Support NeoGAF

[Attackthebase]

This is something that's been confusing me. Until I saw other people mentioning it, the thought that Emi could be seen as a loli never even crossed my mind. She's not even flat, and

Spoiler

her view of sex is fairly mature.

Hanako, on the other hand, comes across as younger than the rest of the cast and is repeatedly compared to a child. (Hanako spoilers)

Spoiler

Fortunately, she ends up being a much more mature person than I first thought, and her reveal(HURR) shows that she's got the boobies to match.

It's more of the shortness and pigtails that makes her young in my book. I was surprised to find out that she was 19 (the oldest in the game right?). She seems the most "loli" like of the five characters. Also, I never saw Hanako as young...

Spoiler

those curves!

 

[Pandaman]

wow shizunes route has

Spoiler

one decision

past act 2.
night and day compared to rins.

 

[Soma]

All these people with bad opinions insulting my waifu's route. What has the world come to!

The thing about Shizune's route that disappointed me was that I wished it centered more around her and Hisao's relationship. When I first started playing this, she was the first one I wanted to go for (yet I somehow got on Emi's arc first but that's another thing lol). After finishing Shizune's arc I never felt a connection or even romance between her and Hisao (

Spoiler

aside from the randomly placed sex scenes

) and I never really felt I learned a lot about her either. I guess you can make the argument that she never 'needed' something like that or that the writer was trying to go for something different but I dunno.

I don't even think she's a bad character, quite the opposite in fact since at first I liked her the most out of the bunch, but I don't think the story did her character justice. That might just be me so yeah. I will say the

Spoiler

story between her and Misha caught me off guard. the whole time i was thinking "okay i'm pretty sure Misha likes Hisao too and this is creating a love tria- oh shit she likes SHIZUNE?!

 

[Tess3ract]

Uh, If I was trying to go for hanako and got the Emi ending for act 1, am I already fucked?

 

[Nyoro SF]

Uh, If I was trying to go for hanako and got the Emi ending for act 1, am I already fucked?

If you're really going for Hanako, you should get the Hanako primer for Act 1. Skip Mode is available if you've forgotten to use Save States.

 

[GuardianE]

Uh, If I was trying to go for hanako and got the Emi ending for act 1, am I already fucked?

You mean, you got Emi's cutscene? When you see the animation cutscene, you're set on that path.

Load up another save if you want to shoot for Hanako.

 

[Pancakes]

wow shizunes route has

Spoiler

one decision

past act 2.
night and day compared to rins.

You need to play Lily's route >:|.

 

[Tess3ract]

You mean, you got Emi's cutscene? When you see the animation cutscene, you're set on that path.

Load up another save if you want to shoot for Hanako.

Welp. I dont really have another save

 

[Crash Station]

Okay, which one of you guys made this, because I can't stop watching it.

 

[ultron87]

Welp. I dont really have another save

Time for some Skip Mode!

 

[GuardianE]

Welp. I dont really have another save

Aw, well. You could always stick with Emi. She's kinda awesome.

 

[OMG Aero]

aaa

 

[Brazil]

I can only reply by linking you to this.

Oh my God, I'm dying here.

 

[Soma]

man i love some of the fanart that's been coming out for this

 

[Tess3ract]

LOL I did the skip mode and picked a bunch of options I didn't have before. BAD END

 

[SpacePirate Ridley]

Wow, I really like that fan art.
Im still not looking for fanart as im havent finish all the routes and I dont want spoilers, but once i finish all the routes im going to search the interents!

Im thinking...
With all the praise all the routes are having minus Shizune's one, whats the opinon of the writer of that route to being the least loved of all the games routes.

It has to be a hard blow.

Well, responding at my own question, this seem to be one of the problems:

Apparently the initial writer for Shizune left halfway through, and the replacement writer didn’t actually like her at all. That’s just what I heard, but I guess she’s a victim of development hell. What a shame.

I dont understand why they put in charge a guy who didnt like the character to do her route.
I also think that that route not having really any decisions in one point of the game was becuase it was really two diferent routes at first, one with Misha and one with Shizune, creating the conflict that route needed. Making Misha just a mere plot point in the route didnt help in the slightets, and is worst when you feel bad for the companion than the protagonist of that route.

 

[Tess3ract]

Is there a wallpaper of hanako? I have one of rin...

got hanako

 

[Jintor]

It's more of the shortness and pigtails that makes her young in my book. I was surprised to find out that she was 19 (the oldest in the game right?). She seems the most "loli" like of the five characters. Also, I never saw Hanako as young...

Spoiler

those curves!

My ex was pretty much her height and build, so it didn't feel that weird to me.

Shizune's route is tricky because the story (as it revolves around her) is almost entirely about

Spoiler

her shutting other people out because of her pride, and therefore makes it really really hard to tell through Hisao's POV.

 

[KO Traveling Hobo]

It's more of the shortness and pigtails that makes her young in my book. I was surprised to find out that she was 19 (the oldest in the game right?). She seems the most "loli" like of the five characters. Also, I never saw Hanako as young...

Spoiler

those curves!

Spoiler

You don't really get to see those curves until near the end of her route, and Hisao even calls her smile/face/expression childlike immediately after they have sex.

Well, responding at my own question, this seem to be one of the problems:


I dont understand why they put in charge a guy who didnt like the character to do her route.
I also think that that route not having really any decisions in one point of the game was becuase it was really two diferent routes at first, one with Misha and one with Shizune, creating the conflict that route needed. Making Misha just a mere plot point in the route didnt help in the slightets, and is worst when you feel bad for the companion than the protagonist of that route.

According to the developers, that's just a BS rumor. Shizune had one author(a22, I think it was) the entire time.


Another thought about Emi: I wish I could go back in time and tell the author not to refer to Hisao's morning exercise as "the runs." Call me immature, but I couldn't help laughing to myself every time Hisao complained about having the runs.

 

[Tess3ract]

Hanako's end story made me tear up a little, how depressing

 

[Dynamite Ringo Matsuri]

So.. There's a thread about ND hoping to raise the level of story telling in the industry with TLoU cause they feel story telling on a whole is poor. I'm tempted to namedrop KS in that thread lol That a game created by a bunch of anonymous guys on a message board has infinitely more nuance and better characterization than the Uncharted series and was released for free is pretty lolworthy

 

[Owlowiscious]

North Dakota?

Anon guys with a 5-12 year development time.

 

[XeroSauce]

I closed my eyes today and with a help of a friend, tried to navigate downtown Toronto.

Everything is so LOUD. All you hear are cars around you and parking garages. I was clutching onto her for dear life.

 

[Attackthebase]

Spoiler

You don't really get to see those curves until near the end of her route, and Hisao even calls her smile/face/expression childlike immediately after they have sex.

She didn't look like a child to me anyway. Like I said, Emi's shortness and pigtails are the thing that look childish to me. Just my opinion.

So.. There's a thread about ND hoping to raise the level of story telling in the industry with TLoU cause they feel story telling on a whole is poor. I'm tempted to namedrop KS in that thread lol That a game created by a bunch of anonymous guys on a message board has infinitely more nuance and better characterization than the Uncharted series and was released for free is pretty lolworthy

Charge in that thread and spread the truth. People must know.

 

[Pureauthor]

So.. There's a thread about ND hoping to raise the level of story telling in the industry with TLoU cause they feel story telling on a whole is poor. I'm tempted to namedrop KS in that thread lol That a game created by a bunch of anonymous guys on a message board has infinitely more nuance and better characterization than the Uncharted series and was released for free is pretty lolworthy

Well in the first place I would certainly hope a game genre that is entirely devoted to bringing out a story (via text, music and art) would be better in storytelling than a genre whose ultimate purpose is shooting dudes/accomplishing ingame goals.

 

[Dynamite Ringo Matsuri]

I'm sure someone will dismantle my argument with the notion that a VN is not a game, ignoring that the onus is on ND for making such an outlandish claim that they are going to bring attention to the deficit in storytelling quality with TLoU. I mean, don't get me wrong, I like UC and ND, but they are comprised of some of the greatest and brightest minds in the industry and are helming mega multi million dollar projects, I just find their messiah complex a little precious, current output considered.

 

[ShinoguTakeruKoeru]

I'm sure this must have been only my experience, but I have to talk about it.

There's one sound effect that I can't get over the usage of. It's a sort of sweeping sound that you tend to hear when things get zoomed in on or

Spoiler

when the sex scenes hit their climax, as it were

. Unfortunately, I've heard the sound far too often before in another context:

Spoiler

using Hotsuma's dash in Shinobi for PS2

. Whenever I hear that sound, I immediately lose it.

Anyway, I finally completed each of the 5 routes and got 100% completion. There's still the very last picture to unlock though, how does that happen?

 

[Jintor]

I'm sure someone will dismantle my argument with the notion that a VN is not a game, ignoring that the onus is on ND for making such an outlandish claim that they are going to bring attention to the deficit in storytelling quality with TLoU. I mean, don't get me wrong, I like UC and ND, but they are comprised of some of the greatest and brightest minds in the industry and are helming mega multi million dollar projects, I just find their messiah complex a little precious, current output considered.

I struggle with this idea too, the proper place of narrative in games, but when you fucking come out and say 'we're the greatest motherfuckers in the universe at narrative' or whatever, screw you. I've only had feels of this magnitude from KS and Planescape, I think, so take your action movie bullshit and go home.

 

[pieatorium]

I struggle with this idea too, the proper place of narrative in games, but when you fucking come out and say 'we're the greatest motherfuckers in the universe at narrative' or whatever, screw you. I've only had feels of this magnitude from KS and Planescape, I think, so take your action movie bullshit and go home.

+1 Planescape, best story telling in gaming

 

[kiunchbb]

I also thought the

Spoiler

"I think I might be falling in love with her"

bit at the end of act 1 came out of left field too. I don't really get what prompted that aside from

Spoiler

oh hey Shizune standing in front of the sky looks pretty cool I guess.

Yeah when I got to Shizune route playing the first time, I was actually aiming for Misha....

Disappointing.

 

[Dynamite Ringo Matsuri]

I struggle with this idea too, the proper place of narrative in games, but when you fucking come out and say 'we're the greatest motherfuckers in the universe at narrative' or whatever, screw you. I've only had feels of this magnitude from KS and Planescape, I think, so take your action movie bullshit and go home.

Well, I believe what he said in the proper context was, story telling is executed poorly across the industry, and that reviewers are too lax in giving developers a pass for it, or lauding these efforts as being well written. Still, ND really painted themselves into a corner packaging the UC series as an action blockbuster series. It makes any quiet or ponderous moments feel shoehorned in and creates a narrative disconnect, which wouldn't be a problem if not for the fact that in banking on top notch mo-cap actors and tech, they are clearly proud of their story telling "craft". The problem is, the story telling in UC, for being as well directed as it is, isn't even elevated to MGS levels. With that said, I feel like they are in a better position to succeed with TLoU as there are clear parallels to other stories that feature isolated protagonists in a hostile world such as "The Road" and "Walking Dead". It should be a simple exercise for them to hit the emotional highs and dredge the lows just by emulating how these stories achieved them.

 

[Diamond]

I struggle with this idea too, the proper place of narrative in games, but when you fucking come out and say 'we're the greatest motherfuckers in the universe at narrative' or whatever, screw you. I've only had feels of this magnitude from KS and Planescape, I think, so take your action movie bullshit and go home.

I always find funny that guys with narrative approaches that I prefer, like Schafer, Avellone, the Remedy guys or Levine for example, come off as pretty down to earth guys who play and like many other games. They seem more open to other ideas, whereas Naughty Dog or David Cage make pretty bad generalizations about the industry and seem to only play games that don't even try narrative things. I actually have a hard time believing they are as categorical as they seem to be, because it would be quite sad, for them and for us (hey, we're the ones playing their games at the end of the day). All things considered they're interesting designers and they're fighting a good fight, so a part of me wants to believe they just throw punchlines to emphasize the bullet-points of their games.

 

[Jintor]

I should note that my post was made having not yet actually read the dude's comment, so disregard if you wish. My point about KS and Planescape perhaps being the only two games that have affected me narratively stands though.

 

[RyougaSaotome]

And after a day long debate over whether a free, fan-game made should get a full review or not, it looks like I'll be writing one after all. Hahaha.

 

[Jintor]

Fans of what? Of Raita? Of the concept?

 

[CSX]

Just a little fun fact about Raita my friend showed me. This is also for you type moon fans

He sended me a screenshot of the credits of Fate/prototype. Apparently he designed the Excalibur shown in fate/prototype.

four years of sleeping in high school japanese class NOT IN VAIN

 

[Attackthebase]

Well, I finished Emi. I want to do Rin, but I don't want to end the game on Shizune's path, so look like I'm doing her path next.

 

[Pirabear]

This is amazing:

 

[VanillaCakeIsBurning]

This is amazing:

Awesome

Am I correct in saying this is a parody of Cromartie High School?

 

[RyougaSaotome]

Fans of what? Of Raita? Of the concept?

Raita, I guess you could say the concept.

My argument is that it was an indie game, regardless of price and therefore deserves a fair shake. Obviously you're looking at it from a different point of view in terms of value, but it's still worth it.

It sort of morphed into an interesting conversation about what defines an indie game vs pro etc. Hahaha.

 

[Crash Station]

Awesome

Am I correct in saying this is a parody of Cromartie High School?

Yes.

 

[RyougaSaotome]

This is amazing:

Laughing. So. So. Hard.

 

[Jintor]

Raita, I guess you could say the concept.

My argument is that it was an indie game, regardless of price and therefore deserves a fair shake. Obviously you're looking at it from a different point of view in terms of value, but it's still worth it.

It sort of morphed into an interesting conversation about what defines an indie game vs pro etc. Hahaha.

It's one of the most extreme cases of 'doin' it for the art' I've seen in a while.

 

[Tess3ract]

The cutest image ever.

 

[Pureauthor]

I already posted that last page! Get your own images, you.

 

[tafer]

After all said and done, do we have some sort of reactions from the artist that came up with the original idea?

 

[Tess3ract]

Sorry I didn't see it!

 

[Jintor]

The cutest image ever.

dat brush technique

 

[Owlowiscious]

The cutest image ever.

Indeed

 

[Tess3ract]

No! Why would you do that