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There are cool things about FSN but there's a ridiculous number of boring exposition scenes that either don't serve much purpose or which could be presented in a more interesting way. The game could really benefit from a proper editing pass.Nate RFB posted:Fate/Zero has a couple of cool characters but ultimately I think it's gotten hurt over time by people/the fandom latching onto Kiritsugu as some kind of cool dude anti-hero in a sort of Walter White situation instead of the incredible shitstain fuckup that he is. The narrative of F/Z basically serves to showcase why it was so important for Shirou to make the choices that he did in Heaven's Feel and people who watched Fate/Zero first just whiffed super hard on understanding that.
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Nov 9, 2017 12:37
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The only spinoff you need is Fate/Strange Fake, which you need because Narita is amazing.
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Nov 9, 2017 12:56
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Irony Be My Shield posted:Didn't we already see where the Mind of Steel option lead in UBW? Although it's not too surprising people misread Kiritsugu in the same way as Walter White.
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Nov 9, 2017 13:05
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Nate RFB posted:I remember a not insignificant number of people arguing that this was one of the better "endings" in Heaven's Feel, completely missing the point in the same Kiritsugu sort of way. And you don't really see where it leads anyhow, it cuts out where he makes that decision and doesn't show you the aftermath. I think it's the best ending, not because the outcome is best for the characters, but because I thought it was the most interesting thematically. I also really like Kiritsugu as a character, even though his story is pretty firmly on the tragic anti-hero template. Not much of a Walter White since more of what ol' Walt did was by choice.
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Nov 9, 2017 13:14
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FSN: I mean more that Archer shows us the life Shirou will have if he makes decisions like that. IIRC it is labelled as just an "End" rather than the normal "Bad End", and in the dojo they admit it's a valid choice but not the one the story will follow.
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Nov 9, 2017 13:18
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HerpicleOmnicron5 posted:I think it's the best ending, not because the outcome is best for the characters, but because I thought it was the most interesting thematically. I also really like Kiritsugu as a character, even though his story is pretty firmly on the tragic anti-hero template. Not much of a Walter White since more of what ol' Walt did was by choice. Also could not disagree more wrt Kiritsugu; Zero certainly starts with painting him as some cool dude tryhard tragic anti-hero, but by the end you come to understand that he just took the shortcut/cowardly path on innumerable numbers of decisions throughout his entire life (which culminating in the grail happily knocking him down a few pegs with the boat situation). I think Kiritsugu works in the greater context of the Fate universe as a counterpart to Shirou, and that honestly outside of that he's just kind of a miserable person who I don't like at all. Kariya is a better example IMO of an actual "tragic" character in that story at least.
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Nov 9, 2017 14:19
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Nate RFB posted:I don't even really think it's all that interesting (in terms of what literally transpires), because all it is is him making the decision without actually showing how he would accomplish it which would have been at least something to behold given he would be up against literally the entire rest of the cast. The only aspect that is interesting is that it represents a complete failure of Shirou not seeing the writing on the wall (which we the reader are privy to at that point following UBW). Yeah and it's his realisation that is the tragedy. Kariya is also a good tragic character in that show, it was good. Say what you will of Mind of Steel, I rate it as highly as the Dark Saber fight one, I think it was Spark Liners High or something like that? I think it's labelled bad or dead end, but it's a fitting enough actual end IMHO.
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Nov 9, 2017 16:23
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Yeah it's Sparks Liner High (such a cool nonsense name) and is definitely one of the more memorable "bad" endings in the game. Something like that is way more up my alley as an alternative to the genuine endings than Mind of Steel.
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Nov 9, 2017 16:31
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Sparks Liner High was cool as poo poo, it's one of the things I seem to remember most clearly from when I originally played years ago. I think it even had its own music track.
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Nov 9, 2017 19:02
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Hey, questions about Little Busters. Are the mini-games necessary at all? Is there a suggested route order?
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Nov 9, 2017 19:05
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Re: F/SN: I prefer the original unofficial translation to the Realta Nua one, even if it is weirdly-phrased, because a lot of the weird phrases seemed more evocative to me in a kind of German-language way, with concepts being represented by consistent word pairing and the very Japanese habit of putting quotes around them. I also think that the Kiritsugu love comes from people admiring his ideals; each route in F/SN is a different take on the concept of a hero to the people and the moral actions and beliefs required; IIRC (and it has been a long-rear end time, so I'm not certain) the first route has Shirou matching up with Kiritsugu's ideals a lot more than the other two.
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Nov 9, 2017 19:16
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Not Operator posted:Hey, questions about Little Busters. Sadly I don't remember if the route order matters all that much, other than you have to do Rin twice anyway with IIRC the second one only happening once you finish all of the other routes. Again, might be different in this new version.
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Nov 9, 2017 19:21
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Nate RFB posted:No, in fact you can completely turn them off if you want. It doesn't affect the story in any significant way. Or at least it didn't in the original, I don't know if that's changed in this expanded version. Completing routes will lock and unlock certain scenes in the common route and I believe sometimes in some heroine routes. I don't fully remember the details. It's not quite Clannad-bad in that regard, but it's still convoluted enough that I'd recommend a guide. NRVNQSR posted:I think it's just a case of too much work for not enough money. Nasu's always been too protective of his core novels to just hand them off to translators and let them do it cheaply, but at the same time he doesn't even have time to make progress on his Japanese commitments let alone enough time to be involved in translation. Original creators are almost never involved in translations. The impression I've gotten from talking to various people who would know is that the price of licensing is simply too high. That's one of those barriers where yeah, you can make back that money on the big-name franchises like Fate, but if the initial cost is high enough then it prevents any of the small/mid-tier localizers from having a try at it. So the options left are basically for them to handle the localization themselves (which would be bad), or for a company with a bigger budget like Atlus USA (backed by Sega) to try to take it on. Which isn't impossible, since they're also working with another VN company with similarly high licensing costs (Aquaplus, of Utawarerumono. Many smaller companies tried to get White Album 2 from them and were stopped by the exorbitant-for-a-VN licensing fees). Basically, Fate is a visual novel that Type Moon treats like a big budget property, and none of the companies interested in licensing and localizing visual novels are capable of or willing to deal with TM's demands and fees. Atlus/Sega could do it, but they probably only published Utawarerumono because it had gameplay. Would they pick up a big-time pure VN like Fate? Seems unlikely. Same with White Album. Dr. Video Games 0031 fucked around with this message at 21:20 on Nov 9, 2017 |
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Nov 9, 2017 19:39
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Dr. Video Games 0031 posted:(Aquaplus, of Utawarerumono. Many smaller companies tried to get White Album 2 from them and were stopped by the exorbitant-for-a-VN licensing fees). aww 
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Nov 9, 2017 19:49
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Dr. Video Games 0031 posted:Original creators are almost never involved in translations. FractalSandwich fucked around with this message at 04:10 on Nov 10, 2017 |
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Nov 10, 2017 03:47
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Little Busters is really great. I still have to do the new(er) EX routes, but I just finished Refrain. Definitely think it's the best Key thing I've read or watched, and I I'd probably put it near the top of my list of favorite vn's.
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Nov 10, 2017 09:46
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The only other Key thing I've played is Rewrite, which I remember enjoying a lot even if some routes were clearly much better than others. Technically, I guess I also watched Kanon in high school because a girl told me to.
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Nov 10, 2017 09:55
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Finished Don't take it personally in 1 sitting. It was OK.  I liked the concepts of privacy behind it and I liked the students to a point but I wish the format had been different? Ah well. Whatever. I scared up a copy of Fate\Stay Night so I'll finally read it. That'll probably take till the new year at this point since I only read in short bursts.
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Nov 10, 2017 16:24
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Tangentially related, anyone planning on seeing the HF movie? I bought my ticket for the showing where I live.
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Nov 10, 2017 18:19
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Barent posted:Tangentially related, anyone planning on seeing the HF movie? I bought my ticket for the showing where I live. I'm considering it. Looks like the nearest cinema is showing it next Thursday, so I have a while to decide. (I was pretty surprised to see a big mainstream cinema showing it at all, even in a very limited number of sessions.)
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Nov 10, 2017 20:37
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If only HF would come to the cinema in my country. I am going to Your Name soon. It released last week in the cinema
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Nov 10, 2017 23:00
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Apocrypha seems like FSN fanfiction from what I've watched so far, but it's silly enough to be entertaining. In visual novel news I'm gonna start reading Steins Gate, hopefully I'm in for a ride.
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Nov 11, 2017 08:22
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It starts slow but since I enjoy reading more than anything it doesn't bother me too much.
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Nov 11, 2017 08:27
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I'm walking to the shrine on the last trial in DR3 and I'm pretty confident I have the whole thing figured out. MAJOR END GAME SPOILERS EVEN IF I'M WRONG ABOUT MY PREDICTION: RIP best character. My current theory is that he lied to everyone about being the mastermind because everyone would be really bummed if they found out it was Kaito. But....it's gotta be him, as soon as we unlocked his Ultimate Lab it was obvious that the academy was a real ship which made it obvious that the Ultimate Astronaut - who had been egging everyone on in the killing game the whole time with his boundless optimism - probably had a lot to do with everything going wrong. I'm guessing he's going to be wearing a mask or something at the class trial? That's the only way I can think of for there to be any real "mystery" this time. I still have no idea what Rantaro's deal was, though, and that's the wrench here....And god, I'm so sick of The Worst Tragedy In History/Hope's Peak. Also, Trial 4 was pretty great even if I didn't like the conclusion. The whole virtual world was adorable. e: Steins;Gate starts really slow but it's really worth the ride. E2: insanely off  e3: Well that was a hell of an ending. Loved it. Rockman Reserve fucked around with this message at 02:24 on Nov 12, 2017 |
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Nov 11, 2017 15:42
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I finally finished Luv-Muv Alternative. The whole thing was a roller coaster, but I feel like it was kind of ruined at the end by it essentially being 'All just a dream'. It just goes back to doofy high-school takeru, who doesn't remember any of it. It robbed it of any real sense of impact for me. Up until the end though, I was very much enjoying it, especially the crazy production values. I'm pretending the alien rape stuff just didn't happen though.
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Nov 12, 2017 09:12
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Yeah I also found the ending super unsatisfying.
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Nov 12, 2017 17:10
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Yeah. The endgame in general has a lot of good parts but also a lot of places where it felt forced and/or didn't land its big moments. And the actual epilogue, while expected, is kind of a letdown at that point in the story after everything you've been through.
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Nov 12, 2017 17:41
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I am wondering what to play next. I've done: Hakuouki G senjou no maou Muv Ruvs Planetarian Fault Ever17 Are there any good fantasy VNs? Otome ones are fine as well.
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Nov 12, 2017 19:11
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You'll have to wait for someone else for fantasy recommendations, but Fata Morgana and Steins;Gate are both absolutely worth playing.
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Nov 12, 2017 19:15
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If you liked Ever17 then Remember11 is worth a look, though I think it has a worse ending and mostly better everything else.Not Operator posted:Fata Morgana and Steins;Gate are both absolutely worth playing. Raxivace fucked around with this message at 19:19 on Nov 12, 2017 |
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Nov 12, 2017 19:17
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SerCypher posted:I am wondering what to play next. If you liked G Senjou, Sharin no Kuni is pretty ok.
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Nov 12, 2017 19:23
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The Utawarerumono series are probably the best translated fantasy VNs you can get right now. I hear the Fault series isn't bad but I haven't looked at them yet. Both of those games take place in other worlds/have past-esque settings. If you're okay with like modern-day urban fantasy and such, there's fate/stay night (fan tl only), tokyo babel, or dies irae. I liked Tokyo Babel better than some. I thought it had some good combat sequences as well as some funny writing in the down-time, though others rightfully criticized its pacing. Traditional fantasy isn't really a thing that comes up very often in VNs. Especially not all-ages VNs we can discuss here. Dr. Video Games 0031 fucked around with this message at 20:04 on Nov 12, 2017 |
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Nov 12, 2017 19:33
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SerCypher posted:Are there any good fantasy VNs? Otome ones are fine as well. sweet fuse: at your side is probably my favorite otome VN! a recurring theme is being able to yell at all the dudes for all their Standard Otome Dude Bullshit, which is super refreshing for the genre especially since it's always the right choice to make you do need to play the routes in a specific order for the overarching plot to make sense (in that like, reveals that are the biggest defining feature of one route will be a sidenote in another) and the ~secret final route~ is actively bad imo but overall I really loved it
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Nov 12, 2017 20:03
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dmboogie posted:sweet fuse: at your side is probably my favorite otome VN! Sweet Fuse is great, wish there were more like it. An alarming number of other otome games seem to go with Sweet Fuse's secret final route for allll their characters. Code: Realize (steampunk fantasy) is worth a go, it's got some good bits (though it suffers from Hakuoki's protagonist's problem: mysterious superpowers apparently have a high chance of turning you into a submissive doorstop.) For no-qualifiers fantasy otome, I'm pretty sure I enjoyed Blue Rose, but can't remember anything specific about it.
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Nov 12, 2017 21:15
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Thanks for all the replies! I'm realizing to my dismay that most of them are ps4/vita. Previously I've played all these games on Steam/Windows. If I was only going to buy one, does a vita or a ps4 make more sense? From the thread title it seems some games are only on Vita?
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Nov 12, 2017 21:19
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Pretty much every VN that I had some level of interest in was on both platforms, and since portability is so desirable for the format I'd lean towards the Vita. E: Fate/stay night and especially Fata Morgana are my Fantasy VN recs as well btw Nate RFB fucked around with this message at 21:30 on Nov 12, 2017 |
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Nov 12, 2017 21:27
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Some VNs are vita-only, whereas I don't think there are any which are ps4-only. Most of the vita-only stuff are otome games (Bad Apple Wars is a recent good one). A PS4 will enable you to play a lot of console-exclusive games in general though, if you have any interest in that.
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Nov 12, 2017 21:29
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SerCypher posted:If I was only going to buy one, does a vita or a ps4 make more sense? From the thread title it seems some games are only on Vita? If you can find a cheap one, playing VNs on the Vita is pretty drat cool since it's a portable. If you want to play something that is on Steam: Root Double.
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Nov 12, 2017 21:30
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I like my vita a lot, but I don't know if I'd recommend buying one unless you really like VNs. Or mildly horny dungeon crawlers.
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Nov 12, 2017 21:34
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SerCypher posted:Thanks for all the replies! If you're on a budget the PSTV might be the best option, since it's incredibly cheap and it plays pretty much every Vita game that doesn't require a touch screen. It's kind of hard to justify the price of a Vita these days since it's basically a dead console.
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Nov 12, 2017 21:37
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