Dengeki strikers always appealed to me ..i saw the opening video and played the demo months ago ..and i always wanted more . So it made sense that i dived into this story since in my eyes it had potential.
DEVs: OVERDRIVE
LOCALISATION : MANGAGAMER
Release date : 2011-06-24 ( jap ) , 2012-06-22 (eng)
Original title : 電激ストライカー
STORY
Yamato has a great sense of justice and aspires to be a hero. He always tried to protect his childhood friend Haruna when shes being bullied, but he always got beat down instead. One day, Haruna was going to move away and wanted to say goodbye to him. However, he despaired that he was never able to protect her once in the end.
He met an old man called the Memory Collector, who could grant any wish in exchange for ones memories. Yamato wished to become a Stryker, the hero from a manga he loved. Several years later, some people with superpowers called the Balbora Empire appeared in the city Haruna was living in. The police and army were powerless in stopping them, but one warrior showed up and beat them with one kick. He was the hero of the manga Dengeki Stryker.
PLOT
This will be hard to explain because this game is sequenced like Fate Stay Night, in the sense that your experience will be very different depending on the route youre on and that all routes are required to have the full experience. The dialog , especially with rin or the constant blatter between yuuki and sayaka was excellent stuff.
No looking at them i don't think they need that , they feel fine
Dengeki Striker is well polished in some parts and quite classic in others
First the fully animated sections are excellent and gorgeous .. just like a nice animated anime. Its a shame that they are so few of them.
To compensate , we are treated with a classic vn experience with the occasional cgs here and there. The sprites are NOT animated. its a shame but i can live with it.
Except the big fights, most of the fights are told with classic sound effects and sprite work. Its alright but not impressive.The writting is quite good and acceptable but i feel that there is still room for improvement .
Still they nailed the fights pretty well
VOICE WORK
The voice work in dengeki striker is quite good it has quite a big cast and all the characters are voiced ..this is a good thing. The line delivery is excellent and this superb voice work mae me like the cast more. Its a good job.
The MC common sense is pretty distorted ..but still it so incredible that you can't beat this kind of logic .
Dont get me wrong , the story is good but the game does lack events and an overall lenghts and more important it lack choices you have 3 choices before youre stuck on a route and this is clearly not enough.
Given that its a super hero game with some girls that are clearly heroines or potential heroines i expected , i dunno to be forced to choose one over the other ( during a battle ) , where to go during a search , what to prioritize ...i dunno , hard choices for a super hero... There are none of them here and its too bad. The story is still fun but i cant help but think that this was a clear missed opportunity.
ROUTES
-Zero route
This route had potential but it didnt live up to my expectations. It wasnt a bad route , but they didnt really exploit everyone at their full potential except haruna, roches & phoenix. This route focuses on mirror a lot and the aftermaths of the memory collector wishes but the writting was trully lacking in several areas.
They did try to show a everything went wrong route but the true culprit for all this mess , the memory collector just manage to ignore any semblance of aftermath or responsability for everything.
For this reason this route feels like it was cut short and that they didnt use everyone to their full potential. However the multiple tensions within the balborans was a nice touch.
The theme touched in this route was a good one
Too bad they didnt realy use the reinforcements at their full potential instead of a deus ex machina
6/10
-Heaven route
Sayaka in full tsundere mode was one of the big highlights of the Heaven route
This route was much much better. This route ignores the repercussions on the whole setting and just focuses on a generic hot blooded action.
I like this route because we clearly see the rest of the devellopement in mirror character that was lacking in the zero route despite him having a huge role within. This route also focuses on the strikers , their births and the techology that comes within ( that is the target for many ). Several new characters appear in this route , including Striker Ten & new ennemies.
The heaven route had a classic anime feel to it. The heroine had a very nice attitude and the dialog was trully excellent from everyone. This is a route that focuses on everyone bonds and they treated this subject pretty well. However , some plots problems arise.
Why
did jack not notice something wrong with sayaka . He is a ninja that found the previous transmitter easily. Why does striker ten not notice ? Everyone else ? Was nobody even thinking that they could have been followed ? i mean they were travelling near the ocean so they could fish ...WTF
How the hell did they let sayaka alone once their reached the laboratory. Someone is showing the freaking way , why did nobody follow ? How the hell did teh bad guy managed to approch the Lab without ANYbody to notice ? Worse he caught up to everyone and more faster than striker ten who is familiar with the lab structure ?
All of this just so they could create an artificial tension for the plot. It worked , but some of the things were clearly shaddy.
Still this route was fun and generally awesome.
8/10
Just finished Steins;Gate. Even though I saw the anime. Only this picture could describe how I feel. So. Fucking. Masterful. This will certainly get my LTTP GOTY '13.
Now, I need to take a long break from the VN genre. I cannot afford to be at my PC 40 hours again simply reading a game.
Just finished Steins;Gate. Even though I saw the anime. Only this picture could describe how I feel. So. Fucking. Masterful. This will certainly get my LTTP GOTY '13.
Now, I need to take a long break from the VN genre. I cannot afford to be at my PC 40 hours again simply reading a game.
Today I finished Ever17, and it'll probably be the day I'll remember forever.
Something first off: I really don't like anime, and around 90% of Ever17 feels like the ultimate combination of what I don't like about it. I don't think scenes where school/college kids eat chicken sandwiches and exchange predictable remarks should take so much time. I don't like the idea of characters like Tsugumi whose behavioral patterns become extremely predictable the minute they are introduced. I don't want to listen so much to a nonsensical 14-year old girl that looks and sounds like a 10-year old or even younger.
But it all doesn't matter when you finally reach the plot twists. Oh my god, those plot twists. There are some amusing ones during the first playthroughs, but the ones from Coco's path are on the whole other level. I don't remember any other video game that handled plot twists so well, that broke the fourth wall so mind-blowingly well, that failed and succeed at the same time by being not just an interactive book with pictures, but a video game. Within its limited interactivity it achieves so much that I don't think there are any other games like that. Even Uchikoshi's other stories like the ones in 999 and VLR, though exploring similar themes, are not as brilliantly executed as in Ever17.
You can level many criticisms at Ever17, and most of them will be true. The game is far from perfect, it could be improved dramatically, but if someone ever asks me to explain why VNs are considered to be video games I will tell them to try to be patient and play Ever17. I'm sure that no other medium could tell a story like that.
I wonder if Ken Levine ever heard about Uchikoshi's games?
Shit, I die to have a HQ wallpaper of that moment. I am simply sporting the Kingdom Hearts 1.5 boxart right now. It's decent, but it's no Steins; Gate.
Shit, I die to have a HQ wallpaper of that moment. I am simply sporting the Kingdom Hearts 1.5 boxart right now. It's decent, but it's no Steins; Gate.
Today I finished Ever17, and it'll probably be the day I'll remember forever.
Something first off: I really don't like anime, and around 90% of Ever17 feels like the ultimate combination of what I don't like about it. I don't think scenes where school/college kids eat chicken sandwiches and exchange predictable remarks should take so much time. I don't like the idea of characters like Tsugumi whose behavioral patterns become extremely predictable the minute they are introduced. I don't want to listen so much to a nonsensical 14-year old girl that looks and sounds like a 10-year old or even younger.
But it all doesn't matter when you finally reach the plot twists. Oh my god, those plot twists. There are some amusing ones during the first playthroughs, but the ones from Coco's path are on the whole other level. I don't remember any other video game that handled plot twists so well, that broke the fourth wall so mind-blowingly well, that failed and succeed at the same time by being not just an interactive book with pictures, but a video game. Within its limited interactivity it achieves so much that I don't think there are any other games like that. Even Uchikoshi's other stories like the ones in 999 and VLR, though exploring similar themes, are not as brilliantly executed as in Ever17.
You can level many criticisms at Ever17, and most of them will be true. The game is far from perfect, it could be improved dramatically, but if someone ever asks me to explain why VNs are considered to be video games I will tell them to try to be patient and play Ever17. I'm sure that no other medium could tell a story like that.
I wonder if Ken Levine ever heard about Uchikoshi's games?
I'm glad to see someone else has the same exact opinion I have. I'm also glad to see that person also endured the first four boooring playthroughs to get that ridiculously rewarding true route.
Dengeki striker review Part 2 First part of the review here CHARACTERS
For the sake of my personal review and to avoid spoilers i'll only talk about characters that are in the mangagamer website and not about all the characters in the game. Most of the characters ommited are important to the plot and worthy of praise .
A nice look at everyone in the invader side in action.
- Yuuki Yamato
Classic character and cool character to follow , a little "big the book" but it can't be helped.
his dialog with sayaka are the highlights of the game for me
- Hongo Haruna
Nice character , again classic and liberral to the rule of animes, they managed to make something acceptable with her character
- Ichimonji Sayaka
At her best in the heaven route , but well above average in all the other route, this is a great character that i enjoyed a great deal
- Jack
A nice character that could deserve a route ( a bro route could be awesome )
Jack is not without faults but has numerous excellent lines during the game and the weirdest diary you could read.
- Kazami Rin
Deserved a route . Alright character that was conflicted between the 2 worlds she was navigating since she is a spy. She was unfortunatly underused ..WHY.jpg
-Colonel Mirror
A character you cannot judge untill you've seen the true end. Each route show a different face of his personality. In the end it was a character that deserved more.
-Captain Murray
Nice character .i Liked her attitude and her decisions
-Captain Daniel
Not enough time to shine given his habilities. i kinda hope he will be more active in the new routes in the improved version of this game.
- Lieutenant Roches
Excellent character, plenty of time to shine and good decision overall. I liked him
-Lieutenant Phoenix
Shined the most when Roches was near .Otherwise just above average.
- Lieutenant Hilko
Excellent character. She could had more time to shine but was prevented to do so thanks to some stupid deus ex machina. I'm looking forward to her route in the sequel because she deserve one. Her interractions with rin, sayaka & duran were excellent.
- Warrant Officer Orson
Waste of time
- Warrant Officer Duran
Just below average.Lot of time , but not enough cool things that were done with him. His actions in the zero route were admirable but he is void of presence in the rest of the game.
- Warrant Officer Joseph
Pathetic, not funny , not cool in battle i hope they improve him because he was boring.
- Memory Collector
The most *ssh*le character in the game governed by deus ex machina but intresting enough. i can't help but view him as a vilain because everytime he is on screen , it's not for something good.
ROUTES -sky route
This route was a total surprise for me because it's a continuation of the heaven route 2 days after.
This was a pleaseant suprise because this route finishes the matters that still weren't taken care of.
However this route is not without some serious plot problems either. Some of the twists and quick understanding are just unbelievable and at times they felt forced. Still they tried the best of they could to correct things.
After playing this route ( that has no choices in it ) i understand the need for a Improved version because while good , it feel like we've missed so many opportunities to make the whole setup perfect. The tried to stay within the real of reality ( in a super hero setting ,lol ) and that was the downfall of this route.
It was fun , but it could be much better : 7/10
I could make a list of thing that are just wrong in this route ( plot wise ) but i won't because it would be a huge Black box in this review. Great ideas , flawed execution.
HENTAI
Don't look for it ..it's not really in there ..it feels like the hentai was added because they were forced to do it. There is like 2 scenes in the whole game and you can skip them easily.
I'm actually glad this part didn't stay long.
I don't mind eichi scenes , there is a bath scene with the heroines that is intresting .. but there is nothing else.
CONCLUSION
IN the end , dengeki strikers is a entertaining game , but it's not a great game.The production values are fine, especially the anime portions and teh plot has some cool twists ( and plenty of predictable ones ) but i had fun reading it.
my problem is that some of the character are not brought to their full potential and his was clealry annoying for me.
Some characters are only active during one route and are non existant in the others. it's sad i feel like there was a greta potential and that didn't exploit it all properly.
Still it was a fine experience .. and i'm willing to play the improved version when it gets available in summer 2013
Not really feeling like quoting everybody, so here's my summary of the recent talks of the page:
About FSN. Play it and enjoy the ride. Also, as you can see in this same page, it can be poiarizing: Keiichi said "Don't play it" and I'll counter it with "Play it", since I liked it very much. Of course: It was my second VN that I've ever read so maybe I should re-read it to adjust my original score, which was 9.5, I think.
About Ever17. Maybe it's about time I start to read it. I've been avoiding it since, well, forever, just like Higurashi and Umineko, for whatever god-forsaken-reason.
About Dengeki Stryker. Just waiting for the next release, to see if they fix most of my complaints about it. I'm very happy that they are adding two (or was it three) extra routes, for Hilko and Rin, at the very least. Also, I don't think I've ever been as annoyed with a VN as I have with this (enduring to this day), since it had quite a bit of potential, but they blew it totally in the end. Worth reading for the character interactions, though.
Amazing animations, too. I loved every one of them.
Not really feeling like quoting everybody, so here's my summary of the recent talks of the page:
About FSN. Play it and enjoy the ride. Also, as you can see in this same page, it can be poiarizing: Keiichi said "Don't play it" and I'll counter it with "Play it", since I liked it very much. Of course: It was my second VN that I've ever read so maybe I should re-read it to adjust my original score, which was 9.5, I think.
About Ever17. Maybe it's about time I start to read it. I've been avoiding it since, well, forever, just like Higurashi and Umineko, for whatever god-forsaken-reason.
Ever17 is worth it..i might overhyping it a little but it's just awesome. There is some slow parts in this game but everything was IMO necessary. You will wonder why again ..but it'll be so worth it.
About Dengeki Stryker. Just waiting for the next release, to see if they fix most of my complaints about it. I'm very happy that they are adding two (or was it three) extra routes, for Hilko and Rin, at the very least. Also, I don't think I've ever been as annoyed with a VN as I have with this (enduring to this day), since it had quite a bit of potential, but they blew it totally in the end. Worth reading for the character interactions, though.
Amazing animations, too. I loved every one of them.
It's 3 routes Chou adds and you're right there was a lot of untapped potential they totally ignored in this universe and i'm glad they made a new version for it. Hopefully Chou degeki will deliver.
About FSN. Play it and enjoy the ride. Also, as you can see in this same page, it can be poiarizing: Keiichi said "Don't play it" and I'll counter it with "Play it", since I liked it very much. Of course: It was my second VN that I've ever read so maybe I should re-read it to adjust my original score, which was 9.5, I think.
I think saying "don't play it" is a bit silly because it's not like the game is tricking players into thinking it's something it's not. It's pretty obvious what you'll get from it early on, so if you already started you can decide if you won't like it then.
Just reached a part where it is talking about the murder/decapitation of a girl very graphically.. BUT it still said "I".. does that mean the detective Reiji did it?!?! Or is it from another person's POV?
Dont suppose theres a handy list floating around of what VN's are available on the iPAD (even better if it contains note son which ones have fan translations)? Just realised that there was an english translation available for the iPAD version of Steins;Gate, anyone know what the qualitys like? Would it be better to go with the fan translation for the PC version instead?
I was wondering if anyone could help me out here. I'm reading Never 7, but for some reason Kurumi's route basically ends somewhere a bit after the graveyard scene and defaults back to Yuka's route. I'm using this walkthrough, but the same thing happens every time I retry it. Maybe the version I downloaded is missing some files? I don't think it makes a difference, but I already have Yuka, Haruka, and Saki's good endings.
Edit: The same thing also happens with Izumi's route, but I think that's because I need four good endings first. Not entirely sure about that though.
Ah, I had forgotten about that. That does change things quite a bit, doesn't it? Even so, a good portion of the scenes outside of Heaven's Feel didn't feel very well integrated into the story.
But most of the "important to the plot" stuff are delivered through text.. did they just censor everything related to sex in the story? I thought it was just the graphical scenes.
Played Chaos;Head for a couple of hours.
Main character's voice is rather annoying, thinking about turning it off.
Also, is there a way to properly set up auto mode? It's either too fast or has long pauses between phrases.
Well I'll be at AX so I'll be able to confirm it if I can attend the panel. It's pretty likely since 5pb have been sitting with the translated game reviewing it for a while.
The translator and JAST are responding "Please look forward to AX" in response to Steins;Gate's status. The translator pretty much answers about the status if you ask so I check his blog every once in a while.
Hey,
I just tried downloading Higurashi when they cry (trial version) but cant get it to work and I'm not sure why, I extracted the files and everything? :s
Ah I see, thanks
The file called 'BGI' seems to be the exe., I clicked on that, said 'Run' but nothing's happening?
Maybe its not running with Windows 7 :s
The translator and JAST are responding "Please look forward to AX" in response to Steins;Gate's status. The translator pretty much answers about the status if you ask so I check his blog every once in a while.
When I looked in the Compatability Menu, it said it was set for Windows XP Service Pack 2, so I changed it to Windows 7 but still... nothing I probably cocked up by asking (by accident) the arc files to open with 7Zip file manager and now I cant change it...!
I tried eroge's version and thought that would work but as soon as the title screen opened I got a Yes/No box which doesnt close and then the thing crashed.
Well I'll be at AX so I'll be able to confirm it if I can attend the panel. It's pretty likely since 5pb have been sitting with the translated game reviewing it for a while.
Are they using the fan translation? If they are so many people already QA the translation for them already, the game is pretty much good to go. Expect for some random crashes.
Are they using the fan translation? If they are so many people already QA the translation for them already, the game is pretty much good to go. Expect for some random crashes.
I got interested in visual novels after 999 and VLR which I consider the best games of last few years, so I decided to try Uchikoshi's earlier games - are Never7 and Remember 11 as good as his latest? Or was he still looking for his voice and I'll be disappointed?
Are they even good games with which to start getting more into VN?
Are they using the fan translation? If they are so many people already QA the translation for them already, the game is pretty much good to go. Expect for some random crashes.
I got interested in visual novels after 999 and VLR which I consider the best games of last few years, so I decided to try Uchikoshi's earlier games - are Never7 and Remember 11 as good as his latest? Or was he still looking for his voice and I'll be disappointed?
Are they even good games with which to start getting more into VN?
I never played Never7, so can't help you with that. But I did play Remember 11 and Ever 17 (which is also an Uchikoshi game). You didn't mention Ever 17, I guess you just missed that title while researching or did you play it already?
Anyway I'd say both of the titles are just as good as the Zero escape serie.
First of Remember 11; like I said before, great title. It almost immediatly throws you in. The prologue only takes around 10 minutes and after that the story already throws some serious plot at you. What I really like about the game is the more "darker" story; it's more like 999 than VLR. The thing this game gets a lot of slack for is the true ending. It ends really abrupt and it just feels rushed (Which it is). But if you really take the time to think about it and google some stuff you'll understand it. Personally I find Remember 11 better than Ever 17, but I'm one of the few who think that, since the general opinion is that Ever 17 is better. One thing that is pretty different from the other Uchikoshi games is that this game doesn't really follow the "Uchikoshi format". What I mean by that is that this game is more of a straight path, instead of multiple playthroughs. You'll be hitting a bad ending pretty easily, but instead of playing a whole new playthrough; you just rewind a few minutes/hours.
Ever 17; Like Remember 11 a really good game. This game has an awesome true ending, but it really takes a while to get there. The game is somewhat more lighthearted and has a bit more "dating-sim" to it. This game does follow the "Uchikoshi format". Multiple playthroughs you have to go through and then when you've done them all you can do the true ending. The first 2-3 playthroughs are fun, but after that it gets a bit stale until the true ending playthrough. You have to push through that, but it's rewarding at the end. I've seen a few people in here even mention that those boring playthroughs had to be done to get the most of the true ending.
I've already read a lot of praise of Ever 17 and I'll definitely pick it up. But I've also read that it can take around 80h to finish and that's a pretty big commitment so I decided to try any of the other two first.
Remember 11 being a darker story would be perfect since I think there were some pretty unnecessary tone swings in VLR - e.g. Sigma's cat thing, and I'm all for something a bit more serious.
