So I know Remember 11 doesn't have a real ending and never 7 isn't as mind blowing as the later games in the series, but are they still worth playing? I'm not sure I want to play though another 25 hour VN anytime soon but I will check those out sometime when my brain recovers.
Potentially stupid question about Steins;Gate: I got my new laptop set to Japanese region and the game runs(and the logo is on the title screen), but the spinning satellite isn't, and the openings don't play either. Is it a video issue, or still app locale related? (Couldn't get app locale running on Windows 8...)
Yeah and the thing is, those 25 hours of boring are needed to build rapport with the characters and also to build some real immersion in the setting. Without them, the crazy moments wouldn't have nearly as much impact.
Yeah and the thing is, those 25 hours of boring are needed to build rapport with the characters and also to build some real immersion in the setting. Without them, the crazy moments wouldn't have nearly as much impact.
Yeah and the thing is, those 25 hours of boring are needed to build rapport with the characters and also to build some real immersion in the setting. Without them, the crazy moments wouldn't have nearly as much impact.
I have no problem with this format as long as the pay off is worth it, obviously if you could have 25 hours of awesome and 5 hours of mind blowing (999/VLR) it would be ideal but not everything is perfect.
I feel like playing 999/VLR before I played Ever 17 put me on the wrong path to figuring out what was going on.
Yeah...I give mad props to the creators that risk losing people to boredom, for the sake of an overall superior product. I also feel this way about stuff like the tons of codec calls in MGS2(which some called boring) as well. Those are what flesh your characters out. Without those, you're left with some characters on screen you don't care much about.
The odd cutscene here and there which tries to give some character depth, which is how most games do it, is not enough to build rapport.
Potentially stupid question about Steins;Gate: I got my new laptop set to Japanese region and the game runs(and the logo is on the title screen), but the spinning satellite isn't, and the openings don't play either. Is it a video issue, or still app locale related? (Couldn't get app locale running on Windows 8...)
Ah. I played the Little Busters VN before I had a chance to start watching the anime..and I'll say it now. The VN shits all over JC Staff's adaptation.
Hi VN GAF! I was wondering if you could recommend me something.
I was something with interesting characters, a story that doesn't repeat itself too much in different routes/paths and minimal puzzle and info dump elements.
I recently finished Katawa Shoujo and thought it was great. I then went to try Ever17 and am enjoying it quite a bit but I don't think I can stomach finishing it completely. I've done the following paths: Tsugumi, You & Sara. I find it difficult to go through each day of the same casual chilling out in LeMU between the different scenes. There is just so much of it that I'm feeling weary. Even the slower routes in KS were less of a chore than this. There are a lot of "holes" in the plot that I'm trying to fill, but the slowless and each route filling only a few small holes while tearing bigger ones in the plot elsewhere is starting to frustrate me. I'll go back to it, definitely, I mean the trouble I went to in order to hunt it down demands it, just not right now I guess.
Years ago, I played the Fate/ games. They were ok.
I've also played and loved 999. However, I'm not in a maths or puzzle solving mood. I just want to flow with the story.
I don't really mind the adult stuff, but if possible, I'd rather something with less of a harem and some interesting and less "I want to punch your stupid face in" inducing males. Something that I noticed going from KS to Ever17 is the quality/style of writing. KS's seems to flow a lot easier, more laid back and natural. I would guess this might be due to Ever17 being translated, but it felt a little strange and I had difficulty adjusting at the beginning. :\
Ah. I played the Little Busters VN before I had a chance to start watching the anime..and I'll say it now. The VN shits all over JC Staff's adaptation.
I'm avoiding everything that comes even close to discussion of that series.
The thing about Clannad is that the anime series is purportedly very excellent, but I'm afraid watching it might spoil the VN experience. Since I heard the translation out there right now is 'functional' at best, it makes me want to wait for the finished re-translation going on right now. And Clannad often gets named as one of the best in its genre. All those factors combined, make me confused as how to approach the franchise to make the most worth out of it.
Hi VN GAF! I was wondering if you could recommend me something.
I was something with interesting characters, a story that doesn't repeat itself too much in different routes/paths and minimal puzzle and info dump elements.
I recently finished Katawa Shoujo and thought it was great. I then went to try Ever17 and am enjoying it quite a bit but I don't think I can stomach finishing it completely. I've done the following paths: Tsugumi, You & Sara. I find it difficult to go through each day of the same casual chilling out in LeMU between the different scenes. There is just so much of it that I'm feeling weary. Even the slower routes in KS were less of a chore than this. There are a lot of "holes" in the plot that I'm trying to fill, but the slowless and each route filling only a few small holes while tearing bigger ones in the plot elsewhere is starting to frustrate me. I'll go back to it, definitely, I mean the trouble I went to in order to hunt it down demands it, just not right now I guess.
Years ago, I played the Fate/ games. They were ok.
I've also played and loved 999. However, I'm not in a maths or puzzle solving mood. I just want to flow with the story.
I don't really mind the adult stuff, but if possible, I'd rather something with less of a harem and some interesting and less "I want to punch your stupid face in" inducing males. Something that I noticed going from KS to Ever17 is the quality/style of writing. KS's seems to flow a lot easier, more laid back and natural. I would guess this might be due to Ever17 being translated, but it felt a little strange and I had difficulty adjusting at the beginning. :\
I then went to try Ever17 and am enjoying it quite a bit but I don't think I can stomach finishing it completely. I've done the following paths: Tsugumi, You & Sara. I find it difficult to go through each day of the same casual chilling out in LeMU between the different scenes. There is just so much of it that I'm feeling weary. Even the slower routes in KS were less of a chore than this. There are a lot of "holes" in the plot that I'm trying to fill, but the slowless and each route filling only a few small holes while tearing bigger ones in the plot elsewhere is starting to frustrate me. I'll go back to it, definitely, I mean the trouble I went to in order to hunt it down demands it, just not right now I guess.
I will, but I'm against forcing myself to play through games I think I can enjoy if I take some time off. I don't want that to be a cause for me to end up liking the game less or enjoying it less. Don't know if I'm explaining that clearly, but its just something I do. Can you recommend something else?
It's a reference to a classical music piece. G-String = G string of a violin. Also the girl who is the main route in that is obvious although you can get through Sharin no Kuni and get almost all of the story in one go regardless of who you pick/if you pick anyone.
I want to say I'm not the least bit disappointed, but that'd be lying. At least while my curiousity for that g-string died I am now a bit cruious about this other one. Probably more so now. Thanks for the clarification. lol.
Edit. I've starting playing around in ren'py. Do we have a thread for that or should I go looking for that indie dev thread?
I would test it, but I run W7 here. Thankfully, there aren't that many videos in the novel. Only the opening and prologue (and I guess that you can watch them on YouTube or something). The only one that might affect a little is one of the last endings, which is called a "Fake Ending", since it contains dialogue that connects with the True End route at the end.
Also, I'm not planning on touching W8 for as long as I can. VNs compatibility problems abound, iirc
I would test it, but I run W7 here. Thankfully, there aren't that many videos in the novel. Only the opening and prologue (and I guess that you can watch them on YouTube or something). The only one that might affect a little is one of the last endings, which is called a "Fake Ending", since it contains dialogue that connects with the True End route at the end.
Also, I'm not planning on touching W8 for as long as I can. VNs compatibility problems abound, iirc
Thanks to the low system requirements, running VNs via virtual machine isn't so difficult, so compatibility problems can be overcome. But that's a hassle I wouldn't want to have to deal with.
I played Aoi Shiro per R_thanatos' recommendation. It's a shoujo-ai adventure/romance VN, and I was actually quite surprised at how the story went. The characters are quite interesting and likable, there are lots of choices to make (over 50 endings!), and outside of a few common scenes, each route differs notably from each other, despite all sharing the same locations. Also, routes are chosen via which girl you pick, but it still focuses more on story than romance. No puzzles, either. Just plot choices. Oh, and no adult stuff.
If you don't mind the girl/girl romance, it's a pretty nice choice.
Nscripter runs on a freaking PSP. If that doesn't say anything, I don't know what can
Thanks to the low system requirements, running VNs via virtual machine isn't so difficult, so compatibility problems can be overcome. But that's a hassle I wouldn't want to have to deal with.
For the "normal" ie. 800x600 resolution, yeah, they run quite well. Most 1280x720? Amazingly big resource hogs. Steins;Gate suffered from this, sadly, as it ran quite bad on my computer. Not enough to kill the game, thankfully, but saving was a chore, as an example.
Also, I tend to forgot that we are on GAF, where most people have a relatively recent PC, so this won't apply to most people. My laptop is crying on the corner right now, now that I mentioned it, btw (Core 2 Duo @ 2Ghz and Intel x3100 integrated graphics for the curious)
As Marche90 implied, NScripter definitely isn't the most resource-intensive VN engine. Its resolution is only 640x480 by default, and is pretty much a bare-bones engine.
It runs on your PSP, your mobile phone, your PDA, NetWalker, Pandora, Dreamcast, your Brain and possibly even your toaster…
Anyway, just to be sure… The filenames for the videos are correct? Because I know sometimes they can become messed up due to character sets and so they won't play in-game.
As Marche90 implied, NScripter definitely isn't the most resource-intensive VN engine. Its resolution is only 640x480 by default, and is pretty much a bare-bones engine.
It runs on your PSP, your mobile phone, your PDA, NetWalker, Pandora, Dreamcast, your Brain and possibly even your toaster
Anyway, just to be sure The filenames for the videos are correct? Because I know sometimes they can become messed up due to character sets and so they won't play in-game.
Ah. I played the Little Busters VN before I had a chance to start watching the anime..and I'll say it now. The VN shits all over JC Staff's adaptation.
Biggest problem with most adaptions are, they were never going to fit the first part in the 24 episode range. But almost every adaption of a VN is... not so great compared to the VN I noticed so I usually just put it aside or try to watch it before I play lol.
Biggest problem with most adaptions are, they were never going to fit the first part in the 24 episode range. But almost every adaption of a VN is... not so great compared to the VN I noticed so I usually just put it aside or try to watch it before I play lol.
They already said there's gonna be an announcement at the end of (I think) episode 26.
It's either gonna be a film, ova series or a second season altogether I guess.
I played the entire (vanilla portion of the) game from last friday to wednesday straight, and I think that Komari and Mio routes are quite well adapted in the anime. However, Haruka's route has been butchered like no tomorrow. A lot of scenes and details left out in the adaptation.
I loved everything in the game. Haruka's route was the best of the normal routes (solely based on the infuriating nature of her relatives which the other routes didn't have). However, Rin's
true end
followed by the true route (
Refrain
) were absolutely AWESOME. Damn...the first time we hear the best music in the entire game (何も起こらなかった世界 was SO thrilling! You KNOW that from this point your entire mind will be blown away and the story will go apesh*t. Well, you're right in thinking so.
I can't stop listening to that song...it's just too good. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75_dkomdYlg if you don't remember it - you may not want to listen if you plan on doing the game though, as the emotional impact is not as big without prior knowledge of the associated scene(s))
So I hope they'll use that music in the anime once the go into the serious stuff and also that they do justice to
Rin2
and the true route in that sequel, whatever form it ends up taking.
Should this season end at episode 26, I think it'll go something like this :
ep19-21 Kud's route, ep22 some intro to Kurugaya/filler/Kengo event/Kick the Can, ep23-25 Kurugaya's route, ep26 Rin1 with a cliffhanger ending like the one in the game
I'm also hoping for a second season, because they'd have to be completely bonkers to try and fit Rin + Refrain in final two or three episodes of the season. My guesses are:
2-3 hour long movie for Refrain (this is the most possible option)
a shorter second series, about 13 episodes, Rin 1 + 2 and Refrain
a full second series, 24/26 episodes, Rin 1 + 2, Refrain and EX content (Saya, Futaki, Sasami)
And yeah, knowing the contents of the VN original spoils the fun from watching the adaptation. Komari and Mio received a decent adaptation, but the way they treated Haruka was a joke. Close to no buildup (only the bench scene was adapted, albeit poorly), randomly jumping out with the backstory, etc. Only the very final scene (
reunion with their parents
) was done well.
IMHO there's been a fair share of crucial mistakes. JC Staff should've used the entire first half of the season for common route stuff for making viewers care about the characters, and then bring on the drama, one by one. Instead we got dilluted common route and rushed character route adaptations.
TL;DR KyoAni should have handled Little Busters instead of Tamako Market.
I'm also hoping for a second season, because they'd have to be completely bonkers to try and fit Rin + Refrain in final two or three episodes of the season. My guesses are:
2-3 hour long movie for Refrain (this is the most possible option)
a shorter second series, about 13 episodes, Rin 1 + 2 and Refrain
a full second series, 24/26 episodes, Rin 1 + 2, Refrain and EX content (Saya, Futaki, Sasami)
And yeah, knowing the contents of the VN original spoils the fun from watching the adaptation. Komari and Mio received a decent adaptation, but the way they treated Haruka was a joke. Close to no buildup (only the bench scene was adapted, albeit poorly), randomly jumping out with the backstory, etc. Only the very final scene (
reunion with their parents
) was done well.
IMHO there's been a fair share of crucial mistakes. JC Staff should've used the entire first half of the season for common route stuff for making viewers care about the characters, and then bring on the drama, one by one. Instead we got dilluted common route and rushed character route adaptations.
TL;DR KyoAni should have handled Little Busters instead of Tamako Market.
Sometimes the filenames are supposed to be in Japanese, so if some of the filenames are instead an incomprehensible string of weird characters (that aren't Japanese, e.g. "ǻǡÇÇ¢ÇÇ∑ÅBÅj.mpg"), then there's obviously a problem.
Ok everyone ..this post is not intended to be a review but a honnest set of opinion after i've cleared "otoboku" in case people are wondering if this game worth any penny ( especially since some people seems to have already seen the anime adaptation )
So well ...Here it is:
---------------------------
Otoboku: The maidens are falling for me
Manufacturer: Caramel Box
Genre: Adventure
Localisation : Mangagamer
OS: Windows XP(32bit), Windows Vista(32bit), Windows 7(32bit)
Text Lang.: English
Voice Lang.: Japanese Website : Here( Note : this is an Eroge so the website is NFSW)
Let's get something out of the way first. The story , the initial premise leading to those events is silly , some might say even dumb. After all Our hero in this VN has to spent a year in this all girl school , passing as a girl. This isn't realistic at all and it stand to reason that despite the help she has , in many routes this disguise doesn't hold for some characters.
Still After the initial premise we're quickly treated to some fantasy stuff making me forget about the wacky premise. In term of details to the plot "it's don't think too much about it" attitude.
So , as long as you can get into that mindset , you'll be satisfied by the endings.
Characters
I do like the effort they took to explain things with the bubble
Otoboku really shines when it comes to characters.
We have the classic "genki" childhood friend , first.. then the student concil president too. Both happen to have an history together and to everyone eyes they are rivals/ennemies, you name it. You have two kouhai in your dorm that have their share amount of troubles for different reasons, a ghost ( yep really ) and a classmate that quickly discover your secret yet decides to keep it from spreading and help you.
There is nothing groundbreaking about this stuff. Yet many things work because their dialog work in context and the game doesn't abuse stereotypes. So seeing everyone interracting actually give different set of events that are a pleasure to read , even across multiple plays. A definitive positive of Otoboku is clearly the cast and the discoveries behind their true characters.
A note to say that the secondary characters are really well done. There aren't much of them but when they appear they stay strong leading to many well done situations.A definitive plus.
I do recommand reading the side stories ( when you've completed all the routes ) as they'll answer some events on the secondary characters
Gameplay
Loving the joke, here ..also while clunky and not on par with current Vns , the cgs are more than good.
Otoboku is a standard VN , it's quite old already so don't expect stuff from current Vns released in japan . the sprites are "still" yet they have a decent amount of variations to acomodate to the situations at hand. The game is cut in "chapters"and all of them ends by a video preview where the characters often break the 4th wall. The end result is more than enough. and it's easy to know where you are in the story.
In fact this cut between chapters will make you see some events multiples times when replaying. But there are a fair amount of subtles "small" events within them depending on your choices. So some chapters starts and end the same but some events are tied to your choices
Your choices are "obscure" at times ... Some hidden flags are quite devious but most of them gives you a little heart animation so you know mostly where you're going if you want to reach a specific character.
So get ready to replay the first 5 chapters many times to reach the 3 chapter exclusives stories unique to each route ( you can however skip the first chapter that is a prologue chapter ) when replaying , as there is an option to do so.
Technical & Localisation
First things first.. This is an excellent localisation. The writing is spot on , the jokes works and they don't seem to have been rewritten. The game being devided into chapters make replaying easy. And there are many aspect of the plot that are explained in a tiny bubble for added trivia.( see screens )
Everything works well .. they really did an awesome job on this
There are 4 extra bonus chapters to read that'll give you more insight on some characters and the experience is not really complete without reading those.
Hentai
So yeah this is an eroge. And the game sucks at it.
I really skipped them because they were boring to me. There are plenty of those, even in the common route..So be advised that it's not an all age game.. This is not a main reason to play this game but it's there.
In some routes it's used as a device to add some drama, in other it's totally there for the sake of it. Just push "ctrl" and you'll be fine if you dislike that.
GAME VS ANIME
this character , here is trully the reason , if you're hesitating to play the game after seeing the anime.The best "quote"s are without a doubt from her...all in good fun.
The anime only covered some plot points in the game. But it didn't choose a route ..so in reality you don't know much about the characters except "parts" of the events in the common route if you've only watched the anime.So yeah , having seen the anime doesn't prevent you from playing this game as you'll soon get into things the anime ommited or discarded.
CONCLUSION
I really liked this game, despite my no interet into the hentai.. It's a great localisation , there is a excellent mix of character to see .. the story is not ground breaking but much of the routes conclusions are good, if not great.i don't know how many hours i've spend with this game but i most certainly wasn't bored.
Nice review! I might check out Otoboku at some stage
Also, I should note that a limited edition hardcopy of Otoboku is in the works that will come with "a special story-book, Tsunderella, fully illustrated in color by Yoda, and an extras disc full of bonus items such as wallpapers, Obokusama production materials, and more".
Nice review! I might check out Otoboku at some stage…
Also, I should note that a limited edition hardcopy of Otoboku is in the works that will come with "a special story-book, “Tsunderella”, fully illustrated in color by Yoda, and an extras disc full of bonus items such as wallpapers, Obokusama production materials, and more".
WHAT ?
Dammit , will probably try to get it.
Anyway , this is my second or third set of impressions and i have plenty of others in my backlog.
If you like a good story or just yuri , you can also check out this one
Hmmm, I've never played a yuri game, and it's not really a priority for me to try one. I should probably try out Amaranto though, especially since I was given a "special thanks" in the translation credits.
lol.
