General Visual Novel Appreciation Thread

So the super-ultra-flashback-before-anything-actually-happens-beginning. Yes, it gets better from there, although that's not exactly a feat, since nothing's happened yet.

I just found it really bad. Like, writing, and everything. Didn't mind the music, though.

edited 14th Feb '10 8:09:59 PM by Solstace

To anyone who's seen an anime (or whatever) adaptation before playing the game: Would you say that already knowing as much about the story make the playthrough better or worse?

H-scenes were terrible too IIRC. Not surprising though.

^ IMO, better. This led to me only walkthrough-ing Misae's, Koumura's, and After Story in the Clannad game.

edited 14th Feb '10 8:11:24 PM by Mapi

I heard that Nasu-man is overly fond of seafood analogies.

Yeah, I turned the H-scenes off.

What's so bad about the Fate route?

I found that the playing the game after the anime made it really fulfilling, though the other way around could be too. It expands on a lot of little details that the anime has.

Though one scene in Clannad was done wayyyyy better in the anime than the VN imo.

Which one? I found the True End to be much better in the anime, while the game True End gave me tears of nostalgia.

I liked the Fate route. My favorite so far. I just thought the anime didn't do it justice.

Thanks Mapi, Clarste and Zeroplusalpha, yes I want to try for 100% completion.

@Tze Tze: What, you've never heard that before? I don't mean strictly, just as a general rule of thumb, books are better for internal things (since books can use first person and get inside someone's head), and movies for more external things (since you actually see it happening anyway). But that doesn't mean things can't happen in reverse, just playing to the medium's natural strengths.

...neh.

I should play through Ever 17 some more.

Basically, an excessive amount of narration can easily get annoying in a movie, and an excessive amount of action can easily get confusing in text.

Edit: Fate gets sort of a bad rap and Unlimited Blade Works gets a bit too much praise. I don't know why.

edited 14th Feb '10 8:18:07 PM by Clarste

On Ever17: I felt the second time through was better than the first time. Expanded on stuff. Haven't done a third yet.

edited 14th Feb '10 8:18:08 PM by Solstace

I heard that Nasu-man is overly fond of seafood analogies.

In the original Japanese, yes. The patch mostly ignores these, and tries to fashion something vaguely readable out of it.

It's still terrible.

Would you say that already knowing as much about the story make the playthrough better or worse?

Well, it makes it...different. Because anime adaptations are composites, and leave out a lot. Like, the Da Capo anime doesn't give you any idea of what happens if you're in Sakura's route, for example.

Is it normal for them to sort of hijack your system? I can't alt-tab out of the game.

That was one pitfall in Da Capo. I had no idea Moe's sleepwalking was caused by something really depressing.

No. That's not normal. I could alt tab Ever17 just fine.

Uh...no?

Commands are different for each game. A list of them should be in the readme somewhere.

Sometimes it's Esc. (Sometime this exits the game; caution is advised).

Bah, I need to start on Da Capo.

@Tzetze: Never heard about that before.

Also, the soup was a joke. What I meant is that it is writing a point-and-click game is very different to writing a novel.

edited 14th Feb '10 8:22:23 PM by SRC

...okay, so I can't alt-tab out of it only when it's fullscreen. That's kind of annoying but okay. And Esc quits and skips cutscenes.

I don't play my visual novels full screen. I play with headphones, though.

^ I have to. Playing Shuffle on speaker is stupid.

Yeah, no way I'm putting porn on speaker.

Point taken about different writing styles. Still don't see the point of describing your own pictures but that has mostly stopped.

FSN doesn't have voice acting for the h-scenes.