Community The Visual Novel Council | All Choices Lead To Here

Knurek · Jul 20, 2019

AHA-Lambda said:
Anyone have impressions of the Corpse Party series?

Doesn't look like a straight up VN I think but VN-esque?

The original (PC-98) game was made in RPG Maker, so it's more like Mad Father or Alicemare, only with extended VN segments in the remakes.
Expect a lot of dead ends, gruesome deaths and an atmosphere most reminiscent of Japanese horror movies (Ring, Grudge).

Theswweet · Jul 20, 2019

Oh, hey - speaking of Zero Escape, since CSIII got delayed I'll probably have the chance to play AI: The Somnium Files at launch, now.

fsdood · Jul 20, 2019

Ascheroth said:
Storywise it feels like it's not as crazy as VLR but at the same time it feels like it's being crazier. Again some of the twists were really cool, but others were stretching it. The big ending twist especially felt like bullshit.

Was there some stuff you were disappointed in that they didn't explain enough? iirc, I was disappointed about the alien cloning machine and not enough explanation on where that came from or how there was no mention of kyle or who the bigger bad is. ZTD felt really rushed honestly and 999 still felt the best one for me as well.

「Echo」 · Jul 21, 2019

I will forever hate that ZTD is likely the end of that series... smh.

Kvik · Jul 21, 2019

It begins again...

Theswweet · Jul 22, 2019

Do yourself a favor and listen to the original opening on YouTube, man.

立ち上がれ、氣高くまえ、さだめを受けた戦士よ！

Kvik · Jul 22, 2019

I know JAM Project from Garo (Toku/Anime) OP. Awesome.

Exzyleph · Jul 24, 2019

Muv-Luv photonflowers has been delayed until August 3rd:

A comment by the team on the Kickstarter campaign mentions that "current save data will be wiped out upon release", which is usually caused by engines that do not permit save-games to be used across different versions of the same script. So perhaps delay is meant to allow them to make a few more last-minute fixes, instead of having to do another wipe after the game officially releases.

Kvik · Jul 24, 2019

Exzyleph said:
"current save data will be wiped out upon release", which is usually caused by engines that do not permit save-games to be used across different versions of the same script

Do you know what engine they are running on? Is it the same as Extra/Unlimited/Alternative?

fsdood · Jul 24, 2019

After way too many bad ends and finishing the end and true end plus the white and black bookmarks, I finally finished 428 Shibuya Scramble, and it was really good.

Seeing how the game had a realistic setting and all of the CGs were photographs, I didn't expect it to be this engaging. I loved most of the characters and their stories, especially all the side characters that are with Kano, Minorikawa, and Maria. It had perfect moments of comedy and drama, especially how some of the bad ends concluded and how nonsensical they are, while the true path keeps upping the intensity of the situation. OST is really good, especially when these play

One thing I disliked was how I can't press ctrl or something to skip text, I can only skip up to a specific point, which sucks when I want to check out different scenarios or endings.

So the fake Cannan being Alphard surprised me since I thought Stanley, the CIA guy, would be alphard, especially how he keeps taunting Kano for being naive. The fact that the game somehow turns from kidnapping to biological weaponry threatening Shibuya was kinda surreal. The extra bits on the true end where the actual Cannan arrived left me wanting for more, and I thought that the black bookmark would have that. I was really surprised the scenario and art CGs were made by Type-Moon! It took me out of it when there are voiced lines as well, and actual ME politics and organizations that are somehow being presented better then most if not all of hollywood projects. It's kinda funny how they botch some of the Arabic words though, but it's not that offensive tbh. I liked Cannan's story and I'll probably gonna watch the anime that is based on it.

White bookmark was really depressing, since I'm not really good with hospital themed stories. I hate how sometimes Japan portray characters as something like angels, such as how Takuya sees Suzune. It's pretty weird, but seeing Suzune's side on how she deals with it was really sad. I do wish we got more Takuya conversations with Suzune, though, or an aftermath after she got out of the hospital. All in all it was a pretty good depressing story

highly recommend it

Exzyleph · Jul 24, 2019

Kvik said:
Do you know what engine they are running on? Is it the same as Extra/Unlimited/Alternative?

I am not aware of what engine photonflowers* is using, but I would assume that it is the same engine as Extra/Unlimited and Alternative.
The previous games did allow transfers of save games to new versions of the game, but the process was quite convoluted:
Muv-Luv Relaunched on Steam, and new friends (part 2!)

It is possible that they simply decided to not bother describing that procedure this time, since photonflowers* is a much shorter game.

One funny example of these kinds of engine limitations is Sankaku Renai, that I shilled above:
Every save-game for that visual novel includes a full copy of the script, meaning that you can continue playing your old saves, but you also have to start a new game in order to receive any updates to the script.

sprinkles · Jul 24, 2019

fsdood said:
OST is really good, especially when these play

The OST is amazing, and I have it running on loop in the car during my commute since I finished the game last week.
Which was also great, but I share your criticisms. I could have saved a few hours with a better text skip solution. Sadly the translated versions have not sold that well, so I fear we will never get a sequel. But I will definitely take a look at the spiritual predecessor "Machi" now.

edit: don't watch the Anime Canaan. It is bad. Really bad. Kinda racist as well.

fsdood · Jul 24, 2019

sprinkles said:
edit: don't watch the Anime Canaan. It is bad. Really bad. Kinda racist as well.

really? i guess black bookmark was the only good part then. a shame, even though there were some incorrect terms, at least they weren't totally ignorant about some stuff. i guess i'll check out machi then

AHA-Lambda · Jul 24, 2019

God, I forgot how much filler the beginning of a Higurashi chapter has......

Durante · Jul 24, 2019

AHA-Lambda said:
God, I forgot how much filler the beginning of a Higurashi chapter has......

This is true, but the payoff is still worth it.

Theswweet · Jul 25, 2019

Every day I get closer and closer to just saying fuck it, buying Ep 1-7, and reading the old TL for Ep 8 because apparently, it's fine since the TL got better the further you went.

Kvik · Jul 25, 2019

This answer, lmao.

Anyway, sounds like the port is iffy. (heh)

AHA-Lambda · Jul 25, 2019

Durante said:
This is true, but the payoff is still worth it.

Also true.

Knurek · Jul 25, 2019

Theswweet said:
Every day I get closer and closer to just saying fuck it, buying Ep 1-7, and reading the old TL for Ep 8 because apparently, it's fine since the TL got better the further you went.

Couldn't imagine playing Higurashi without the voice acting and PS3 assets patches.

Exzyleph · Jul 25, 2019

Theswweet said:
Every day I get closer and closer to just saying fuck it, buying Ep 1-7, and reading the old TL for Ep 8 because apparently, it's fine since the TL got better the further you went.

Want me to send you Steam keys for chapters 1-5?
I've had some lying around since MangaGamer did a Humble bundle.

Kvik said:
This answer, lmao.

Anyway, sounds like the port is iffy. (heh)

I can't really say that I care about max FPS in a VN, unless it contains Danganronpa-esque minigames.

The engine having the core features you'd expect in a visual novel is much, much more important to my enjoyment, and this one does seem to have those (backlog, text-speed options, skip-read-text, and a good number of save lots). In addition, it has a decent amount of extra features on top, including borderless fullscreen, re-mappable controller and keyboard support, indication of previous read-text/choices, and per-character muting.

It's not as full featured as KiriKiri based games, say, but it is not bad at all.

Kvik · Jul 25, 2019

Exzyleph said:
I can't really say that I care about max FPS in a VN, unless it contains Danganronpa-esque minigames.

The engine having the core features you'd expect in a visual novel is much, much more important to my enjoyment, and this one does seem to have those (backlog, text-speed options, skip-read-text, and a good number of save lots). In addition, it has a decent amount of extra features on top, including borderless fullscreen, re-mappable controller and keyboard support, indication of previous read-text/choices, and per-character muting.

It's not as full featured as KiriKiri based games, say, but it is not bad at all.

I totally agree 100% with your view on what constitutes a good feature set in a VN. However, I also believe that the ability to run a PC game at 60fps, 16.6ms per frame is also not entirely irrelevant even though the said game is merely a visual novel. All type of games could benefit from it. Its benefit may not be immediately apparent for a sound novel with little to no animation. Having said that, stuff like scene transition will appear smoother in 60fps, for example. My point of view is that there is no good reason for modern PC games not to run at 60fps. Anything less would be a game console's territory.

Theswweet · Jul 25, 2019

Exzyleph said:
Want me to send you Steam keys for chapters 1-5?
I've had some lying around since MangaGamer did a Humble bundle.

If you'd really be willing to, I would really appreciate that!

AHA-Lambda · Jul 26, 2019

Nothing on Song of Saya yet?

I'm finding it hard to believe it is going to be this month now; what a strange announcement

EDIT: wait I'm totally out of the loop, When They Cry 5 is out on Steam in September???
Is this an episodic affair like Higurashi and Umineko or a full blown thing?

Also any details of what the new Umineko content is going to entail?

ZKenir · Jul 26, 2019

AHA-Lambda said:
I'm finding it hard to believe it is going to be this month now; what a strange announcement

JAST operates under JAST time which nearly as bad as Valve time, also I feel like every time they announce something for Steam it takes them ages to actually release it, iirc they took ages to release sonicomi and seinarukana on steam after the "actual" release date on their store, or maybe I'm confused and it was another game.
It'll come eventually...before the heat death of the universe.

Exzyleph · Jul 27, 2019

AHA-Lambda said:
Nothing on Song of Saya yet?

I'm finding it hard to believe it is going to be this month now; what a strange announcement

EDIT: wait I'm totally out of the loop, When They Cry 5 is out on Steam in September???
Is this an episodic affair like Higurashi and Umineko or a full blown thing?

Also any details of what the new Umineko content is going to entail?

Ciconia is going to be episodic and consists of (at least?) four episodes:

I say "at least" since it isn't yet clear if there will be one or two arcs.

DeejayDoom · Jul 27, 2019

ZKenir · Jul 27, 2019

MG panel at Otakon

And Announcement #1! From MOONSTONE, the creators of Princess Evangile and Magical Marriage Lunatics––#Sakuranomori Dreamers!
Announcement #2: Magic & Slash––an action RPG from LunaSoft!
Announcement #3: Uchikano: Living with my Girlfriend from Argonatus, a MOONSTONE sister brand!

Also sengoku rance on the 12th of september and Farther than the Blue Sky on August 15th

Exzyleph · Jul 27, 2019

ZKenir said:
MG panel at Otakon

And Announcement #1! From MOONSTONE, the creators of Princess Evangile and Magical Marriage Lunatics––#Sakuranomori Dreamers!
Announcement #2: Magic & Slash––an action RPG from LunaSoft!
Announcement #3: Uchikano: Living with my Girlfriend from Argonatus, a MOONSTONE sister brand!

Also sengoku rance on the 12th of september and Farther than the Blue Sky on August 15th

The live-stream can be watched here, courtesy of Hainiryuun on Twitter. I was surprised by how many people were involved with MangaGamer (100+) and how many titles they are currently working on (20-30).

Of the newly announced titles, Sakuranomori Dreamers looks really interesting, being a dark/horror title. The Japanese version is already on Steam (here), and I wonder if that will affect the English release. It might make it easier to get through review, but there might also be licensing terms that could prevent MangaGamer from releasing it on Steam.

ZKenir · Jul 27, 2019

Exzyleph said:
Of the newly announced titles, Sakuranomori Dreamers looks really interesting, being a dark/horror title. The Japanese version is already on Steam (here), and I wonder if that will affect the English release. It might make it easier to get through review, but there might also be licensing terms that could prevent MangaGamer from releasing it on Steam.

I think it'll be fine, Hikari Field is a chinese publisher which is working already with Nekonyan to release games they have licensed for the chinese audience in english, I don't see why they wouldn't do the same here.

This is the Nekonyan post on the subject from last year:

As some of you might know, Hello Lady has already been released by the Chinese localization company "Hikari Field." We were fortunate enough to get to know the people from Hikari Field and actually to meet up with them.

Unlike certain other companies, to them, it's not about making a quick buck. In fact, they're coming from a very similar background as we do, having originally started out as a fan translation group, and are likewise a small team of people with a passion for visual novels. As such, it was never their intention to release subpar English translations, and they took the criticism they faced with their previous attempt of releasing one of their titles in English very seriously, reevaluating their plans of releasing titles in English.

Having found that we both have the same passion for the medium and also follow the same philosophy, we decided to engage in a partnership for mutual benefit and release visuals novels together. In other words, we're going to handle the English localization while they're going to handle the Chinese localization. Other than the obvious benefits of getting our games out in one additional major language, this partnership also makes it easier for us to get new licenses; getting both a quality English and Chinese translation is very attractive to developers.

So yeah, for all of you guys, this partnership simply means that you're going to get more titles in the future without any downsides.

NekoNyan

nekonyansoft.com

Exzyleph · Jul 27, 2019

ZKenir said:
I think it'll be fine, Hikari Field is a chinese publisher which is working already with Nekonyan to release games they have licensed for the chinese audience in english, I don't see why they wouldn't do the same here.

This is the Nekonyan post on the subject from last year:

NekoNyan

nekonyansoft.com

That's good to know.

It'd really depend on the terms Hikari Field had negotiated with Moonstone, but given what you quote it does seem unlikely that it'll be an issue. Now lets just hope that Valve doesn't do something as silly as rejecting the English version of a VN that is already on Steam.

ZKenir · Jul 27, 2019

DeejayDoom said:

I guess it was this

AHA-Lambda · Jul 28, 2019

oh man, chapter 7 of Higurashi is really dull

Pretty much every chapter has a slow start but this one just plain hasn't picked up at all yet and I'm more than half way through now

「Echo」 · Jul 31, 2019

Western Visual Novel Publishers Often Release Games At A Loss Due To Piracy

Western visual novel publisher release their titles at a loss due to increasing video game piracy and bad industry practices.

noisypixel.net

Probably another reason we aren't see too much outside Ero/Moege huh...

Mivey · Jul 31, 2019

「Echo」 said:
Western Visual Novel Publishers Often Release Games At A Loss Due To Piracy

Western visual novel publisher release their titles at a loss due to increasing video game piracy and bad industry practices.

noisypixel.net

Probably another reason we aren't see too much outside Ero/Moege huh...

really? I'd assume especially the more adult games have it hard to make actual sales as they aren't allowed that easily on Steam, let alone consoles. Compare that with things like 428; Shibuya Scramble or the Adventure Science series, those get actual releases on Steam + consoles as well.

Exzyleph · Jul 31, 2019

Putting aside whether or not piracy actually hurts the industry, I think that we should probably be careful about drawing conclusion from a singular example, though it does match with what I've heard about MangaGamer, who supposedly finances their plot-heavy titles by selling smut, and JAST, who supposedly finances their VNs thanks to J-List.

Mivey said:
really? I'd assume especially the more adult games have it hard to make actual sales as they aren't allowed that easily on Steam, let alone consoles. Compare that with things like 428; Shibuya Scramble or the Adventure Science series, those get actual releases on Steam + consoles as well.

All of Sol Press' titles have all-ages versions, and are even sold as such on their own (newly opened) store, and all of their titles except Yotsunoha were released on Steam day one. That includes Sakura Sakura, Newton and the Apple Tree, DareSora, and Under One Wing, none of which are locked behind adult-content gates on Steam. So their poor sales happened despite them getting on Steam.

ZKenir · Jul 31, 2019

edit: i'm tired and not particularly happy with how my post has been worded/written, I'm taking it down.

Exzyleph · Aug 1, 2019

So Zachtronics, of all developers, just announced a visual novel later this month:

The premise sounds promising and their games usually touch on some interesting subjects even if they aren't that story-heavy in practice.

For those not familiar with Zachtronics, they are mostly known for devilish difficult programming based puzzle-games:

Community - Zachtronics and friends | Perplexing Programming Puzzles

Zachtronics and friends | Perplexing Programming Puzzles This is a thread for all things Zachlike; chat about the games you are playing, the puzzles you are struggling with, the games you are looking forward to, and that incredible solution that finally put you at the top of the leaderboards...

metacouncil.com

Durante · Aug 1, 2019

AHA-Lambda said:
EDIT: wait I'm totally out of the loop,

I was even more out of the loop than you, I just now learned all this stuff.

I have to admit this is some of the best meta "announcements" ever in VNs:

「Echo」 · Aug 2, 2019

DLSite only though...

Exzyleph · Aug 3, 2019

Muv-Luv photonflowers is out on Steam, and can be had for roughly $17 and €16 (23% off) if already you own the updated releases of Extra and Alternative:

Muv-Luv MEGAVERSE on Steam

store.steampowered.com

Dry Drowning is also out and demo made it look really promising.
It reminded me a lot of the investigative segments in Ace Attorney, but with a significantly darker (detective noir) feel to it:

「Echo」 said:
DLSite only though...

I'm not particularly interested in that title, but it's cool to see DLSite get in on the localization business.

sprinkles · Aug 3, 2019

Saya no Uta's release did not make it in July

Exzyleph said:
Muv-Luv photonflowers is out on Steam, and can be had for roughly $17 and €16 (23% off) if already you own the updated releases of Extra and Alternative:

And if you own the first release of MuvLuv on Steam, you are out of luck and get no discount. Ah well, I can wait, I got to finish Umineko and Chaos;Child first (which will last me months).

Exzyleph · Aug 3, 2019

sprinkles said:
Saya no Uta's release did not make it in July

Latest "news" from the discord is the following:

sprinkles said:
And if you own the first release of MuvLuv on Steam, you are out of luck and get no discount. Ah well, I can wait, I got to finish Umineko and Chaos;Child first (which will last me months).

Sekai Project runs a website that'll gift you the new releases if you own the original (Degica published) versions of Muv-Luv:

Steam :: Muv-Luv :: Photons side stories status, SGM online, and MLA Director's Cut patch update!

Hi everyone, The translation team is currently working on photonmelodies, as they've recently finished the localization of photonflowers! We're now at the programming and debugging phase, so keep your eyes peeled for updates in the coming months! If you want to know more about the contents of...

steamcommunity.com

If that doesn't work, then you could try writing to itxl as described in this post:

Old AppID owners can now get the new version! :: Muv-Luv General Discussions

In case you didn't see the announcement, owners of this previous release can now get the new AppID version! http://steamcommunity.com/games/802880/announcements/detail/1662265540770898678

steamcommunity.com

AHA-Lambda · Aug 3, 2019

I really don't understand why they said July if it was surely clear by that point it wouldn't make it?

ZKenir · Aug 3, 2019

AHA-Lambda said:
I really don't understand why they said July if it was surely clear by that point it wouldn't make it?

it's JAST USA, they're to delays and missed release dates as Bethesda is to bugs and glitches.

Exzyleph · Aug 3, 2019

To be fair to JAST, despite their reputation for always being late, it is entirely possible that some last-minute issue popped up that prevented them from releasing on schedule. Sekai Project just pulled a similar move with photonflowers*, and it doesn't look it was because they had to patch the game.

ZKenir · Aug 5, 2019

“Thanks to the awesome support we’ve been receiving from backers, fans, and you, the possibility of bringing more âge games to the west is becoming even stronger. Please look forward to our announcements in the coming months, and for the years to come!”

https://twinfinite.net/2019/08/muv-luv-team-tease/

DeejayDoom · Aug 5, 2019

Shwarzesmarken pls.

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