All Comments

That opening scene is hilarious imo. Even better in hindsight.

Regarding the devil, Itsuki, or one of the girls?

Heh, not the guy I'm used to knowing as Itsuki. But then, in my meager collection of anime and manga, I already know two Chikas and two Matsuris.

For me, "Itsuki" has gotten to the point where it's just another name. Like Sakura, but less so.

Both. Just the concept of the king of a world talking to an average teenager he met on the street about rating girls.

If you ask about Sia, then you get redirected to Asa's friend, Kareha, who is a god. (That sounds weird out of context)

Ah.

I found something odd though. I saved at the start of this day, and saved on a different file at the start of the next. When I went back to change the former save to be at the point when the question is asked, I noticed that all the writing was blue. Do you have any idea why?

Kaede's story is a lot more interesting to me than the others. They're all fine choices if you're going to go through them anyway. My favourite heroine out of the three is probably Kaede.

Oh, and Nerine's boobs are huge.

I don't really like Primula (I'M NOT A LOLICON) but most people who play the game say her route is the best. Unfortunately, no matter what choice you choose, you can't go into Primula route before doing Nerine's.

Ah, thanks for that. I suppose I should also thank the dice for picking a character who leads to another. :P

...Now I just hope that my upcoming choices suit the way I've decided to go.

IIRC, Japanese schools make the students do all their own cleaning to teach them respect for public/private-but-not-theirs property. I think it's a nice midpoint between the North American model of Drop Your Shit Wherever, The Janitor Will Get It and the Third World model of Walk To School At Five-Thirty To Get The Stove Going So We Aren't Freezing All Day.

AH, I knew I was missing something in my daily routines. All caught up now.

This was one of my first V Ns so I didn't really notice the honourifics (Canadian spelling) being changed. Then again, I probably wouldn't notice even if I went through it now.

I'm Australian, but honestly, "honor" and "honorifics" look better to me.

Perhaps you may have noticed me flip-flopping between the use of "monolog" and "monologue"?

Monolog is a correct spelling?

It's the US spelling. (Relatedly, I will always say dialog rather than dialogue)

Ends in March and Starts in april as far as I know. It could be the term test before the summer break.

Oh, and Asa is awesome.

I thought as much.

And yes, yes she is. Kareha's sparkles bug me though.

No new entry yet? =(

Sorry; my two weeks of holiday finished last Tuesday, and I had quite a bit of homework to do at the end of the holidays.

I should be able to get one or two of these done every weekend though. :3

=D

The laughing scene between Itsuki and Rin was hilarious.

yes it is good good good

I think you're doing fine, really.

It's a great read. I enjoy following you through it. Shuffle is a relatively short VN so you should get through it pretty quickly.

I really wish the liveblogs had stayed in their separate subfora based on media. I know at the height of the fad there were too many for that to be reasonable, but this new system's so isolated!

Do you mean everything should go in the Liveblog subforum, or everything to go in the subforum of the media it represents (such as this going in Visual Novels)?

But yeah, this place is definitely too isolated for my liking.

From what I'm learning in school, classes in Japan are set throughout the year. Teachers change classrooms but the students in the classes stay in the room for the whole day.

Yeah, I know. Hence why I knew to remark about them being in the same classroom every time.

Dude, Asa's swimsuit is awesome.

Yeah, but... I still can't help but think about how easily it would come loose. Especially if she was actually in the water.

Really, her fashion sense is of great curiosity for me.

I think it's awesome. Like everything else about her.

Little do you know, you are actually on the "King of the Devils" route!

*shudder* Don't scare me. >_<

I think I'm going to sit over in the corner here and convince myself that Shuffle only has five routes, two of which I can't even reach right now.

Stare 0_0.

Very standard dating sim events this time.

Why the "Stare 0_0."?

Need moar entries

Quite. If I forget like this again, please call me out on it within a couple of days. >_<

Honestly, I frequently check both the liveblogs section and the general discussion thread of the VN board (among quite a few other, less relevant places), so the only thing which has really been stopping me most of the time for the past couple of weeks has been my own procrastination.

And just so that I follow through with it: Tomorrow, I will be putting up multiple liveblog installments. I'll be aiming for three, but it might end up being more or less than that, depending on various circumstances. I'll be doing one tonight as well.

Don't worry, she eventually learns how to cook... Kind of...

Thank You!

for posting this stuff.

You're welcome. It's nice to see more than just neobowman reading it. :P

Good idea.

Something that bugs me in most V Ns is that all the girls are exactly the same height and the protagonist guy is always a head taller than them.

They're not all the same height here! Primula's shorter.

...But I guess that that doesn't help, considering her age. >_>

I think we could've skipped this part. Ohwell.

well this is somewhat odd i take number 2 to prevet some random kid showing up latter

@neobowman: Hah, yeah, I was kinda thinking that, but also figured I may as well. I'll edit out the majority if I get multiple people preferring I did. (Or a single mod, not that I know any other than Fast Eddie himself and Janitor, who I haven't seen around for ages)

...Note that multiple means two or more, so if you feel like making a sockpuppet or getting someone else to come here, go ahead. I'm not particularly attached to this oh-so-plot-important-hey-I'm-being-sarcastic installment that I would dislike cutting it down significantly.

I'm curious now! I quit watching the anime way before we got to the actual plot if there was one. I say tell all!

My vote goes to trying to get Sia next. Or, failing that, Mayumi - is she attainable? I always thought she was the hottest.

Lycoris always reminded me of Licoriche.

And Mayumi is not attainable, unfortunately 4 u.

I'm like your only reader but I've really enjoyed it. I vote continue!

I believe Mayumi is attainable in the expansion of sorts, "Shuffle! Essence+", which according to Wikipedia has expanded routes for the main five, plus six other routes. It has not been translated by anyone. In the version I have, however, the options are the obvious three, Asa and Primula.

Yeah, I kept hearing "licorice" as well. And considering that both would be in katakana, they'd both be written in the same way too.

Oh, and I forgot to mention it in my brief review of it, but in the "backgrounds" section of the CG Viewer Mode, there are some available even though I've never seen them before, such as what I assume are Lisianthus & Asa's rooms. There were also several variant scenes I didn't recognize, but that's less surprising than seeing scenes I'd never actually known about in the first place.

I think... I'm only going to leave this "vote" up until the end of the weekend, my time. I really want to get back to it, but don't want to deprive weekenders of their input. :P

You can change the writing colour in the options if you want. I did it so the writing's easier to read.

I... can? I MUST DO THIS.

Maybe to a grey, so that I can still differentiate between old stuff and new.

Yeah, took me a while to find the best shade. Well worth it.

There's not many new characters aside from the ones you meet at first... Hmm, there's Asa's mom and.... Not much else.

Wait,, you read the whole thing from start to finish again? I just skipped all blue text.

For the most part I only partly read the stuff I had read before; this should become far more apparent in later installments.

-Sabbo

AHH, lost track of time and I stopped following lol. So many entries to read!

You're going off a point system now, I see.

I'm considering the concept, yes. It's the easiest way to show a risk vs. reward system with more than two factors.

How in the world did you get the Asa scene? Lol.

Not sure (of course).

...but on a related point, I think that picking Lisianthus in the very first choice is a part of Asa's route.

:(. I was just catching up.

So it seems. :P

(Although posting in that recent installment where I asked a question in the title also ruins my point. :/)

Oh, you actually are in Sia's route. Was starting to get worried there.

Ha. When I aim for Kaede or Asa, I'll be making at least three different choices I can think of off-hand. More for Kaede, I think.

:).

Reverse Sia is interesting.

Sorry, was on a 9 day trip and then forgot about this for a few days. BUT I'M BACK!

Your question, I actually don't think it has any effect at all. Most of the choices in my experience will always lean towards an individual heroine and not more than one.

The ear pick is a tool of glory. I used to get my ears picked a lot by my parents when I was younger. Feels very nice. Don't know much about the culture around it but it seems to be only betweenfamily members.

And for some reason, fish and meat seem to be categorized differently in Japan. I think. In Kira Kira, Chie is a vegetarian but eats fish. Weird.

I don't think that was my question. :/ My question was regarding Thursday 24th (See the Umbrella! and Rain! installments), where leaving immediately (in Umbrella!) would end the day, while sticking around (in Rain!) would lead Rin to take Lisianthus home. Of course, now that I'm able to look back I can see than I made the mistake of mixing up Asa & Lisianthus' events, but this mistake merely leads back to an earlier question I had: Why were you so surprised that I got that scene with Asa?

Whenever I got my ears cleaned (it would always be by my mother), she'd use one of those small cotton swab stick things. I can't imagine what it would feel like to get something as pointy as Lisianthus' crochet needle stuck in my ear. (Now though I get my ears cleaned by a nurse at a local medical clinic by hot/warm water getting squirted in there.)

The meat and fish issue is one I've commonly seen all over the place. All the vegetarians I know who are not vegan have no problem with fish, no matter how much I try to tell them that fish is a meat too. Heck, some even consider poultry to not be meat.

If you wait, I'm pretty sure you always get Sia with you. Almost sure.

I dunno any vegetarians. Meh. Sounds stupid to me too.

Wait, Lisanthus's mom is a devil? I think that was just a mistranslation.

Uhh... no it wasn't. She most definitely has the ears of a Devil, and her being a Devil is what brought about the whole issue with Lisianthus having two halves in the first place. Lisianthus even says (during the events of my Lisianthus! installment, not this one or before) that her biological mother is "Maoh-sama's sister".

It's Yandere time

Well, She never goes Yandere in the VN. Ever. Even in Asa's route.

Kaede or Asa would be the logical next step. I'd prefer doing Asa's last though.

Whoops. That was supposed to be in spoiler tags. Guess that doesn't work here. Oh well, not too important.

Yeah, I've tried using spoilers here before as well. No luck even in the main body of these liveblogs, let alone the comments.

Annoyingly, another markup which doesn't work is to use two backslashes to force a single line break, to make lines closer together than pressing enter twice.

.

As for who I'm doing last, I'm currently thinking Primula (because of the order Shuffle! always puts the characters in), but I may reconsider at the end of Kaede's route. We'll see.

This was a short one compared to the last few walls of text.

Quite. But with the last few I was in a rush to finish Lisanthus' route, while now I'm wanting to pay more attention to the character who at the start was my favorite. (For example, had I played my first run as a "what I would have done were it me" route, the early question where Asa & Kareha ask who I prefer would have been answered as Kaede. I think it's the whole Childhood Friend Romance thing.)

Ah yes, and that reminds me: Another reason why I wanted to do Asa's route before Primula's was because I wanted to use Asa as the gauge for how to avoid the three primary love interests, particularly with that early question, since it is asked before Primula is met.

Fair enough.

I always used the skip button. Actually, I never even paid attention to the dates.

Kaede's theme song is pretty standard and boring.

I haven't really been paying attention to specific dates, but rather days of the week. Particularly early on when there's so little variation between each day no matter which route you're doing.

I had figured it might. Otherwise I'd probably have noticed it. :P (Is there any common occasion between characters which always have specific leitmotifs? Such as their introductions or epilogues, maybe?)

Every characters epilogue has their leitmotif in it. EXCEPT for Asa's. Well, here theme's pretty distinctive. (I only noticed this little detail because she's my favourite character).

Oh, haha, guess this changes things up. I didn't realize it because you didn't highlight the choices since they were repeats. Oh well, have fun.

And Primula's a special case, age-wise. Of course everyone in the VN is TECHNICALLY 18 but their actual depicted ages are probably lower.

Hm. I think I'll start highlighting choices again then in my remaining runs. (And if this route has any choices near the end like Lisianthus' did, then those too.)

A special case? Curious. I suppose I'll find out why soon enough. Also, I don't mind it when they look to be in their late teens, as that's actually legal in some places. Primula looks no more than 11.

Just letting it be known that I won't be updating today, but probably can on the weekend. I'll also be getting headphones on Sunday, so I may do two, if there's time.

Eh, Primula's a Homonculous so she probably ages differently from everyone. At least that was my interpretation.

Ah.

The impression I got was that the second homunculus - Lycoris - aged quicker than the others, but the first was originally normal, while Primula was created from scratch. That she was created from essentially nothing gives no implication regarding the speed of aging.

...But of course, this still leaves my point that she looks ten. Maybe I'll come up with my own theory regarding her age later. :/

She looks a tad older than that. Maybe 11.

Close enough. To generalize, she looks "not legal". Which is notable, considering that the parental advisory notice said that "All characters engaged in any sexually explicit event is intended as being portrayed as being over 18 years of age, and actual or identifiable minor wasn't used during the processof creating the artwork or character portrayed in this game."

Which is bullshit. Primula looks like a minor, and is treated as such by all the characters in Shuffle! except possibly herself. She does not look to be at least 18.

Oh, and I just wanted to note that the artist's Only Six Faces is a big issue with Primula. While it doesn't look so bad for anybody else, Primula does not suit having a ^_^ face.

Oh generic visual novel protagonist, why must you be so popular?

Seriously. I can't think of a single character who actually dislikes him, and from what I can tell, four of the five heroines in Shuffle started liking Rin for pretty much no reason at all as soon as they knew of him, and the feeling never wavered despite a lack of contact with him for eight years in three cases. Kaede took some time, but otherwise she is the same.

Whoops. That blank post was accidental =D.

And about most of the girls, you're right. About Kaede, dead wrong. You'll see in her route. Actually, I think it's mentioned in Asa's route too.

Yeah, I figured I'd find out more. I don't actually consider myself certain yet of anything regarding Kaede & Asa's pasts, nor parts of Primula's.

I RETURN. I am never gone, I just take prolonged breaks of forgetting about this.

I figured as much.

Asa next

also fun fact about Asa's mom she looks and acts younger then her daughter

Do Kaede's first. I DEMAND IT!

Oh, and Ama's introduction is amazing.

Ooo~ Sounds like I'm going to need to flip a coin.

...Tomorrow. No time to do this thing today.

That said though... is either route shorter? I'll be getting a very good opportunity to do the end-of-route stuff in around one and a half weeks, so being able to reach the middle-end of a route then would be nice.

Finally, as I look over it, I realize that during my run of "Kaede's" route, only one of the answers I chose was actually different from how I originally planned to do Primula's route. Oops~

Actually, new idea. I won't be doing Kaede or Asa yet (intentionally), and will instead be doing an anti-route route, to see where I end up. This means I'll be avoiding all confrontations, if I can help it, and when I can't I will be as reluctant or oblivious as the scene will let me.

Of course, unless this results in either Kaede's or Asa's route, I'll be stopping once I hit the route lock.

An Anti-route? I've never tried before, haha. Have fun.

10 Bucks on Asa's route.

Oh well. I wanted Kaede first just to save the best heroine for last so win-win for me. Here's your ten internet dollars.

I feel so rich.

I know. It's a lot of money.

It's amazing how scary the girls' fanclubs are. Almost like Baka Test

I neither read nor watch that series (is it an anime? I have no idea); it never really seemed particularly interesting to me. :/

Ah, to clarify, I am aware of that series' nature as a manga.

It's an anime/light novel. Dunno if it's a manga. It has lots of girl on guy violence played as humour, which I'm not a big fan of, but if you can get over that, it's hilarious. Oh, and the extras in the class form a group eerily similar to the KKK who persecute guys who get girls.

It is a manga - that's how I first knew of it - but I had forgotten about the other two.

But yeah. There was just something about it which I didn't like. I can't really even remember what anymore, just that it was enough for me to want to stop reading. (This coming from a person who will finish reading pretty much anything he starts. Procrastination notwithstanding)

I actually never wondered about that. Maybe she's not a photographer at all and just a really good photoshopper.

Also, in every VN I've read, the use キャスト in the credits.

You should check out the anime, if only for Kaede's past and her Yandere mode that she doesn't show at all in the VN.

In the scene right before Lisianthus & Nerine's introductions to the class she is right there offering to show Rin photos of the two. She's definitely a photographer. :/

Yeah, I figured キャスト would be the "correct" spelling, but it goes against how I've pronounced the word my whole life. I assume it's a dialect thing, but...

Perhaps. Are the voices the same?

I believe they are. Unless I was delusional or my hearing was impaired while I was watching.

The reason for the difference in katakana is the first stretches out the a sound so it sounds like kaa-su-to instead of ka-su-to.

"Stretching out the a sound" would be done by my example of using カースト instead of キャスト. As it is now, it's an entirely different a sound being made. "Kya", "Ka" and "Kaa" are all different, with "kya" moreso than the others.

Addendum: As I was going through this whole thing again (picking the first option in every choice: Ask about Sia, Lisianthus, Take her in, I guess I'm free, Go home with Kaede, Go home, Just go shopping), I got a scene I hadn't gotten before. Having had done Lisianthus' route before (as it was clear these choices would lead) I didn't think there'd be anything new, but as it turns out, the choices I made moved the CG wherein Lisianthus feeds Rin to be the day after Nerine feeds him. The scene as a whole was essentially the same as Nerine's except that at the end Kaede was encouraged to do the same the day after (which didn't happen). Everything else up to the route lock I had already seen before.

Just a note, the anime has pretty horrible animation in my opinion. I'd just watch the part with Kaede's meltdown which is really the only part that differs from the VN.

Shall I remind you, Asa's swimsuit is AMAZING!

Ha, I suppose that's another word for it. Who'd'a thunk a piece of cloth and a couple of strings (paired with some ripped/cut jeans) could be used as a swimsuit?

Yay! Pachipachipachi! Yep, Asa's route is definitely the best. The ending for sure was great.

Again, last part of the anime is decent (but they **** up Asa's hair colour). Congratz on finishing.

Yeah, I had a check at the trope page and Asa's hair looks terrible.

Also, I would have had no idea (offhand) what you meant by pachipachipachi had I not just done a bit of searching for Kaede's final CG, wherein Lisianthus actually says "pachipachipachi" aloud. Equally odd but at a completely different point in a different route entirely, Nerine says "ji~" while staring at people.

Not a huge fan of Asa's ending though. The epilogue was boring, and the bits leading up to it didn't have much tension. To me, the best ending was Lisianthus', then Primula's; the rest aren't particularly memorable.

Well most people agree that Asa's route is the best which is why they made it the cannon one in the anime

*canon

But what of the manga, where it's Lisianthus?

Dunno.

Cannon. It's cooler.

Also, no one cares about the manga :).

I care about manga. :<

...Haven't read this one, but I will usually choose to read a manga rather than watch its anime. :/

Always good to see someone else that liked Asa's route the most. The only thing that drives me nuts is while I like her, Asa's reasoning seems really stupid, you'd think 'being dead' is gonna make your mom sadder than 'being able to use magic.'

i am comppuzzled

At what this stage is or the next? This stage is essentially a setup for the next, while the next...

512.

^:3

So.... Any news?

Sorry; I was busy today (it being Thursday, the day I'd usually do this mid-week). Luckily I'll have the next two weeks - starting Sunday - to do this whenever I want. Yay for holidays!

I am still compuzzled. "512 :3" ????

The :3 is a smiley. The clue is still 512.

Here's an elaboration on the hint though: What significance can the number 512 have (with anything)?

Not a date. 5-12? May 12th? *wikis it*\\ No big celebrations. Letters would be EAB.\\ Nothing I know. If we assign the girls to a number, I guess it would be... Nerine, Lisianthus, Asa going by the order you went... Naa, that's not it.

2 to the power of 9. 256x2. 128x4. 64x8. 32x16. Square root of 512 is 22.6. Square of 512 is 262144.

No clue.

One of your guesses was close. :3

Well. Related, anyway.

It's Sunday. I demand something.

Was busy Sunday. Now it's Monday. Something will be done today.

Good.

You seem to be a bit impatient there. Remember that I

^{claim to}

have a life too, you know.

Yay for procrastination!

Your life is dictated by my will.

Jk, take your time.

• Insert Jeopordy theme here*

Sorry; been getting distracted by the recent Psychonauts update on Steam. (I like to get achievements. :P)

I'll try to continue today though; I've pretty much finished Psychonauts.

I spent most of the day today at school thinking about 2 to the exponent 9. ????? Are you picking the second choice 9 times?

You're thinking in the wrong direction again.

How about this:

Expand 2^9

2*2*2*2*2*2*2*2*2

F*ck, now I'll be thinking about this the whole day.

I gave a more accurate clue in the next installment. :3

Sorry, doesn't help at all. :(

I see. I suppose I could be more accurate and say that the second 4 is actually "(1+(1x3))", or the equation as a whole being as thus:

2x4x2x1x2x2x2+2x4x2x1x3x2x2x2

Finally, the order is important. (so it's not 4x4x2x2x2x2x2 or anything like that)

Wtf. That makes even less sense than before.

Lol, I don`t think I`m going to figure it out.

And so there you go. Installments will be only once every weekend at best for the next six or seven weeks.

Actually, fuck that shit, I'll only check the endings from now on; keeping track of how I write up these individual things is too hard.

And I think I was inconsistent anyway, even with just these 16. :/

Wow, you do have LOT of time on your hands. This is pretty cool but maybe spend the time reading other V Ns lol.

Well, when you consider that I've changed my mind about the level of detail I'll be going into (which is in its own way unfortunate, but still a good thing when you consider the alternative), this won't actually take particularly long - I estimate somewhere near three or four installments.

But yeah. I'm doing this because of situations such as 000000010, where the choices made have an odd effect on the ending gotten; I want to know how each choice effects the ending, and have ever since I did Lisianthus' route.

For the fun of it, here are the notes I was using to do this first installment of this stage:

15th
16th
20th
21st
23rd
24th
4th
24TH - Remembering Asa (requires "Go with a friend", then "Go home")
29TH - Lisianthus' fall
- Kaede's dinner
2ND - Who cooks?
5TH - Kaede's wakeup
9TH - Asa's invitation (ASA'S ROUTE)
- Discussing exams
11TH - Dream of Kaede
- Primula enrolls (PRIMULA'S ROUTE)
12TH - Seeing Primula (PRIMULA'S ROUTE)
- About a kiss/Funbag Airbag
- Nerine's date/Clothes
14TH - Nerine's lunch
15TH - Mayumi's fall
- Lisianthus' lunch
16TH - Kaede's lunch
- Angel's bell?
22ND - Nerine at the pool

Funbag AIRBAG!!!

(To be honest, I had actually written that as simply "Airbag" in my notes, but thought it might be confusing were I to leave it as is. I didn't alter anything else though.)

Oh, and I'm kinda but kinda not making a new installment right now. It should be up within half an hour, maybe an hour at most. It's pretty much a recap.

Asa needs more luv :(

She does. :<

I suspect she'll have the lowest total in the end.

Yeah, I noticed that too. Kinda bugged me since I can't get a screenshot of them.

Why can't you?

Wow.... That's some..... Nice variation you got there.

Maybe you have to choose a few set choices at the start to get Nerine/Asa.

I now suspect that Nerine requires 1XXXXXXXX, and I've already mentioned what I think Asa needs.

What's curious to me though is how X11010011 would end. These two routes are the only ones in which both Asa & Primula's routes are followed perfectly... none of the choices you can make for each of their routes conflict, except possibly XXXXXXX 0 X and its inverse.

That's a rather interesting thing to note.

Wow.... Kaede is.....

Anyway, play G-Senjou No Maou next.

Yeah, she's a bit much. You can be sure I got tired of seeing the first few scenes of her route.

I'll look into it.

.

...A fix to the above though:

should be

I had forgotten to specify that Primula's routes don't apply if you aim for Asa.

I have no idea why this bumped to the top of the LB list, but I'm not complaining. >_>

<_<