary Attorney. It is on Steam and should have recently released on Switch. It is maybe a 3 1/2 to 5 hour English VN with gameplay elements. Other English VNs I have NOT played, but have heard good reviews: Subsurface Circular and its sequel Quarantine Circular (some may take issue with calling these VNs in name, which again, I would completely receptive to views towards the contrary).
I also like VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action (my avatar is a character from the game), it is a shorter 11-13 hour VN on both Steam and Switch with a basic drink making game. Though it may have one or two characters which start to cross into some of your concerns.
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Long Post Incoming:I'd like to dip my toes into visual novels. I like narrative games with interesting characters, dialogues and an engaging story: Firewatch, Red Strings Club, Tacoma or even Soma.
I wonder, do the following titles classify as visual novels? Ace Attorney, Death Mark, Doki Doki Literature Club, Tokimeki check in? The first two still have a decent amount of gameplay, the latter ones are more akin to dating sims.
I'd like to point out that I really like my first four examples, from the other four I only fully enjoyed Ace Attorney (zany courtroom drama) and DDLC (the genre twist).
Can you recommend a shorter VN that is not too japanese in its writing?
With "not too japanese" I mean clunky english translations, prudish humour or sexism and that obnoxious 'tough guy' stereotype - all those turned me off Death Mark.
I hope someone has an idea.
I haven't checked to see if any are compatible with Steam on OSX but here are some of my recommendations
Based off your recommendations, I'd go with Higurashi and Umineko for very engaging and strong narrative mystery novels with some very compelling characters, especially Higurashi. Both VNs are an extremely long, yet really gripping, emotional roller coaster that I still look back on quite often. Fantastic music as well. Almost no gameplay in either game.
There's Fata Morgana, which I can't say anything about as I haven't played it, but it's talked about as being one of the best VNs ever made and is rated pretty highly on places like VNDB.
For something more gameplay driven, the Utawarerumono trilogy is one of my personal favorites, with the second/third game already on Steam and the first one coming soon after it's PS4 release in May. It's a SRPG/VN hybrid that's very character and world driven, with not much focus on a plot or escalation until the later parts of the game, instead focusing on building it's world and establishing it's character relationships both through comedy and more heartfelt scenes. It's also one of the gold standards of VN localization, featuring some of the best work Atlus has ever done (at least the second and third game, I don't have much faith in NISA to do anywhere near as good a job with the first one).
Danganronpa is similar to Ace Attorney in it's approach to solving murder mystery trials, though it takes it's time to get going and personally I didn't feel the characters or story itself were ever up to snuff in a way Ace Attorney nailed those two aspects. The gameplay is a pretty interesting twist on the AA formula though, for the sometimes better and other times much much worse. It also has a pretty clunky english translation, compared to the VNs above especially, but it does have it's fans.
While I haven't played the games myself yet, the Science Adventure games like Steins;Gate, Chaos;Head, Chaos;Child, and the very soon to be released Robotics;Notes are also held up to great standards among the community. They're more sci-fi/mystery driven VNs, like in S;G's case, time travel is a big concept and have the basic "choose what path you want to go down for a different ending" VN gameplay. I can't say more than that as, again, I still haven't played the games yet.
There's a ton of good VNs out there, but here's some that should hopefully help you get going. There's probably more that fit your criteria as well as a ton of good VNs I haven't recomended yet as they're not really ideal if you're not into ones with more prudish humor, or generally meant for newcomers of the medium, but I hope you can find something you're into!
In addition to the recommendations you have already gotten, all of which I second, I would suggest also looking at the recently released Murder by Numbers. It is a detective story inspired by Ace Attorney that features picross mini-games during the investigation segments. I haven't finished it yet, but the reception has been quite positive. It is available for Windows and the Switch:I'd like to dip my toes into visual novels. I like narrative games with interesting characters, dialogues and an engaging story: Firewatch, Red Strings Club, Tacoma or even Soma.
I wonder, do the following titles classify as visual novels? Ace Attorney, Death Mark, Doki Doki Literature Club, Tokimeki check in? The first two still have a decent amount of gameplay, the latter ones are more akin to dating sims.
I'd like to point out that I really like my first four examples, from the other four I only fully enjoyed Ace Attorney (zany courtroom drama) and DDLC (the genre twist).
Can you recommend a shorter VN that is not too japanese in its writing?
With "not too japanese" I mean clunky english translations, prudish humour or sexism and that obnoxious 'tough guy' stereotype - all those turned me off Death Mark.
I hope someone has an idea.
Murder by Numbers for Nintendo Switch - Nintendo Official Site
Buy Murder by Numbers and shop other great Nintendo products online at the official My Nintendo Store.
www.nintendo.com
Heart of the Woods is another VN that I'd like to recommend, as it was one my favorite reads of last year. It is a rather dark (at times) modern fantasy story, with a small but great cast of characters. There is a free 18+ patch for it, but it is wholly unnecessary if you prefer to skip that kind of content. Currently only on PC, but I believe that a Switch version is planned.
In addition, I would recommend Christine Love's Analogue and Hate Plus, two non-linear sci-fi stories centered around the investigation of a derelict colony ship, the Mugunghwa:
So, I recently finished the main route for Chaos;Child and I think I'm almost at the end of the first suggested route to reach the true ending.
As of now, I'll say I'm a bit disappointed considering that some people consider this better than Steins;Gate.
Warning: I didn't play or read anything about Chaos;Head.
Thoughts in spoiler:
As of now, I'll say I'm a bit disappointed considering that some people consider this better than Steins;Gate.
Warning: I didn't play or read anything about Chaos;Head.
Thoughts in spoiler:
I was all on-board with the misterious murders and psychic abilities, but I'll say that I was a bit disappointed with the introduction on the Di-Swords. I'm ok with stuff like time-travel,psychic abilites etc explained with some pseudo-science, but the Di-Swords are straight out of some fantasy anime trope with "girls fighting with magical swords", I didn't expect this honestly, I thought it was a little more "grounded", you know?
The twists about the father and childhood friend were hinted a little too much before the actual reveal, so they didn't have much of an impact.
Also the whole plan being only a "game" for Takuru for doing something he's good at, the sumo stickers being only an attention signal for "the organization", was a letdown.
Like I said, I think I'm near the ending of the Arimura's route where's she's basically going crazy, but for now I don't feel really invested in the story like in other VNs, I hope that the various routes + the true ending will change my mind
The twists about the father and childhood friend were hinted a little too much before the actual reveal, so they didn't have much of an impact.
Also the whole plan being only a "game" for Takuru for doing something he's good at, the sumo stickers being only an attention signal for "the organization", was a letdown.
Like I said, I think I'm near the ending of the Arimura's route where's she's basically going crazy, but for now I don't feel really invested in the story like in other VNs, I hope that the various routes + the true ending will change my mind
Necrobarista is now gold, an announcement of a release date is soon.
I have been following this one for a few years now, so I am hoping it turns out to be something special. Fingers crossed for an earlier than expected release date.
I have been following this one for a few years now, so I am hoping it turns out to be something special. Fingers crossed for an earlier than expected release date.
OP
- Thread Starter
- #790
I can second the aforementioned Aviary Attorney and Analogue: A Hate Story. They are short and don't have the issues you described.I'd like to dip my toes into visual novels. I like narrative games with interesting characters, dialogues and an engaging story: Firewatch, Red Strings Club, Tacoma or even Soma.
I wonder, do the following titles classify as visual novels? Ace Attorney, Death Mark, Doki Doki Literature Club, Tokimeki check in? The first two still have a decent amount of gameplay, the latter ones are more akin to dating sims.
I'd like to point out that I really like my first four examples, from the other four I only fully enjoyed Ace Attorney (zany courtroom drama) and DDLC (the genre twist).
Can you recommend a shorter VN that is not too japanese in its writing?
With "not too japanese" I mean clunky english translations, prudish humour or sexism and that obnoxious 'tough guy' stereotype - all those turned me off Death Mark.
I hope someone has an idea.
You might also enjoy 999 - Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors (included in Zero Escape: The Nonary Games). It's a VN with a lot of gameplay elements (which are escape the room puzzles in this case) and about 10-15 hours long maybe? (don't remember exactly).
For a very "traditional" VN experience (basically no gameplay at all except a few choices to make, but no branching paths) I heavily recommend The House in Fata Morgana. It's one of the best stories I've ever experienced in any medium. It has a non-standard anime artstyle, excellent non-pandering writing and tackles very mature themes with great care. It's also an emotional roller-coaster and extremely heart-wrenching. I'd say it's medium length at about 20-30 hours.
To add my 2cents to some other previous recommendations, while I really like both Higurashi: When They Cry and Umineko: When They Cry, I'm not sure if you'd enjoy them. Higurashi is an excellent horror/suspense/mystery, but has also some very pandering/questionable/(sexist?) moments.
I don't think I remember anything especially egregious in Umineko, but it is the opposite of short. We're talking 60-100 hours depending on reading speed. (It is fantastic though).
Same for Steins;Gate. I haven't read the VN either only watched the anime, but there are certain parts that would very likely put you off based on what you have issues with.
But basically, read Fata Morgana
The PC version of FataMoru Remastered is going to be available soonish.
Joking aside, who owns the worldwide publishing rights for the Revenants Edition? I imagine it's yet another legal minefield to navigate since Reincarnation was a joint project between Novectacle and another company which name escaped me.
It was published by Dramatic Create, so they might be the ones owning the rights.
Hopefully they'll be able to untangle that at some point, so that we can also get that on PC.
Nothing that I know of. This release contains the redrawn art in the widescreen aspect ratio released in the Dream of the Revenants edition, with the exception of Reincarnation. It might have the QoL improvements from the console version as well, though.
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Sakura no Mori † Dreamers aka. Sakuranomori Dreamers is up for pre-order:
The premise sounds quite interesting:
The premise sounds quite interesting:
Unfortunately Valve must have rejected it or MG didn't want to submit it for whatever reason.
OP
- Thread Starter
- #800
I still need to play the Muv-Luv games. It feels like they're never on sale