The general thread of generalness (a.k.a. we talk about everything)

Meh, I'm no longer interested in most visual novels. Too much focus on moe for my taste (yes, I'm beginning to become a moe hater). I'm getting back into Japanese literature instead (read Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto, it is sooooo good.)

I Would highly recommend Dangan Ronpa.

Nico B's lp's of them have made me really want to give them a try. It seems right up my ally with its Meta humor and commentary. The Writer is a good friend of Yoko Taro as well, and it shows.

And While its fine to hate moe, don't say the entire medium of visual novels is shit because its there, it just comes across as being a hipster

edited 23rd Oct '17 5:56:28 PM by Demongodofchaos2

Hating moe doesn't mean you're a hipster, it means you have good taste!

Seriously, though, I don't think all visual novels are awful. Narcissu 2 was better written than most most recent Booker Prize-winning novels, actually. It's just that most of them are like third-rate anime scripts with awkwardly shoehorned-in sex scenes. (And, yes, I've read a few JP-only ones like Comic Party)

Good taste is relative.

edited 24th Oct '17 9:55:03 AM by Demongodofchaos2

Moe VNs are okay but I rarely bother to read them anymore when they come out. Even when I do I don't finish all the routes.

I like reading intentionally shitty visual novels, myself.

Doki Doki Literature Club sounds like one of those.

Yasmin Perry said, "Narcissu 2 was better written than most most recent Booker Prize-winning novels, actually. It's just that most of them are like third-rate anime scripts with awkwardly shoehorned-in sex scenes."

I have tried a handful of the well-regarded titles on Reddit's recommended visual novel lists. After about thirty or forty-five minutes, I ask myself, "Do I care what happens to these characters?" Sometimes I end up saying yes, and something I just stop caring. A couple of examples...

• My expectations for G Senjou No Maou were probably too high. There was a sense of danger in the story, and the characters were being quirky. But the story just didn't seem compelling.
• I wanted to enjoy both Nine Hours Nine Persons Nine Doors and Steins Gate. However, the first few scenes in both VNs had characters in drab, depressing environments. I don't tend to like fiction in which main characters are in sterile or horrible places.
• Hakuouki had a nice action opening. As the story went on, I had complaints every now and then. An obtuse choice here, a character whose name I kept forgetting there, a convenient rescue here... Despite those complaints and more, I liked this VN because it seemed above average. It helped that major characters could die during battles, and that the positive endings were just bittersweet enough.

Some of my best visual novel experiences have been ones where I had no money invested in a story, and no hype to set my expectations too high. Free VNs can be very hit-and-miss. However, when I've paid nothing and when I expect nothing, sometimes I've had a pleasant surprise.

I grew up reading all kinds of prose fiction. Even though I had a snobby attitude towards live action films, video games, comics, and animation, I eventually embraced all four types of media. But in the last couple years, I've barely read or watched *anything*. So I've been asking myself "What do I still enjoy in terms of entertainment?" (2D sprite graphics, comedy, the absurd aspects of sci-fi and fantasy, portable consoles, and mobile devices.)

edited 5th Nov '17 11:53:50 AM by dorkatlarge

I'm not sure why you'd find the environment in Steins Gate drab and depressing. It's a cheap little loft but it's comfy enough.

Everyone needs to check this magnificent site out.

Does anyone know where I can watch a play through of To Heart 2: Another Days?

Going through Doki Doki Literature Club right now. The art is generic, high-quality generic but some of the poses seem rather off (why do their skirts seem to be in a constant upwind?). Music is soothing.

The characters are not obviously different from the usual cutesy lineup, but so far they are engaging. Especially Monika and Yuri. Do I detect a reference to Katawa Shoujo in them? (Shy bookworm with long dark hair, mature leader with prominent ribbon.)

Of course I don't expect anything beyond cute romances in a game like this. But it's the only visual novel reviewed by Zero Punctuation so here's hoping it is at least distinct.

? You didn't actually watch his review if that's all you're expecting.

Thats the joke.

So I got to one end of Doki Doki Literature Club. It seemed to borrow some ideas from Undertale (I am always glad to see thorn given some recognition, even as a glitch).

Ultimately, it was different from Visual Key's sad endings (aside from being admirably concise) not so much in the degree, but partly in being played for horror rather than romanticised and mostly for being driven by real issues and not vacuous emotional manipulation. Still, two things about it were disturbing for the wrong reasons. One is the apparent implication that this could have been prevented if the player had accepted a love confession; that felt like bad galge logic.

The other is simply the fact that it's an ending: plenty more could be written about how it would affect everyone else. Indeed, the lack of any other characters (Does Sayori live alone in a suburban house?) reminds me of Bakemonogatari.

But certainly a lot of emotional torque, even if I'm not quite sure about the plausibility. Now for the other 4... (I'm including the player character in the cast.)

I can tell you that nothing changes if you accept Sayori's confession. She kills herself either way. It's part of DDLC highlighting the Illusion Of Choice.

Yuri isn't really similar to Hanako, and Monika isn't like Shizune at all. Honestly I don't understand why people always compare the characters in the two...

Who said anything about Shizune? It's Lily that Monika takes after, even down to a foreign name.

The thing is with Yuri, she is what I wish Hanako had been. She is full of ideas and energy that can't come out because she's too closed to share them. She feels like someone I want to encourage and support. And I want to shape the player character into a possible partner for her. All I remember about Hanako is being reclusive and breaking down, there was only one axis defining her. And I never felt like Hisao was a good match.

That is the novel's success: in a few hours it made me care for all five of them (except maybe Natsuki, the PC is a better tsundere than her). So no matter what strange turns it takes after this, it has already worked as a simple story of friends bonding with one wrong turn.

edited 20th Feb '18 3:00:43 PM by Reymma

So at what I suppose is the end to the second playthrough, I find myself thinking that it was better when it was setting up a normal romance plot. Sayori's reveal was a bit too fast, but it made sense. What happens with Yuri here... is like they took a fandom meme about Hanako and played it straight. The VN does very well in building up suspense and unease, but after hinting at realistic troubles, it rapidly spirals to a level that makes Future Diary look grounded. And the climax was pure narm. And worst of all: why are there jokes made around the size of her breasts when they are no bigger than Monika's?

A related problem is that the player character I liked so much kind of disappears along the way. Monika at least is getting more interesting.

Basically, this VN has good characters and clever ways of playing with the medium, but here it feels like the two aren't going together.

I have a question: I recently bought the VN Trianthology (imported from Japan, so pretty expensive) and I was all eager to install the game... except my computer refuses to. I can click on the install button, and at first it seems to work, but it crashes at the end. I did change my system language to Japanese... and yet, the install windows only display hieroglyphs: it looks◊ like this.◊

And all of my other Japanese VNs have the same problem, with the exception of Rose Guns Days — even though I could perfectly read them with my old computer. Is this a problem with Windows 10?

With the other VNs I can always read with the English patch, but TRT has no English translation, so…

edited 30th Mar '18 4:10:38 PM by Lyendith

Try changing system locale to Japanese as well. If that doesn't work, try also changing your time zone to JST.

So like this◊ and like this◊? (it says region: Japan, language: Japanese and time zone: Osaka-Tokyo)

Well, try it and see if it works!

…It doesn't work at all. =[

edit: Actually I'm dumb, I wasn't in the right menu. Seems like I misunderstood what "system locale" actually referred to. >.>

edited 30th Mar '18 6:52:43 PM by Lyendith

Did anything good come out of this year's Na No Ren O?

Picked up Tsujidou. Man, I don't think I can force myself to keep reading more of Ai's route. I'll have to settle for the true end. It's annoying enough that the 'good' ending involves making her change who she is to fit the protagonist's whims. And I don't really care for Maki either so I think I'll just go for Renna then check out the fandisk.

edited 9th Apr '18 1:45:43 AM by Arha