Byronic Hero
Member
I decided to combine all of my impressions from the English VN thread here to form a LTTP. All of this will contain spoilers for all of the first part (Episodes 1 through 4).
I will separate each of my impressions by episode. Get ready for a HUGE WALL OF TEXT.
This is the longest Visual novel I have ever played with each episode taking me around 12 hours on average to finish. Still loved almost every minute of it and will be jumping into Chiru in the very near future.
This picture pretty much sums up my experience with episodes 1 through 4.
Characters:
[1]
Battler is awesome, everyone else is just alright.
[2]
Battler is still the greatest VN protagonist I've come across, even though his "giving up" at the end of the episode made me lose a bit of respect I had for him. I expected him to endure and to not let Beatrice see him sweat.
Kanon = badass. Period.
Shannon & Genji also showed me some skills, so I like them much more than I initially did.
Maria and her "uu-uu" can still go burn somewhere.
Beatrice. When it comes to her, I can't think of a time when I hated an antagonist this much, I just want to see her lose. So evil and vindictive. Soo good.
Everyone else has yet to give me a real reason to like them.
[3]
Battler still has his spot at #1, but Kanon has been knocked down to #4 after Rudolf & Kyrie. Their battle with the Seven Sisters was the highlight of the entire episode. Actually, scratch that, #2 goes to the girl Rika AKA Lady Berkastel.
So, those are my top 5 characters so far.
Maria can still ~Uuu Uuu~ herself into a coma.
Everyone else was pretty forgettable, although I do expect Genji to show some of that power I know he has.
Eva has also fallen to the bottom with her actions.
And as always Beatrice is still the villain I love to hate. But with Lambadelta pulling the strings, it takes a bit of the sting out of her actions because she isnt the big bad mastermind I thought she was. Even though her Teacher helping her out was to be expected, I would have liked it a bit more if Lambadelta was the spectator she said she was rather than the puppet master.
[4]
There were a bunch of new characters introduced in this episode, so I'll try to just touch on the few that made an impression. While for at least 65% of this episode Battler & Co. were MIA, I have to give it to George and Jessica for their fights with Gaap and Rounoe respectively. Both did ridiculously well, even though I expected the outcome from the start. To see them go down fighting was a thing of beauty.
Angie was alright but she didn't seem like a main character. Too dull
Kyrie's sister was a cliched villain from a Saturday morning cartoon.
Everyone in Angie's timeline was forgettable. Except for her body guard, Amakusa.
Gaap. She seems like the poor man's Beatrice. Nothing about her felt original in any way, she almost seems like she was just an early version of Beatrice that got scrapped during development.
The third member of the Siesta Sisters felt unnecessary. But I have to give them credit when the first two popped up I was like "well crap, here we go again.How could things get any worse." but then the the third showed up and I was like "Well s*it. It's over." lol
One character that I grew to hate immensely was Kinzo, or Goldsmith, or whatever the hell he wants to call himself. He was alright in the first few episodes, even though his constant whining for 'BBBBBBEEEEEEAAAAAATTTTTRRIIIIIIIICCCEEEEEEEE!!!!" got on my nerves almost as much as the ~Uuu~ that's going to be forever seared into my brain. He was pretty much the villain you expected him to be from the very beginning, and that was kind of a letdown. I thought we'd get through the entire game without him being a complete dick.
Lastly, the "Ass nee-chans" were pretty good in this episode, but Sakatarou didn't come off as anything more than a delusional little get's imaginary friend created to escape the loneliness/abuse of her real life. Thus making me see him for what I thought he was. Not real.
Story:
[1]
Right now, it seems like Battler is either super in denial about Beatrice's existence, or there is some elaborate scheme going on to make the player believe she actually does. As of the end of this episode, I don't believe she exists, I just want Battler to find a logical explanation for all the happenings.
[2]
George & Shannon's tale was alright, but it dragged on much longer than it had to. Once we got past that and things started moving, it was very enjoyable. I especially liked seeing Rosa take charge of the group, even if it did end up making her completely paranoid. Battler outwitting Beatrice on the first locked room murder made me want to stand up and cheer. Hated how she completely changed the game when she started refraining from answering questions. Such a dick move.
The "???" for this episode was awesome! When Berkastel said "~niipa"
[3]
Starting here, I begin to falter. Things start to get a bit too crazy. So reading the few posts up until I actually finish the episode is worth it.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
I honestly set my expectations low because whenever I take GAF's (or anyone else's for that matter) opinion on something being amazing I am usually let down. But this . THIS. WAS. AMAZING! The beginning was a bit slow, and there were some parts where I was losing interest; but towards the end when Beatrice turned out to be playing you even though she put on the façade of good witch Sh*t. Got. Real.
It was incredible that the writers were able to give Beatrice and Battler a common enemy and actually have me rooting for Beato more so than Battler. To have her set up as the good guy only to have her reveal her true intentions right at the last minute was pure Beatrice. Similar to the end of (SPOILERS FOR DmC: Devil May Cry) DmC where Virgil does something similar, I laughed for a good 10 minutes because of how much I both did and didn't see it coming.
The only complaints I had were regarding EVA-Beatrices eye color being different than regular Eva and the seemingly unnecessary Witch fight. The eye color threw me off because it seemed to be saying This isn't Eva, this is an entirely different person. Rather than This is magic Eva. I can accept it if it happens again, because that would establish it as a fact, but as an isolated incident, it was a bit jarring.
[4]
Ange was pretty meh in my eyes. She didn't seem like much of a main character so the extensive amount of time they put into developing and fleshing out her character/story felt like it went on a bit too long. Especially to have her just "explode" after all was said and done.
The other characters that got a bit too much time in the limelight were Maria (who I still hate) and Rosa (who I now slightly hate). Their little story of mommy wanting her own life, while neglecting her daughter was alright, but even though it made Maria lonely to damn near psychotic/delusional levels, I still didn't feel her character had been redeemed. Especially when Maria went all EVA Beatrice on Rosa.
One ting that did hit me right in the feels was when EVA revealed the reason behind Maria's constant ~Uuu~ing. If that had been ANY other character, I would have been bawling like a baby. But Maria....She's too crazy for me too feel anything towards at this point. Maybe if she hadn't been such an annoying/brat/psycho in the other episodes, I'd have enjoyed the reveal much more.
The most cartoony villain in the entire first "season", Kyrie's sister just screamed "I'M ONLY HERE SO "FUTURE" ANGE HAS AN ANTAGONIST!" Her story just came off as petty, and seems like it's only purpose was to ensure Ange had a "bad guy" to keep her on her toes. Eva had been that person initally, but after she died, I guess they needed a replacement.
Lady Berk & Lamdadelta as seen in the ??? seem like they just want to watch Beatrice's world burn and nothing else. I loved Rika, but to see her in this light kinda makes me want to rethink that. If she and Lambdadelta were opposing forces, I could justify her reasoning, but for them to basically be working in tandem in order to make Beatrice suffer, just seems unfair. I hate Beatrice. But I only hate her in the way you are supposed to hate the villain. Her deceptive ways and evil tendencies make her endearing to me for some reason and every time I see her in her "sad mode" it makes me feel bad. I don't want to hate pitiful Beatrice. I want to hate that evil witch with the creepy evil smile from the end of the 3rd Episode.
Music:
Really good, I'll be getting this soundtrack when I finish the game for sure. The music that plays when someone suspects someone is especially good. I like how it starts out all whimsical, but ends up being this dramatic sounding thrill-ride type melody. Love it.
Lingering questions: (I don't want anyone to answer these, I'm sure I'll get my answers in Chiru.)
[1]
Smashed faces? Why? At least one of those bodies wasn't who they seemed. I'm almost sure of it.
Locked room murders? That seemed to be the theme of this episode, but I'm thinking there will be some logical explanation for all of them.
Everything else was pretty straight-forward. Unless the story takes a ridiculous turn, I think I will enjoy the next 7 episodes.
[4]
What did Ange see at the sailor's house that freaked her out so much?
Loser Flags? Dragonball references, George & Jessica seemingly able to go toe to toe with Beatrice's most powerful furniture? Spontaneous combustion? The hell?
Battler isn't Asamu's son? Although I pretty much called this as soon as I found out that Ange was Kyrie & Rudolf's child. Seriously, if their hair had been different colors, I would have been able to believe they were only half-brother and sister. When Kyrie talked about her son that she lost back in the second episode (I think), I immediately saw a red flag.
One last thing I just thought of. Is Lambadelta, Takano Miyo from the original Higurashi? With the red eyes, blond hair and the fact that she faced Berkastel kinda points to it, but I don't know.
Predictions:
I only have predictions for the last episode and the only scene I am thinking I have figured out is the last Ange scene when Kyrie's sister confronts her on Roukinjima.
Here we go. When Ange got off the boat and told Amakusa not to follow her, he did. Because he was basically a covert op soldier, following her without her knowledge shouldn't have been a problem. Everything goes fine until he spots Kyrie's sister (I've completely forgotten her name) and her goons. Amakusa believes Ange can talk her way out of the situation and decides to hold back. Did I mention he has high caliber sniper rifle with him just in case? Well he does (I think)
Anyway, when all hope seems lost and it looks like Ange is about to die, Amakusa shoots and kills everyone. The reason the goons' guns didn't hurt Ange was because all of them were filled with blanks (Devil's Proof. Don't know how it got done, but there it is.) I think this is the outcome because even though the Sisters have the ability to slice through metal (as demonstrated by Kanon) they choose to change into their stake forms or simply pierce their victims. Ange, being just as delusional as Maria, believes that her friends saved her when in reality Amakusa is just a badass.
It would be so awesome if I could have written that in blue xD
One more thing that's been bugging me is the fact that the "witch" versions of some of the characters are in all capital letters. MARIA EVA ANGE. Is is me, or does when you pronounce it as they would in Japanese does it sound like "My Revenge". Maybe I'm wrong, but it's been on my mind.
If you can't tell, I love this game.
I will separate each of my impressions by episode. Get ready for a HUGE WALL OF TEXT.
This is the longest Visual novel I have ever played with each episode taking me around 12 hours on average to finish. Still loved almost every minute of it and will be jumping into Chiru in the very near future.
This picture pretty much sums up my experience with episodes 1 through 4.
Characters:
[1]
Battler is awesome, everyone else is just alright.
[2]
Battler is still the greatest VN protagonist I've come across, even though his "giving up" at the end of the episode made me lose a bit of respect I had for him. I expected him to endure and to not let Beatrice see him sweat.
Kanon = badass. Period.
Shannon & Genji also showed me some skills, so I like them much more than I initially did.
Maria and her "uu-uu" can still go burn somewhere.
Beatrice. When it comes to her, I can't think of a time when I hated an antagonist this much, I just want to see her lose. So evil and vindictive. Soo good.
Everyone else has yet to give me a real reason to like them.
[3]
Battler still has his spot at #1, but Kanon has been knocked down to #4 after Rudolf & Kyrie. Their battle with the Seven Sisters was the highlight of the entire episode. Actually, scratch that, #2 goes to the girl Rika AKA Lady Berkastel.
So, those are my top 5 characters so far.
Maria can still ~Uuu Uuu~ herself into a coma.
Everyone else was pretty forgettable, although I do expect Genji to show some of that power I know he has.
Eva has also fallen to the bottom with her actions.
And as always Beatrice is still the villain I love to hate. But with Lambadelta pulling the strings, it takes a bit of the sting out of her actions because she isnt the big bad mastermind I thought she was. Even though her Teacher helping her out was to be expected, I would have liked it a bit more if Lambadelta was the spectator she said she was rather than the puppet master.
[4]
There were a bunch of new characters introduced in this episode, so I'll try to just touch on the few that made an impression. While for at least 65% of this episode Battler & Co. were MIA, I have to give it to George and Jessica for their fights with Gaap and Rounoe respectively. Both did ridiculously well, even though I expected the outcome from the start. To see them go down fighting was a thing of beauty.
Angie was alright but she didn't seem like a main character. Too dull
Kyrie's sister was a cliched villain from a Saturday morning cartoon.
Everyone in Angie's timeline was forgettable. Except for her body guard, Amakusa.
Gaap. She seems like the poor man's Beatrice. Nothing about her felt original in any way, she almost seems like she was just an early version of Beatrice that got scrapped during development.
The third member of the Siesta Sisters felt unnecessary. But I have to give them credit when the first two popped up I was like "well crap, here we go again.How could things get any worse." but then the the third showed up and I was like "Well s*it. It's over." lol
One character that I grew to hate immensely was Kinzo, or Goldsmith, or whatever the hell he wants to call himself. He was alright in the first few episodes, even though his constant whining for 'BBBBBBEEEEEEAAAAAATTTTTRRIIIIIIIICCCEEEEEEEE!!!!" got on my nerves almost as much as the ~Uuu~ that's going to be forever seared into my brain. He was pretty much the villain you expected him to be from the very beginning, and that was kind of a letdown. I thought we'd get through the entire game without him being a complete dick.
Lastly, the "Ass nee-chans" were pretty good in this episode, but Sakatarou didn't come off as anything more than a delusional little get's imaginary friend created to escape the loneliness/abuse of her real life. Thus making me see him for what I thought he was. Not real.
Story:
[1]
Right now, it seems like Battler is either super in denial about Beatrice's existence, or there is some elaborate scheme going on to make the player believe she actually does. As of the end of this episode, I don't believe she exists, I just want Battler to find a logical explanation for all the happenings.
[2]
George & Shannon's tale was alright, but it dragged on much longer than it had to. Once we got past that and things started moving, it was very enjoyable. I especially liked seeing Rosa take charge of the group, even if it did end up making her completely paranoid. Battler outwitting Beatrice on the first locked room murder made me want to stand up and cheer. Hated how she completely changed the game when she started refraining from answering questions. Such a dick move.
The "???" for this episode was awesome! When Berkastel said "~niipa"
[3]
Starting here, I begin to falter. Things start to get a bit too crazy. So reading the few posts up until I actually finish the episode is worth it.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
I honestly set my expectations low because whenever I take GAF's (or anyone else's for that matter) opinion on something being amazing I am usually let down. But this . THIS. WAS. AMAZING! The beginning was a bit slow, and there were some parts where I was losing interest; but towards the end when Beatrice turned out to be playing you even though she put on the façade of good witch Sh*t. Got. Real.
It was incredible that the writers were able to give Beatrice and Battler a common enemy and actually have me rooting for Beato more so than Battler. To have her set up as the good guy only to have her reveal her true intentions right at the last minute was pure Beatrice. Similar to the end of (SPOILERS FOR DmC: Devil May Cry) DmC where Virgil does something similar, I laughed for a good 10 minutes because of how much I both did and didn't see it coming.
The only complaints I had were regarding EVA-Beatrices eye color being different than regular Eva and the seemingly unnecessary Witch fight. The eye color threw me off because it seemed to be saying This isn't Eva, this is an entirely different person. Rather than This is magic Eva. I can accept it if it happens again, because that would establish it as a fact, but as an isolated incident, it was a bit jarring.
[4]
Ange was pretty meh in my eyes. She didn't seem like much of a main character so the extensive amount of time they put into developing and fleshing out her character/story felt like it went on a bit too long. Especially to have her just "explode" after all was said and done.
The other characters that got a bit too much time in the limelight were Maria (who I still hate) and Rosa (who I now slightly hate). Their little story of mommy wanting her own life, while neglecting her daughter was alright, but even though it made Maria lonely to damn near psychotic/delusional levels, I still didn't feel her character had been redeemed. Especially when Maria went all EVA Beatrice on Rosa.
One ting that did hit me right in the feels was when EVA revealed the reason behind Maria's constant ~Uuu~ing. If that had been ANY other character, I would have been bawling like a baby. But Maria....She's too crazy for me too feel anything towards at this point. Maybe if she hadn't been such an annoying/brat/psycho in the other episodes, I'd have enjoyed the reveal much more.
The most cartoony villain in the entire first "season", Kyrie's sister just screamed "I'M ONLY HERE SO "FUTURE" ANGE HAS AN ANTAGONIST!" Her story just came off as petty, and seems like it's only purpose was to ensure Ange had a "bad guy" to keep her on her toes. Eva had been that person initally, but after she died, I guess they needed a replacement.
Lady Berk & Lamdadelta as seen in the ??? seem like they just want to watch Beatrice's world burn and nothing else. I loved Rika, but to see her in this light kinda makes me want to rethink that. If she and Lambdadelta were opposing forces, I could justify her reasoning, but for them to basically be working in tandem in order to make Beatrice suffer, just seems unfair. I hate Beatrice. But I only hate her in the way you are supposed to hate the villain. Her deceptive ways and evil tendencies make her endearing to me for some reason and every time I see her in her "sad mode" it makes me feel bad. I don't want to hate pitiful Beatrice. I want to hate that evil witch with the creepy evil smile from the end of the 3rd Episode.
Music:
Really good, I'll be getting this soundtrack when I finish the game for sure. The music that plays when someone suspects someone is especially good. I like how it starts out all whimsical, but ends up being this dramatic sounding thrill-ride type melody. Love it.
Lingering questions: (I don't want anyone to answer these, I'm sure I'll get my answers in Chiru.)
[1]
Smashed faces? Why? At least one of those bodies wasn't who they seemed. I'm almost sure of it.
Locked room murders? That seemed to be the theme of this episode, but I'm thinking there will be some logical explanation for all of them.
Everything else was pretty straight-forward. Unless the story takes a ridiculous turn, I think I will enjoy the next 7 episodes.
[4]
What did Ange see at the sailor's house that freaked her out so much?
Loser Flags? Dragonball references, George & Jessica seemingly able to go toe to toe with Beatrice's most powerful furniture? Spontaneous combustion? The hell?
Battler isn't Asamu's son? Although I pretty much called this as soon as I found out that Ange was Kyrie & Rudolf's child. Seriously, if their hair had been different colors, I would have been able to believe they were only half-brother and sister. When Kyrie talked about her son that she lost back in the second episode (I think), I immediately saw a red flag.
One last thing I just thought of. Is Lambadelta, Takano Miyo from the original Higurashi? With the red eyes, blond hair and the fact that she faced Berkastel kinda points to it, but I don't know.
Predictions:
I only have predictions for the last episode and the only scene I am thinking I have figured out is the last Ange scene when Kyrie's sister confronts her on Roukinjima.
Here we go. When Ange got off the boat and told Amakusa not to follow her, he did. Because he was basically a covert op soldier, following her without her knowledge shouldn't have been a problem. Everything goes fine until he spots Kyrie's sister (I've completely forgotten her name) and her goons. Amakusa believes Ange can talk her way out of the situation and decides to hold back. Did I mention he has high caliber sniper rifle with him just in case? Well he does (I think)
Anyway, when all hope seems lost and it looks like Ange is about to die, Amakusa shoots and kills everyone. The reason the goons' guns didn't hurt Ange was because all of them were filled with blanks (Devil's Proof. Don't know how it got done, but there it is.) I think this is the outcome because even though the Sisters have the ability to slice through metal (as demonstrated by Kanon) they choose to change into their stake forms or simply pierce their victims. Ange, being just as delusional as Maria, believes that her friends saved her when in reality Amakusa is just a badass.
It would be so awesome if I could have written that in blue xD
One more thing that's been bugging me is the fact that the "witch" versions of some of the characters are in all capital letters. MARIA EVA ANGE. Is is me, or does when you pronounce it as they would in Japanese does it sound like "My Revenge". Maybe I'm wrong, but it's been on my mind.
If you can't tell, I love this game.
