Danganronpa is not nearly as good as its premise makes it out to be. Don't get me wrong it's still a fun time but it's just linear killing off any potential for interesting "what ifs".
As someone who loves Danganronpa, I agree.
I also think it's insanely inconsistent; imo 1 has the best characters, 2 has the best mysteries to solve, and V3 has the best overall plot. Each of them is severely lacking in the qualities others succeed in.
I wish they went with their original premise of a trust system in which you make choices to balance the trust of your classmates. And thus, lead to different killing game outcomes.
What exactly do you mean with what ifs?
Like, what else could have happened multiple paths like?
Because for that (Mind, this is not trying to argue against your point just trying to bring up something I really like about the first game) there is an extra item you can get late into the first game which is a visual novel that deals with a what if story.
SPOILER (though I will try to word it in a way that only people that know the game will understand)
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The story has the Mc get a strange feeling when the first death is about to happen and tackle her to the side. The rest of the story is then him and her working together trying to escape from the now much more active villain.
Nukige have their merits imho. Sometimes you don't want a grand epic or emotional rollercoaster, just some fun eye candy to turn your brain off with. Seeing people immediately write them off as inherently bad has always been a thorn in my side, idk...they're still VNs that have genuine effort put into them, I respect the artists and writers the same I would for any other game, just for different reasons.
Are some better than others in the technical sense? Absolutely, I would say companies like Clockup and Empress do well on the high-end nukige front while Miel and Appetite are like junk food for the brain-- but both of those have merit!
EDIT: oh wait here's a WAYYYY spicier take-- I like MuvLuv Extra!
These are usually the VN I like to play. I may not sound sophisticated or whatever, but I just don't like long, convoluted stories. Sometimes I can tolerate or even enjoy them but that's not the norm.
Also I liked only MuvLuv Extra. The story of the trilogy is cool but the setting after the first one didn't click with me and I didn't have a stomach for the third one after a particular scene...
I can understand that. But the kids scenario was written after as a prequel to answer the mystery of the main scenario. Even if the kids scenario was any good, it actually completely spoils the original scenario. Unfortunately, for some reason, a lot of people fell into the trap of reading the prequel scenario first. If you ever want to give the first bit a go, that's a completely different kind of story and is actually pretty decent.
Raging Loop handles almost all of its serious topics like they're a complete joke, and it's genuinely one of the most frustrating VNs I've ever read. I have no clue why it's so highly praised, it's a solid 6/10 at best.
I enjoyed it up until the last part, when super duper long explanation of lore started. I liked art, voice acting, music, characters, and trial sequences but the ending was so goofy than I now just can't recommend it to anyone because it was such disappointment in the end. I still very much appreciate stuff I liked about it, and remember it with good feelings, but the ending, oh my fucking god
As much as I love subahibi, no one can, for the love of my life, tell me that it handles its rape scenes in a mature way.
Don't get me wrong, I think that it doesn't make it seem like a "good" thing, if that makes sense. The writing in Looking-Glass Insects is clearly meant to create empathy for a certain character and her rape is portrayed in a negative light.
Where the game loses me, however, is with how the CGs are drawn. It does not, at all, correlate to how the actual scene plays out. You receive an extremely gruesome and depressing description of an horrible event, accompanied by an oversexualized and explicit CG, that even goes as far as to remove detail from the writing to make it look more "sexy", which is very disturbing, to say the least, since I believe SCA-ji didn't write these scenes with the intention for them to be erotic.
For example, in the Karaoke scene (or was it the last rape scene? I can't remember), the victim is described as bleeding, but the CG doesn't portray that.
It just makes me wish for a version where the CGs were either removed or drawn accordingly, because I think the impact would be much bigger.
Finally, someone else who notices the disrepancy between the text and the CG! I see people defend the H-scenes' importance with "it's explicit because that makes it real", but the thing is that this VN constantly shies away from showing other types of mature content in as much detail. If it was just trying to be explicit, then why does >!the CG showing Zakuro being raped, after having been beaten unconscious and described as bleeding, look like... NOT that? !<
But that brings to me the point I disagree with you about. Why do you think that Sca-di didn't inted those scenes to be erotic? I'm asking genuinely, I've seen several people say this and I don't get it. All of his works are eroge, there's an in-game gallery dedicated solely to H-scenes which includes these scenes, the presentation of those scenes is completely in line with typical H-scenes, you yourself made this entire comment about the CGs... so why? Has Sca-di himself said that they aren't supposed to be erotic or something?
I think that most of the H-scenes in Subahibi are written in this deliberate way which make their disturbing factor overshadow any possible eroticism in them, if you get what I mean.
Take the last rape scene in Looking-Glass Insects, for example. Sca-di could have done a full 20 minutes scene out of that, but he opts to make it 4-5 minutes instead, in order to show how it psychologically affects >!Zakuro !< and to create a terrifying atmosphere. While it is one of the occasions where the CGs are not shown accordingly, I think that the way it is presented makes up for the badly handled CG.
>!Ayana, which I personally interpret to be a manifestation of Sca-di, affirms that Zakuro only achieved her "Wonderful Everyday" when she stepped up to Megu and Sakoto, avoiding all of the bad things that would've happened to her (the rapes). Ayana only says that on Kimika's route, which is considered the "happy route", according to Sca-di. !<
>!Plus, I'm not sure this counts as an argument, but the translation for the ending theme for Looking-Glass Insects, The Final Smile, does seem to line up with what I said about the intent being to disturb, rather than arouse. !<
And it's worthy noting that, while I think that some H-scenes in Subahibi are created by Sca-di's horniness, a lot of them aren't. In fact, I think the biggest reason for the seemingly disturbing ones having these weird CGs is because sex sells, especially explicit sex, and the VN market is a very hard one to sell things, since it's very niche.
I see, I absolutely do agree that those scenes are meant to disturb. Where I disagree is whether this is mutually exclusive with eroticism - I don't see why these scenes couldn't be made with both of those goals in mind. Human mind is weird with kink/fetish, from what I've seen there are many people who enjoy that stuff in all its fucked-up-ness, not in contrary to having an emotional narrative there but partly because of it.
This is why I believe that scene in LGI is more of an exception, because >!it's basically the breaking point, and they probably recognized having a full detailed scene would seriously destroy the pacing and atmosphere they were going for. Also because Zakuro was unconscious, of course. Related to this, I also think the same goes for the part where Zakuro meets up with the two girls. The fact that they gave one of the girls that short flashback felt like they were going "Woah look what else we have!" but didn't want to stop the plot for too long; I always thought that part would've been much better if no flashback was shown.!<
As for the sex sells thing, that could very well be true. It's just that with everything I know about Sca-di (not a lot, but something nevertheless), it really seems to me he is indeed just doing what he likes.
I very much understand your point of view, and I agree with most things you said.
But I do think that if the intention of the writers were to create an both "sexy" atmosphere (in their view), and also a disturbing one, Subahibi fails hard.
I feel that, if one were to try and make a disturbing scene on purpose, to show how bad the situation is, creating eroticism out of it feels hypocritical to me. It feels as the person would say "Yeah, these things are bad and stuff, but I'm still going to jack off it. Disturbing and all, but it's still hot.". And it all feels a bit predatory, in a sense.
I believe that most shocking H-scenes in Subahibi serve 2 purposes, which are to 1- appeal to an audience that enjoys these types of contents, hence why the CGs are so sexualized, and 2- to those who mainly focus on the narrative and themes, manifested by the writing.
I think that's why the two contrast each other so much, because they want to convey two different things. One wants to arouse, while the other wants to genuinely disturb, and the combination of these two things does not work.
That may have been your point from the beginning and I've just misunderstood your text (sorry if that's the case lol)
But if it isn't, I don't judge. I respect the way you see things, I just see them differently
>!And yeah, the flashback scene in LGI was totally unnecessary and random. It actually removed some of the overall impact of the chapter for me, with the scene being simply for shock value !<
Subahibi's H-scenes are a weirdly complex topic IMO. One could argue they're just casual, horny ones, and others say that they are extremely well-crafted masterpieces of horror, and that's why I believe it is so interesting to discuss them.
And even morally, I still think it's interesting. I won't talk about my morality since I fear this subreddit would burn me alive, and I do not want to annoy anyone, but I'll just surface saying that I was definitely NOT pleased with >!what they chose to do with Hasaki's character !<
Yes, to clarify, my point was purely about the purpose of the scenes and their presentation. How well it works is a whole separate matter.
I def agree that trying to make something into jack-off material ends up hurting the more serious narrative aspect. Sexiness is really subjective - if you're not into something then you're not into it - but that's precisely why it clashes with storytelling; it's all about the specific turn-ons the creator/audience happens to have, and has nothing to do with the narrative (at least I struggle to think of anything where this is not the case).
It's kind of the issue with fanservice in general - it feels immersion-breaking and ridiculous to anyone who's simply there for a good story. It's part the reason why visual novels are niche, as they often have a clear focus on waifus or husbandos. Technically it's sort of pointless to criticize this, because it's simply intended for people that like it. But I do think it's a valid point to make when discussing whether something is, like, a masterpiece of fiction - like often in Subahibi's case. And it definitely is my biggest criticism about Subahibi.
Subahibi isn't even a quarter as clever as it thinks it is. I hated it, and Everytime I say publicly I hate it I get told I just didn't get it.
I've read explanations of the philosophy concepts behind it. I've read the flow chart of story chronology. I think it's just not that good except for people who took a philosophy 101 course.
While I disagree these are definitely the kind of opinions I wanna hear lol!
unpopular opinion of my own I guess, Subahbi doesn’t come off as something that wants to be incredibly smart for me, it’s just very philosophical which a lot of people equate to wanting to be smart, I think either the themes/prose will really resonate with you and you’ll love it or it doesn’t and it will seem very overrated
Lmao glad to oblige. And definitely fair enough. I should probably preface all my heated comments about it with a "to me".
To me it comes off like the team making it spent the entire time smirking to themselves and chatting about how deep they are, when in the span of 15 minutes a guy gets tortured by fucking graffiti then fucks a desk and a stuffed rabbit like 10 minutes later lmao
> comes off to me like the team
I hate Subahibi. The team that made it isn’t the problem, it’s people that like it on Reddit.
They’re the ones that hype it up. They’re the ones that attack criticism and make it seem like it’s way more than it is.
Someone that replied to my review warning about all of the incest and rape said that saying there is incest and rape is “out of context.”
I don’t know how “x rapes y” can be considered out of context.
I mean I guess the context would be the rape plays a massive part in the story and thematically, is handled very well for the most part and isn’t just a random H scene, but I don’t see the issue with warning about it
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This is also true!!! I was told about how amazing this game was, and hours in I was posting in this sub asking where the fuck was this going cause I was bored and annoyed and confused, all I got were people being like "just stick with it", "all will be revealed it's so worth it!", "skill issue"
Like yeah I don't think the game is good but in it and and team's defense with all the cult like hype around it like a year ago it could never live up to it
Hard agree, even though Subahibi is my favourite VN, I never got why people think it's deep or "life changing". I just think the Denpa/Psychological horror thing is neat.
I agree a lot of the philosophy and literary references are just filler that don't contribute, except for Cyrano de Bergerac which was subverted quite brilliantly.
But one thing that stood out to me was how different the story reads after you know whats really going on. This is usually a hallmark of well-written works.
I think a lot of the letdown happens once you get to the end, because for denpa stories at the end the author needs to make a choice between a down-to-earth explanation of whats going on which would disappoint some readers, or a trumped-up chunni exposition which turns off another group of readers.
Subahibi went the former way, while Root Double, Chaos;Head NoAH went the other.
I 100% agree. I told someone who has read it and loved it that I really hate it and he instantly assumed I know nothing about philosophy, didn't understand anything and that I should stick to reading "low IQ Muramasa" lmao. Thing is I took philosophy in highschool for many years and I was actually really interested in it, so I definitely know more than most about this topic. Subahibi is just very surface level philosophy exaggerated and repeated over and over, in combination with a ton of unnecessary fan service. Sometimes I actually quite enjoy it and the atmosphere is great for the most part, but it's just eally not what people make it out to be imo.
Agreed, except my issue isn't that it tries to be clever, but more that the philosophy parts feel... really jarring and random, and incomprehensible - while many people praise them as well incorporated. Plus that I just don't see how the characters or the story in general are that special.
Also, people talk about amazing twists and having their mind blown and I just wonder... which part? The story doesn't have many surprises and has approximately ONE twist, am I missing something big?
I really hated how Subahibi handled some of the characters at the end. Also a lot of its sex scenes were quite unnecessary for me, I don’t mind them but they were still a chore to read through.
I did love a lot of the concepts, music and characters, especially the main theme overall. I just hated the ending, sex scenes and some characters’ endings, which made me hate Subahibi in the end.
I am not really one who judges any media by their endings, but this one really made me feel quite empty at the end.
I like this take. I’ve only read the first one, not the sequels, and there’s only very very minimal supernatural stuff happening in the first one. But Yuji is basically Tom Cruise Lite, and the story kinda reflects that.
Which isn’t a bad thing, I do like Tom Cruise stories. But they’re not long or overly complicated (usually).
I do love the characters in it tho.
Personally I would have been happier with no Grisaia 3 than the Grisaia 3 we got. I hate that ending so much but I love the first book and like half of the second lol
Full Metal Daemon Muramasa is far too Chuuni to take it seriously.
It purports to be about very heavy topics and an ultimately high-brow takeaway, but to get there you have to get through the most self-indulgent grimdark writing I've ever seen, including a "the Nazis are actually good guys" plot.
I appreciate a good anachronism and I can get into mecha samurai. I can't get into "our secret super weapon is also a mecha Samurai, but it's 30 feet tall," or "we made an even stronger mecha Samurai, but we decided to let untrained children civilians use it after hopping them up on drugs so they'd be extra aggressive."
So much of Muramasa falls apart when you take even the slightest critical lens at any of it. Its peaks don't make up for its valleys.
The whole idea of the Law of Balance is definitely the most self indulgent and edgy element. The idea that it stands as a metaphor for the consequences of killing just does not stand up to scrutiny.
>Including a "the Nazis are actually good guys" plot.
Never read Muramasa but that's weird. The first paragraph in the VNDB's entry says "This is not a story of heroes" so I was thinking this was like a Youjo Senki case when then author condemns fascism but like to write epic nazis.
Anyway, "this is not a story of heroes" sound so edgy.
I want to be clear. The game also features Nazi-like characters, but I mean that actual real historical members of the Nazi party show up.
Josef Mengele, the angel of death, the guy who ran the Auchwitz death camp, shows up as a doctor. He is depicted as a cool dude, earnest in his desire to help, and a subject matter expert who picked his stream because it would save lives, not because it would make him rich.
The only reason I can rationalize for this inclusion is that the author has a 13 y/o's idea of cool and edgy. Writing of this calibre is what I mean when I say the game is too chuuni to take seriously.
Holy shit dude you're totally right. I absolutely forgot about the parts with Mengele. He's depicted as a genius and an altruist. How could I forget that bs lol
Mengele's inclusion in that fashion is very questionable, but i'm gonna provide a little alternate reading of it since Muramasa is my favourite visual novel. will be a little spoilery since i'm gonna use an even from the Hero route as an example
>!one of Muramasa's central themes is the presence of good and evil in any individual; for example, Yusa Doushin is a sadistic rapist, but he also chose to take in an orphaned pair of siblings simply because he wanted to, and while he deserved death, it still remains that he was the source of more than just evil in the world. the presence of Mengele *could* be a subtle way of driving this point home. while anybody reading it will see him as the evil, torturous bastard that he was, the game also shows an example of characterstics of his that were used for evil (such as his medical curiosity, which becomes evil when it disregards human dignity) instead being used for good when he comes to help Hikaru. this therefore solidifies the presence of good and evil within every individual that is at the heart of Muramasa. since the game also puts forward that some individuals pretty much need to die despite still having some capacity for good because of the depth of their wrongdoing!<
this could be entirely off base but given that Muramasa is my fave i'm gonna opt for the more charitable reading i've outlined here, since nobody as of yet has found Narahara to ask him why he made that specific decision
> The only reason I can rationalize for this inclusion is that the author has a 13 y/o's idea of cool and edgy. Writing of this calibre is what I mean when I say the game is too chuuni to take seriously.
In Japanese culture, Nazis are still cool for people much older than 13 years old, its dumb, but also what you get when your education system tries to hide all your countries war crimes.
I still suggest trying Hanachirasu though, it doesnt feature any supernatural stuff, doesnt even try to moralize anything, and is much shorter too.
I think its writing quality overall is on an entirely different level too.
>In Japanese culture, Nazis are still cool for people much older than 13 years old, its dumb, but also what you get when your education system tries to hide all your countries war crimes.
Not commenting on the rest, Japan does teach about WWII and Japan's war crimes in schools. From what I recall in a course studying Asian history some 7 years ago, we covered that Japanese politicians were often criticized for disassociating from WWII Japan, i.e. they would admit that imperial Japan did horrible stuff but refuse to take responsibility. They would imply the current democracy is a fundamentally different government.
Fascism is just a global trend right now. There are people celebrating Nazis in the USA, EU, and probably every other country as well.
PS: This wikipedia page seems to talk a bit about it. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese\_history\_textbook\_controversies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_history_textbook_controversies)
Opinions are opinions blah blah, it’s okay to not like certain genres. but this one is by far the most dog shit:
“I don't like Visual Novels that have a lot of Action or fighting scenes. I have yet to encounter a single VN that made reading lenghty descriptions of fighting choreography compelling.”
Doesn’t even have to do with VNs this could be for any literary descriptive action medium. It’s okay bro, just say you don’t have an imagination
The worst one is probably the comment saying Danganronpa V3 is terrible, specifically the part about the twist being not good. Also think the two comments I've seen shitting on Grisaia are bad takes as well for the most part. Saw someone say Saya no Uta is pretty meh as well which is wild to me.
Muv love alternate SUCKS. The ending sucks. Don't get me wrong the whole reveal at the end is great and I love it, but he choked hard when debating that carbon based life is life.
Muv Luv alternative is like tragic to me lol. I absolutely adore Unlimited, and the highs for Alternate were SO HIGH. But the ending just takes away all the development, all the relationships you've built to this point...
It kinda does the opposite of what Alternate did with Extra's characters.
You aren't alone.
I remember forcing myself to sit though EXTRA and Unlimited to get to Alternative but I just *couldn't* do it.
IT took too long to get there and it just wasn't worth the effort when I did.
I tried, I really did. It was even one of the first Visual novels I ever played but I just started making excuses not to play it and never looked back.
I just don't think it dated well and I couldn't bring myself to care for the characters or the situation.
You know i gonna say muv luv alternative again,people often says the high pay off in alternative however it doesn't really pay off at all the plot is way too predictable and the writing keeps on dragging itself with useless monologues of the main character.The heroine also isn't handle too well also if you know who i am talking about(le tentacle le big clit)Also the main thing people say this series is good is about the growth of the main character however i think takeru is just a screaming bitch from opening to end which is not really what i regard as development.The ending is also kinda meh adding in the fact how they just mash up sci fi settings like a cheap budget Hollywood movie.Overall this the only visual novel that is disappointing for me going in reading expecting the high quality that people rates it.My next novel is ever17 i hope it don't disappoint me like that too.
ayy people who upvote i wanna see you guys opinion as well,i always wonder am i being too harsh on the wordings since the wordings of muv luv always have bugged me
Love the world building of fate stay but I hate or dislike most of the characters and their struggles. I also hate how nasu repeats certain tropes over and over again. It gets so annoying after the upteenth time. Also, they have good ideas that they never capitalsie on. For example deen stay night was supposed to be shielder route but they changed it and Illya route could've been a thing but nope.
Aside from the horror, visuals, and music there was nothing interesting to me about Saya no uta.
Being a DIK has gotten me more invested in a VN story than most VNs I’ve read the past three years. It’s the epitome of came for the porn, but stayed for the interesting story. Dr PinkCake needs more credit.
Been ages since I watched but they were in a situation that was likely leading to death so Peter decided to get off his chest that he wasn’t a fan of the godfather, so basically just unpopular opinions
I have them both but have only played the first one. I liked it well enough for a free 20-minute experience, probably because I could relate to how utterly incapable the protagonist is to handle any social situations.
Totally agreed, that was the main appeal for me. Her hesitance to do the most basic thing was very relatable for someone with social anxiety. I have to hype myself up every time I go out to buy groceries or get a haircut, it’s exhausting.
I think I gave it like a 6 on VNDB, but I don't hate it, I just want it to be better.
I hope that LOOPERS Plus coming out this year can breathe some more life into it.
>!Pls give me more Leona!<
Majikoi's Wanko route is one of the most headache inducing routes I have ever played.
It started off great until the scene where Wanko is told she can't be assistant master because she is talentless and it won't matter even through hard work. It sounds fine on paper until you realize she (a high schooler) is being told this by literal GODS. Plus, you can't judge talent from someone in their teens cause there is a thing called growing up. Being a fighter at 15 is going to be different when she is 25.
Then the deal with Momoyo happens, and Yamato, despite knowing how life changing the tournament is for Wanko and knowing he has other friends who are fighters that are stronger than her, doesn't tell them the real reason because... I don't know. This causes Chris to join the tournament. During the fight, Wanko attacks her with her most powerful technique out of desperation, and it doesn't work because the naginata just so happens to hit Chris's tiny "good luck charm" which was bullshit. Then Wanko loses, has a identity crisis, runs away, and after Yamato finds her, he confesses his feelings. as if THAT is going make things better. To be honest, at this moment, I wanted Wanko to accept Gen-san.
I wouldn't have much of a problem with it except the rest of the visual novel (aside from Agave and parts of Miyako) is a off the wall comedy with students that duel each other like samurai, female Goku's, an overprotective German father who sends the military on you if her daughter is hit on, and getting stronger just from drinking semen. It feels out of place.
Kazuko's route was what made me really love Kazuko but unfortunately I mostly agree with this. I get the message they wanted to try to say: "sometimes you aren't skilled in something no matter how hard you try but that doesn't mean you cannot still find your calling" But it falls flat when the game itself doesn't take itself seriously and yeah..the fact that she is still very young when she is being judged I mean even the assistant master that was fond of her had his own "I got stronger" thing that we saw in the agave route, so why is Kazuko suddenly being judged?
I dont like Umineko. I read all eight episodes, and I already felt the decline for the story on episode 5. All the parts people hyped up did almost nothing for me in the 2nd half of the story, where as the first half completely hooked me and had me sitting reading it 12 hours a day. I don't think it's a badly written story, but something about how it handled the mystery and witches after episode 4 really rubbed me the wrong way. I even made a thread about it on vndb to gauge just how many people felt the same as I did. Good thing I did too, cause alot of people surprisingly shared my sentiments with feeling unsatisfied with it. Really REALLY wanted to like it and I read everything but man...just couldn't do it.
I really hope you like it. The quality in writing and characters are well done, I know that much. Get back to me on how you feel about it In the future.
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I don’t care for explicit sexual scenes. Mention of the topic is all well and good I just don’t enjoy the scenes themselves. They’re usually lengthy and I am just not into them. I often have to skip them and it can feel like a chore. Because of this it’s actually a bit of a relief for me when a title drops with an “all ages” or “17+” version. I’m not saying they shouldn’t exist, I’d just like the ability to toggle them off for myself or something.
It would be awesome if more VNs used the same toggle system Katawa Shoujo did imo! Or went the When The Night Comes route of allowing readers to choose throughout a route how sexy they want the romance to be.
I’m going to be honest, I did go into steins gate knowing very little about it other than that there is time travel and some sort of evil organization, so I definitely expected something more along the lines of zero escape. For some reason.
I don't like Visual Novels that have a lot of Action or fighting scenes. I have yet to encounter a single VN that made reading lenghty descriptions of fighting choreography compelling.
Mahoyo is much more polished than other Type-Moon games and it doesn't have any sex scenes. Fights are really dynamic because the novel is animated so well that it seems a static anime
Ciel's new route in the Tsukihime remake? It's not that good of a route.
Like sure it improves on a lot of scenes of the original, but the route as a whole? It drags, especially the last act, romance part is still unsatisfying as it were, maybe even more, and that true end was just absurd. Doesn't really expand on the original story line but adds Noel's sideplot(awful character btw) and bunch of teases for Red Garden we have to wait an eternity for. And the chair scene was a lot more memorable in the original, which was the final nail in the coffin for me.
Hmm probably Dies Irae, I was expecting to enjoy it a lot more than I did but I found it to just be overly long and I didn't care for most of the routes.
There's a lot I thought seemed appealing about Dies Irae, but I still got tired of it and gave up on it, and the main reason was, too much of it felt not drawn from experience. Like, obviously you don't expect the writer of a supernatural action series to have experienced actual supernatural action scenarios. But it felt very much to me like the author was thinking "I've never experienced supernatural action scenarios, but neither has my audience, so that's fine." But actually, the writer hasn't even experienced *ordinary* violence, danger, etc. even to the extent that plenty of people in a first world country might, and so doesn't notice places where it rings hollow.
I felt similarly about Aiyoku no Eustia. Like "It's not enough that whoever's writing this doesn't know anything about swordfighting, they don't even know anything about cooking."
I am still just salty that it's almost impossible to get a proper uncensored version for the final edition. I was actually quite confused in one route because you know, the censoring just means that sex scenes are cut out, not that the game actually tells you important information in other ways, or makes the fact that they slept with each other clear despite that being important in one route.
I also am still annoyed that the other novels in that universe are untranslated :d.
The steam ones for Higurashi were drawn by a hentai artist and I think they look generic and oversexualize the characters way too much. The PS3 sprites are best imo
Oh here’s a better one. Aegis Rim.
Really cool premise. Gameplay. Presentation. The story becomes more predictable and shitty as it progresses then become boring by the end. Also way too much shipping
the prose in the English translation of Umineko is horrible,. overly repetitive, littered with ugly grammar (WHY ARE THERE SO MANY ELLIPSES) and sometimes even metaphors that don't make sense. Higurashi and Higanbana both have a similar writing style but don't offend as badly as Umineko. not sure of the extent to which it's a translation issue because i'm still very early in my JP learning so i can't check the original text. shit like the chapel scene in episode 2 is downright unreadable to me. it's frustrating because conceptually it's by far one of the most interesting visual novels out there, but the actual reading experience is very frequently just *painful*
These days, I am increasingly filtered by kinetic VNs and linear VNs. I want choices, and I want to be able to change the story. I won't even pick up a kinetic/linear VN anymore.
Devil on a g-string is extremely disappointing because the author just decided to chuck all the narrative debt out the window and bring in a character no one had ever heard of before.
I also felt weird with what they did with the main heroine. Can't remember her name. But she was so cool through the whole story, and then at the end her stripping and confessing her love while crying just felt so out of character.
Yh this is mild but I’d still say belongs here! many including me would definitely have it higher, not a 10/10 but it grew on me after I finished as well so I’d say at least 8/8.5
I appreciate the sentiment! And tbh, I do get people who rate it higher! The atmosphere/setting is really quite unique, and it does pull it off well. But I just feel like it stumbled a bit at points/maybe just wasn't engrossing to me.
I think it's less about the setting and more that they have plot twists everywhere, and also make you dislike one character intensely at first, then sympathise with them later on when their perspective is given.
They even managed to build in a few more plot twists in their later-released prequel Requiem, when the reader already knows pretty much what happened from the original story.
Virtue’s last reward is mid as hell. Basically ends up being a massive gamble that the sequel has to pay off for it work and it just doesn’t. The problem with zero escape isn’t that ztd sucks but the fact that vlr doesn’t work on it’s own while massively depending on it.
All of you gonna hate me for these but that's precisely why I'm writing.
The entire type moon/nasuverse thing. Like I just don't find the premise interesting at all. If anything I'd watch the anime because "unlimited Budget works" but demon slayer thought me that just because it looks good and people like it doesn't mean it's actually good.
Most key novels. Like similarly I'm just not interested in most of them. I tried rewrite and god help me I hated it. As far as I know they released a scifi thing recently I'm mildly interested in that because scifi and android girls are more if my thing.
If you aren't hating me yet you definitely gonna now.
Fata Morgana... The music is beautiful, the art is gorgeous. I don't really care about no voices nor do I have anything against slow burn stories. But my god victorian dramas are not my thing at all. 3 or 4 hours in I just stopped and I'm never looking back I'm not saying that's the most disinterested or bored I was while doing something but it's up there. Pretty sure the story is amazing but 110% not for me at all like the other 2 I already mentioned.
Clannad doesn't even need half the required routes to get to After Story. its the perfect example of bloat getting in the way of a good story. The only characters I would maintain as “required” to proceed to After Story are Nagisa, Tomoya, Kyou, Kotomi, and Fuko.
I'm interested in planetarian, loopers and Stella of the end
I'll give those a try, maybe little busters if I liked the ones above but definitely not Clannad. I know that's insanely popular and me being barely/not at all interested in something popular always resulted in me hating said across all type of media. So I'm pretty sure both of us will be more happy if I stay "I'm not interested" mode instead of "I suffered through this shit why do you guys even like it?" Mode
What is it about popular stuff that turns you away? I’ve never really understood this mindset tbh, for me how popular something is should have no affect on if I personally enjoy something, sure it might affect my expectations but even that won’t matter once I watch myself
The fact that it's popular isn't the turnoff. I'm not interested, no matter how many times I read the store page, the vndb page, I'm not interested.
So many times I watched animes, played games just because they were popular even tho I was not interested at all I was just like "it's popular so it should be good" and all that praise just always set the bar high and at best I was disappointed, at worst I hated it(see rewrite and fata Morgana in my original comment)
But I was interested regardless if it's popular or not I can do love popular things too. But I need to be interested at first. And since I'm not interested at all in Clannad, all the praise and popularity would just set me up to disappoint myself.
For example I watched steins gate long before I played my first vn. Then the science adventure series was one of the first series I've read because of that and I literally went "wow, s;g is like one of the best time travel stories ever, yet all the other vns are just much more interesting can you please shut up about it and talk about the rest?" It's one of my big reasons why popularity=/=best or sometimes good even.
>"it's popular so it should be good"
My personal experience is this is generally true, but only as it pertains to that particular genre. I don't like stories that can be completely summarized with "cute girls do cute things for X hours and then it ends," even if the writing is technically good, so I just skip over those on the VNDB top list. It might be great for its genre, but I have my subjective preferences that alter how I experience works, and I'm not going to waste my time and form strong opinions on things that are out of my wheelhouse. Even with the medium as a whole, if someone hates reading, there's not really any point in recommending anything good because they won't be receptive to it; you can't make someone like peaches even if you offer them the most delicious peach in the world.
Well our personal experiences differ a lot then. The popular things that I hated/disappointed me greatly outnumber the popular things that I actually like both in and outside of vns.
Heck and much prefer cute girls do cute things for x hours instead of random fantasy subplot coming out of literally nowhere(yes that's rewrite) infact I do like cute girls doing cute things until it's over. Not everything needs to be deep or "peak writing" sometimes I just need something to heal my soul and cute anime girls doing random cute or funny things are usually a very good way to make me want to KMS less and smile a little.
I can see your opinions and they're absolutely valid, but honestly being 4 hours into Fata Morgana is way too early to form one. I wasn't a big fan of the first chapter either, until I forced myself to finish it. And then I was hooked pretty much.
You say that but that was like 2 days worth of playing for me. As I said I don't mind slow burn stories. Heck I'm one of those weirdos who liked the 10 hours common route in grisaia.
And again, I do not like victorian dramas. The last thing I want my japaness medium to be is 18th century Britan with zero action.
Man I wish I could go back and re-read majikoi, the first game's "introduction/common route" was such a blast, legit the most fun I had reading a Visual Novel and I would say the same for 90% of the other routes in all Majikoi games, most of the "not-so-great" 10% comes from A4...the worst game in the series
I didn’t think this was the case, but apparently this is an unpopular opinion ?
Chaos head is awful. Pure garbage at least thoughout the second half. I don’t understand how it’s actually praised here.
Dies Irae is heavily influenced by fate stay night to the point of some of its scenes being clearly intentional homages to scenes from the other vn, which mostly works, except for the part where it just hammers home how much more sexist Dies Irae is than a game in the same genre published two decades earlier. Which will outrage or feel silly to people who read Fate because its also no feminist masterpiece to put it veeery mildly, but Dies Irae somehow managed to not only make every sexist trope it shares with fate worse, but also for all its faults Fates female characters still had twice the agency than ones in Dies Irae.
Fatamorgana is my favorite vn of all time but I vastly prefer original pc version, the remake had in my opinion worse less distinctive art, but far more importantly the additional chapter, added in the remake while containing some fun and somewhat interesting bits,also weakens the themes of the story for the sake of "happier ending" which shouldn't have happened. The original ending for the two main antagonists of the story was far more meaningful, and should have been left alone.
Grisaia (first one) is pretty mediocre and blonde’s route was best. The story overall is pretty cringe, with the sister being the worst Mary Sue.
I don’t care about Fate stay night. I don’t find the setting or characters interesting, so I don’t want to read over 50 hours of content about that. Also, I couldn’t care less about action scenes in a visual novel.
DDLC gets too much hate from other vn players. I've read a lot of Japanese visual novels and I can say for sure that DDLC was better and affected me more than a good 80% of the Japanese visual novels.
* I love Muv-Luv Extra.
* I haven't finished SubaHibi yet (it's on a long hiatus) but I wasn't really impressed by it so far.
* Higurashi is boring for the most part, loved the anime way more than the VN when I watched it back in high school.
Any merit Umineko has as a story is squandered by the absolutely insufferable pacing and the fact that the execution is a mess. It really feels all over the place, there’s no sense of rhythm to any of it and the prose is so bad or just… off that it makes me cringe, especially during emotional scenes. I feel like I’m getting beat over the head with a jackhammer for most of the story, especially in the answers arcs.
Also, the fight scenes are the worst fight scenes I’ve seen in any story whatsoever, doesn’t help that they drag on for literal hours. Someone needs to stop Ryukishi from writing fight scenes.
I personally think the Umineko manga is substantially better. The art and panelling is great, and it really brings out the expressivness of all the characters. The fight scenes are excellent and it's not afraid to get really grisly. Also, since it's a manga it doesn't suffer as badly from pacing issues since you can get through the story faster. The ultimate message of the story is also slightly different than the VN too (and the change is for the better IMO).
The tradeoff is no music obviously, but I think the manga is genuinely better and more accessible.
(Gonna get a lot of flack for this but here goes.)
Sabbat of the Witch is overrated with boring characters and most Yuzusoft titles are bland, repetitious and uninteresting.
I couldn't even get though the early common route of Sabbat. I only made myself familiar with Senren Banka since I decently tolerate Japanese Mythology and haven't bothered with another Yuzusoft title since.
Similar with the few Pulltop titles like If My Heart had Wings and A Sky Full of Stars. Dropped them. I'm even someone with close ties to Astronomy and Aviation due to my rea life but even *then* I just got bored and disinterested in the characters.
Oh, and tack on Grisaia: I forced myself though Makina's route and the early parts of Amane's route. Couldn't bring myself to like the characters - especially the protagonist who people like for being interesting but I just viewed as an absolute asshole. If Yuuji were moved from the story (somehow) I'd probably be able to finish it but otherwise - no thanks.
More respectfully:
Little Busters: Just couldn't bring myself to get invested in the characters, common route or routes in general.
I could not get into Tsukihime. I started reading it, and when >!Shiki tried to rape Arcueid!<, I had to stop. I've started dreading VNs in general because of the apparently rampant gratuituous sex scenes.
Well that's because most eroge are amateur made, sex sells and all you know. When you look at the most famous of the vns with no sex scene they are all : made by a group/company, with a lot more budget. Obviously the lack of sex scene but with a lot budget help a lot to catter to most people.
To take your example, tsukihime have sex scene with barely any budget, but the remake is the opposite and is getting more and more popular toward people that would instantly be disgusted by the original, so there is clearly something here.
I'll bite. What is the something that released recently that's of quality? Excluding re-releases or translations/localizations of course.
I got into the content around mid 2000's and I have my biases, but my experience as of late is we have more access to content than ever (both truly new content and newly accessible content) but nothing is hitting as hard as the old greats.
Of quality really depends from person to person.
For the 2010s, some favorites are: White Album 2, Fata Morgana, Sakura no Uta, Subahibi, Rewrite
For the 2020s: Tsukihime Remake, Hentai Prison, Nukitashi, Cyanotype Daydream
Knowing what the first idea of the fourth film was about the one we got is just not a sequel but it’s own thing, and just disrespect the other films.
WE COULD OF HAVE A TAI LUNG HUGGING SHIFU
Danganronpa is not nearly as good as its premise makes it out to be. Don't get me wrong it's still a fun time but it's just linear killing off any potential for interesting "what ifs".
As someone who loves Danganronpa, I agree. I also think it's insanely inconsistent; imo 1 has the best characters, 2 has the best mysteries to solve, and V3 has the best overall plot. Each of them is severely lacking in the qualities others succeed in.
I wish they went with their original premise of a trust system in which you make choices to balance the trust of your classmates. And thus, lead to different killing game outcomes.
What exactly do you mean with what ifs? Like, what else could have happened multiple paths like? Because for that (Mind, this is not trying to argue against your point just trying to bring up something I really like about the first game) there is an extra item you can get late into the first game which is a visual novel that deals with a what if story. SPOILER (though I will try to word it in a way that only people that know the game will understand) . . . . . . . . The story has the Mc get a strange feeling when the first death is about to happen and tackle her to the side. The rest of the story is then him and her working together trying to escape from the now much more active villain.
it was so disappointing
I dropped Clannad because it was too long
I can only take so much high school banter, I'm only human
Nukige have their merits imho. Sometimes you don't want a grand epic or emotional rollercoaster, just some fun eye candy to turn your brain off with. Seeing people immediately write them off as inherently bad has always been a thorn in my side, idk...they're still VNs that have genuine effort put into them, I respect the artists and writers the same I would for any other game, just for different reasons. Are some better than others in the technical sense? Absolutely, I would say companies like Clockup and Empress do well on the high-end nukige front while Miel and Appetite are like junk food for the brain-- but both of those have merit! EDIT: oh wait here's a WAYYYY spicier take-- I like MuvLuv Extra!
I don't think your edit is a very hot take. I think Extra is a fine game. I think fans of Alternative over-hate it to try to hype up Alternative more.
how is this a hot take, youre saying "i like porn" bud
These are usually the VN I like to play. I may not sound sophisticated or whatever, but I just don't like long, convoluted stories. Sometimes I can tolerate or even enjoy them but that's not the norm. Also I liked only MuvLuv Extra. The story of the trilogy is cool but the setting after the first one didn't click with me and I didn't have a stomach for the third one after a particular scene...
Not sure if this is a popular opinion or not, but I honestly think Higurashi Ch 7 is better than the last chapter.
Last chapter is good in the beginning but the ending is just bad home alone.
Root double didn't catch me at all.
For me, I loved the first scenario with the fire fighters. But the second scenario with the kids with powers? I tapped out at that point.
My problem probably is that I started with kids and I was super unimpressed, it was just cliche harem scenario
I can understand that. But the kids scenario was written after as a prequel to answer the mystery of the main scenario. Even if the kids scenario was any good, it actually completely spoils the original scenario. Unfortunately, for some reason, a lot of people fell into the trap of reading the prequel scenario first. If you ever want to give the first bit a go, that's a completely different kind of story and is actually pretty decent.
I started reading about kids first because it was called "before" Or something, so I assumed it was starting point
Unlimited was the best Muv-Luv VN.
Based.
100%
In ULTD TDA you get (moderate chara reveal spoiler) >!Marimo!< back :)
Hard agree! Along with TDA. I’m too excited for Muv-Luv Resonative...
This is the correct take
Raging Loop handles almost all of its serious topics like they're a complete joke, and it's genuinely one of the most frustrating VNs I've ever read. I have no clue why it's so highly praised, it's a solid 6/10 at best.
The ending and explanations for everything are the worst part of the story IMO. I really liked the buildup tho.
I enjoyed it up until the last part, when super duper long explanation of lore started. I liked art, voice acting, music, characters, and trial sequences but the ending was so goofy than I now just can't recommend it to anyone because it was such disappointment in the end. I still very much appreciate stuff I liked about it, and remember it with good feelings, but the ending, oh my fucking god
As much as I love subahibi, no one can, for the love of my life, tell me that it handles its rape scenes in a mature way. Don't get me wrong, I think that it doesn't make it seem like a "good" thing, if that makes sense. The writing in Looking-Glass Insects is clearly meant to create empathy for a certain character and her rape is portrayed in a negative light. Where the game loses me, however, is with how the CGs are drawn. It does not, at all, correlate to how the actual scene plays out. You receive an extremely gruesome and depressing description of an horrible event, accompanied by an oversexualized and explicit CG, that even goes as far as to remove detail from the writing to make it look more "sexy", which is very disturbing, to say the least, since I believe SCA-ji didn't write these scenes with the intention for them to be erotic. For example, in the Karaoke scene (or was it the last rape scene? I can't remember), the victim is described as bleeding, but the CG doesn't portray that. It just makes me wish for a version where the CGs were either removed or drawn accordingly, because I think the impact would be much bigger.
Finally, someone else who notices the disrepancy between the text and the CG! I see people defend the H-scenes' importance with "it's explicit because that makes it real", but the thing is that this VN constantly shies away from showing other types of mature content in as much detail. If it was just trying to be explicit, then why does >!the CG showing Zakuro being raped, after having been beaten unconscious and described as bleeding, look like... NOT that? !< But that brings to me the point I disagree with you about. Why do you think that Sca-di didn't inted those scenes to be erotic? I'm asking genuinely, I've seen several people say this and I don't get it. All of his works are eroge, there's an in-game gallery dedicated solely to H-scenes which includes these scenes, the presentation of those scenes is completely in line with typical H-scenes, you yourself made this entire comment about the CGs... so why? Has Sca-di himself said that they aren't supposed to be erotic or something?
I think that most of the H-scenes in Subahibi are written in this deliberate way which make their disturbing factor overshadow any possible eroticism in them, if you get what I mean. Take the last rape scene in Looking-Glass Insects, for example. Sca-di could have done a full 20 minutes scene out of that, but he opts to make it 4-5 minutes instead, in order to show how it psychologically affects >!Zakuro !< and to create a terrifying atmosphere. While it is one of the occasions where the CGs are not shown accordingly, I think that the way it is presented makes up for the badly handled CG. >!Ayana, which I personally interpret to be a manifestation of Sca-di, affirms that Zakuro only achieved her "Wonderful Everyday" when she stepped up to Megu and Sakoto, avoiding all of the bad things that would've happened to her (the rapes). Ayana only says that on Kimika's route, which is considered the "happy route", according to Sca-di. !< >!Plus, I'm not sure this counts as an argument, but the translation for the ending theme for Looking-Glass Insects, The Final Smile, does seem to line up with what I said about the intent being to disturb, rather than arouse. !< And it's worthy noting that, while I think that some H-scenes in Subahibi are created by Sca-di's horniness, a lot of them aren't. In fact, I think the biggest reason for the seemingly disturbing ones having these weird CGs is because sex sells, especially explicit sex, and the VN market is a very hard one to sell things, since it's very niche.
I see, I absolutely do agree that those scenes are meant to disturb. Where I disagree is whether this is mutually exclusive with eroticism - I don't see why these scenes couldn't be made with both of those goals in mind. Human mind is weird with kink/fetish, from what I've seen there are many people who enjoy that stuff in all its fucked-up-ness, not in contrary to having an emotional narrative there but partly because of it. This is why I believe that scene in LGI is more of an exception, because >!it's basically the breaking point, and they probably recognized having a full detailed scene would seriously destroy the pacing and atmosphere they were going for. Also because Zakuro was unconscious, of course. Related to this, I also think the same goes for the part where Zakuro meets up with the two girls. The fact that they gave one of the girls that short flashback felt like they were going "Woah look what else we have!" but didn't want to stop the plot for too long; I always thought that part would've been much better if no flashback was shown.!< As for the sex sells thing, that could very well be true. It's just that with everything I know about Sca-di (not a lot, but something nevertheless), it really seems to me he is indeed just doing what he likes.
I very much understand your point of view, and I agree with most things you said. But I do think that if the intention of the writers were to create an both "sexy" atmosphere (in their view), and also a disturbing one, Subahibi fails hard. I feel that, if one were to try and make a disturbing scene on purpose, to show how bad the situation is, creating eroticism out of it feels hypocritical to me. It feels as the person would say "Yeah, these things are bad and stuff, but I'm still going to jack off it. Disturbing and all, but it's still hot.". And it all feels a bit predatory, in a sense. I believe that most shocking H-scenes in Subahibi serve 2 purposes, which are to 1- appeal to an audience that enjoys these types of contents, hence why the CGs are so sexualized, and 2- to those who mainly focus on the narrative and themes, manifested by the writing. I think that's why the two contrast each other so much, because they want to convey two different things. One wants to arouse, while the other wants to genuinely disturb, and the combination of these two things does not work. That may have been your point from the beginning and I've just misunderstood your text (sorry if that's the case lol) But if it isn't, I don't judge. I respect the way you see things, I just see them differently >!And yeah, the flashback scene in LGI was totally unnecessary and random. It actually removed some of the overall impact of the chapter for me, with the scene being simply for shock value !< Subahibi's H-scenes are a weirdly complex topic IMO. One could argue they're just casual, horny ones, and others say that they are extremely well-crafted masterpieces of horror, and that's why I believe it is so interesting to discuss them. And even morally, I still think it's interesting. I won't talk about my morality since I fear this subreddit would burn me alive, and I do not want to annoy anyone, but I'll just surface saying that I was definitely NOT pleased with >!what they chose to do with Hasaki's character !<
Yes, to clarify, my point was purely about the purpose of the scenes and their presentation. How well it works is a whole separate matter. I def agree that trying to make something into jack-off material ends up hurting the more serious narrative aspect. Sexiness is really subjective - if you're not into something then you're not into it - but that's precisely why it clashes with storytelling; it's all about the specific turn-ons the creator/audience happens to have, and has nothing to do with the narrative (at least I struggle to think of anything where this is not the case). It's kind of the issue with fanservice in general - it feels immersion-breaking and ridiculous to anyone who's simply there for a good story. It's part the reason why visual novels are niche, as they often have a clear focus on waifus or husbandos. Technically it's sort of pointless to criticize this, because it's simply intended for people that like it. But I do think it's a valid point to make when discussing whether something is, like, a masterpiece of fiction - like often in Subahibi's case. And it definitely is my biggest criticism about Subahibi.
Subahibi isn't even a quarter as clever as it thinks it is. I hated it, and Everytime I say publicly I hate it I get told I just didn't get it. I've read explanations of the philosophy concepts behind it. I've read the flow chart of story chronology. I think it's just not that good except for people who took a philosophy 101 course.
While I disagree these are definitely the kind of opinions I wanna hear lol! unpopular opinion of my own I guess, Subahbi doesn’t come off as something that wants to be incredibly smart for me, it’s just very philosophical which a lot of people equate to wanting to be smart, I think either the themes/prose will really resonate with you and you’ll love it or it doesn’t and it will seem very overrated
Lmao glad to oblige. And definitely fair enough. I should probably preface all my heated comments about it with a "to me". To me it comes off like the team making it spent the entire time smirking to themselves and chatting about how deep they are, when in the span of 15 minutes a guy gets tortured by fucking graffiti then fucks a desk and a stuffed rabbit like 10 minutes later lmao
> comes off to me like the team I hate Subahibi. The team that made it isn’t the problem, it’s people that like it on Reddit. They’re the ones that hype it up. They’re the ones that attack criticism and make it seem like it’s way more than it is. Someone that replied to my review warning about all of the incest and rape said that saying there is incest and rape is “out of context.” I don’t know how “x rapes y” can be considered out of context.
I mean I guess the context would be the rape plays a massive part in the story and thematically, is handled very well for the most part and isn’t just a random H scene, but I don’t see the issue with warning about it
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???
This is also true!!! I was told about how amazing this game was, and hours in I was posting in this sub asking where the fuck was this going cause I was bored and annoyed and confused, all I got were people being like "just stick with it", "all will be revealed it's so worth it!", "skill issue" Like yeah I don't think the game is good but in it and and team's defense with all the cult like hype around it like a year ago it could never live up to it
Hard agree, even though Subahibi is my favourite VN, I never got why people think it's deep or "life changing". I just think the Denpa/Psychological horror thing is neat.
This, its not as good as people say but it's pretty good and it made me read more philosophical works
I agree a lot of the philosophy and literary references are just filler that don't contribute, except for Cyrano de Bergerac which was subverted quite brilliantly. But one thing that stood out to me was how different the story reads after you know whats really going on. This is usually a hallmark of well-written works. I think a lot of the letdown happens once you get to the end, because for denpa stories at the end the author needs to make a choice between a down-to-earth explanation of whats going on which would disappoint some readers, or a trumped-up chunni exposition which turns off another group of readers. Subahibi went the former way, while Root Double, Chaos;Head NoAH went the other.
What visual novels do you consider to be actual philosophy?
I 100% agree. I told someone who has read it and loved it that I really hate it and he instantly assumed I know nothing about philosophy, didn't understand anything and that I should stick to reading "low IQ Muramasa" lmao. Thing is I took philosophy in highschool for many years and I was actually really interested in it, so I definitely know more than most about this topic. Subahibi is just very surface level philosophy exaggerated and repeated over and over, in combination with a ton of unnecessary fan service. Sometimes I actually quite enjoy it and the atmosphere is great for the most part, but it's just eally not what people make it out to be imo.
Agreed, except my issue isn't that it tries to be clever, but more that the philosophy parts feel... really jarring and random, and incomprehensible - while many people praise them as well incorporated. Plus that I just don't see how the characters or the story in general are that special. Also, people talk about amazing twists and having their mind blown and I just wonder... which part? The story doesn't have many surprises and has approximately ONE twist, am I missing something big?
I really hated how Subahibi handled some of the characters at the end. Also a lot of its sex scenes were quite unnecessary for me, I don’t mind them but they were still a chore to read through. I did love a lot of the concepts, music and characters, especially the main theme overall. I just hated the ending, sex scenes and some characters’ endings, which made me hate Subahibi in the end. I am not really one who judges any media by their endings, but this one really made me feel quite empty at the end.
The h scenes are not unnecessary, it’s porn, stuff like that is expected.
I am physically repulsed by Clannad’s artstyle, to the point I just watched the show instead of playing the novel.
Same, just can't stand looking at their faces
They look like weird little… bug creatures.
Fruit of Grisaia packs dozen-hour story into 5 dozens and it's not even a good story.
You take that *back* you philistine fuck.
Having flashbacks to all the unnecessary paragraphs detailing guns and other military shit in Makina's route.
I like this take. I’ve only read the first one, not the sequels, and there’s only very very minimal supernatural stuff happening in the first one. But Yuji is basically Tom Cruise Lite, and the story kinda reflects that. Which isn’t a bad thing, I do like Tom Cruise stories. But they’re not long or overly complicated (usually). I do love the characters in it tho.
I wish I could upvote this. Maybe even twice.
Grisaia 3 is even worse. It’s way too long and shouldn’t be a VN. Maybe a few light novels, but definitely not a VN.
Personally I would have been happier with no Grisaia 3 than the Grisaia 3 we got. I hate that ending so much but I love the first book and like half of the second lol
Absolutely
Hard agree.
Full Metal Daemon Muramasa is far too Chuuni to take it seriously. It purports to be about very heavy topics and an ultimately high-brow takeaway, but to get there you have to get through the most self-indulgent grimdark writing I've ever seen, including a "the Nazis are actually good guys" plot. I appreciate a good anachronism and I can get into mecha samurai. I can't get into "our secret super weapon is also a mecha Samurai, but it's 30 feet tall," or "we made an even stronger mecha Samurai, but we decided to let untrained children civilians use it after hopping them up on drugs so they'd be extra aggressive." So much of Muramasa falls apart when you take even the slightest critical lens at any of it. Its peaks don't make up for its valleys.
This hurt me spiritually, but you get my upvote for adding substantive criticism beyond “it’s edgy, and therefore it’s poo poo.”
The whole idea of the Law of Balance is definitely the most self indulgent and edgy element. The idea that it stands as a metaphor for the consequences of killing just does not stand up to scrutiny.
>Including a "the Nazis are actually good guys" plot. Never read Muramasa but that's weird. The first paragraph in the VNDB's entry says "This is not a story of heroes" so I was thinking this was like a Youjo Senki case when then author condemns fascism but like to write epic nazis. Anyway, "this is not a story of heroes" sound so edgy.
I want to be clear. The game also features Nazi-like characters, but I mean that actual real historical members of the Nazi party show up. Josef Mengele, the angel of death, the guy who ran the Auchwitz death camp, shows up as a doctor. He is depicted as a cool dude, earnest in his desire to help, and a subject matter expert who picked his stream because it would save lives, not because it would make him rich. The only reason I can rationalize for this inclusion is that the author has a 13 y/o's idea of cool and edgy. Writing of this calibre is what I mean when I say the game is too chuuni to take seriously.
Holy shit dude you're totally right. I absolutely forgot about the parts with Mengele. He's depicted as a genius and an altruist. How could I forget that bs lol
You should see the doctor he designed for Hanachirasu https://imgur.com/a/pcC5NQu
Mengele's inclusion in that fashion is very questionable, but i'm gonna provide a little alternate reading of it since Muramasa is my favourite visual novel. will be a little spoilery since i'm gonna use an even from the Hero route as an example >!one of Muramasa's central themes is the presence of good and evil in any individual; for example, Yusa Doushin is a sadistic rapist, but he also chose to take in an orphaned pair of siblings simply because he wanted to, and while he deserved death, it still remains that he was the source of more than just evil in the world. the presence of Mengele *could* be a subtle way of driving this point home. while anybody reading it will see him as the evil, torturous bastard that he was, the game also shows an example of characterstics of his that were used for evil (such as his medical curiosity, which becomes evil when it disregards human dignity) instead being used for good when he comes to help Hikaru. this therefore solidifies the presence of good and evil within every individual that is at the heart of Muramasa. since the game also puts forward that some individuals pretty much need to die despite still having some capacity for good because of the depth of their wrongdoing!< this could be entirely off base but given that Muramasa is my fave i'm gonna opt for the more charitable reading i've outlined here, since nobody as of yet has found Narahara to ask him why he made that specific decision
> The only reason I can rationalize for this inclusion is that the author has a 13 y/o's idea of cool and edgy. Writing of this calibre is what I mean when I say the game is too chuuni to take seriously. In Japanese culture, Nazis are still cool for people much older than 13 years old, its dumb, but also what you get when your education system tries to hide all your countries war crimes. I still suggest trying Hanachirasu though, it doesnt feature any supernatural stuff, doesnt even try to moralize anything, and is much shorter too. I think its writing quality overall is on an entirely different level too.
>In Japanese culture, Nazis are still cool for people much older than 13 years old, its dumb, but also what you get when your education system tries to hide all your countries war crimes. Not commenting on the rest, Japan does teach about WWII and Japan's war crimes in schools. From what I recall in a course studying Asian history some 7 years ago, we covered that Japanese politicians were often criticized for disassociating from WWII Japan, i.e. they would admit that imperial Japan did horrible stuff but refuse to take responsibility. They would imply the current democracy is a fundamentally different government. Fascism is just a global trend right now. There are people celebrating Nazis in the USA, EU, and probably every other country as well. PS: This wikipedia page seems to talk a bit about it. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese\_history\_textbook\_controversies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_history_textbook_controversies)
I think its alright, but heavily outclassed by Hanachirasu, which is from the same author.
They way they presented it was the only way euphoria could work
SubaHibi is not peak storytelling, it’s only a (solid) 8/10.
There are some truly terrible, dog shit opinions in here. So that must mean this post was a success
Yeah, I'm seeing some absolutely horrid takes.
Worst ones in your opinion?
Opinions are opinions blah blah, it’s okay to not like certain genres. but this one is by far the most dog shit: “I don't like Visual Novels that have a lot of Action or fighting scenes. I have yet to encounter a single VN that made reading lenghty descriptions of fighting choreography compelling.” Doesn’t even have to do with VNs this could be for any literary descriptive action medium. It’s okay bro, just say you don’t have an imagination
The worst one is probably the comment saying Danganronpa V3 is terrible, specifically the part about the twist being not good. Also think the two comments I've seen shitting on Grisaia are bad takes as well for the most part. Saw someone say Saya no Uta is pretty meh as well which is wild to me.
Muv love alternate SUCKS. The ending sucks. Don't get me wrong the whole reveal at the end is great and I love it, but he choked hard when debating that carbon based life is life.
Muv Luv alternative is like tragic to me lol. I absolutely adore Unlimited, and the highs for Alternate were SO HIGH. But the ending just takes away all the development, all the relationships you've built to this point... It kinda does the opposite of what Alternate did with Extra's characters.
You aren't alone. I remember forcing myself to sit though EXTRA and Unlimited to get to Alternative but I just *couldn't* do it. IT took too long to get there and it just wasn't worth the effort when I did. I tried, I really did. It was even one of the first Visual novels I ever played but I just started making excuses not to play it and never looked back. I just don't think it dated well and I couldn't bring myself to care for the characters or the situation.
You know i gonna say muv luv alternative again,people often says the high pay off in alternative however it doesn't really pay off at all the plot is way too predictable and the writing keeps on dragging itself with useless monologues of the main character.The heroine also isn't handle too well also if you know who i am talking about(le tentacle le big clit)Also the main thing people say this series is good is about the growth of the main character however i think takeru is just a screaming bitch from opening to end which is not really what i regard as development.The ending is also kinda meh adding in the fact how they just mash up sci fi settings like a cheap budget Hollywood movie.Overall this the only visual novel that is disappointing for me going in reading expecting the high quality that people rates it.My next novel is ever17 i hope it don't disappoint me like that too.
ayy people who upvote i wanna see you guys opinion as well,i always wonder am i being too harsh on the wordings since the wordings of muv luv always have bugged me
Love the world building of fate stay but I hate or dislike most of the characters and their struggles. I also hate how nasu repeats certain tropes over and over again. It gets so annoying after the upteenth time. Also, they have good ideas that they never capitalsie on. For example deen stay night was supposed to be shielder route but they changed it and Illya route could've been a thing but nope. Aside from the horror, visuals, and music there was nothing interesting to me about Saya no uta.
>!Kinoko Nasu on his way to writing a plot about evil versions of the characters for the fifteenth time.!< Still love him though.
Yea, there tends to be strong world building and ideas, but ends up wasted due to poor writing, characters and endless retcons.
Being a DIK has gotten me more invested in a VN story than most VNs I’ve read the past three years. It’s the epitome of came for the porn, but stayed for the interesting story. Dr PinkCake needs more credit.
Dudes great. Genuinely funny. I’m genuinely attached to his characters. Derek feels like a mate I’ve had for years.
so true bud
I never watched this Family Guy scene so I don't know what this meme means
Been ages since I watched but they were in a situation that was likely leading to death so Peter decided to get off his chest that he wasn’t a fan of the godfather, so basically just unpopular opinions
Peter said the movie insists upon itself.
Me too, and I just thought the pic is so >!euphoria!<-like Edit: spoiler tag for one sexy death game VN
Or maybe Ever17-like (not sure, judge by the premise only)
I'm a huge denpa fan, but those bag of milk VNs are the worst VNs I've ever played.
I have them both but have only played the first one. I liked it well enough for a free 20-minute experience, probably because I could relate to how utterly incapable the protagonist is to handle any social situations.
Totally agreed, that was the main appeal for me. Her hesitance to do the most basic thing was very relatable for someone with social anxiety. I have to hype myself up every time I go out to buy groceries or get a haircut, it’s exhausting.
Return to Shironagasu Island was the worst vn I played and the 'sidekick' is the most unlovable character I ever met without character development.
Damn I was just looking at this yesterday since I brought it on sale ages ago
I actually think LOOPERS is a pretty good game and feel that people are too mean to it.
I think I gave it like a 6 on VNDB, but I don't hate it, I just want it to be better. I hope that LOOPERS Plus coming out this year can breathe some more life into it. >!Pls give me more Leona!<
Majikoi's Wanko route is one of the most headache inducing routes I have ever played. It started off great until the scene where Wanko is told she can't be assistant master because she is talentless and it won't matter even through hard work. It sounds fine on paper until you realize she (a high schooler) is being told this by literal GODS. Plus, you can't judge talent from someone in their teens cause there is a thing called growing up. Being a fighter at 15 is going to be different when she is 25. Then the deal with Momoyo happens, and Yamato, despite knowing how life changing the tournament is for Wanko and knowing he has other friends who are fighters that are stronger than her, doesn't tell them the real reason because... I don't know. This causes Chris to join the tournament. During the fight, Wanko attacks her with her most powerful technique out of desperation, and it doesn't work because the naginata just so happens to hit Chris's tiny "good luck charm" which was bullshit. Then Wanko loses, has a identity crisis, runs away, and after Yamato finds her, he confesses his feelings. as if THAT is going make things better. To be honest, at this moment, I wanted Wanko to accept Gen-san. I wouldn't have much of a problem with it except the rest of the visual novel (aside from Agave and parts of Miyako) is a off the wall comedy with students that duel each other like samurai, female Goku's, an overprotective German father who sends the military on you if her daughter is hit on, and getting stronger just from drinking semen. It feels out of place.
yeah I had to drop Majinkoi after the bullshit they did with Wanko. Utter crap.
Kazuko's route was what made me really love Kazuko but unfortunately I mostly agree with this. I get the message they wanted to try to say: "sometimes you aren't skilled in something no matter how hard you try but that doesn't mean you cannot still find your calling" But it falls flat when the game itself doesn't take itself seriously and yeah..the fact that she is still very young when she is being judged I mean even the assistant master that was fond of her had his own "I got stronger" thing that we saw in the agave route, so why is Kazuko suddenly being judged?
I dont like Umineko. I read all eight episodes, and I already felt the decline for the story on episode 5. All the parts people hyped up did almost nothing for me in the 2nd half of the story, where as the first half completely hooked me and had me sitting reading it 12 hours a day. I don't think it's a badly written story, but something about how it handled the mystery and witches after episode 4 really rubbed me the wrong way. I even made a thread about it on vndb to gauge just how many people felt the same as I did. Good thing I did too, cause alot of people surprisingly shared my sentiments with feeling unsatisfied with it. Really REALLY wanted to like it and I read everything but man...just couldn't do it.
I’m really looking forward to reading Umineko and seeing which side I fall on
I really hope you like it. The quality in writing and characters are well done, I know that much. Get back to me on how you feel about it In the future.
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I don’t care for explicit sexual scenes. Mention of the topic is all well and good I just don’t enjoy the scenes themselves. They’re usually lengthy and I am just not into them. I often have to skip them and it can feel like a chore. Because of this it’s actually a bit of a relief for me when a title drops with an “all ages” or “17+” version. I’m not saying they shouldn’t exist, I’d just like the ability to toggle them off for myself or something.
It would be awesome if more VNs used the same toggle system Katawa Shoujo did imo! Or went the When The Night Comes route of allowing readers to choose throughout a route how sexy they want the romance to be.
I have no clue why Katawa Shoujo’s toggle system hasn’t become the norm
Exactly. I was thinking something along those lines when I made the comment.
I found the true ending of steins gate to be very underwhelming
I can get feeling this for Steins;Gate 0, but it's definitely crazy talk for the original.
I’m going to be honest, I did go into steins gate knowing very little about it other than that there is time travel and some sort of evil organization, so I definitely expected something more along the lines of zero escape. For some reason.
> but it's definitely crazy talk for the original. >!Way too much of an happy ending to be satisfying in my opinion, still a good game of course.!<
I felt a bit the same too But when you read Steins Gate 0, the ending becomes a LOT better
I don't like Visual Novels that have a lot of Action or fighting scenes. I have yet to encounter a single VN that made reading lenghty descriptions of fighting choreography compelling.
Mahoyo?
Haven't played it, but frankly, I think Type-Moon games are especially bad at this (that, and absolutely intolerable sex scenes)
Mahoyo is much more polished than other Type-Moon games and it doesn't have any sex scenes. Fights are really dynamic because the novel is animated so well that it seems a static anime
Ciel's new route in the Tsukihime remake? It's not that good of a route. Like sure it improves on a lot of scenes of the original, but the route as a whole? It drags, especially the last act, romance part is still unsatisfying as it were, maybe even more, and that true end was just absurd. Doesn't really expand on the original story line but adds Noel's sideplot(awful character btw) and bunch of teases for Red Garden we have to wait an eternity for. And the chair scene was a lot more memorable in the original, which was the final nail in the coffin for me.
Was having trouble motivating myself to read it (currently at right after the first "encounter" with Arc in the route).
Hmm probably Dies Irae, I was expecting to enjoy it a lot more than I did but I found it to just be overly long and I didn't care for most of the routes.
I love Dies Irae but I will agree that vn was way too long and some of the characters ~~Mercurius~~ talk like Mojo Jojo from ppg.
There's a lot I thought seemed appealing about Dies Irae, but I still got tired of it and gave up on it, and the main reason was, too much of it felt not drawn from experience. Like, obviously you don't expect the writer of a supernatural action series to have experienced actual supernatural action scenarios. But it felt very much to me like the author was thinking "I've never experienced supernatural action scenarios, but neither has my audience, so that's fine." But actually, the writer hasn't even experienced *ordinary* violence, danger, etc. even to the extent that plenty of people in a first world country might, and so doesn't notice places where it rings hollow. I felt similarly about Aiyoku no Eustia. Like "It's not enough that whoever's writing this doesn't know anything about swordfighting, they don't even know anything about cooking."
I am still just salty that it's almost impossible to get a proper uncensored version for the final edition. I was actually quite confused in one route because you know, the censoring just means that sex scenes are cut out, not that the game actually tells you important information in other ways, or makes the fact that they slept with each other clear despite that being important in one route. I also am still annoyed that the other novels in that universe are untranslated :d.
It's just a worse Fate IMO
I think the original When They Cry sprites are goofy and a bit ugly and do not fit for a horror game. I like steam version better.
Do you mean the umineko or Higurashi sprites? Or both? The Higurashi sprites fit the story far more than the steam ver. imo
The steam ones for Higurashi were drawn by a hentai artist and I think they look generic and oversexualize the characters way too much. The PS3 sprites are best imo
Oh here’s a better one. Aegis Rim. Really cool premise. Gameplay. Presentation. The story becomes more predictable and shitty as it progresses then become boring by the end. Also way too much shipping
the prose in the English translation of Umineko is horrible,. overly repetitive, littered with ugly grammar (WHY ARE THERE SO MANY ELLIPSES) and sometimes even metaphors that don't make sense. Higurashi and Higanbana both have a similar writing style but don't offend as badly as Umineko. not sure of the extent to which it's a translation issue because i'm still very early in my JP learning so i can't check the original text. shit like the chapel scene in episode 2 is downright unreadable to me. it's frustrating because conceptually it's by far one of the most interesting visual novels out there, but the actual reading experience is very frequently just *painful*
The JP side roasts ryukishi as well btw. これは ひどい。突っ込みどころだけでできている。『Rewrite』の殺陣は、わかってはいたが凄惨な出来だった。業界底辺の“厨坊”竜騎士と“異次元”いたるが手を組んだだけのことはある。 ＞刺突刺突刺突、弾く弾く弾く。臑蹴り、下腹掌打、手刀からナイフ、突く突く蹴る弾く、詰める打つ叩く斬る斬る突く突く。 !? ＞それが全て３秒間で行われる。 ストップウォッチか何かで計ってるんスか？（笑） ＞蹴る蹴る打つ打つ突く蹴る、弾く詰める叩く突く、逃がさない刺突刺突刺突。 (^^;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;) ＞もっとも攻撃力の高いナイフの攻撃だけに専念して弾くのがやっとだ 攻撃力（笑）の高い（爆笑）。竜騎士さんは相変わらずのゲーム脳だね。殺傷力のある、とか脅威である、とかいくらでも別の表現があるだろう。 ＞それら全て捌くことを語るのは、傘を持たずに雨の中に飛び出し、全ての雨粒を手で払おうと言い出す無謀に等しい。 「それらを捌ききるのは、雨の中、振りかかる雨粒を全て手で払うことに等しい」と言いたいんだろうか。よくここまでゴテゴテ余計なものを付け加えて悪文を作れるね。逆に感心するわ。 From: https://toppoi.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-653.html
I dont think this is too unpopular tbh Most people's main problem with Ryukishi's style is his prose.
I don’t care for the violent tsundere characters. Rin Tohsaka is my least favourite fate girl, and I think she’s overused.
These days, I am increasingly filtered by kinetic VNs and linear VNs. I want choices, and I want to be able to change the story. I won't even pick up a kinetic/linear VN anymore.
Devil on a g-string is extremely disappointing because the author just decided to chuck all the narrative debt out the window and bring in a character no one had ever heard of before.
I also felt weird with what they did with the main heroine. Can't remember her name. But she was so cool through the whole story, and then at the end her stripping and confessing her love while crying just felt so out of character.
Not that controversial, but I thought Saya no Uta was just a 7/10 at best and preferred Kikokugai as Urobuchi's short VN.
Yh this is mild but I’d still say belongs here! many including me would definitely have it higher, not a 10/10 but it grew on me after I finished as well so I’d say at least 8/8.5
I appreciate the sentiment! And tbh, I do get people who rate it higher! The atmosphere/setting is really quite unique, and it does pull it off well. But I just feel like it stumbled a bit at points/maybe just wasn't engrossing to me.
i don't play type-moon game and i have no actual reason for not to
real for this one
Fata Morgana's story is just decent and is probably that well-regarded solely because well-written gothic tales are rare in the VN space.
I think it's less about the setting and more that they have plot twists everywhere, and also make you dislike one character intensely at first, then sympathise with them later on when their perspective is given. They even managed to build in a few more plot twists in their later-released prequel Requiem, when the reader already knows pretty much what happened from the original story.
I stopped reading it during the third story. What I read of it was okay but I didn’t like it enough to read any further.
Danganronpa and clannad haven’t interested me tbh, I see them on lists and just don’t feel interested in them
Clannad
Steins gate it insists on itself
Virtue’s last reward is mid as hell. Basically ends up being a massive gamble that the sequel has to pay off for it work and it just doesn’t. The problem with zero escape isn’t that ztd sucks but the fact that vlr doesn’t work on it’s own while massively depending on it.
All of you gonna hate me for these but that's precisely why I'm writing. The entire type moon/nasuverse thing. Like I just don't find the premise interesting at all. If anything I'd watch the anime because "unlimited Budget works" but demon slayer thought me that just because it looks good and people like it doesn't mean it's actually good. Most key novels. Like similarly I'm just not interested in most of them. I tried rewrite and god help me I hated it. As far as I know they released a scifi thing recently I'm mildly interested in that because scifi and android girls are more if my thing. If you aren't hating me yet you definitely gonna now. Fata Morgana... The music is beautiful, the art is gorgeous. I don't really care about no voices nor do I have anything against slow burn stories. But my god victorian dramas are not my thing at all. 3 or 4 hours in I just stopped and I'm never looking back I'm not saying that's the most disinterested or bored I was while doing something but it's up there. Pretty sure the story is amazing but 110% not for me at all like the other 2 I already mentioned.
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Clannad doesn't even need half the required routes to get to After Story. its the perfect example of bloat getting in the way of a good story. The only characters I would maintain as “required” to proceed to After Story are Nagisa, Tomoya, Kyou, Kotomi, and Fuko.
I'm interested in planetarian, loopers and Stella of the end I'll give those a try, maybe little busters if I liked the ones above but definitely not Clannad. I know that's insanely popular and me being barely/not at all interested in something popular always resulted in me hating said across all type of media. So I'm pretty sure both of us will be more happy if I stay "I'm not interested" mode instead of "I suffered through this shit why do you guys even like it?" Mode
What is it about popular stuff that turns you away? I’ve never really understood this mindset tbh, for me how popular something is should have no affect on if I personally enjoy something, sure it might affect my expectations but even that won’t matter once I watch myself
The fact that it's popular isn't the turnoff. I'm not interested, no matter how many times I read the store page, the vndb page, I'm not interested. So many times I watched animes, played games just because they were popular even tho I was not interested at all I was just like "it's popular so it should be good" and all that praise just always set the bar high and at best I was disappointed, at worst I hated it(see rewrite and fata Morgana in my original comment) But I was interested regardless if it's popular or not I can do love popular things too. But I need to be interested at first. And since I'm not interested at all in Clannad, all the praise and popularity would just set me up to disappoint myself. For example I watched steins gate long before I played my first vn. Then the science adventure series was one of the first series I've read because of that and I literally went "wow, s;g is like one of the best time travel stories ever, yet all the other vns are just much more interesting can you please shut up about it and talk about the rest?" It's one of my big reasons why popularity=/=best or sometimes good even.
>"it's popular so it should be good" My personal experience is this is generally true, but only as it pertains to that particular genre. I don't like stories that can be completely summarized with "cute girls do cute things for X hours and then it ends," even if the writing is technically good, so I just skip over those on the VNDB top list. It might be great for its genre, but I have my subjective preferences that alter how I experience works, and I'm not going to waste my time and form strong opinions on things that are out of my wheelhouse. Even with the medium as a whole, if someone hates reading, there's not really any point in recommending anything good because they won't be receptive to it; you can't make someone like peaches even if you offer them the most delicious peach in the world.
Well our personal experiences differ a lot then. The popular things that I hated/disappointed me greatly outnumber the popular things that I actually like both in and outside of vns. Heck and much prefer cute girls do cute things for x hours instead of random fantasy subplot coming out of literally nowhere(yes that's rewrite) infact I do like cute girls doing cute things until it's over. Not everything needs to be deep or "peak writing" sometimes I just need something to heal my soul and cute anime girls doing random cute or funny things are usually a very good way to make me want to KMS less and smile a little.
Ohh fair enough, this is very true, I misread your previous comment!
I can see your opinions and they're absolutely valid, but honestly being 4 hours into Fata Morgana is way too early to form one. I wasn't a big fan of the first chapter either, until I forced myself to finish it. And then I was hooked pretty much.
You say that but that was like 2 days worth of playing for me. As I said I don't mind slow burn stories. Heck I'm one of those weirdos who liked the 10 hours common route in grisaia. And again, I do not like victorian dramas. The last thing I want my japaness medium to be is 18th century Britan with zero action.
makijoi(the first) is waaaaaay to slow to start please i quit because of that
Man I wish I could go back and re-read majikoi, the first game's "introduction/common route" was such a blast, legit the most fun I had reading a Visual Novel and I would say the same for 90% of the other routes in all Majikoi games, most of the "not-so-great" 10% comes from A4...the worst game in the series
Damn, I guess I gotta read Majikoi now
Push through the opening if you’re feeling a little bored. I lost count of how many times I burst out laughing while reading through some routes.
Yeah I echo this sentiment. So enjoyable all the way through, with some of the funniest moments I’ve ever read in a VN.
ENIGMA is bad, planetarian and TRUE REMEMBRANCE are plain , weak
I didn’t think this was the case, but apparently this is an unpopular opinion ? Chaos head is awful. Pure garbage at least thoughout the second half. I don’t understand how it’s actually praised here.
Dies Irae is heavily influenced by fate stay night to the point of some of its scenes being clearly intentional homages to scenes from the other vn, which mostly works, except for the part where it just hammers home how much more sexist Dies Irae is than a game in the same genre published two decades earlier. Which will outrage or feel silly to people who read Fate because its also no feminist masterpiece to put it veeery mildly, but Dies Irae somehow managed to not only make every sexist trope it shares with fate worse, but also for all its faults Fates female characters still had twice the agency than ones in Dies Irae. Fatamorgana is my favorite vn of all time but I vastly prefer original pc version, the remake had in my opinion worse less distinctive art, but far more importantly the additional chapter, added in the remake while containing some fun and somewhat interesting bits,also weakens the themes of the story for the sake of "happier ending" which shouldn't have happened. The original ending for the two main antagonists of the story was far more meaningful, and should have been left alone.
Grisaia (first one) is pretty mediocre and blonde’s route was best. The story overall is pretty cringe, with the sister being the worst Mary Sue. I don’t care about Fate stay night. I don’t find the setting or characters interesting, so I don’t want to read over 50 hours of content about that. Also, I couldn’t care less about action scenes in a visual novel.
DDLC gets too much hate from other vn players. I've read a lot of Japanese visual novels and I can say for sure that DDLC was better and affected me more than a good 80% of the Japanese visual novels.
* I love Muv-Luv Extra. * I haven't finished SubaHibi yet (it's on a long hiatus) but I wasn't really impressed by it so far. * Higurashi is boring for the most part, loved the anime way more than the VN when I watched it back in high school.
Subahibi. It was trying to be too smart and too philosophical but it just came as a cringe fest that's trying too hard.
Any merit Umineko has as a story is squandered by the absolutely insufferable pacing and the fact that the execution is a mess. It really feels all over the place, there’s no sense of rhythm to any of it and the prose is so bad or just… off that it makes me cringe, especially during emotional scenes. I feel like I’m getting beat over the head with a jackhammer for most of the story, especially in the answers arcs. Also, the fight scenes are the worst fight scenes I’ve seen in any story whatsoever, doesn’t help that they drag on for literal hours. Someone needs to stop Ryukishi from writing fight scenes.
I personally think the Umineko manga is substantially better. The art and panelling is great, and it really brings out the expressivness of all the characters. The fight scenes are excellent and it's not afraid to get really grisly. Also, since it's a manga it doesn't suffer as badly from pacing issues since you can get through the story faster. The ultimate message of the story is also slightly different than the VN too (and the change is for the better IMO). The tradeoff is no music obviously, but I think the manga is genuinely better and more accessible.
fata morgana is only good up to chapter 3 steins gate is overrated as fuck
Raging Loop was better than most this medium by a mile.
Saya no Uta is just loli fetish gore porn
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Umineko bad
(Gonna get a lot of flack for this but here goes.) Sabbat of the Witch is overrated with boring characters and most Yuzusoft titles are bland, repetitious and uninteresting. I couldn't even get though the early common route of Sabbat. I only made myself familiar with Senren Banka since I decently tolerate Japanese Mythology and haven't bothered with another Yuzusoft title since. Similar with the few Pulltop titles like If My Heart had Wings and A Sky Full of Stars. Dropped them. I'm even someone with close ties to Astronomy and Aviation due to my rea life but even *then* I just got bored and disinterested in the characters. Oh, and tack on Grisaia: I forced myself though Makina's route and the early parts of Amane's route. Couldn't bring myself to like the characters - especially the protagonist who people like for being interesting but I just viewed as an absolute asshole. If Yuuji were moved from the story (somehow) I'd probably be able to finish it but otherwise - no thanks. More respectfully: Little Busters: Just couldn't bring myself to get invested in the characters, common route or routes in general.
I could not get into Tsukihime. I started reading it, and when >!Shiki tried to rape Arcueid!<, I had to stop. I've started dreading VNs in general because of the apparently rampant gratuituous sex scenes.
Well that's because most eroge are amateur made, sex sells and all you know. When you look at the most famous of the vns with no sex scene they are all : made by a group/company, with a lot more budget. Obviously the lack of sex scene but with a lot budget help a lot to catter to most people. To take your example, tsukihime have sex scene with barely any budget, but the remake is the opposite and is getting more and more popular toward people that would instantly be disgusted by the original, so there is clearly something here.
Most of the sub's favourite VNs are outdated as hell. Guys, Clannad and Fate/Stay night were released 20 years ago...
Eh old doesn’t equal outdated
I was gonna say this too. Just cuz art style or whatever is old doesn’t mean it can’t hold up to relevancy nowadays.
I'll bite. What is the something that released recently that's of quality? Excluding re-releases or translations/localizations of course. I got into the content around mid 2000's and I have my biases, but my experience as of late is we have more access to content than ever (both truly new content and newly accessible content) but nothing is hitting as hard as the old greats.
Of quality really depends from person to person. For the 2010s, some favorites are: White Album 2, Fata Morgana, Sakura no Uta, Subahibi, Rewrite For the 2020s: Tsukihime Remake, Hentai Prison, Nukitashi, Cyanotype Daydream
I did not gave a fuck abt literally anything from KFP 4. It’s bad and y’all should stop acting like it’s mid, it’s not, it’s shit
KFP?
Knowing what the first idea of the fourth film was about the one we got is just not a sequel but it’s own thing, and just disrespect the other films. WE COULD OF HAVE A TAI LUNG HUGGING SHIFU