Visual Novel Cafe

[Terumi]

@Hoshiori: If there's only one route one plans to complete, take Rika's. All other routes are beyond lovely and purely romance, but Rika's had imho much more to it. The resolve of her major personal worries which felt much stronger in terms of character development than other routes. Miya's had also a different touch to it, seeing that she also had a firm dream outside of pursuing your "dream profession" (which is a very respectable deed itself!).
In short: While each route was extremly enjoyable and smile-provoking, Rika's must be my personal favourite. Only Sora's route remains! So far, Hoshiori is without a doubt the best VN of that month for me.

Been wanting to point since your previous posts about hoshiori, there's no one named Miya. I assume you mean Misa, but having the names mixed up after so long doesnt really sound like a character i will remember at all. I usually clear games leaving my more favored characters behind, in my case hoshiori's order for me is

Sora -> Misa -> Marika -> Natsuki -> Rika -> Touko

Still stuck on Sora because nukiges have derailed me. I MIGHT change the last 2's positions, but unlikely.

 

[kactaplb]

wanted to give my impression after finishing touko's route. their relationship felt a bit rushed, and i expected alot more drama when i first saw her in the old school building with the key and all but i'm definitely glad i stuck through to the end. i got more of a relaxed, mypace sort of feeling throughout. it also felt like her route deviated the most from the root, so i'm looking forward to the other heroines. fandisc! make it happen toneworks! anyways, next i'll go after either rika/natsuki and probably move on to a different game.

a bit off topic but i'm tempted to get the july dengekihime daki... so weak orz

 

[Animaksiat]

[MENTION=10115]kactaplb[/MENTION]; july dengeki hime... if i recall... it was luna's dakimakura

 

[kactaplb]

oops, meant 08 august issue

 

[Terumi]

wanted to give my impression after finishing touko's route. their relationship felt a bit rushed, and i expected alot more drama when i first saw her in the old school building with the key and all but i'm definitely glad i stuck through to the end. i got more of a relaxed, mypace sort of feeling throughout. it also felt like her route deviated the most from the root, so i'm looking forward to the other heroines. fandisc! make it happen toneworks! anyways, next i'll go after either rika/natsuki and probably move on to a different game.

a bit off topic but i'm tempted to get the july dengekihime daki... so weak orz

so in the end was touko's route good? didnt quite catch your meaning.

dengeki hime eh... wished i could import it though. in fact, i think i can, but its an expensive investment.

 

[Mahou]

Touko's route was okay-ish. The confessioin felt indeed rushed and they already started to act like a real couple way before the confession due to slight spoiler reason. It seemed like tonework wanted to build in a drama towards the end of her school life part, but decided against it as it got resolved a few seconds later *lol*.

Her after story, however, was quite nice.
rt
On another note: I have been playing Märtopia (http://vndb.org/v1 4521). I like the general feeling of the VN and the concept of a world with different fairy tale characters in it :). The battle system is rather simplistic. However the VN, especially the "personal events" felt rushed at later parts. Rather unfortunate. The MC is okay-ish, but suffers from the usual MC denseness. Maybe because the "romance" (and h-scenes) occur during the personal events/heart events?

 

[kactaplb]

[MENTION=77]Terumi[/MENTION] ;^pretty much. simply put touko's route was different than what i was expecting, but i still enjoyed everything by the end. also having recently finished hatsuyuki sakura didn't help things either.


i'm not sure how you guys are able to play such old games. i can't quite pin down why, but it's not just because of the art. the characters maybe?

 

[pingtoryan]

...because apparently all the good things are from the times of old.

Well, Honeycoming is still in 800x600 era...

 

[Terumi]

[MENTION=77]Terumi[/MENTION] ;^pretty much. simply put touko's route was different than what i was expecting, but i still enjoyed everything by the end. also having recently finished hatsuyuki sakura didn't help things either.


i'm not sure how you guys are able to play such old games. i can't quite pin down why, but it's not just because of the art. the characters maybe?

Old games are fine. I am not picky if resolutions are just nice for the game. Heck, even many of my nukiges are old. Art is a factor (chara design), and the scenes of course. Hatsuyuki aint considered old, its still the best i played from saga planets. Absolute solid story and game sine first line.

 

[pingtoryan]

Well...I still got a couple old games to go back to...

...like the first ToHeart...but those are on low priority...

 

[Animaksiat]

[MENTION=77]Terumi[/MENTION] ;^pretty much. simply put touko's route was different than what i was expecting, but i still enjoyed everything by the end. also having recently finished hatsuyuki sakura didn't help things either.


i'm not sure how you guys are able to play such old games. i can't quite pin down why, but it's not just because of the art. the characters maybe?

you are so unfortunate, kacta... old games, despite of some the cg are uncomparable with these days... they really are a legacy! some games need almost a whole month to complete... unlike today games... you can just press CTRL to skip... and if you just want to fap... you can just cheated by going to sagaoz!

old games takes really precatious in making and marketing, they're really think about the costumer satisfactory aside from profit.

this conversation reminds me of a recently kusoge.... juukishi

 

[pingtoryan]

you are so unfortunate, kacta... old games, despite of some the cg are uncomparable with these days... they really are a legacy! some games need almost a whole month to complete... unlike today games... you can just press CTRL to skip... and if you just want to fap... you can just cheated by going to sagaoz!

old games takes really precatious in making and marketing, they're really think about the costumer satisfactory aside from profit.

this conversation reminds me of a recently kusoge.... juukishi

*flashback of me slamming both LMBs (one from Touchpad and one from Mouse) just to go onwards in the first White Album back when I could not read Japanese too well*

But alas, things gotta move on...

 

[Terumi]

[MENTION=7737]Animaksiat[/MENTION]; dunno how it arrived to juukisshi for you though :|

And yeah, old games seem to focus more on delivering what the players want (fap/story/experience). Obviously newer games are not bad, but old games have a more distinct 'taste'.

 

[Terumi]

Stupidity and procrastination as usual stalled my progress with hoshiori, i practically rushed through my first route (sora) till the end earlier today.

Spoiler: sora route

What can i say... Little to no drama, Sora's obsession with stars initially brought smiles to my face. But as things progressed, my mood for the route and her explainations simply went from :

:O -> :3 -> :| -> :\ -> __|__

Enough is enough sometimes, I simply could not stand for more. I dont agree with what the writers did too, by giving SUCH an elaborate after-story and purposely ignoring so many details. I mean, 10 years skip, the girl looks the same, protag-fag some how becomes successful when he didnt even show any talent but just passion for designing, and he baits out everything so late. So you write and wait for both hero and heroine to be successful enough then marriage? I dont know about the direction man. I mean, if by-visual novel-logic, Sora's at 18 youngest when she was in year 1. 10 years of courtship and then 1 more year to the fateful wedding, by then 29? They even visited the hot springs twice, which meant 2 years in after story. What are the writers trying to do? Put us into reality? Please. Sometimes it stings the most where you think it doesnt. I seriously thought I was done with the route when the event ended, but heck I was presented with something more 10 years down. Its nice to see where the other charas have went, BUT, please, I dont want to know about the protagonist. This isnt how to do future stories and dreams though, it's just too nice.

With what I have experienced, I dont know about the other routes, will be trying to clear as much as I possibly could, but expectations are low. Especially for Misa now given that her motives and directions appear the same with Sora (her passion about underwater and marine life) and achieving something with it. I will just see.

Maybe it boiled down to my personal tastes and me wanting to clear Sora's route fast, so I wasnt interested in any post-tanabata events which resulted in my negative review. Its futures and dreams after all. (I think)

 

[Mahou]

The MC is generally capable in his desired future job field as an architect during the school timeline or rather skilled at handicraft works. This may become clearer in other routes because he doesn't show his "talent" in each route to the same degree as, e.g, in Misa's. Obviously being in the school period he has the experience-based limitations. But, if you generally dislike the after story/ies, you will likely also not like the other routes seeing that the after story is a set aspect of the VN. As is the MC's career or rather him following his dream job.

If you are looking for MC + heroine living together next to their working life, I would suggest putting Misa's on hold and try one of the others.

Personally, the VN did almost everything right and hit the right note in me: No drama, lovable characters, enough raburabu time, a good MC and

Spoiler: after story

a wedding scene for each heroine :D

 

[Terumi]

The MC is generally capable in his desired future job field as an architect during the school timeline or rather skilled at handicraft works. This may become clearer in other routes because he doesn't show his "talent" in each route to the same degree as, e.g, in Misa's. Obviously being in the school period he has the experience-based limitations. But, if you generally dislike the after story/ies, you will likely also not like the other routes seeing that the after story is a set aspect of the VN. As is the MC's career or rather him following his dream job.

If you are looking for MC + heroine living together next to their working life, I would suggest putting Misa's on hold and try one of the others.

Personally, the VN did almost everything right and hit the right note in me: No drama, lovable characters, enough raburabu time, a good MC and

Spoiler: after story

a wedding scene for each heroine :D

As me pointed above, it probably boiled down to my general 'dislike' for Sora. I dont dislike her as a heroine or character, she's pretty cute imo. But not my type, nor did I find her extremely engaging besides talking about stars. I've more or less accepted the after stories to be a part of the game after her route, so I am pretty much prepared. For Misa, more or less the same treatment I am giving her as Sora, this time an onee-san chara failed to strike her chords on my bingo book.

There is almost no drama, just another pretty and darn normal story which almost got me falling asleep. Like I mentioned, maybe its just chara specific and I didnt like Sora's story and thats all. Probably same to Misa. Since story is all about bridging now to their dreams and futures, then I have to look at from another direction. Previous MC was total bull and dense, this time an average joe who actually gets the girls graciously but havent really proved his worth. Its just convenient writing that he somehows becomes a good architect despite showing little to none expertise in the field. Passion alone and striking a master-disciple relationship is ultra shallow imo.

Its definitely written for people who want to enjoy an extremely pretty love relationship w/o excessive drama nor icha-icha rabu-rabu scenes. I still rate the game extremely high for story and love purposes, but pure love games aint gonna sit right for me any more after all these years.

 

[pingtoryan]

Luce...Luce...a guy getting called "Luce"...

*pops a set of painkiller*

Was playing Hanikami (and that's where the above came from)...2/5 main routes done after 19 bootings of the game...Onwards to the third as I grind on...

 

[Kri]

This game really proves that even without a proper appearance one can still become the best heroine. We cant see the Kage-onna's face until the late parts of game, but with her shyness and kansai-ben she is definitely best heroine in the game and a perfect example of ideal housewife. The game itself isn't good ( MC is pretty much a hetare, other heroines aren't charming, story sucks , voice acting + bgms are very bad too etc etc) so I'll delete after I finish her route, but I'm glad that at least I found a gem like this in such a game and added her to "already captured heroines" list.

 

[Mahou]

After finishing Märtopia yesterday, here's my short impression:

Spoiler: Lenghty text

As I said earlier, I liked the game's general world setting of five fairytale worlds being put into one major world (Märtopia). We have Alice and Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland, Ali Baba, Hänsel and Gretel from the Grim Brothers and Touko of a jp. folklore I don't know + May and Amara of Perrault's Little Red Riding Hood (I had to look that up *lol*). Obviously all characters are turned into girls (otherwise Hänsel would be a boy).

Story: The story is cliché with an overall good outcome and goody-goody power to convert bad guys to allies for the final battle. That is outside of loving/minding clichés or not, though. The VN is divided into a Prologue, four chapters and Epilogue with heroine-of-choice, more later. But, overall the story felt rushed with at times sudden scene changes and rather unpolished. Being uncreative myself, I can't say what could have been done differently. Personally, I'm fine with clichés being used, but a bit more finetuning and dunno a bit more "juice" to it would have been great.

Battle System: The BS is in an army-esque style. From the eight heroines you can choose six and place them on a grid; three in the front row (for doing the actual battle), and three in the backrow for support skills (with a exception). Afterwards the battle happens automatically, per round on a timer basis. The only interaction during that part is Akito's (Main Character) skills which need, depending on the skill, different amounts of charges. These charges are built over time and the build-up time can't be sped up. The other "interactive" element is each heroines special attack. Takes usually around 1.5 rounds to fill the gauge and applies only to the front row.
Each heroine is divided into one of three categories: Defense, Offense, Range Attack (RA). Due to this the RAs are mostly in the backrow for their support abilities (+ Attack % and/or + Defense %), leaving us with two Offense to beat the crap out of, first their own assigned enemies, and ultimately the boss in center row.
-> You don't really have much choice in terms of battle set-up. You can change backrow and frontrow after each round OR change one character with either the person next to her or behind her. Exception: Akito's skill, which consumes a charge up to two.

You can level up your heroines in "Free Battles" which consists of the previously-fought ones + Challenge Battles. Per level-up you get one skill point. Skill points can be distributed to the three main stats: attack power, defense, vitality and two passive abilities. The main stats have three ranks, so to max one you need 15 skills points (3 for rank 1, 5 for rank 2, 7 for rank 3). Passive skills need 25 points in total (Rank 1: 5, Rank 2: 10, Rank 3: 15). On a new game plus you keep your skills points and levels are being resetted ;).

Characters: The characters are cute and deredere Alice is adorable *lol*. The true identity of the villain's "boss" is hardly being kept as a secret, but the ultimate confirmation is being drawn out a bit (even if the reader knows it immediately ^^). After each battle you get a heart fragment which can be used in fixed intermissions to choose a heroine for a heart event. The heart fragments are from level 1 to 5, so for Heart Event 2 you need Heart Fragment level 2, etc. Those with maxed out hearts, i. e. completed events, are eligible for the selectable ending.
The bad? The event progression is rather rushed and abrupt. The relationship is being kept within the events and the epilogue and the scene before the staff roll. Seeing that the "happy ending" for Akito and heroine-of-choice is veeeery deus ex machina without any form of build-up, the epilogue serves mostly to give that @sspull th minimal amount of exposure. Obviously, each heroine thinks dearly of Akito so I can see why the heart event progression can't be put into the main game.

Conclusion: IMHO the potetial for a really enjoyable VN, but the pacing leaves to be desired, the character events do not influence the main game and the h-scenes have no real purpose *imho*. In that regard, Märtopia might have been more comfortable as an all-age VN. Battle are rather straight forward: Spam Rabbit's special attack whenever possible as it deals direct damage, spam the other abiltites on the beginning of a round as the buff for the respective character will only last for that round it's being cast. Use Aktio's charge points for light healing and/or much later on to activate a heroine's special attack (which consumes her currently build-up gauge) or, if applicable, to reset the battle timer.

 

[pingtoryan]

Within a similar timeframe...one story in the same game seems to have much more content than others...

...yes, the said story kept me up all the way to half past five AM...

 

[Terumi]

Waffle's Kyonyuu Fantasy 2 if site will be opened in a few hours after 1 week's delay.
Been camping there already.

 

[Terumi]

*revives dead thread*

 

[pingtoryan]

Those C86 fandisks never came...

 

[Mahou]

Has anyone else played Gigai no Alruna? It's a pretty decent gameplay VN. OST is quite fitting, characters are well enough (I love Tilia) and the story for Michelle's route was alright. It tries to pull on your emotional strings a few times throughout the story. Oh yeah, and there's a h-scene for two side characters :D *lol*.
The meh parts? By the time the last dungeon comes along, the battles are annoying because I was farming the same enemies for their second drops to get one of three possible "final weapons." By the time I had the materials for each character's weapon, I was around 20 levels above the final dungeon >_>. Those are unfortunately the only equipment you have, apart of Lapis which are magic stones and feel mostly useless except of the huge elemental area spells and support spells.
The battle system reminded me of a watered-down version of the brilliant Radiant Historia for Nintendo DS. At some points the boss battles were feeling really unfair because, unless you got lucky with the Lapis drops, your healing spells sucked, the defense up spell was barely enough for the more fragile characters to get one-shotted. The evasion up spell was a life saver despite its random factor to actually evade damage.

No true route, but Tilia's route is New Game+ onwards only.

 

[pumasrevenge]

Hasn't really something to do with the originally topic here, but I just wanted to let you know if someone of you is registered at MangaGamer's website that you should change you password, since the site was hacked yesterday