Thanks Cubky, I was starting to feel a little lonely, being the only one who posted something in a month... I swear one of these days I'll have a whole page of this thread all to myself! So far I've only managed 3-4 posts in a row, so this goal is within my grasp, I just gotta play more VNs so I have anything relevant to write.
For February, not much going on. Probably just gonna go with
しゅがてん because Shiratama. Also should be nice to play some less serious VN from time to time.
Is Shiratama famous as an artist? The only game I've played in which he participated was
恋×シンアイ彼女, the art was nice but not to the point I'd play a game just to see more of it. Looking at the game's official site gallery, I find the eyes a little too spaced-out, and that last picture... no thanks.
As for me, I finally started playing
人気声優のつくりかた. I'll admit the generally good reviews of the game probably made me expect too much out of it, and as a result I have to say I've been severely disappointed after finishing about two thirds of it (Itsumi, Konatsu, and part of Yukako's route that I entered by mistake).
First of all, and that's entirely a misunderstanding on my part, but I was hoping to read about 18+ games seiyuus in particular, while the game focused on all-age, and in particular anime Character Voices. This may be a total misconception of my part, but I like to think that adult CVs are a little further away from the 'idol' side business, with fewer or less popular signing events, live radios and such. I'm really not a fan of this kind of merchandising of someone's image, and hoped to avoid having to deal with it, but alas.
Second, the game is unbalanced between trying to depict a profession realistically while having everything surrounding it be extremely hard to swallow as reality. Let's be generous and assume the characters are, as the warning says, all 18 of age or more. Some of them started the job 2, 3 years ago, am I really supposed to believe some of the CVs in big production anime are 14 years old? Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but I highly doubt it. Then, we have professional managers who can't seem to do their work better than a completely untrained and inexperienced high-schooler (the MC). Even more amazing is that these managers are completely fine with a boy living in their talent's dorm, you'd think they'd object but nope. With such incompetence, I seriously doubt they would still be in the profession, much less in charge of the current golden goose.
And then, we have the MC himself, who retired from being a child actor a year ago (which means he has at most a few years of experience), yet is able to give spot-on advice and lessons on a completely different domain. While the various things he says all turn out to be true, I really disliked his pompous and borderline arrogant attitude, especially when offering his opinion to people who are supposed to have way more experience than him. Not only that, but he's also able to keep attending school and work his part-time job while managing a whole dormitory by himself (his sister getting busy rapidly), a job that required two full-time adults. He also has no problem assisting the various girls with their training for hours, waking up at 3 a.m. to listen to a radio show, finding time to play a MMORPG... I'm sorry, but I can't relate at all to this kind of fantasy superhuman, and in a story that tries to be realistic otherwise, it completely breaks my suspension of disbelief every time it's mentioned.
Game-wise, I was also honestly shocked at the way the game handles choices. The game occasionally offers the player two option, but choosing the wrong one adds a line in which the MC or a present character basically denies said choice. For instance, the game may ask "Do I wait for her?", but if you say "Go back home", the MC will prompt in and say something to the extent of "Yeah, but no, I'll wait anyway", with a hidden "I don't give a shit about what you, the player, wants" that I couldn't help feeling. If a game has plot-relevant scenes in the common route that can't be avoided, then don't give you player the apparent ability to avoid them, then deny them a few seconds later. That's at best taking me for a fool, at worse mocking me for making the 'wrong' choice. What if I don't want to create a harem situation and make everyone fall for the MC at the same time? I would have much rather had a plain and simple route select screen than this.
Despite all that, the game managed to maintain my interest with the occasional CV trivia, but I'll admit that my clicking frequency tended to get higher and higher as the routes unfolded. The scenario is predictable from a mile away, resorting to cliches a little too much to my liking. Oh look, rain's falling, time for drama... I'm not against cliches, but going this far, and given my doubts about the characters credibility in the first place, I found it very difficult to relate and feel anything. The game follows a classic 'everything goes wrong' -> 'MC and heroine hook up' -> 'everything is fixed' formulae that was, honestly, boring. I have to say though, Haruka Sora's tears and shouting did make me shake a little. Kusuhara Yui's performance is also very good, especially as her part playing the rookie seiyuu was certainly not the easiest, as she had to intentionally sound inexperienced. The way I see it, the CVs are really the only thing that stand out in the game, which given the title isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I was expecting much more.
In conclusion, I really wouldn't recommend this game for anything but the bits of trivia on the CV profession. Everything else is either bland or just frustrating. The heroines aren't bad but the most interesting one, Noa, isn't even an option.
Reminded me a bit of Nanami from Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo (さくら荘のペットな彼女)
