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gegi
Aug 3, 2004
Butterfly Girl

Snooze Cruise posted:

so what everyone is saying is if i act like lady in mystery made me angry and mad i can trick em into playing it...

i promise i bought it, i just haven't been in the mood to get into it yet, i only just finished up The Curse of Kudan

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Nate RFB
Jan 17, 2005

Clapping Larry

Snooze Cruise posted:

so what everyone is saying is if i act like lady in mystery made me angry and mad i can trick em into playing it...
I tragically wound up dropping it for now at least, the TL just became too much of a chore to deal with all the time and other VNs/games I cared about a lot either started to come out or are going to come out soon and it's hard to justify going back to it when I'm just going to be so sporadic about it and forget everything. If a patch, official or fan or otherwise, ever comes around that cleans it up I might start it over fresh though.

theblackw0lf
Apr 15, 2003

"...creating a vision of the sort of society you want to have in miniature"
Muramasa chapter 3 end spoilers: (regarding the mechanism that determines what routes you end up in. So spoiler warning if you still haven’t figured it out).

realizing that who you have the most affection for is who you kill was truly shocking. I sat there stunned as he killed Kanae at the end of the chapter. I’m sure some of you smarter realized what the affection meter meant sooner, but I unfortunately didn’t realize the consequences of my choices till then

kirbysuperstar
Nov 11, 2012

Let the fools who stand before us be destroyed by the power you and I possess.
you will be ashamed of your words and deeds

Ibram Gaunt
Jul 22, 2009

Been reading more Muramasa, although still very early. I got done with the old schoolhouse scene and uh. Wow. It's nitro+ so I shouldn't be surprised but I did not expect things to go the way they did. I don't mean to sound performative but that's the first time I've felt physically ill reading a scene in a VN. Had to get up and walk around for a bit before continuing.


edit: And I finished chapter one. Lol, geeze, great way to start things for real at least.

Ibram Gaunt fucked around with this message at 18:41 on Sep 11, 2021

theblackw0lf
Apr 15, 2003

"...creating a vision of the sort of society you want to have in miniature"
Did anyone play Hakuchuumu no Aojashin which came out last year? It’s supposed to be really good. The English version will be called Cyanotype Daydream and is being done by the same developers. I imagine it’s a few years away though. They’re also making it all ages as the developer is moving away from 18+ VNs.

Cynic Jester
Apr 11, 2009

Let's put a simile on that face
A dazzling simile
Twinkling like the night sky

Ibram Gaunt posted:

Been reading more Muramasa, although still very early. I got done with the old schoolhouse scene and uh. Wow. It's nitro+ so I shouldn't be surprised but I did not expect things to go the way they did. I don't mean to sound performative but that's the first time I've felt physically ill reading a scene in a VN. Had to get up and walk around for a bit before continuing.


edit: And I finished chapter one. Lol, geeze, great way to start things for real at least.

You weren't kidding. I knew something was coming but figured it was the schoolhouse, not the MC bait and switch.

Edit: Socially awkward man asking his armor for conversation help is A++ content.

Cynic Jester fucked around with this message at 23:46 on Sep 27, 2021

Acerbatus
Jun 26, 2020

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
I find it weird FMD muramasa decided one of the few cg sex scenes it should have is rape.

Weird as in its definitely framed like you're supposed to get off on it but that makes it kind of out of place.

I find that to be kinda common for nitro+ though.

Acerbatus fucked around with this message at 01:08 on Sep 28, 2021

Space Flower
Sep 10, 2014

by Games Forum
due to how every scene is written im pretty sure none of the muramasa h scenes could be described as pornographic. misanthropic, maybe

though some take that as a challenge

theblackw0lf
Apr 15, 2003

"...creating a vision of the sort of society you want to have in miniature"

Acerbatus posted:

I find it weird FMD muramasa decided one of the few cg sex scenes it should have is rape.

Weird as in its definitely framed like you're supposed to get off on it but that makes it kind of out of place.

I find that to be kinda common for nitro+ though.

Hmm I never got the feel you’re supposed to get off on it. I got the feeling it was supposed to disgust you and piss you off.

Cephas
May 11, 2009

Humanity's real enemy is me!
Hya hya foowah!
Can I get some opinions about Doki Doki Literature Club? I'm always chasing the high of a well done dark story--I really love Omori and the Heaven's Feel route of FSN, and Inio Asano and Lain and what have you. I've been curious about Doki Doki Literature Club, but I'm really cautious about it for personal mental health reasons.

I played over an hour of it a while ago. I actually really liked the totally normal daily life poetry club stuff lol. But I was extremely turned off by the way Sayori's suicide is depicted. I actually appreciated the frank way she talks about depression, but the graphic depiction of a teenager hanging from a noose really pushes things past what I'm okay with. When it started doing the glitchy meta stuff to her hanging corpse I just felt like it was extremely distasteful and upsetting.

To anyone who's played the game, does it transcend shock value? I feel like, using horror themes to reveal truths about mental illness can be very powerful. But exploiting mental illness for horror value really rubs me the wrong way. I've heard some good things about the game, but the way it handled the subject material in spoilers just... I dunno, even Berserk knows how to show some restraint.

Gaius Marius
Oct 9, 2012

Play umineko instead

MiddleOne
Feb 17, 2011

Doki Doki is real short so you might as well run it to the end if you've already gotten this long.

Also,

Gaius Marius posted:

Play umineko instead

kirbysuperstar
Nov 11, 2012

Let the fools who stand before us be destroyed by the power you and I possess.
It uses shock as a vehicle, certainly. I didn't really feel like it was..exploiting mental illness and all, but I think that's something that will depend some on the person reading it. That said, it might not be for you in the end, which is fine!

Stexils
Jun 5, 2008

i had pretty much the same reaction where i think that scene was distastefully played up for shock value but fortunately i don't think anything after that point is nearly that bad so you might as well finish it, especially since its pretty short.

Meowywitch
Jan 14, 2010

Fight for all that is beautiful in the world


Uhh the bit where Yuri stabs herself to death in front of you and then you sit with her over the weekend as her corpse rots is much worse actually from a shock point

I don't think anything in the game is intentionally exploitative but boy it does have Very Uncomfortable Scenes

Meowywitch fucked around with this message at 09:29 on Sep 28, 2021

theblackw0lf
Apr 15, 2003

"...creating a vision of the sort of society you want to have in miniature"
If you’re looking for a subversive visual novel that goes to unexpectedly dark places read Totono: The Love Between You and Me and Her. It takes a while till the game shows it’s true colors, but man once it goes there it became one of the most memorable visual novel experiences I’ve had.

It helps to read it after you’ve got a couple VNs under your belt. Also there’s an all ages version but honestly I think this is a game that loses something if you don’t play the 18+ version, for reasons that would be spoilerish to say.

Doki Doki gets all the attention but Totono is far more fascinating in its subversion.

theblackw0lf fucked around with this message at 12:03 on Sep 28, 2021

Cephas
May 11, 2009

Humanity's real enemy is me!
Hya hya foowah!

Nyoro posted:

Uhh the bit where Yuri stabs herself to death in front of you and then you sit with her over the weekend as her corpse rots is much worse actually from a shock point

I don't think anything in the game is intentionally exploitative but boy it does have Very Uncomfortable Scenes

:T I don't think it's for me. Thanks for all the feedback yall. I think I'll just play Umineko or check out Totono instead.

Stexils
Jun 5, 2008

Nyoro posted:

Uhh the bit where Yuri stabs herself to death in front of you and then you sit with her over the weekend as her corpse rots is much worse actually from a shock point

I don't think anything in the game is intentionally exploitative but boy it does have Very Uncomfortable Scenes

lol whoops its been a few years since i played the game so it seems i have, in fact, forgotten a few things about it

theblackw0lf
Apr 15, 2003

"...creating a vision of the sort of society you want to have in miniature"

Cephas posted:

:T I don't think it's for me. Thanks for all the feedback yall. I think I'll just play Umineko or check out Totono instead.

Definitely play Umineko. It’s my second favorite visual novel ((House in Fata Morgana is number one so definitely play that if you haven’t).

Totono is a pretty unforgettable experience though.

OnimaruXLR
Sep 15, 2007
Lurklurklurklurklurk
How severe is the nastiness in Muramasa? I'm not exactly sensitive to scenes of sexual violence, but at the same time if it's treated like a major selling point with a lot of focus, I'd probably rather spend my time elsewhere

Like on a scale of Saya no Uta to Wolf Guy

theblackw0lf
Apr 15, 2003

"...creating a vision of the sort of society you want to have in miniature"

OnimaruXLR posted:

How severe is the nastiness in Muramasa? I'm not exactly sensitive to scenes of sexual violence, but at the same time if it's treated like a major selling point with a lot of focus, I'd probably rather spend my time elsewhere

Like on a scale of Saya no Uta to Wolf Guy

There’s three scenes that have harsh sexual violence, and while they are very uncomfortable, it does serve a point to the overall narrative.

I question whether each scene needed a graphic. The words were sufficient. But thankfully there’s only those three scenes.

Sexual violence is not the point of the visual novel. It’s main point is a critique of war and violence in general.

theblackw0lf fucked around with this message at 05:03 on Sep 29, 2021

Acerbatus
Jun 26, 2020

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

OnimaruXLR posted:

How severe is the nastiness in Muramasa? I'm not exactly sensitive to scenes of sexual violence, but at the same time if it's treated like a major selling point with a lot of focus, I'd probably rather spend my time elsewhere

Like on a scale of Saya no Uta to Wolf Guy

How can it be a scale if they're the same point? :v:

It's not Euphoria tier or something but the scenes of graphic sexual violence feel gratuitous.

Spoilers for the first part of Muramasa, the first sex scene of any kind is the first main character's childhood friend gets all of her limbs removed while he's helpless. Then, he is forced to watch as his other childhood friend is forced to rape, and then pee in her mouth.

I was kinda like "You know, did this really need a CG if it wasn't supposed to be erotic?"


theblackw0lf posted:

Hmm I never got the feel you’re supposed to get off on it. I got the feeling it was supposed to disgust you and piss you off.

well like you mentioned, the fact that it gets a graphic makes it feel that way to me, I dunno. I don't think use of rape automatically ruins something for me, but I find very few pieces of media that use it graphically are actually better served by it. Less is more and all that.

It puts me off more than stuff that's straightforward about using it for titillation, it feels way less slimy than fumbling the usage of it.

Still, it's gonna be different for everyone. I wouldn't remotely blame anyone for feeling ill after playing Euphoria even if Muramasa didn't phase them, for example.


theblackw0lf posted:

If you’re looking for a subversive visual novel that goes to unexpectedly dark places read Totono: The Love Between You and Me and Her. It takes a while till the game shows it’s true colors, but man once it goes there it became one of the most memorable visual novel experiences I’ve had.

It helps to read it after you’ve got a couple VNs under your belt. Also there’s an all ages version but honestly I think this is a game that loses something if you don’t play the 18+ version, for reasons that would be spoilerish to say.

Doki Doki gets all the attention but Totono is far more fascinating in its subversion.

Uh, not that there isn't more to it but Totono is defintely an eroge and like... What would an all ages version even be for that? :psyduck:


Cephas posted:

:T I don't think it's for me. Thanks for all the feedback yall. I think I'll just play Umineko or check out Totono instead.

I'll throw in Plus is interesting and swerves from creepypasta visual novel to more on the idea of if people can have meaningful dialogue with media and so on. I think it's cool but like everything, not for everyone.

Acerbatus fucked around with this message at 06:09 on Sep 29, 2021

Ibram Gaunt
Jul 22, 2009

The scene in Muramasa definitely felt sort of have your cake and eat it too, agreed.

batteries!
Aug 26, 2010
Finished Umineko yesterday, almost in time for Halloween and it's... definitely an ending. I loved the cast, so many characters that appear unlikeable on the surface but end up growing on you by virtue of being so well written. Incredible soundtrack as well, every great moment heightened with these amazing tunes.

I guess I was expecting something closer to Higurashi in terms of structure. Higurashi practically sits you down and spoonfeeds you what's really going on by the end of chapter 7, you have a mystery that's solved in front of the reader and most of your questions are directly answered. Umineko shows you these characters, their thoughts and interactions and makes you draw your own conclusions. I'm not embarrassed to admit that I had no idea what the gently caress was happening right up to the big reveals in chapter 7, and even afterwards I had to sit down and sift through what was shown. I'm still thinking about several things that I just can't find an answer for. It's a game that could use a second playthrough, but unless your note-taking was on point, it practically demands one. None of the games that you see throughout the story are ever solved for you - having an "extra" servant and corresponding master key probably explains most of the locked room murders, but I'd have to reread each one.

Going through my questions I know a good part of the story just went over my head, but that's on me as a reader.

- What was all that with Ange at the ending of chapter 4, and how does it square up with her actual ending in chapter 8? I get the sense that Bern made a copy of her when she turned her into a piece, so none of that actually happened in the timeline of 8? They're two different Anges, right?
- I think Bern's deduction mystery in chapter 8 was her own low-key way of presenting what really happened on the island: it squares up with Ange's reaction when reading Eva's diary as well. But if that's the case, what was the point of showing her something so similar but not complete at the ending of 7? So Eva's diary would hit even harder? I guess it's appropriate in keeping up with the theme of the catbox that even after all of that the "real events" are still debatable.
- After thinking on chapter 7 I still don't understand what the point of creating the catbox was, or how it connects to the meta-narrative. Beatrice wants revenge on a group of people that made her miserable, but she rigs it so the outcome is random and adds a way to get caught. Why? Lambda gives Beatrice her witch powers but is that what enables the catbox, or is it a reaction to it?
- Just how many "games" were played in there? Was the first game the one in chapter 1 when Battler is promoted and pulled into the meta-narrative? Everything has a vibe of having gone on for Higurashi lengths of time for Beatrice, but I don't know if that's just a feeling or something I misread.

batteries! fucked around with this message at 13:43 on Nov 4, 2021

MiddleOne
Feb 17, 2011

Did you watch both endings?

rannum
Nov 3, 2012

batteries! posted:

Going through my questions I know a good part of the story just went over my head, but that's on me as a reader.

- What was all that with Ange at the ending of chapter 4, and how does it square up with her actual ending in chapter 8? I get the sense that Bern made a copy of her when she turned her into a piece, so none of that actually happened in the timeline of 8? They're two different Anges, right?
- I think Bern's deduction mystery in chapter 8 was her own low-key way of presenting what really happened on the island: it squares up with Ange's reaction when reading Eva's diary as well. But if that's the case, what was the point of showing her something so similar but not complete at the ending of 7? So Eva's diary would hit even harder? I guess it's appropriate in keeping up with the theme of the catbox that even after all of that the "real events" are still debatable.
- After thinking on chapter 7 I still don't understand what the point of creating the catbox was, or how it connects to the meta-narrative. Beatrice wants revenge on a group of people that made her miserable, but she rigs it so the outcome is random and adds a way to get caught. Why? Lambda gives Beatrice her witch powers but is that what enables the catbox, or is it a reaction to it?
- Just how many "games" were played in there? Was the first game the one in chapter 1 when Battler is promoted and pulled into the meta-narrative? Everything has a vibe of having gone on for Higurashi lengths of time for Beatrice, but I don't know if that's just a feeling or something I misread.



-A lot of the metaverse stuff in general is very...loose & weird. I just saw it as: in the metaverse Ange is all the Anges, and the "real" Anges we see are just various possibilities following her decision to go off that building. In Episode 4 its one where she went to the island, in Episode 8 we see one where she just died from not being able to handle things, one where she feels she cant trust anyone on the way to the island (this one really bugs me btw there's way to recognize things are tricks but not become psychopath incapable of seeing love), and one where she has an epiphany on her life and backs down. So on a "real" scenario, these are all things that cannot happen to each other, but on a meta level they all (well, like 3 of them) happen.
-It's been a while, but I believe Bern's Mystery is a variation on the truth presented in 7, specifically concocted in a way to gently caress with Ange and kind of present a disconnect between having a fun game (its a logic puzzle, beato & battler are having fun with it) but also how its kind of hosed up to have all these murder theories about "real" people in-universe. And goign back to loving with Ange: remember that she pulls her into that game and she's there for the entire time she's missing so she sees the "finale" of it showing not just her family but also Battler.
However, I think it's explicitly confirmed somewhere (multiple somewheres?) that Battler is never the culprit, so that's definitely, if nothing else, Bern just loving with people.
-The "catbox" was basically just Yasu having fun with their murder-suicide plot; a possibly unsolvable mystery with a ton of different solutions, and the possibility that keys would be lost to the waves (the bottles).
On a meta level it's just what allows Beatrice to renact her murder games again and again.
The reason there's an "out" where they can be caught (& why there's a roulette) because...well two parts. One they feel they've been pushed around by fate, so why not leave this to fate as well. if they're caught they're caught. But also, I believe they just want to be found, because doing a murder of everyone is hard on you even if you're dealing with *gestures wildly* all that, and also they want to be understood. Solve the mystery, solve Yasu.
That bleeds into the meta with Beatrice because she also really wants Battler specifically to be the one to understand her.
-I think canonically the only games that were played were the 7 presented. Chapter 1 "counts" as game 1 & the start of their battles, 2-4 are the remainder, 5 is Lambda's control, 6 is Battler's, 7 is Bern's. 8 is...well it's Battler's but it's Bern's but it's none of them.
I do agree that it really feels like there should have been a ton more games from the way they talk about it, but they also never refer to any other games than the ones we see. Personally I'd have probably delayed Ange's entrance to the game somehow, and just had a bunch of other games off screen between 3 & 4 but I understand how narratively this mucks with things and episode 4 is packed as is without making yo uwonder "okay but what happened in those other games".

Nate RFB
Jan 17, 2005

Clapping Larry

batteries! posted:

Finished Umineko yesterday, almost in time for Halloween and it's... definitely an ending. I loved the cast, so many characters that appear unlikeable on the surface but end up growing on you by virtue of being so well written. Incredible soundtrack as well, every great moment heightened with these amazing tunes.

I guess I was expecting something closer to Higurashi in terms of structure. Higurashi practically sits you down and spoonfeeds you what's really going on by the end of chapter 7, you have a mystery that's solved in front of the reader and most of your questions are directly answered. Umineko shows you these characters, their thoughts and interactions and makes you draw your own conclusions. I'm not embarrassed to admit that I had no idea what the gently caress was happening right up to the big reveals in chapter 7, and even afterwards I had to sit down and sift through what was shown. I'm still thinking about several things that I just can't find an answer for. It's a game that could use a second playthrough, but unless your note-taking was on point, it practically demands one. None of the games that you see throughout the story are ever solved for you - having an "extra" servant and corresponding master key probably explains most of the locked room murders, but I'd have to reread each one.
It definitely is a deliberate counter to Higurashi, where everything is overexplained to a degree that there's nothing left to the imagination at all (which is why the follow ups and side stories largely don't work IMO unless they involve entirely new characters).

That said it might be helpful to read the "Our Confession" extra chapter which is available in English in Umineko Saku which provides the mindset of how a gameboard might be set up, as well as the manga-only EP8 "Confession of the golden witch" chapters which makes some of the subtext in the reveals just straight up text.

quote:

Going through my questions I know a good part of the story just went over my head, but that's on me as a reader.

- What was all that with Ange at the ending of chapter 4, and how does it square up with her actual ending in chapter 8? I get the sense that Bern made a copy of her when she turned her into a piece, so none of that actually happened in the timeline of 8? They're two different Anges, right?
- I think Bern's deduction mystery in chapter 8 was her own low-key way of presenting what really happened on the island: it squares up with Ange's reaction when reading Eva's diary as well. But if that's the case, what was the point of showing her something so similar but not complete at the ending of 7? So Eva's diary would hit even harder? I guess it's appropriate in keeping up with the theme of the catbox that even after all of that the "real events" are still debatable.
- After thinking on chapter 7 I still don't understand what the point of creating the catbox was, or how it connects to the meta-narrative. Beatrice wants revenge on a group of people that made her miserable, but she rigs it so the outcome is random and adds a way to get caught. Why? Lambda gives Beatrice her witch powers but is that what enables the catbox, or is it a reaction to it?
- Just how many "games" were played in there? Was the first game the one in chapter 1 when Battler is promoted and pulled into the meta-narrative? Everything has a vibe of having gone on for Higurashi lengths of time for Beatrice, but I don't know if that's just a feeling or something I misread.


-I don't think there's a need to look at the "fragments" where characters have somewhat different fates in a purely literal sense; you could read it as being just a "what if" that Bernkastel is telling the reader in a extra meta layer even further stripped away or more simply just "this was one possible path in this fragment, the actual epilogue of EP8 is in a different one".
-Bern isn't a nice person and is being presented, along with Erika, as the type of mystery solver who going for the cruelest possible resolutions whether it narratively even makes sense.
-Definitely elaborated a bit more in "Confession of the golden witch" but in general you're discounting the connection she had with Battler and how the two of them bonded over mystery fiction; like Kinzo she wanted to gamble on a miracle because it was the only way she could figure out how to resolve the myriad of issues roiling in and around her.
-Don't forget what a "game" actually entails: they are representations of what happened as analyzed via either bottles thrown into the ocean by Beatrice or forgeries written by Hachijo Tohya. So long as no one has definitive answers (via, say Eva's diary) and the catbox remains closed there are as many games as there are stories written by people. But for sake of simplicity the first two were from message bottles, while EP3 and beyond were ostensibly written by Tohya. I want to say EP7/EP8 are kind of their own thing but they can probably thematically be treated in the same light.

LordMune
Nov 21, 2006

Helim needed to be invisible.
The catbox is the Golden Land. Happiness and immortality is Beatrice and all her personas and loves and family living rent-free in the heads of the public forever, together in a way they could never be in real life. A lot of Shannon and Kanon's, and to a degree Maria's, more unhinged dialogue early on is about how (repeated) death is a small price to pay for this.

MiddleOne
Feb 17, 2011

quote:

- Just how many "games" were played in there? Was the first game the one in chapter 1 when Battler is promoted and pulled into the meta-narrative? Everything has a vibe of having gone on for Higurashi lengths of time for Beatrice, but I don't know if that's just a feeling or something I misread.

Umineko ending spoilers

The talk of infinite games is in my opinion made clear in chapter 7 when it's revealed that the golden witch is a made-up construct created by Yasu. There are only 5 games played by "Beatrice the Golden Witch", the first being the real world-incident as shown by Bern (siblings solving the epitath and killing each other) which leads to Eva escaping, Yasu comitting suicide by drowning, Battler losing his identity trying to save her and everyone else being already dead.

The four remaining message-in-a-bottle games are all taking place in the cat-box between dead Yasu and Battlers lost identity until meta-Beatrice simply gives up, having failed completely to get what she wants through any of the stories penned by her and thrown in the ocean. Just like the game in real-life, it failed to bring her any resolution.

The rest are arguably real-world Battler trying to make sense of his lost identity by helping penn all these alternative stories from his scattered memories. By chapter 6 meta-Battler finally realizes the truth and him and Yasu rest in peace, having re-united in death through living on in the stories.

Berns game in chapter 8 is made up by Bern to mess with Ange, If Bern accepts it she gives up on her dreams of re-uniting with her brother. If Bern rejects it then a miracle happens, real world Battler leaves enough crumbs for Ange to find him. It's then stated again that meta-Battler really is dead just like Yasu, which is why they both live on but only in the stories.


Oh, and stories are as real or fake as we want and believe them to be. They can be changed into anything according to our whim and through them anything is possible. Ergo, stories are magic.

MiddleOne fucked around with this message at 14:49 on Nov 4, 2021

batteries!
Aug 26, 2010

MiddleOne posted:

Did you watch both endings?

Yeah. I played through magic and youtubed trick. Trick adds an explanation to how Ange dies in chapter 4, but it really felt like a "what-if" that shouldn't have been there.


Nate RFB posted:

That said it might be helpful to read the "Our Confession" extra chapter which is available in English in Umineko Saku which provides the mindset of how a gameboard might be set up, as well as the manga-only EP8 "Confession of the golden witch" chapters which makes some of the subtext in the reveals just straight up text.

Thanks, I'll definitely read these. I searched for the extended Higurashi material and mentally checked out when I saw the list, but I'm down for more of Umineko.

LordMune posted:

The catbox is the Golden Land. Happiness and immortality is Beatrice and all her personas and loves and family living rent-free in the heads of the public forever, together in a way they could never be in real life. A lot of Shannon and Kanon's, and to a degree Maria's, more unhinged dialogue early on is about how (repeated) death is a small price to pay for this.

This is interesting, I spent most of the game trying to pin down what the Golden Land actually was and the best I came up with was Beatrice's headspace. I guess I never made this connection because the epitaph and the progression of the games got me thinking that only after all of the events played out would everyone actually "reach" it. But if the flow of the game is a necessity of the catbox, they were already there all along.

AFancyQuestionMark
Feb 19, 2017

Long time no see.
nevermind me, just bumping this thread to tell you all to play Buried Stars, which got released on steam recently.

it seems to be completely unknown outside of korea, which is a shame, since it owns

Redezga
Dec 14, 2006

I've only got to the first ending but Buried Stars it's very promising so far. The conversation based gameplay feels like a mix between Minesweeper and the interview gameplay from L.A. Noire, and getting to that end didn't take terribly long so I don't mind going through it again for a better/proper ending.

The characters all seem relatively grounded for a murder game visual novel about Kpop idols, and I like the themes about social media its impact on real life. I've definitely seen enough Allkpop article comments and Twitter stan/anti-fan stuff to be able to appreciate how messed up it could make people in an industry like that.

The Colonel
Jun 8, 2013


I commute by bike!
finishing up subarashiki hibi. there was a moment where i really liked the game and then it kinda passed and i just started wanting it to end and rushing through voiced dialog. looking forward to digging into raging loop next

e; ok the secret ending of subahibi was cool at least. i can't hate an ending song that gives me the same vibes as growing wings/tsukiru from drakengard

The Colonel fucked around with this message at 08:17 on Feb 4, 2022

Nate RFB
Jan 17, 2005

Clapping Larry
I finished Muramasa and I leave it with mixed feelings.

First and foremost I'm glad that I had the chance to read it at all and it's deserving of its reputation in VN lore, so it finally have a TL is a big hurdle that I'm glad was cleared. For me personally I think it occupies a similar space as Muv-Luv where it's a story that is both ambitious and requires a lot of investment to see through and thus I appreciate it I think more than I actually enjoyed it. The biggest issue is that at its heart it only really has one theme/element to work with (it is not "heroic" to kill anyone regardless of how you justify it) and this is made explicit and obvious extremely early on, to the point where virtually nothing that happens in the story is ever surprising. You can to a T see every major plot beat coming a mile away once you know the basics of the the setup for the chapter in question and yet Muramasa does not seem aware that its readers will know this, so instead it chooses to belabor and pontificate this to a degree that is frequently obnoxious. So when combined with the VN's extreme length (about 35 hours to get through the first two routes, almost 60 to finish the whole thing) it frequently bristled against my patience.

All of which is not to say that there weren't some standout moments and beats. I generally enjoyed most to all of the endgame content and the action writing is definitely a cut above most VNs. I'd even call most of the cast memorable in a good way, though I will respectfully disagree with the notion that Kageaki is himself superlative in any way. I think he works fine as a vehicle for the story but as one much better character put it, he is a sad, sorry, hopeless sack of blubber.

Endorph
Jul 22, 2009

i think its pontificating less because it doesnt think you get it and more because it thinks its cool. which it is

Nate RFB
Jan 17, 2005

Clapping Larry
I definitely agree that Narahara Ittetsu thought it was cool (I guess they retired from VNs afterwards too).

I'll agree that Chachamaru is cool at least and I wish they got more to do than like two action scenes one of which wasn't even shown.

Arist
Feb 13, 2012

who, me?


I finished Chaos;Head tonight, I had been considering waiting for the fan translation of the updated version to come out but I eventually gave up on that because I was mainly playing C;H in the first place because I wanted to get to Robotics;Notes and I read I should play this one first (I already played Steins.Gate a few years back). Ultimately, I thought it was... fine. A rather uneven experience with some parts I actually liked a lot. My main problem, other than how long it takes for the story to really come together, is just how gratuitous and overbearing the descriptions of gore were, holy poo poo. The scenes with Sena's mom and the description of the brain murder, in particular, made me kind of want to vomit.

I was considering going back through and getting the B ending but upon hearing that it's a bad ending route that probably contains yet more gore I doubt I'll bother.

Nep-Nep
May 15, 2004

Just one more thing!
After spending much of a year unaware it was out I got around to playing Your Turn to Die part 3 1-B.

That whole chapter was great. I liked all the memory reveals, and because I'm on the Sou path I was really let down by Reko's death. Then the banquet was the absolute bloodbath it was. Overall I feel okay with my choice to be on the Sou path in that I felt like the story has been building towards Sara having to reckon with the darker side of herself and for Sou to be a rival there seems like it will lead to a more fitting end for me. Though of course when it's all finally finished someday I'll go back and play the other paths.

Midori was such a satisfying villain to beat, and it was interesting to get more backstory on the characters. Wish we could've lamped the non-humans too but I can see how that would've gotten out of hand.

I wonder if the format will change for the final main game or if they'll be able to follow through with/succeed on some plan to try to escape. With just four or five people if there are still two rounds of voting, the sacrifice would have absolute leverage, so I'm thinking for that reason there's a good chance the format will be different or a plot swerve might avoid the final main game? In any case, I'll be excited to find out when it's finally all done.

Nep-Nep fucked around with this message at 15:32 on Feb 12, 2022

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Level 1 Thief
Dec 17, 2007

I'm busy, and I'm having fun.

Arist posted:

I was considering going back through and getting the B ending but upon hearing that it's a bad ending route that probably contains yet more gore I doubt I'll bother.

Your suspicions are grounded! In the B ending, you get to experience all the murders! From the POV of the victims! Yay!!

I had been hoping to get that one before the true ending to leave the game with a less bad taste in my mouth, but lol no, it doesn't even unlock until you get AA. Just one last terrible decision from good old Chaos Head.

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