What visual novels are you playing/about to play?

[HashiriyaR32]

Is there any reason why that grey-haired guy looks like Kai Shiden?

Anyway, I'm playing JASTUSA's version of Moero Downhill Night 2, and editing out all the fake car/brand/people names and any mistakes they made at the same time.  Unlike last time with MDN1, I actually have the JPN scripts for MDN2 to refer to in case I get really confused as to what the hell the JAST guys are trying to say.  Follow me on the MDN thread on the JAST forums if you want to see what sort of boneheaded mistakes I've uncovered in the translation.

Want a copy of the edited system.pkd file?  Drop me a PM.  If it's allowed, then I'll link it directly.

[Moogy]

Finished Kusarihime.

Uh, wow. The ending of this game is... really quite something. Everyone should play this just to experience the ending and the lead-in to it.

[KoiNoDensetsu]

Is there any reason why that grey-haired guy looks like Kai Shiden?

Anyway, I'm playing JASTUSA's version of Moero Downhill Night 2, and editing out all the fake car/brand/people names and any mistakes they made at the same time.  Unlike last time with MDN1, I actually have the JPN scripts for MDN2 to refer to in case I get really confused as to what the hell the JAST guys are trying to say.  Follow me on the MDN thread on the JAST forums if you want to see what sort of boneheaded mistakes I've uncovered in the translation.

Want a copy of the edited system.pkd file?  Drop me a PM.  If it's allowed, then I'll link it directly.

Ugh, JAST...  I am glad they are one of the reasons VNs have gotten more popular, but I have had it with them after their terrible Family "Project" release and how they handled the censorship. ("Oh, oops, looks like we forgot to change that '100% Uncensored' to '100% Uncensored Censorship'.  But god, you are making a big deal of this.  Bleh, send in your copies if you are pissed and we will refund your money... you dirty lolicons!")  I'm pretty sure KK is the only game on VNDB with "no translation" as a quoted line. >_>

I actually think that is why I started posting here.  I was pissed at JAST after them delaying KK to release it as shit, and then I was like "Hey, this other group TLed Cross Channel.  Another Romeo Tanaka title!  And since, they are fan-translators, no censorship!
...And wait, they re-edited MOON..  That game was great and they seem to TL stuff fast here!  I should post here.
...What, a VN poll?  And KimiNozo is an option?  That game I have wanted to play for years?  I will marry Ixrec if this gets translated! ;_;  I'm bored, so why not go crazy with my support? "
...And that is how the amazing point in history known as "Ammy Poll" was formed.

---

Anyway, back to topic:

I finished UL.  It had more "plot" scenes than EX, but EX was better overall.  The "generic dialogue" and jokes in UL are worse considering the setting.  School-life works better for moe slice-of-life (what a large portion of UL comprises), and the change of settings just doesn't work as well. (it's probably also due to the lack of Sumika)
The drama at the very end of EX was better than all of the "plot scenes" in UL (e.g. scenes like when

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Miki saves everyone by shooting the missile.

  UL just happens to have more "important" scenes than EX.

Characters were... okay.  Sigh, how to describe my feelings about this.  Sumika was awesome.  Meiya was okay. 
The rest of the cast was fairly one-dimensional.  Chizuru is an annoying bitch who needs to get on medication for her uncontrolled anger.  Ayamine is a narcissistic bitch, but much less so than Chizuru. (and she has a few good moments)  Miki is a throwaway moe loli that I like, but she isn't anything more than a trope.  Mikoto is... okay.  Kinda moe, but nothing amazing.
But even though the cast wasn't stellar... I somehow liked them.  They just have that "unexplainable special effect" that makes me like them more than the average moege's characters.  They aren't as forgettable as characters from some shit moege like HinataBokko.  They somehow become likable tropes.
(side characters like Mana and the Trio-de-Bitches (maids) were just annoying; ugh.)

Ignoring the "boring dialogue" (like the daily training sequences and all that...) that precedes, the drama and action scenes were good.  Granted, they kind of appear out of nowhere. ("Today we are focusing on bentou eating.  Next scene will be preaching about how authority does not excuse abusement of power.")  With the little bits of great scenes in EX and UL, I can see just how great AL will be.

AGES system and special effects were great. (さすがage)  It really added to the VN.

Character designs were meh, okay.  Sumika and Miki look cute, but characters like Meiya and Yuuko-sensei had ridiculous faces and eyes!
And what was with everyone's hair looking so deadly?  Meiya's hair looks like a huge curtain (suffocate victims); the maid with blonde hair looked like Sailor Moon (mahou shoujo attack); Miki's hair was... no comment. (she could probably stab someone with it though)  They all really need to drop the TSFs and just attack with their hair.

I give Muv-Luv a 6.5. (closer to 7 then 6)  The comedy is great, the characters (somehow) become likable by the end of the game (Sumika is always lovable~), and it had a few good drama/action scenes. (though far too much pointless dialogue, but some of that was interesting)  There are too many "Let's eat lunch!/Play marbles." scenes though. 
I can't wait for MLA.

[Ixrec]

I have been told all the character designs are based on mechs, hence the lethal hair.

As for your various opinions, be warned that there is also a hell of a lot of talking in Alternative, and you might see some of it as unjustified.  The rest of them are safe.

[Moogy]

little does he know that alternative consists entirely of

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playing ayatori

with kasumi

oops, secret's out, sorry

[KoiNoDensetsu]

I have been told all the character designs are based on mechs, hence the lethal hair.

Lol well I've never seen a mecha with curtain hair.  But that's just my version of Eureka seveN.

As for your various opinions, be warned that there is also a hell of a lot of talking in Alternative, and you might see some of it as unjustified.  The rest of them are safe.

Meh, it's not that I mind a lot of talking.  It's just when I feel when it is pointless.  That's one of the main reasons I like EX better: the "pointless dialogue" wasn't as generic as lectures on fictional mecha.  It usually built up to some kind of joke or just was less... boring.

And since I am on a coffee high and it is still early here, I will go into more about my opinion on ML~ (stuff I forgot lol)

The music was great for the most part. (even though, admittingly, some of the tracks were just remixes from KimiNozo...)  The "extreme emotion" tracks (like the ones that play when something "bad" happens; too lazy to look at names orz) were cheesy in non-comedy scenes though.  They were composed well, but sounded like something out of a Gundam parody.

H-scenes were... not that great.  Miki's scenes were the best and moe, but it still wasn't that great.  The rest of the scenes were fairly poor.  They had a few good CG, but the text is totally non-erotic and tedious.  I pity Ixrec for having to translate the UL H-scenes. (more on that in next paragraph)

CG room had a terrible style.  It's just a huge wall of CGs with a scroll-down format!  New CGs have no set place; they appear in order of what paths you finished.
Music room had nice formatting.
I liked the option of showing what endings you have cleared; more VNs need this in the extra section. (though less messy)

The non-canon (non-Sumika/Meiya) routes in EX were pretty bad.  Miki's was cute and fluffy, but only something to play if you are a fan of such pointless moe things.  Chizuru and Ayamine's paths were pathetic.
The various UL "endings" were... bad.  I fast-forwarded through a lot of it after my first time, considering they all basically comprise of the same text but with a different girl.  I was already tired of hearing "I can't have sex when the girl I love is anxious" the first time around; I don't need to hear it four more times. >_>  I pity Ixrec for having to TL that shit.

Drama and action scenes were enjoyable, but cheesy.  As I said earlier, they appear fairly out of nowhere. (like suddenly switching from fluffiness to a drama scene)  But I still liked it.  Sumika's EX ending got me a little teary-eyed.

My biggest problem with UL is that it feels so... rushed.  A billion ideas are thrown out, but it never sticks to one.  Example:

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When Meiya and Takeru get trapped in the TSF and are about to kiss, nothing is said about this afterwards unless you choose Meiya's "route".  Inconsistent.

  Unexplained plot points are okay, but a messy plot isn't. 
The game stays action-less for most of the story, but then in the last five minutes, it gets all epic with reveals and Takeru's speech.  WTF?  Why couldn't the entirety of UL been like that?  I know it is leading up to AL, but that doesn't mean they couldn't have made it more exciting throughout.

So I think UL is the only truly "mediocre" part of Muv-Luv.  EX is pretty good for a moege slice-of-life.  UL has a few good scenes and ideas, but it feels too rushed.

(probably will have more to rant about later... lol)

[SaMo0204]

Finishing Sekien & Muv-Luv Unlimited.
About to play: ef/Moero 2/Soul Link

[Metarail]

haven't posted in some time.

But finished GothDeri. It was quite different what I initially excepted from it. For something that was over 4GB+ in size I excepted something quite long, but it was pretty damn short, finished in few days and it was linear. Yeah, the lenght was quite short, but damn if I didnt enjoy it. So why did I enjoy it and why was it over 4GB then? Well because it's absoletely GORGEROUS to look at, and the presentation is nothing but beatifull. And the ammount special effects that it uses just makes it seem so alive, it's also completely told via use of CGs and their manipulation, in other words there are no standing potraits or such things, which is the case of pretty much every other eroge out there. So in that aspect its quite unique. One of the few VNs that I would call art in presentation. Hell the final fight in GothDeri beats any moment in ML Alternative in the special effect spam, and thats saying something, well they are not that comparable tough as it's quite different what kinds of effects gets used. Infact altough that final fight isn't animated, it pretty much feels animated due to this. Oh, and the OST is just great too.

So yeah, I would recommend everyone to check GothDeri out, as it doesn't take long at all to read and is just stunning to look at. Also those fearing that it might be too pedo due to main heroine being loli, don't worry altough she makes everyone feel like pedo, there are no H-scenes in actual story itself, as they get unlocked when you read the story foward, and can be then viewed from menu, so they get neatly skipped during reading the story. Pretty neat idea that actually.

And this scene for some reason just made me lol so hard. It's the conclusion to which the lady on right arrived after thinking why the MC was helping the loli.


edit here:
As what of I'm going to play next. Next VN that I'm going to play is going to be Kono Uta ga Owattara, as it's something that I'm recently been looking foward to and after playing the trial I just cant get it out of my mind, as it feels quite well crafted to my tastes. Well it isn't going to get released untill next week tough, so I'm going to entertain myself by playing some random nukiges untill then as I don't want to start another story based long VN untill it comes as I want to start it ASAP.

[KoiNoDensetsu]

So I finally found a torrent for Akane Maniax and played it.  It's even weirder than the anime. lol  It was basically created for 3 reasons: 1. Akane is the most loved character by many.  2. Comedy to relieve the drama in KGNE.  3. To advertise Muv-Luv.
All of the main characters from Muv-Luv (excluding Meiya) are in Akane Maniax.  I recommend playing AM before EX since it's a good introduction to the characters.
The graphics aren't very good though...  Tama has an old character design that looks cheesy. (same with some of the other ML characters, but less so)  Even Akane looks worse in AM. (the new expressions, at least)  CGs are good though.
I still need to get the normal ending...  And judging from wikipedia and EX's references, the true ending isn't even the real "true ending". (

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True ending: You turn into a robot, go into space, and explode.

LOLWTF
I also thought it was hilarious how the choices sometimes even marked which path it takes you into. xD

[Moogy]

Playing Trample On Schatten now. It's pretty fucking awesome. Kizaia is pretty fucking awesome too.

This is an absolute must-play for anyone who likes nekketsu stuff at all.

By the way, they announced a new WAB game. Same artist as Sharnoth.

[Diclonius]

So yeah, I would recommend everyone to check GothDeri out, as it doesn't take long at all to read and is just stunning to look at. Also those fearing that it might be too pedo due to main heroine being loli, don't worry altough she makes everyone feel like pedo, there are no H-scenes in actual story itself, as they get unlocked when you read the story foward, and can be then viewed from menu, so they get neatly skipped during reading the story. Pretty neat idea that actually.

And this scene for some reason just made me lol so hard. It's the conclusion to which the lady on right arrived after thinking why the MC was helping the loli.

I'm currently playing and enjoying GothDeri also  but is the story really that short? oh well can't be helped (even though it's over 4 GB like you said...) but I agree with you on how the effects used in the game look amazing and the music because that first fight scene was pretty cool (can't wait to see the rest)

It's getting a pretty mixed bag reviews (Love/Hate) at Erogamescape http://erogamescape.ddo.jp/~ap2/ero/toukei_kaiseki/game.php?game=10716#ad

Have you checked their website yet? they're having a poll on the next H-scene patch that will have a costume (cosplay?) theme to it... some of the requests are pretty hilarious and the restrictions to it are also hilarious: no costumes already copyrighted, no kindergarten clothes, no scenes too extreme (violence, rape, ect)

http://www.lose.jp/web_de2/web_de.cgi?_mode=view&id=1279818108 

[izmosmolnar]

It's indeed pretty short. I counted its script the other day:
18191 lines / 886934 bytes altogether
from that 3128 lines / 151277 bytes are the eroscripts, so the story itself is 15063 lines / 735657 bytes (=0.7 MB) which really is a length of an average doujingame.

[Metarail]

So yeah, I would recommend everyone to check GothDeri out, as it doesn't take long at all to read and is just stunning to look at. Also those fearing that it might be too pedo due to main heroine being loli, don't worry altough she makes everyone feel like pedo, there are no H-scenes in actual story itself, as they get unlocked when you read the story foward, and can be then viewed from menu, so they get neatly skipped during reading the story. Pretty neat idea that actually.

I'm currently playing and enjoying GothDeri also  but is the story really that short? oh well can't be helped (even though it's over 4 GB like you said...) but I agree with you on how the effects used in the game look amazing and the music because that first fight scene was pretty cool (can't wait to see the rest)

It's getting a pretty mixed bag reviews (Love/Hate) at Erogamescape http://erogamescape.ddo.jp/~ap2/ero/toukei_kaiseki/game.php?game=10716#ad

Have you checked their website yet? they're having a poll on the next H-scene patch that will have a costume (cosplay?) theme to it... some of the requests are pretty hilarious and the restrictions to it are also hilarious: no costumes already copyrighted, no kindergarten clothes, no scenes too extreme (violence, rape, ect)

http://www.lose.jp/web_de2/web_de.cgi?_mode=view&id=1279818108

Well, I think the love/hate thing probably comes from its shortnes. Besides that I didn't feel that there was anything wrong with it that could cause complain.
oh lol at those some of those suggestions. And do want more Lamia H.

[KoiNoDensetsu]

Uh, played a few really short nukige recently.  And Maid's Story!  I love that game. >.<

Been studying a ton of particles recently so I can play ML Supplement properly.  Looks fun.  But god, the card game story seems to be annoying. >_> (...granted, I just tried randomly clicking and hoped to win lol)

Oh, and a few OEL renpy games since they are so short.  Like this geemu: http://vndb.org/v4970  Play it.  Most people will probably hate it since it's not for everyone and the pacing is shit and random.  But the ending is really shocking and emotional, so I really liked it.

[Moogy]

Played Chronicles 01 the other day and I'm almost finished with Schatten now. Schatten's pretty good, but... Well, let me put it this way - I think it had the potential to be a 9, but it's going to end up as an 8 for me. Kinda lacks focus, I guess. It's full of BURNING PASSION when it counts, though, so I can't knock off too much from it.