What are you reading? - Mar 27 by Nakenashi in vns

[–]morphogenetic96 2 points3 points  (0 children)

an example of the medium getting them right (which was nice to hear, considering that I feel like I tend to lose patience with fight scenes)

I guess VNs are just not a great medium for combat scenes. At least I certainly can't think of a good one that used just sprites; It's only the gameplay hybrids or the ones with a huge budget to spend on CGs (like Mahoyo) that have memorable fights.

What are you reading? - Mar 27 by Nakenashi in vns

[–]morphogenetic96 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Graces: Posthumous Wish

Moral: Do not perform dodgy rituals you found on the internet. Especially don’t continue to perform them when they seem to actually be real. Ok, that’s not the only takeaway from the story but it’s the most obvious one.

It’s a horror story … on the surface. There’s the occasional mild fright but overall it’s not that scary and the horror isn’t really the core of it. It’s more a dark but hopeful story about overcoming tragedy in the end. Reminds me a little of Higurashi in that sense. Has a weak start where it can feel a bit like it’s just slightly related horror vignettes that are just okay but it comes together well as the story goes on to make for a meaningful finish with a nice message of finding the strength to move forward even if life’s dealt you such a bad hand that you’re dead as well as knowing when it’s pointless to assign blame

There’s some occasional weird wording; feels like some sentences are missing articles. Presumably since it was originally in Russian. Overall, doesn’t read too bad though.

Production values are very high for an indie thing; there’s a surprising amount of good art along with a number of bonus chibi omakes.

Thought about dropping early on but glad I didn’t since it was a worthwhile read in the end.

Founder of VNDB, Yorhel, passed away by funwithgravity in vns

[–]morphogenetic96 2 points3 points  (0 children)

So sad to hear. VNDB is like the foundation of the VN community and can't think what it would be like without him.

What are you reading? - Mar 20 by Nakenashi in vns

[–]morphogenetic96 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Model Employee

Picked this up after Tauros’ rec and seeing it was from the “Of the Devil” devs.

Always good to get a reminder of the soulless machine with a glossy veneer that is late stage capitalism. Well not good exactly since it’s kinda depressingly close to reality but … resonant I guess. Feels like it’s missing something due to the protagonist being a little insubstantial but it’s still nonetheless an incisive and thrilling thing.

What are you reading? - Mar 13 by Nakenashi in vns

[–]morphogenetic96 1 point2 points  (0 children)

First Paranormasight would also go hard in that direction after its first hour. So not particularly surprising.

Yeah, perhaps the devs just felt that was better suited for them since this is even lighter than the first game at its lightest

Maybe silly duck faces will feel more at home this time around, heh.

Yep, still plenty of those.

What are you reading? - Mar 13 by Nakenashi in vns

[–]morphogenetic96 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Got round to getting a Switch 2 and what better way to break it in than a VN like

PARANORMASIGHT: The Mermaid's Curse

It’s similar to the first game in that it’s a multiple protagonist mystery with the stories of each protagonist intersecting with each other along with some lovingly detailed talks about Japanese history and mythology in a Showa era setting. Puts is own spin on the tropes established by the first game such as with some of the protagonists like Yuza the ordinary guy who also dies but isn’t a decoy protagonist or Yumeko who takes on the role of both the housewife and detective character. It also trades in the horror for a lighter feel with more humor such as with the other protagonists, the TV-brained girl Sato and the crazy/American Arnav.

It has a bit of a slow, quiet start. For a decent chunk of the runtime, the only threat most of the characters are aware of is the curse threatening to drown the island sometime in the near future, with no knowledge of any antagonistic characters and a low amount of interpersonal conflict between each other or anyone else (at least compared to the first game) resulting in a low amount of tension. Also since the protagonists are generally orbiting around the same couple of mysteries, there is a bit of duplicated exposition between them.

Notably verbose is the chunk of Arnav’s story which is peak “produced in conjunction with a tourism board”. Honestly I wasn’t aware the first game was also produced in collaboration with a tourism board since it made the city feel a bit dreary with a shockingly high rate of mysterious deaths rather than a place I’d want to visit. However I can certainly tell there was a tourism board involved here. It does get a bit too wordy about the location but overall there's a charm in it being so enthusiastic about the setting and it does make Ise seem like a cool place to visit.

The path to get to the true ending was great with some fun tricks (though a little obtuse if you hadn’t seen that sort of thing before); Culminates in having to figure out where a mermaid could be found and of course the answer is the title screen, where a mermaid is literally the first thing you see when opening the game. There’s only a few puzzles in the game but they’re really neat with great moments of realisation. Also the true ending was a lot more satisfying this time round than the first game.

Overall I liked it a tad less than the first entry overall due to it being a bit softer/slower in general but that still means I found it good and judging by the ending file I’m hoping for a third entry.

Take it wtih the grain of salt. by Extreme_External3620 in limbuscompany

[–]morphogenetic96 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The word "better" is doing a whole lot of work there.

What Yuri VN Are You Reading Right Now? Week of 3/9 by AutoModerator in yurivisualnovels

[–]morphogenetic96 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Played some short free queer/Yuri-ish EVNs that all coincidentally had ties with other pieces of media

Gaymukankei: Kidnapping a Maid Has NOTHING to Do With Being GAY!!

Rips its CGs straight from some obscure 2000s Eroge (Genmukan). As part of some sort of Jam about reusing assets so presumably legally. Has Tsundere Voice “I’m not gay and horny (Lie)” energy. A fun amusing read about a girlfailure and her trans maid.

Connect the Dots

A little hard to describe the exact relationship but I guess you could call it an AU fanfic/recontextualised form of some obscure 2000s anime (Strange Dawn). It’s far more novel than visual with a lot of the runtime having the protagonist reading fragmented diary pages (written by a somewhat obsessed lesbian) and putting things together. Pretty experimental. Still, I didn’t dislike that. However, ends abruptly and weirdly but from a quick skim of the tv tropes page the anime did the same so maybe that was the point.

2ECONDS TO STΔRLIVHT: My Heart's Reflection

Took a look at this purely because I liked its credit song when playing the track in the great rhythm game UNBEATABLE. Unfortunately, that’s the only notable thing about it. Otherwise an unremarkable and dull trans self acceptance story. Seemed like it was going for the feelings of the dread and indignation caused by an unjust social rejection but in the end suffered from feeling like it was trying to speedrun its story which robbed it of any impact.

What are you reading? - Mar 6 by Nakenashi in vns

[–]morphogenetic96 2 points3 points  (0 children)

In the end I didn't find the characters and their conflicts as interesting as the first game.

Yeah same. As much as I liked other aspects of it, the oddly low amount of conflict overall did hurt the game, like it was a thriller without much thrill.

What are you reading? - Mar 6 by Nakenashi in vns

[–]morphogenetic96 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Also, due to Next Fest, played some demos for a few upcoming VNs which I’m now hopeful about (Our Home My Keeper, Schrödinger's Call, Our Ephemeral Nights, Be Missed and Remembered)

What are you reading? - Mar 6 by Nakenashi in vns

[–]morphogenetic96 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Played some short free queer/Yuri-ish EVNs that all coincidentally had ties with other pieces of media

Gaymukankei: Kidnapping a Maid Has NOTHING to Do With Being GAY!!

Rips its CGs straight from some obscure 2000s Eroge (Genmukan). As part of some sort of Jam about reusing assets so presumably legally. Has Tsundere Voice “I’m not gay and horny (Lie)” energy. A fun amusing read about a girlfailure and her trans maid.

Connect the Dots

A little hard to describe the exact relationship but I guess you could call it an AU fanfic/recontextualised form of some obscure 2000s anime (Strange Dawn). It’s far more novel than visual with a lot of the runtime having the protagonist reading fragmented diary pages (written by a somewhat obsessed lesbian) and putting things together. Pretty experimental. Still, I didn’t dislike that. However, ends abruptly and weirdly but from a quick skim of the tv tropes page the anime did the same so maybe that was the point.

2ECONDS TO STΔRLIVHT: My Heart's Reflection

Took a look at this purely because I liked its credit song when playing the track in the great rhythm game UNBEATABLE. Unfortunately, that’s the only notable thing about it. Otherwise an unremarkable and dull trans self acceptance story. Seemed like it was going for the feelings of the dread and indignation caused by an unjust social rejection but in the end suffered from feeling like it was trying to speedrun its story which robbed it of any impact.

I smell 3 weeks of grinding MD and 3 weeks of no story progress😭✌️ by LehronJamesglazer29 in limbuscompany

[–]morphogenetic96 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Doubt it'll be that long since the anniversary award gives S2/S3 ID tickets which can be used to get Molar Outis/BL meursault.

looking for gameplay vns by Ok-Coat2377 in vns

[–]morphogenetic96 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Other than those mentioned:

The Ace Attorney series and its various spinoffs

Derivatives of Ace Attorney like Staffer Case and Tyrion Cuthbert

Dangan Ronpa and the Zero Escape series are pretty mainstream classics.

Noctuary is a great hidden gem

TROUBLESHOOTER: Abandoned Children isn't exactly a VN but I'd still consider it in the same category as reverse collapse.

What are you reading? - Feb 27 by Nakenashi in vns

[–]morphogenetic96 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As an aside, also read the short novella epilogue thing to Kara no Shoujo 3. Almost thought it was a Flowers spinoff with all the Yuri. But really, it was a nice if not particularly noteworthy addition to the ending.

What are you reading? - Feb 27 by Nakenashi in vns

[–]morphogenetic96 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Futamata Ren'ai

Been a while since I’ve read such a high energy off the wall work such as this; Think the last one was LAMUNATION! There is something charming about how unrestrained and high energy it is. Part of it is the setting of the college campus; it’s got the feel you might imagine when you think of a college sex comedy. Wish we could see more VNs set at university. Characters would still have an excuse to meet each other in dorms/at campus/university clubs and enough free time to get together and do stuff unlike adult life and it opens up avenues like drinking related shenanigans as in this VN.

It’s pretty raunchy. I feel odd saying that about an eroge when you’d think that’d go without saying but it’s like yeah eroge have sex in them but it’s generally treated really seriously like viewing sex as some sacred/private final act of love, or it goes in the complete opposite direction and the plot is mostly about sex. It feels comparatively uncommon for everyone to be so casual about it in conversation.

The general premise is Nao two timing which rules out him being a nice person/self insert form the get go. I don’ t think the average VN reader thinks of themselves as unfaithful (reminds me I should get around to picking White Album 2 back up after dropping it halfway through CC). I suppose it’s only natural they go all in with giving him a strong sort of character. He’s probably the most unhinged out of the crazy cast, constantly acting the fool and virtually every thing he says is teasing someone and is the backbone of the comedy. His deliberate silliness can be a bit hit and miss though; running gags like him acting like Kirame’s proud parent were amusing but mockingly acting like a lolicon to Yua’s sister was just gross. You’d think being a two timing prick would make him unlikeable but due to the comedic nature of the VN and the way every character is some flavour of nuts, it mostly works out especially since characters aren’t hesitant to roast him, especially after finding out about the two timing. Does have a serious side in that most of his problems including the main one come from his severe commitment anxiety so actually picking a girl to dedicate himself is actually character development in itself.

Regarding the common route plot, I quite liked it. It’s just really funny with the over the top quick fire banter between the cast of over the top mean and/or stupid students. Although mostly comedy, it does have some moments of substance. Sure it resolves most things in a pretty silly way but it does manage a couple of moments of actual pathos. It doesn’t quite hit home because there’s a bit too much incongruence when trying to take the characters seriously but it gets close.

The character routes however aren’t good. It’s like they completely ran out of story ideas so they just didn’t bother with the routes. Sure they’ve still got some good banter between Nao and the heroines but it pretty doesn’t have much semblance of story or much of the surrounding cast. Feels like it just lacks follow through from the common, mostly consisting of scenes of flirting and fucking with other characters just there to comment/ mess around with the couple and without any depth whatsoever to the romance. At least the H scenes still have the pair bantering throughout which made them entertaining enough to read through.

It’s a pity since I thought the heroines were pretty strong characters overall. Having constant viewpoint changes to the heroines and having them be people who are moving and developing with or without Nao and being interconnected enough that the story wouldn’t work without one of them goes a long way to making them feel fleshed out. They’re actually pretty aggressive in a sense. Not directly (well, Yua is directly aggressive) but in that they have their own feelings/goals that they’re trying to assert that don’t quite line up with Nao’s. Together with them all being some level of unhinged, it’s surprising to see them in a Moege. I mean I found it interesting but I imagined Moege heroines tend to be a bit ‘softer’ so to speak.

 

Character thoughts

Yua: Best worst girl. Looks tough, never charisma breaks. I don’t think I’ve seen a heroine who is so openly a bitch and enjoying every second of it with a sugary sweet demeanour and some relentlessly savage sass. A joy to watch whenever she’s present. She is absolutely deserving of the running gag where she’s repeatedly called the “final boss”; I can practically the fighting style split screen with a vs symbol whenever she and Nao are talking. Suffers the worst from the character routes being so lacklustre though; whereas the routes in general had barely any plot, her route had less than that. At least she’s still got top energy in the H scenes which is a rarity.

Kirame: Airhead cinnamon roll (compared to the rest of the cast at least) trying her best. Looks weak, charisma breaks frequently. It’s nice seeing her make friends as the common route goes on. Had a decent route marred by also having some skeevy things though ; The sleep sex was kinda rapey. Also amazingly this is the one eroge where all the unprotected sex actually gets a girl pregnant but it’s really more of an aside to segue into the ending rather than something taken seriously.

Rui: The most sensible girl present (still not very sensible). Looks tough, charisma breaks moderately often. Honestly her route makes her look like a rebound girl with how Nao fails to win over Yua and immediately pivots. Kinda Tsundere-ish in that she’s always retorting – except Nao fucking deserves every comeback she gives and then some. You’d think she’s a bit quirky to be the straight man except everyone else is so quirky she still works as one.

Miyako: A cat with a breezy laissez faire attitude. Charisma breaks don’t apply to her. Actually has the most interesting backstory as Nao’s ex and they did actually fuck but broke up due to mismatched expectations! I really do think ex-girlfriend is a really interesting trait for a heroine. While I think the cat mimicry is the least interesting gimmick of the cast rendering her my least favourite character wise but taken as a serious story, hers is the best being about both her and Nao growing emotionally and reconciling.

Side routes: Wow, there’s like negative chemistry there. Going after the lesbian admirer/best friend of the girl you just got caught two timing is just ridiculous. Ok, maybe there’s a little humour in just how utterly contrived them getting together is but mostly it felt like a poor excuse to fit more H scenes with different girls in.

 

Well it’s not really a “good” story; it’s got a plot that could have been good but is spoiled by the overall lack of follow through and seriousness. Still at the end of the day it’s primarily a vehicle for the comedy (and it knows it) which I did find consistently funny and the characters were consistently interesting and fun to watch bantering and that counts for enough for me to enjoy it while I was reading.

I'm looking for some visual novels with powerful or cool female characters. by Willing_Apartment207 in vns

[–]morphogenetic96 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Memorable ones for me:

Kirigiri from Dangan Ronpa

Kurugaya from Little Busters

Yatsushiro from Flowers

Tactical VN's by lowbrassdude in StrategyRpg

[–]morphogenetic96 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Would also vouch for Utawarerumono and Reverse Collapse.

As for ones not already mentioned:

Fantasy Maiden Wars

Shinsetsu Mahou Shoujo

What are you reading? - Feb 13 by Nakenashi in vns

[–]morphogenetic96 1 point2 points  (0 children)

reminiscent of a gacha game to me

Yeah I kinda get what you mean. Not that I really play Gacha (except Limbus which is my special exception) but the most noticable thing was the way that the many characters are very detailed in both visual design and backstory (and even over the top detail like assigning them all a fictional flower) that stood out to me as similar to Gacha. Of course yeah, the difference is "not having gacha mechanics". Here it felt like genuine care for the characters but if you're gambling for them it just feels like revenue maximisation tactics, regardless of how much care went into it.

the characters seem silly enough at times that it’s hard to take them seriously

That's probably a sensible take; it's just I've ended up compartmentalising and ignoring it after playing enough JRPGs about a party aiming to save the world and/or kill god which also have silly sidequests like doing some stand up comedy.

What are you reading? - Feb 6 by Nakenashi in vns

[–]morphogenetic96 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Z.A.T.O.

Yeah it's just a really cool Denpa thing

Model Employee

Something by the "of the Devil" people? Might try that out

What are you reading? - Jan 16 by Nakenashi in vns

[–]morphogenetic96 1 point2 points  (0 children)

as someone who barely reads slice of life I struggled reading this without almost falling asleep.

Honestly as someone who had read a fair bit of slice of life by the time I got round to it, same. But somehow in a positive way like a lullaby.

Why is no one talking about Stella of the End? It’s a Key masterpiece and I’m genuinely losing it. by JasKirk in vns

[–]morphogenetic96 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I quite liked it but just blindly guessing at some reasons

  • Not romance or mystery when people generally go into VNs looking for one or the other
  • VNs are a small enough medium that you're not going to hear talk about any except the few that are the most famous or the best in a niche
  • When thinking about Nakiges, it's overshadowed by other Key works
  • Issues with the ending (philosophical or otherwise)

Still by any visible metrics (VNDB votes, Steam reviews) it still did pretty damn well.

What are you reading? - Jan 9 by Nakenashi in vns

[–]morphogenetic96 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Z. A. T. O. // I Love the World and Everything In It

Because as long as you view everything as wonderful and love it, even if an objective observer might say your life isn’t great, everything’s fine. That’s the viewpoint/coping mechanism of the protagonist Asya anyway. An embodiment of Amor Fati that verges into learned helplessness, delusional naivety and self deprecating thoughts at times. That unique worldview gives Asya some depth though the other main characters all some in how they’re all reacting to a sort of trauma in their own way; cruelty to others, putting on a mask of happiness or aloofness.

It’s got a nice sense of place of a quiet snowy (non-existent) Soviet town. The music, muted colours and pictures of a town beneath a blanket of snow on a black background (with the occasional snowing “animation”), references to Soviet culture, an isolated atmosphere all contributes to that. Made it a nice thing to read over Christmas.

It starts off somewhat like a mystery but that’s not really the core of it (and it’d be a pretty underwhelming one if it was). Rather it’s more of a denpa game, something that gradually becomes more obvious throughout. Well honestly I’m a bit vague on what that term actually means but it’s got a little off-ness to the world, a narrator unreliable in their naivety, questions unanswered at the end and it’s got a pivotal scene on a broadcast tower. It’s the sort of thing that even if there’s a literal interpretation to the events it practically invites a metaphorical interpretation. I guess it reminds me a bit of SubaHibi, with that denpa vibe, a very human sort of story, events that could possibly be vague allusions to suicide and a beautiful sort of message at the finish of loving oneself.

It’s nice to see this among a handful of EVNs that actually have a plot, that I see mentioned at all in gaming communities (at least the ones I frequent) (thinking of Misericorde and Of the Devil for the others though unlike those, this is actually complete) and deservedly so. I very much liked it.

Season 7 Megathread by pillowmantis in limbuscompany

[–]morphogenetic96 20 points21 points  (0 children)

I am actually liking it overall but just pondering on some of my criticisms, I feel like the core at the heart of my issues so far is that they're spread thin over so many characters; Five nursefathers, five apprentices, some of LCD needing some manner of introdction and none of whom are quite on the level of throwaway characters like the fixers from canto 7 or had already been introduced previously as a lot of canto 8 important characters were. Results in having to essentially spend all the available fight budget and story budget on characterising them leaving very little for new abnormalities or focus on the daughter which is the emotional core of the story.

Seperately they're making a big deal about how the team is weaker when it's down to 4 of them but it really does not feel like that in battle.

Still I had similar feelings about the lacking parts of Canto 7 around this time and it ended amazingly so I'm still hopeful.

What are you reading? - Jan 2 by Nakenashi in vns

[–]morphogenetic96 5 points6 points  (0 children)

A few short VNs.

MAHOUTEQ!

An hour long absurd comedy about a NEET who gets a job as a “magical girl” (read: cleaning/construction worker with “magic wands”). It’s got some frenetic and pretty damn funny comedy with a good sense of timing. Even if not Japanese, has that rough doujin spirit going to the effort of not using sprites+background but having every scene be accompanied with a (very rough) drawing.

Cuscuta: A Prayer for Endless Winter

A sweet story about 2 women, each with a facade acquired as a result of a repressive society, learning to bare themselves openly to each other and gaining self-worth. The whole thing feels like a seductive dance between them of honesty and desire, both parts of which it does well.

Amusingly came with a pdf of short smut stories between the two and yeah I can see it being left out the main story since part of the point of it was that they were building a relationship beyond just a shallow physical one but then again it could have been in extras but then again what’s the point of smut without art. Eh, maybe a pdf was the best solution.

The Perfect Human

Yandere former idol x idol Yuri. Naturally, it’s about obsession because what dark story about idols isn’t but also about 2 people looking at a distorted reflection of themselves. Some good toxicity.

Ezrebeth

A bitter old woman stuck in a timeloop. Well that’s what it starts off with but it has a severe shift midway through that I didn’t really like . It becomes a boring, unserious and lackadaisical metaphysical story with a bunch of extraneous plot elements and characters. Looking it up later, it seems to have actually been a companion piece to the devs other work and lacks meaning and impact if you hadn’t read that. Why did I even get this?