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English Translated Japanese Visual Novel/ADV Thread

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A

Akuun

Looking for meaning in GAF
Has anyone else read Muv-Luv yet? I'm about halfway through Alternative and I have to say it's been amazing.

Muv-Luv Extra starts off AWFUL, but slug through it and you get to Unlimited, which ranges between good and great. Then you get to Alternative afterwards, where it suddenly goes completely into gear and becomes amazing.

Now that I'm in Alternative, I've realized that Muv-Luv Extra was horribly cliche and painfully predictable on purpose to set you up for what happens next. I can't really say more without spoiling too much, but so far it really is highly, highly recommended.
 
G

gokieks

Member
Yes. Muv-Luv Extra is (intentional) generic mediocrity, Unlimited is interesting (and quite good) setup, and Alternative is the absolutely god damned amazing payoff.
 
M

Marche90

Member
Akuun said:
Has anyone else read Muv-Luv yet? I'm about halfway through Alternative and I have to say it's been amazing.

Muv-Luv Extra starts of AWFUL, but slug through it and you get to Unlimited, which ranges between good and great. Then you get to Alternative afterwards, where it suddenly goes completely into gear and becomes amazing.

Now that I'm in Alternative, I've realized that Muv-Luv Extra was horribly cliche and painfully predictable on purpose to set you up for what happens next. I can't really say more without spoiling too much, but so far it really is highly, highly recommended.
Click to expand...

I try to mention it every time I can here. Damn thing's awesome, and one of my favorites VN's ever.

Shame about the character designs, since it is off-putting for some people. It could have reached much higher if it weren't for that...
 
B

Basileus777

Member
I've been reading Rewrite, and I'm not really sure how I stand on it yet. Kotori's route was really poor, and Chihaya's was an oddly paced Unlimited Bladeworks knockoff. Lucia's route was better, despite the key drama and how incredibly obvious it was written by a different author. Yoshino's been the best part so far. It's better than Little Busters, but that's a pretty low bar considering how awful the heroine routes in that were. Hopefully the rest of the VN gets better.
 
grim-tales

grim-tales

Member
Hey,
I've been looking for some Mystery VNs to try after 999/VLR but not really sure where to start with the free ones mentioned in this thread, are there any with the same feel as 999/VLR?
 
S

Spierek

Member
grim-tales said:
Hey,
I've been looking for some Mystery VNs to try after 999/VLR but not really sure where to start with the free ones mentioned in this thread, are there any with the same feel as 999/VLR?
Click to expand...
Ever17 was written by the same author, but it's kinda hard to get. The common route is really goddamn boring, but it apparently pays off with the final plot twists.

Kara no Shoujo is a quite good mystery VN (you are a detective, there are murder cases, etc.), though the true ending could've been better. Nevertheless, it is quite solid.

Umineko no Naku Koro ni also falls into the "mystery" type, although it's a kinetic VN (no choices) and the character designs are god-awful. There is a patch for replacing the backgrounds/sprites with the PS3 version ones (which was completely redrawn) and enabling 720p gameplay, but I personally couldn't set it up properly. Maybe you'd have more luck.
 
grim-tales

grim-tales

Member
Thanks :) When I say "mystery" I kinda meant ones with twists and craziness like in VLR/999/Ever 17 (hopefully you can get some for free). I tried downloading E17 but it didnt work for me ATM :(
 
A

aravuus

Member
Thinking of checking out the Fate/Zero anime. Saw the first episode and it seemed pretty good. The question is, is Fate/Stay night worth playing before watching the F/Z anime? It's apparently a loooong one. What's it like, what is it about? The premise seems to be.. Fighting, which, imo, doesn't really work in text format. Are F/SN's story and/or characters intriguing enough to read through?

I prefer my stories with lots of plot twists, mysteries and revelations. If it's more about the characters, I guess the same things, in a way, apply - betrayals, romances, hidden motives and such are what keep me interested.
 
U

upandaway

Member
Muntu said:
Thinking of checking out the Fate/Zero anime. Saw the first episode and it seemed pretty good. The question is, is Fate/Stay night worth playing before watching the F/Z anime? It's apparently a loooong one. What's it like, what is it about? The premise seems to be.. Fighting, which, imo, doesn't really work in text format. Are F/SN's story and/or characters intriguing enough to read through?

I prefer my stories with lots of plot twists, mysteries and revelations. If it's more about the characters, I guess the same things, in a way, apply - betrayals, romances, hidden motives and such are what keep me interested.
Click to expand...
I really liked F/SN, it's pretty great. I seem to be completely immune to pacing problems though and a lot of people seem to complain about that... The format was fine too, and based on what you say it seems you'll like it, but again, I can't say anything about pacing.

I went F/SN before F/Z and felt like it made F/Z a lot more coherent and all around solid. F/Z also spoils you on some stuff in F/SN (but, well, you've already gone through like half of them by watching the first episode). I really really liked both
 
cj_iwakura

cj_iwakura

Member
grim-tales said:
Thanks :) When I say "mystery" I kinda meant ones with twists and craziness like in VLR/999/Ever 17 (hopefully you can get some for free). I tried downloading E17 but it didnt work for me ATM :(
Click to expand...

Umineko is full of twists and craziness, but it's very linear.

There's a free demo here:

http://witch-hunt.com/

And to clarify, the 'art' is not terrible, it's just very amateur. Ryukishi is great at concepts and expressions, just not anatomy.
 
N

Napalm_Frank

Member
Muntu said:
I prefer my stories with lots of plot twists, mysteries and revelations. If it's more about the characters, I guess the same things, in a way, apply - betrayals, romances, hidden motives and such are what keep me interested.
Click to expand...

Dude read Umineko when you got time. Trust me :(. Actually watch/read Higurashi too!
 
S

Spierek

Member
grim-tales said:
Thanks :) When I say "mystery" I kinda meant ones with twists and craziness like in VLR/999/Ever 17 (hopefully you can get some for free). I tried downloading E17 but it didnt work for me ATM :(
Click to expand...
Oh, alright. In that case you absolutely have to give Steins;Gate a try. From what I've heard, YU-NO also has some really awesome twists but the game is really hard to find, quite long (>50h) and the CG's might not look pleasing to people who have only played VN's released after 2000. Fate/Stay Night also has some fairly good twists, although these aren't as powerful as 999/VLR (also, you'd have to ignore really poor sex scenes and some nonsensical parts of the plot).

Muntu said:
Thinking of checking out the Fate/Zero anime. Saw the first episode and it seemed pretty good. The question is, is Fate/Stay night worth playing before watching the F/Z anime? It's apparently a loooong one. What's it like, what is it about? The premise seems to be.. Fighting, which, imo, doesn't really work in text format. Are F/SN's story and/or characters intriguing enough to read through?
Click to expand...
F/SN is worth giving a try, but it doesn't really matter whether you watch F/Z after or before that. It's a prequel that fully embraces F/SN events - lays out the groundwork for all of those fuckups that happen in the 4th Grail War, gives you the background of Emiya Shirou's father and shows
Kotomine Kirei's downward path
. If you see F/Z before F/SN, some of the events in the game will be enhanced (because you'll have more context) while some of the twists might not be as shocking; and vice versa for the F/SN -> F/Z road.
 
A

aravuus

Member
Spierek said:
F/SN is worth giving a try, but it doesn't really matter whether you watch F/Z after or before that. It's a prequel that fully embraces F/SN events - lays out the groundwork for all of those fuckups that happen in the 4th Grail War, gives you the background of Emiya Shirou's father and shows
Kotomine Kirei's downward path
. If you see F/Z before F/SN, some of the events in the game will be enhanced (because you'll have more context) while some of the twists might not be as shocking; and vice versa for the F/SN -> F/Z road.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I'll probably check out the anime first then, and if I actually like it, I'll read the F/SN VN. I still highly prefer moving pictures than static ones and I'm not that avid a reader.

I guess I'll have to read Umineko some day too. Not sure if I said it already, but I watched the Higurashi anime way back and iirc, really liked it.
 
U

upandaway

Member
Can you guys estimate how much time I should set aside for Steins;Gate, and if I should do it all together or at a certain pace? Like for F/SN it would be a couple of days per route with breaks in between routes, and for E17 it would be ~5 days all together

I kinda need to know before I start
 
cj_iwakura

cj_iwakura

Member
upandaway said:
Can you guys estimate how much time I should set aside for Steins;Gate, and if I should do it all together or at a certain pace? Like for F/SN it would be a couple of days per route with breaks in between routes, and for E17 it would be ~5 days all together

I kinda need to know before I start
Click to expand...

Well I consider myself a really fast reader, and I'm past the halfway point with 30 odd hours clocked so far.
 
B

Basileus777

Member
Steins;Gate isn't broken up unto cleanly separated routes the way FSN is. There's the main story, and at various points you are given the option to branch off into a dead-end heroine routes, but those are basically side-stories. The story isn't really structured in a way that gives you breaks.
 
cj_iwakura

cj_iwakura

Member
Basileus777 said:
Steins;Gate isn't broken up unto cleanly separated routes the way FSN is. There's the main story, and at various points you are given the option to branch off into a dead-end heroine route, but those are basically side-stories. The story isn't really structured in a way that gives you breaks.
Click to expand...

Well, there are chapters. I had no idea how the routes worked, though. I've just been cruising along in one route and hoping I don't screw up.
 
U

upandaway

Member
cj_iwakura said:
Well I consider myself a really fast reader, and I'm past the halfway point with 30 odd hours clocked so far.
Click to expand...
Whoa! Guess I'll have to break it up a little then.

Basileus777 said:
Steins;Gate isn't broken up unto cleanly separated routes the way FSN is. There's the main story, and at various points you are given the option to branch off into a dead-end heroine routes, but those are basically side-stories. The story isn't really structured in a way that gives you breaks.
Click to expand...
Oh, I see. Is there a recommended "thing to keep in mind" going through it or is it fine all out of order? Should I even bother getting through it more than once?

I'm not used to VNs which actually try to be interactive.. haha
 
D

Danj

Member
upandaway said:
Oh, I see. Is there a recommended "thing to keep in mind" going through it or is it fine all out of order? Should I even bother getting through it more than once?

I'm not used to VNs which actually try to be interactive.. haha
Click to expand...

Given the main theme involved in Steins;Gate, it doesn't matter that much which order you get the endings in, but the "true" end, which is also featured in the anime, takes the longest to get, so you will probably end up doing that last anyway.
 
B

Basileus777

Member
I finished Rewrite and I ended up enjoying it. Most of the heroine routes were pretty poor, but the Akane and Terra routes made getting through the rest of it worth it. There are parts of this that I would never have expected to be in a Key VN. It's actually pretty amusing that the most Key-like part of the story were written by Ryuukishi07. Rewrite is not particularly well put-together, lacks cohesion, and it's pretty apparent where different writers are doing their own thing, but it's probably the best Key work. Though that's not all that surprising considering the lack of Jun Maeda. Though it did feel like they ran out of budget later on, Terra felt lacking in visual effects, and too many characters lacked a sprite or voice acting. The production values aren't really what you'd expect from someone as popular as Key.


Route ranking:
Terra>Akane>Moon>Lucia>C̶h̶i̶h̶a̶y̶a̶ Sakuya>Kotori>Shizuru
 
S

Spierek

Member
Basileus777 said:
Route ranking:
Terra>Akane>Moon>Lucia>C̶h̶i̶h̶a̶y̶a̶ Sakuya>Kotori>Shizuru
Click to expand...
Well, I only finished Kotori (and am about to start Shizuru now) and didn't particularily like it, so it's good to know that (at least in your opinion) other heroine routes are much better.
 
Y

Yirba

Member
grim-tales said:
Hey,
I've been looking for some Mystery VNs to try after 999/VLR but not really sure where to start with the free ones mentioned in this thread, are there any with the same feel as 999/VLR?
Click to expand...

I'd highly recommend Higurashi When They Cry. It's personally my favourite visual novel ever, and if you can ignore the slightly dodgy translation, it has a really wonderful story.

We're hosting a trial version of Higurashi here:
http://dl.spiderlilytranslations.com/get/8/higurashi_trial_fixed.zip

Umineko is the successor to Higurashi, and although it also has a brilliant story, I wouldn't read it just for the mystery. I don't want to reveal any spoilers, but while you are reading, you may start questioning yourself as to whether it actually is a mystery story.

As I mentioned earlier in this thread, it's better to play Higurashi before Umineko, but if you really can't stand the translation of the former, you may wish to skip to the latter. You'll still be able to understand 99.99% of the story.

Kara no Shoujo is also a brilliant mystery VN, if you don't mind playing an eroge.

I'm also told that Ever17, Remember11 and Divi-Dead are also good mystery VNs, but they're not easy to get hold of.

grim-tales said:
I had trouble running Umineko, when I put the translation patch in, it said it was invalid so couldnt get the demo to work...
Click to expand...

I'll take a look at this. I think some files were updated recently, so they may not be compatible with each other.
 
R

R_thanatos

Member
i'm expecting either a full pc version with ps3 voice and sprites ..

or a full ongon Cross translation.

yo've hyped me , don't disapoint , now :)
 
Y

Yirba

Member
Ougon Musou Kyoku actually turned out to be one of my favourite fighting games. It would be nice to be able to understand the text…
 
B

Burnburn

Member
Can anyone suggest me a good horror VN? I finished Phenomeno some days ago and it only left me craving for more. Awesome little VN, though I wish it was a bit longer. It's a great horror VN and it's only around 3 hours long, so I'd recommend everyone here to try it out. It's a shame that the music isn't mentioned more because it's really good. Is there any chance for a sequel or anything?

Oh yeah, I played Saya No Uta already.

I'm also thinking about starting Remember 11, but I'm not so sure if I should. Earlier in the thread it is mentioned that there isn't a 'mindfuck' level twist on the end. But in Ever 17 I liked the
Tsugumi being Hokota's and Sara's mother
twist way more than the whole
Blick Winkel and the 4th Dimension/3th Eye
thing. Will I enjoy Remember 11?
 
cj_iwakura

cj_iwakura

Member
Burnburn said:
Can anyone suggest me a good horror VN? I finished Phenomeno some days ago and it only left me craving for more. Awesome little VN, though I wish it was a bit longer. It's a great horror VN and it's only around 3 hours long, so I'd recommend everyone here to try it out. It's a shame that the music isn't mentioned more because it's really good. Is there any chance for a sequel or anything?

Oh yeah, I played Saya No Uta already.

I'm also thinking about starting Remember 11, but I'm not so sure if I should. Earlier in the thread it is mentioned that there isn't a 'mindfuck' level twist on the end. But in Ever 17 I liked the
Tsugumi being Hokota's and Sara's mother
twist way more than the whole
Blick Winkel and the 4th Dimension/3th Eye
thing. Will I enjoy Remember 11?
Click to expand...

I want to know the source of the art used in those Phenomeno uploads.
 
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