Grisaia series

Apparently we never made a thread for this one. Since the anime is out we should get this here so we don't spam the anime thread with spoilers.

Assuming you make it over here, yeah, Michiru is also a lot nicer than Sachi or Makina at the very least. Yumiko does a lot of stuff behind the scenes though.

edited 12th Oct '14 12:08:57 PM by Arha

And that was a large part about why Chiru is actually wanted: She does a lot of stuff behind the scenes, often at the expense of herself.

Makina seems downright mean at time, and Sachi doesn't even seem to have the common sense to be either nice or mean.

I'll probably do Amane's route next. Sachi doesn't seem that interesting, and Makina definitely isn't.

By the way, what level of spoilers do we have here?

I'd say spoiler important things from the routes themselves. I don't know how many people around here have really read the full story, so I don't want to assume everyone should know everything. Meikyuu/Rakuen stuff should be spoilered as needed as well, though I'm not sure if anyone around here has read them apart from me.

Anyway, I guess it's just that it's easy to miss what Michiru does for the group since it only really comes up in her own route.

Amane probably has the best route but uh there are some issues with it. Makina's route is decent since it has a lot of focus on Yuuji's past relative to the other routes. It's one of the few places you'll really hear much about Asako, for example, and Asako is the best. Sachi's route is... okay, I guess.

I find that similar to Katawa Shoujo, in that the route of the character I found the least interesting had the best focus on the main character. Well, that could make it bearable. Just gonna skip the sex scenes, rather than just removing the text delay to make it go faster like I usually do.

But that's the point about Chiru, I think. She's more multilayered than she appears. Though the funny part is that underneath her tsundere facade, she seems to be a genuine tsundere, just not a tsun-tsundere, but a much more dere-tsundere. And on top of that, if you really want to be generous, her alter ego is a bit tsun and dere, but not really a tsundere.

Yeah, but that complex part about Michiru's character pretty much only ever comes up there whereas you can see Yumiko being really nice and helpful all the time once she lets her guard down a little.

It doesn't come up because she's good at hiding it, and in non-her routes Yuuji doesn't notice it, so it's not shown.

Maybe, but that was basically my point to begin with.

after reading to the other grisaia forum about the changes they've made to Michiru, I think it's still possible that both of those is possible, I mean, the transplant did happen and the other Michiru still exist but the others doesn't believe it so they just concluded that it was her alternate personality and Michiru just went with the flow

It's not like she doesn't have experience in hiding stuff.

Well, I'll admit I never read her afterstory and she didn't say it herself in Rakuen. I think. Don't remember.

Okay, I've done 4 of the 5 routes so far. I started with Sachi because she was frigging adorable, and I went through Michiru's route because that's what the anime adaptation was covering at the time. Since then, I've also done Makina and Yumiko - I just finished Yumiko's route last night, actually.

I can't say that any of the routes are really bad. Everyone has their life-altering heartbreaks and traumas, and even when the trauma probably isn't -quite- as bad as some of the worst scenarios, it's still heartbreaking and incredibly sweet. Yumiko's route is maybe one of the most well-adjusted in the game, but jesus crust ain't it a heartbreaker - even in comparison with 2 people watching their parents die.

I have one issue, and it's the H scenes. I can't say I have enough experience to call myself a VN aficionado, but I'm somewhat certain that H scenes are more or less par for the course in a big, awesome VN like this - but really, it takes me out of the experience. It's partially because I don't crap where I eat (I keep porn and plot seperate mostly) but also because it's mostly out of place for me. Just blown up a school? Time for a dicking. Just spent 3 days straight buried in a coffin? Time to get dirty all over again. spent the past couple of months acting as a father figure? Daddy's home. Not to mention the obvious loli and the bog-standard fucked-up hentai anatomy - cervixes do not feel nice when they're hit by a solid object. That's my one complaint.

It's hard to rank my enjoyment of each route, so I won't. So far though, I think Makina's has been the most objectively good ( dude, Yuuji made it out alive and Makina's the new 9029 - that's kickass), but I really, REALLY loved the end of Yumiko's route. What a journey. And hey, I am a sucker for the childhood friend route - Sachi's route was pleasant and surprising the whole time.

Regarding Amane's route: do you meet her Crazy Awesome aunt/grandma? Also, have the next 2 games been released In English yet? Apparently the second one is still getting worked on - but I'm nearly finished the first one :c

You don't see any of Amane's family in her route. In her Meikyuu after story Yuuji meets her parents and her mom thinks he's hot. And no, they haven't been translated yet and Meikyuu probably won't be out for quite awhile.

edited 4th Dec '14 11:08:40 PM by Arha

I still haven't found the motivation to do Amane's route, which I've started on. Makina I just don't have any interest in, and Sachi doesn't seem quite as interesting as I'd want a route to be.

I found the routes, or at least the two I've played, somewhat overly melodramatic, but not that bad. Kind of just pile the bad stuff over as much as possible in the history segments. I think it could've been better to tone it down a little, since it would feel at least a little more plausible then. However, I did like the last bit of the plot in both Chiru's and Yumi's route.

I've not played that many VNs, maybe five or seven, and as far as the H-scenes go, this is not good. I mean, sure, I just skim them very quickly because they're not fun anyway (bar some amusing moments, perhaps), but I've not really seen any that differ from any other. Just the same stuff over and over again. Swap the names and you can't tell which is which. If I want porn, there's better out there than some grunting and a couple of CGs, during/after a ton of text.

So I just finished Amane's route.

I have a few complaints. The backstory is the longer st in the game - having played the others first, Amane's situation drAgged on a bit too much for me. The concept - not to spoil anything, of course - is a situation which I'm generally not a fan of in... well, anything. I appreciate it for what it was, but it was a bit... ehh, personally. Might go into spoilered detail about that when I'm not writing from my phone, but for now - it wasn't my favorite scenario, but it was okay. Just not my style.

If nothing else, the epilogue is - imo - the sweetest one of the game. The situation before the final choice drags a bit as well, but the epilogue - beautiful sweetness.

Please excuse the double-post - I said I'd elaborate on Amane's route once I got to a keyboard, and here I am. Mostly spoilered for anyone just getting into the game, all the routes are great and warrant a playthrough - I'm just particularly picky about this one.

Amane's route is... well, honestly it's a bit draining. The whole "trapped in an inescapable place and slowly turning on each other/dying" plot is something I generally have no interest in, and though this one was alright eventually (I guess...?), it goes on for entirely too long. I get that it's Amane's journal, I get that it's -the- defining horrific event which shaped Amane's future and admission into Mihama, but the plot used is something I have very little interest in and is the longest backstory in the game. You can see why I'd be a bit tired after playing it last.

On top of the Lord Of The Flies-esque concept, you're trapped in the ravine with 11 other people. They all have their own sprites, their own personalities, and you have to watch them start to die off or go insane. That, to me, is needlessly cruel. I'm down with stuff like Sachi's parents getting hit by a truck in front of her, I'm down with Makina watching her dad die and seeing his body rot - it's not quite as lengthy or as messed up as sitting through 14 days of Amane's class withering away and eventually becoming "ghouls".

Speaking of which - I'm the sappy, melodramatic type who's generally down with the idea of cannibalism if it's literally the only choice. I was under the impression that Amane would have to eventually kill and/or eat human meat, so I was a bit displaced with the overly melodramatic declaration that the students who had eaten human meat were no longer human themselves. Sure enough, they did lose their humanity and were fucking terrifying as a result, but... I dunno. I think my expectations were just dashed in this particular case.

Now, for the good stuff. Kazuki is a pretty awesome character, though I'm not the sort of adoring fan who'd ask for a Kazuki route for several reasons. The epilogue, as mentioned, is extremely sweet (granted you don't accidentally pick the wrong choice, as I did initially) and is unique in the way that it depicts Yuuji and Amane's relationship until the end of their days - into old age and just beyond. I'm generally not a fan of H scenes, and Amane's reasoning for having such a ton of sex initially is disagreeable in my eyes (I blame the writing moreso than the character), but for those who are into that, this route has the most of them. And as a final note - I heard about Kazuki being in this route, and I just assumed it was a route where Yuuji elaborated a bit on his own past. It might have been because of my slight dimness, but regardless - Amane's reveal that she knew Kazuki was mind-blowing. I loved it.

So yeah - while I was exhausted by the length of the flashback, and honestly felt like the healing process wasn't as pronounced as the other routes, Amane's route isn't really bad. the whole game is quality, and while I can't say Amane's route had me as mesmerised as other routes in particular, it's still pretty top-notch in production values and terror if nothing else. May be my least favorite route of the game - and I don't say that to rock the boat or be that one outlier guy - but it's still a 7/10, above average and pretty damn quality.

This post is long enough, but I just looked up the translator's website - apparently they haven't gotten far into translating Meikyuu. How much of the project is done? 3%. It must be a hard-ass project, for sure, but I really want to play it :c.

Rakuen has a small section in it which I felt addresses some of your concerns, but I guess it'd be a spoiler to say how.

As for Meikyuu, I think you only need to worry about the Yuuji route part. A significant portion of the game is spent on afterstories for the girls and I only finished two of them since they felt kind of superfluous. You might be getting the story sooner than you think as a result. Or it could take years.

edited 13th Dec '14 4:55:14 PM by Arha

My issue with Amane's route wasn't that it was needlessly cruel; I have a high tolerance for dark content provided the protagonists aren't the source of it. My issue with it was the pacing. The setup of the flashback tells you that only Amane will make it out alive, and then you have to sit through hours of narrative which don't feature any of the cast members who've been developed for the entire game thus far, except for a younger Amane whose personality was dramatically different at the time the flashback takes place in. Almost all the remainder of the game from that point on consists of the flashback, followed by a short resolution which wraps things up with a conflict against a character who never appeared before in the game.

I haven't played all of the routes yet, but of the ones I have finished so far, I feel like all of them have suffered from the fact that the ensemble cast which has been the main strength of the game up to each route divergence point becomes dramatically underused as soon as the focus narrows to a particular heroine.

edited 14th Dec '14 10:06:50 PM by Desertopa

Regarding the sequels, well... It hasn't even been 24 hours yet

edited 17th Dec '14 8:15:13 AM by MarquisDev

160$ average donation? I guess it helps that the benefits of paying that much include getting all three of them.

edited 17th Dec '14 8:44:37 AM by Arha

Damn, I wish I had $160 to throw their way. I think that unless the PC localizations get a wide release, like on Amazon and stuff, my only hope barring piracy would be to pray for a PSP release.

I've been thinking about this game a lot recently, so I thought I'd revive this thread and see if anyone's still interested in this series.

I looked up the Kickstarter the other day, and they've only just finished going over the first game. Considering that it was pretty much done before they did it, so they had a lot to take from, I can easily see this project taking 2-3 years as they go through the next 2 games from scratch.

I feel like replaying Kajitsu right now, but at the same time I don't want to risk somehow ruining the game via over-saturation. I did that with Ano Hana and Kimi Ni Todoke, so I'm wary for a reason.

There's already a Meikyuu project going on. I don't know if they're involved with that or might take over that translation or whatever.

So, the Michiru idol fandisc thing is out.

Yeah, and both parts of it are out at the same time.

Even if it's a Michiru-oriented spin-off, it's still a bit pricey for me. Maybe when a bigger discount comes.

I have the feeling that the spin off might have spoilers for Mekyuu and Rakuen. so, im skipping those till the entire trilogy gets tled