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Visual Novels Community Thread | A Little Something for Everyone

C

Curler

Unconfirmed Member
Yuuichi said:
Speaking of Key, they've been silent for quite some time now about the briefly publicized Angel Beats game, on which I have some interesting tidbits of info about that. There was some interesting, albeit rather buried news on the game way back at the Sekai panel where Clannad got announced, in that the scenario was supposed to be done by the start of September, but that there were various other things to take care of as well. The site still hasn't been updated, but of all things Dengeki G's magazine is getting some promo material for Angel Beats in the December issue, which makes me wonder if they're planning a relaunch there. G's isn't traditionally a PC/Eroge mag though, which also raises some questions, but I would expect to see more about some of that very shortly.
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I think it'll be out later, probably after Sekai finishes up their current projects. Not sure how big their team is (I'm guessing >10 people) but I mean, VNs take time to do more than anything.
 
Y

Yuuichi

Member
Curler said:
I think it'll be out later, probably after Sekai finishes up their current projects. Not sure how big their team is (I'm guessing >10 people) but I mean, VNs take time to do more than anything.
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Did you quote the wrong thing, because I'm failing to understand what Key's mainline development team for Japanese releases has anything to do with Sekai releasing old games in English.
 
B

Basileus777

Member
Curler said:
I think it'll be out later, probably after Sekai finishes up their current projects. Not sure how big their team is (I'm guessing >10 people) but I mean, VNs take time to do more than anything.
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I'm pretty sure they subcontract out for each project and only have a small internal staff. But Clannad is getting is retranslation, that's going to take a while. Fault and WEE ep 2 are supposedly still coming out this year though.
 
V

Voliko

Member
PKrockin said:
I'm kind of surprised to see someone praise the music. Everyone I've seen seems to regard it as pretty average. I felt it had a certain nostalgic charm. The routes playing mostly that character's theme song so much did get repetitive though, especially with Haruka's more attention-grabbing theme.
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They did start to get a bit repetitive because there weren't that many tracks, but I was pretty fond of them. I think you described them quite well. They were nostalgic and kind of meloncholy. I really like Abo's style in general.
 
H

Hours Left

Member
Shizuka said:
Downloading the No, Thank You! demo.



How long was it?
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You've probably played by now, but just in case it's about 3-4 hours to see everything I guess. (Unless you speed through the voiced dialogue.)

jgminto said:
Hiroyuki's casual shirt I'd assume.
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Well, he's in there for sure. I don't actually like his shirt, (too cutesy and on the nose) and his "bonus" scene was the worst of the four guys IMO. He's still cute though.
 
T

Taruranto

Member
Hours Left said:
You've probably played by now, but just in case it's about 3-4 hours to see everything I guess. (Unless you speed through the voiced dialogue.)


Well, he's in there for sure. I don't actually like his shirt, (too cutesy and on the nose) and his "bonus" scene was the worst of the four guys IMO. He's still cute though.
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I actually liked him the best. <_< Looks better in uniform, though.
 
S

Shiina

Member
Just finished Cartagra.

Difficult to put my opinion into words. I think that my expectations were too high when I went into it because Kara no Shoujo was absolutely fantastic.

It was certainly not bad or not not worth reading but compared to KnS it was just kind of plain. The characters, the story, the writing and even the music were in comparison not on par. KnS makes you care so much more about the characters and the story and you get much more emotionally involved in it. I was kind of missing that in Cartagra. Maybe I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't read KnS first but that's how the games were releases in the West.

Before the true route it shifted between being average in the normal ends and straight up bizarre in the bad ends.
The true end redeemed the VN somewhat and did tie up some lose ends but it also went a little overboard with the twists I found. This image sums up my feelings towards it quite well (not a spoiler).

I guess I can look past those weak points since this was apparently Innocent Grey's first work and its 'sequel' improves on Cartagra in every aspect.


So if you do read Cartagra first, and think it's not bad and has some good ideas but could be a little better you should most definitely check out Kara no Shoujo.
 
H

Hours Left

Member
Taruranto said:
I actually liked him the best. <_< Looks better in uniform, though.
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I don't mind his personality, he's sweet, but his scene at the end was about as sexy as a bag of hammers. I hope his other ones are better.

I know the VA has a reputation for some quite vocal expressions during certain "activities".
 
R

_Ryo_

Member
I recently bought a used PSP and there's a retro store not far away that sales used (disk only) UMD games for pretty reasonable prices. Any good VNs for PSP? I guess I could import if there's a translation...
 
S

Shizuka

Member
_Ryo_ said:
I recently bought a used PSP and there's a retro store not far away that sales used (disk only) UMD games for pretty reasonable prices. Any good VNs for PSP? I guess I could import if there's a translation...
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Corpse Party, Corpse Party Book of Shadows, Sweet Fuse, Danganronpa (fan-translation), Hakuoki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom.
 
U

upandaway

Member
Basileus777 said:
From what I gather on twitter, they're doing better than they used to but still not doing great. Doddler still laments about poor sales all the time.
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From that twitter
Will all of Higurashi be out during 2015 or is it likely that the later chapters will spill into 2016? I think the current plan is to have the first 4 eps on steam during 2015, but there's a lot of stuff up in the air. As for Kai, I have no idea if that's in the plans yet, will probably see how the first 4 chapters do, but if we do Kai it will likely be 2016 at this rate.
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Well dang, I'm really happy I went with the older translation
 
A

aravuus

Member
Higurashi no naku whatever god these names has a bad translation? And there's a better translated version coming to steam next year?

Maybe I'll wait for that then.
 
D

Dragoon En Regalia

Member
Anyone played Takiya Iijima's games? He's written some VNs recently, but most notably did Gakkou de Atta Kowai Hanashi on the SFC. Translating the latter game seems to be a monumental task, alas.
 
C

Curler

Unconfirmed Member
Basileus777 said:
From what I gather on twitter, they're doing better than they used to but still not doing great. Doddler still laments about poor sales all the time.
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How many of their games are actually all-ages? Perhaps if they add more of those to the mix it may help their revenue a bit more?
 
T

Taruranto

Member
My biggest beef with MG version of Higurashi is the OST, they completely changed the question arcs OST and removed several tracks from Kai. Dunno if steam version fixed it.
 
S

Shizuka

Member
Muntu said:
Higurashi no naku whatever god these names has a bad translation? And there's a better translated version coming to steam next year?

Maybe I'll wait for that then.
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You might as well wait for the Steam version, it'll be worth the time.
 
N

Napalm_Frank

Member
The translation in the old Higu release was fine with me ¯\_(&#12484;)_/¯

I got a pach for the music tho from a gaffer. Dunno how close it is to the OG release but I had no problems. It's no Umineko tier to be sure but still some fun tunes.
 
B

Basileus777

Member
I finished Cartagra. It benefited immensely from a strong ending, because prior to the last few hours it was pretty mediocre. The bad endings and side routes were fairly pointless, and there was way too much sex, it would have been a better product if those had just been cut out. The VN felt pretty short, but I actually liked that, it's preferable to how long-winded and poorly paced most of the medium is.

Now I think I'll finally get around to reading Kara no Shoujo, especially if it is much better than Cartagra.
 
S

Shiina

Member
Basileus777 said:
I finished Cartagra. It benefited immensely from a strong ending, because prior to the last few hours it was pretty mediocre. The bad endings and side routes were fairly pointless, and there was way too much sex, it would have been a better product if those had just been cut out. The VN felt pretty short, but I actually liked that, it's preferable to how long-winded and poorly paced most of the medium is.

Now I think I'll finally get around to reading Kara no Shoujo, especially if it is much better than Cartagra.
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I looked it up for you and I&#822; &#822;t&#822;h&#822;i&#822;n&#822;k&#822; &#822;i&#822;t&#822; &#822;h&#822;a&#822;s&#822; &#822;a&#822;r&#822;o&#822;u&#822;n&#822;d&#822; &#822;t&#822;w&#822;o&#822; &#822;t&#822;h&#822;i&#822;r&#822;d&#822;s&#822; &#822;o&#822;f&#822; &#822;t&#822;h&#822;e&#822; &#822;s&#822;c&#822;e&#822;n&#822;e&#822;s it has fewer but not by much (
12
) (for reference, Cartagra has
15
). Another thing is that KnS is longer and the scenes are spaced out better, so most of them don't feel so tacked on. Generally the route progression is better in KnS as each route feels like a proper route and they all feel like they have a purpose, unlike some of them in Cartagra. At least that's how I remember the game because it's been two years since I played it.

Also I don't know how you play your VNs but you might want to use a walkthrough because you have a lot of freedom in what to do between the events so getting the right flags for a route can sometimes be pretty tough or random.
 
B

Basileus777

Member
Shiina said:
I looked it up for you and I&#822; &#822;t&#822;h&#822;i&#822;n&#822;k&#822; &#822;i&#822;t&#822; &#822;h&#822;a&#822;s&#822; &#822;a&#822;r&#822;o&#822;u&#822;n&#822;d&#822; &#822;t&#822;w&#822;o&#822; &#822;t&#822;h&#822;i&#822;r&#822;d&#822;s&#822; &#822;o&#822;f&#822; &#822;t&#822;h&#822;e&#822; &#822;s&#822;c&#822;e&#822;n&#822;e&#822;s it has fewer but not by much (
12
) (for reference, Cartagra has
15
). Another thing is that KnS is longer and the scenes are spaced out better, so most of them don't feel so tacked on. Generally the route progression is better in KnS as each route feels like a proper route and they all feel like they have a purpose, unlike some of them in Cartagra. At least that's how I remember the game because it's been two years since I played it.

Also I don't know how you play your VNs but you might want to use a walkthrough because you have a lot of freedom in what to do between the events so getting the right flags for a route can sometimes be pretty tough or random.
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Thanks. Yeah, a lot of the issues with Cartagra's sex scenes were how many were packed into so closely together in a fairly short game.

I don't mind using a walkthrough, I usually at least glance at one to see how a VN is structured before I read it.
 
B

Burnburn

Member
Basileus777 said:
I finished Cartagra. It benefited immensely from a strong ending, because prior to the last few hours it was pretty mediocre. The bad endings and side routes were fairly pointless, and there was way too much sex, it would have been a better product if those had just been cut out. The VN felt pretty short, but I actually liked that, it's preferable to how long-winded and poorly paced most of the medium is.

Now I think I'll finally get around to reading Kara no Shoujo, especially if it is much better than Cartagra.
Click to expand...

Shiina said:
Also I don't know how you play your VNs but you might want to use a walkthrough because you have a lot of freedom in what to do between the events so getting the right flags for a route can sometimes be pretty tough or random.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I strongly recommend using a guide too, some of the things you need to do are very obscure and very easily missed. I started without using a guide, but after getting the same bad ending three times in a row I quickly grabbed a guide from the internet. Even though some bad endings are really nice, they kind off slow down the pace. You're in for a treat though, KnS is very good.

After I get more free time I will definitely check out Cartagra too. Have to keep my expectations a bit low though, if it's not as good as KnS.
 
V

v1perz53

Member
Basileus777 said:
The Clannad Kickstarter is up. It's running for 60 days.
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Nice, got an early bird physical copy, which was what I wanted. If only they would announce and hit a Vita stretch goal, I would double my contribution for that version too, I love VNs on portable systems.

E: They're already a quarter funded and the kickstarter launched like an hour ago. Not familiar with early kickstarters so I don't know if that is typical, but I hope this gets funded quickly, my heart can't take another tooth and nail funding campaign.
 
C

Curler

Unconfirmed Member
v1perz53 said:
Nice, got an early bird physical copy, which was what I wanted. If only they would announce and hit a Vita stretch goal, I would double my contribution for that version too, I love VNs on portable systems.
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I do like how the options now are more a la carte. You can get the physical copy and then on what you want :) Don't need to invest in the top tier rewards if you don't want to.
 
B

Basileus777

Member
v1perz53 said:
Nice, got an early bird physical copy, which was what I wanted. If only they would announce and hit a Vita stretch goal, I would double my contribution for that version too, I love VNs on portable systems.
Click to expand...

I wonder what they will do for stretch goals because this is getting funded quickly. They ran out of the 1k tier in like 30 minutes.

E: They're already a quarter funded and the kickstarter launched like an hour ago. Not familiar with early kickstarters so I don't know if that is typical, but I hope this gets funded quickly, my heart can't take another tooth and nail funding campaign.
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Well this isn't going to be tooth and nail that's for sure.
 
R

R_thanatos

Member
The clannad kickstarter is going fast , really fast ...
not gonna pledge now ( 60 days is a long time ) , but , well this is going to be great
 
D

Dracandros

Banned
I forgot to check the forum after lunch, so the early bird physical copies were gone before I could pledge. Oh well - $50 is not much for a physical copy of this.
 
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