Muv Luv

Yeah, she got the Akane Maniax fandisk (but Maniax titles have been given to age-fanclub poll winners like Haruko and TDA 00's Melvina anyway) which then got turned into anime (supposed to be a promotion for an upcoming ML anime, but that one didn't work out due to, among other things, being too YAMATO DAMASHII for potential sponsors).

age seemed to like her at the time, though, as she's the only major character from Kimi Ita and Kimi Nozo who survived the Tomino-esque purge of the main cast towards the end of Alt (Munakata and Kazama were Alternative-original characters who appear later in the Kimi Ita remake).

edited 21st May '12 5:36:26 AM by HithertoAnIPAddress

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Yeah, I noticed that age seemed to like her. First they tell us about how awesome she is and then she's the most lightly wounded. As for the other two ah, so that's why they lived. Original characters. Did Kashiwagi originate in Muv Luv as well? I think I remembered seeing that she had a route in Altered Fable or whatever.

edited 20th May '12 9:22:53 PM by Arha

Yeah, Haruko's from Muv Luv*

. Got a Maniax to her name, too.

And while we're talking about Maniaxes (spoilers for Alt's and TDA 00's end):

http://muvluv.wikia.com/wiki/Shipped_off_to_Extra

edited 20th May '12 9:33:43 PM by HithertoAnIPAddress

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So, I was wondering. Why does that one BETA species never appear? The ones that have a trunk like arm.

Anyway, it's kind of funny how overdramatic the soundtrack is when it plays in Extra.

edited 21st May '12 4:21:47 PM by Arha

It appears a grand total of once, I think? When the BETA stragglers from Sadogashima assault Yokohama Base, it is seen holding the head of that UN guard who held up Takeru at the beginning of the game, during the scene where they are trying to self-destruct the reactor.

I can understand Kasumi but Yuuhi as well? She didn't even mention anything about liking Takeru back in the crapsack world.

Well, what better way for Unit 00 to show her appreciation of Takeru than to give him a giga-sized harem?

Besides, Rule of Funny.

Sounds like you're almost done with MLA. How did you like it?

edited 21st May '12 4:40:14 PM by encrypted12345

Full Battle Mode

Are you sure that was one of the Warrior class? I thought that was something else.

Well, the reason Meiya loves Takeru in the Alternative world is largely based on how informally he treats her. Meiya and Yuuhi are very similar. He even thinks it to himself when talking with Yuuhi, guessing that Yuuhi would also like him, though he obviously wasn't thinking in terms of romance. Yuuhi and Takeru happens to be an impossible pairing*

in the world of Alternative, so even if she was attracted to him she would never show it.

It was. Also, the lecture on BETA specifically mentioned that Warrior class BETA can tear off a man's head with its arm trunk.

Well, the thing is Meiya came for him because of the childhood promise. I doubt either or them knew Takeru personally before so it made little sense for Yuuhi to be there (unless it was because of her sister).

I think the ending was a little weak. I'll form an opinion of the game as a whole later.

edited 21st May '12 4:56:11 PM by Thrombin

Well, their routes in Altered Fable probably address that. The real question is why they're both together at all considering their family situation.

Probably something 00 Unit did to their old man's head. What is Altered Fable?

The continuation to the Alternative ending, more or less. Basically Extra with Kasumi, Yuuhi and other people from Alternative around. I think even Major Walken is in it.

And the protagonist? Didn't Takeru disappear?

Didn't you finish Alternative? Takeru wound up in the world of Extra again, though it was altered slightly. Plus, he doesn't seem to consciously remember any of the Alternative stuff, though he did get teary eyed at seeing everyone again and seemed to recognize Kasumi.

Oh, silly me. I thought it was set the crapsack world.

There are other spinoffs and stuff about that world. I suppose it's not terribly likely that more Muv Luv stuff will be translated since none of it seems to be nearly as good as Alternative.

edited 21st May '12 5:41:51 PM by Arha

x5

It's worth noting that Altered Fable features a lot of fanservice for those who prefer Meiya with Takeru. Although it's Most Definately Not A Sequel, her 'Unique Event' features the two playing Valgeron together, a walk through a not-TSF hanger, and the only non-sexual explicitly romantic CG. Also, Sumika is the only harem member not to get a (real-world) 'Happy End' with Takeru.

^ I couldn't help but laugh at that. Meiya does seem to be much more popular from what I've been able to tell, so I guess age was responding to that.

You know, most of the romance in this series just isn't that good. Are age's other works better at that?

edited 21st May '12 8:35:29 PM by Arha

the reason the other Muv-Luv spin-offs will hardly have a translation it's because Age's engine on its V Ns are a pain to work with.Ixrec only beared with it because he really loved Alternative(he actually hated Extra and only translated it because it was essential to enjoy Alternative)

well,there's Rumbling Hearts,but it's full of angst

edited 21st May '12 9:01:12 PM by johnnysasaki

Well there's the Schwarzesmarken LN which is being translated by the FMP! translator (and someone on /m/ is buying the volumes for his use this week).

The adaptation of the Total Eclipse LN, of course, will air starting July 1, and will also premiere at this year's AX.

And for those who have finished Alternative, the Chicken Divers sidestory has been posted on YT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=US&v=nLml-ANIRjo

edited 21st May '12 9:24:30 PM by HithertoAnIPAddress

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So I wasn't the only one who noticed. Though I think it's sort of justified by the warrior-class being too fast to even follow.

I want to see Muv-Luv Alternative Chronicles though. The ones that contain Marimo's and Isumi's side-stories, and the afterstory to Unlimited. Altered Fable might be fun to read if only to see Extra with all those Alternative characters. Too bad rUGP is an eldritch abomination of an engine and will never be cracked by a mere fan translation group.

MAL || vndb || Blog

More on my dislike of the ending.^* 

The main complaint I have about the ending was how much closure it gave to the crapsack world and to the Alternative story as a whole. I just didn't feel that destroying the Original Hive alone was worth the epilogue. Or provided enough catharsis for the rollercoaster ride in the middle of the story. I think I would have been able to accept the Extra ending if something far greater had been accomplished.

The way the story brought up the plot thread of BETA, their creators and humanity's first successful communication with them, then promptly abandoned such a promising development for blowing shit up was a huge waste of potential and a big disappointment. If anyone here has ever played Mass Effect, Alternative would be like if the story was one whole game and ended at the Collector Base with everyone dying. Not only is the hero and his squad gone, but all they accomplished was the destruction of the homebase of the organic pawns of the true enemy - a vast amount of incomprehensible eldritch machines of which humanity is hopelessly outmatched by, bent on the destruction of organic life. That was how disappointing the resolution was.

Other than that, I disliked how they handled the big revelation that Sumika/00 Unit was the cause of the looping. It was hard to get any emotional impact out of it because 00 Unit was already dead. And before you can think much about it, the story transmogrifies into Extraesque, where all the development is basically undone and everything becomes happy and stupid again.

If I were the writer, I'd put the reveal of Sumika/00 Unit being responsible for the looping before the assault on the Original Hive, as her reason for avoiding Takeru, instead of that weird tentacle rape thing, which was such a retarded development that I would have laughed it off if not for the horrible nature of rape. She would still have omitted mentioning the time limit on her life anyway since she wouldn't want to depress Takeru further, keeping the surprise factor of her death after the final battle. It would have added more poignancy to their reconciliation. Putting it there would be more meaningful than having it hang uselessly in the kill 'em all aftermath like an appendix on a caecum.

Plus, I kept thinking that the seriousness of the assault was cheapened because I still mistakenly believed (along with Takeru) that he could just loop again at worst. The revelation that this was his last chance would add a lot more to what was at stake in the assault. No point telling me after the assault was over.

The rest of Alternative was better. Maybe not as good as it could be because some of the ground had already been tread by Unlimited, but since I loved pretty much all of Unlimited and there was sufficiently well-done original material, it was still very good. I especially liked the emotional crescendo of the PTSD arc, where Takeru reads Sumika's diaries.

Unfortunately, it's hard to say the same for a lot of character deaths because there are only so many last stands and heroic sacrifices you can do before they start losing their emotional impact. Mind you, I'm not exactly against more than a few heroic sacrifices here because I think it would inevitably become a necessary fact of life for many soldiers in a hopeless, desperate war for humanity's survival, but it gets rather tiring after the third one, especially since the story focuses on their glory and heroism while downplaying or admonishing any feelings of anguish and ignores the dark bleakness of its inevitability. Maybe I can't understand because it's YAMATO DAMASHII a Japanese thing, but pray tell me, how am I supposed to feel emotional about your deaths if all your comrades keep celebrating them?

Character development dialogue was good but can get really long-winded and felt a little repetitive at times. The nationalism was a little in-your-face at times but it ended up being relevant to the story and lasted only one arc, so I overlooked it. As for the characters themselves, all of them save Meiya and related parties felt like they didn't get enough focus. 00 Unit especially could have gotten more character development considering her importance to the plot.

For nebulous, arbitrary number scores, I'd give Extra a 5.5, Unlimited an 8 and Alternative a 7.5.

edited 22nd May '12 6:27:33 AM by Thrombin

I also remembered there's a spin-off involving Ayu and Mayu from Rumbling Hearts,with that Saint Seiya's Shun ripoff as the protagonist in the Alternative universe(not an expy,a complete ripoff.He even dress the Andromeda cloth with the Nebula Chain and all!!) who has a crush on Ayu and first appeared on those Ayu Mayu OVA shorts

A lot of the deaths felt kind of meaningless or contrived. Like Suzumiya or Kashiwagi's. Granted, Kashiwagi simply dying in battle is fine, but the manner in which it happened was kinda pointless. Munakata and Kazama's injuries just seemed sort of like 'Okay, we need them out of the plot now, so oh no! They're hurt!'

You know, to be fair to Sumika, Meiya might not have looked so good in Alternative if she had been the primary love interest.

Honestly speaking, I agree that MLA had a lot of flaws like the ones Thrombin and Arha pointed out, not to mention the weird pacing and stuff like that. However, they just didn't bother me that much because IMO the positive aspects were just that good.

All that and I am a die-hard mecha and hard sci-fi fan. Gundam Wing was my childhood.

Full Battle Mode

Same here. I'm not a die-hard mecha fan, but I was too immersed in the story to really care about the flaws. People already pointed out the flaws like Sumika's character or the weird pacing, but I don't mind them as much when you have the rest of the cast counterbalancing Sumika, or the immense detail they put into the world-building. The YAMATO DAMASHII aspects didn't bother me as much either, but maybe it's because I live in an Asian country? I enjoyed all their discussion on nationalism and heroism.

So all in all, I put the entire series at a 9.5/10. My third favorite VN overall, behind ef and Umineko.

Although I find that rating Unlimited higher than Alternative is kinda stretching it. I was just a liiiitle mad at that ending.

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