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Oh cool, there's a VN thread (which actually seems to be doing well!?) I just marathoned House in Fata Morgana, and I'm surprised there doesn't seem to have been much discussion about it. It was really good, but I think it'll need some time to fully digest my thoughts about it. It's kind of interesting that despite nearly every point being parallel to Umineko, it ends up feeling like a very different experience, even down to the music. Although the tone can get bleak Fata Morgana's probably the most purely romantic VN I've read, whereas I certainly couldn't say that about Umineko. I can't really decide which I prefer, in the end. Being a sucker for this kind of story though they're definitely my two favorite VNs now. Also what's the deal with the endings? I'm missing 5 and 7 and I can't remember for the life of me what choices I skipped. Though judging by the other side endings I'm not losing out on much.
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Jun 19, 2016 08:45
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Oh poo poo the painting, I forgot about that. The scene where Morgana tells Michel to scribble on him is probably my favorite in the game for how hilariously petty it is  Really signaled that everything was going to be all right.
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Jun 20, 2016 00:38
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I've been meaning to reread Umineko (especially after Fata Morgana dropped) but it's so daunting, now that I'm employed and poo poo. Can't really just burn whole days on it like I used to 
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Jul 4, 2016 04:25
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Yeah, it's so good. It kind of feels like how Umineko might have ended up if Ryukishi's friend hadn't died.
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Jul 16, 2016 08:32
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The overall product is very different, but for the smaller pieces there are quite a few parallels... (spoilers for both VNs obviously( Losing one's identity and having to reclaim it by experiencing shards of memories, a "clean" story presented to the reader as a cover-up of an uglier reality, intersexuality and resulting alienation with self and family, being taunted by a witch who is linked to a specific location and specific people by an old grudge, the witch attempting to inflict an infinite cycle of suffering upon those people, resolving the situation by dredging up the witch's history and "tearing out the guts", and (more subjectively) various flavors of "without love it cannot be seen".
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Jul 17, 2016 19:39
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Yeah when I bought Fata Morgana I wasn't actually sure if it was Japanese or not. Definitely a very different aesthetic.
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Jul 17, 2016 21:29
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I didn't hate Grisaia the first, but it felt like there wasn't actually a point to the thing. It only existed for slice-of-life and sequel setups. To be fair stuff like Amane's route actually did make me kind of interested in the sequel, but only enough to retroactively sour the slice-of-life parts for me  The protagonist is good when he is trying to be funny, even if he doesn't land the joke. But when he is being edgy it's unbearable.
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Jul 21, 2016 05:16
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Even at his worst Okabe was never actually that bad though. It was pretty clear that he didn't actually mean any of the poo poo he says, beyond the stuff which is just fact like lab coats being the coolest outfits. Like I don't remember him ever being really unpleasant to anyone except maybe Ruka but that whole plotline was kind of weird outside of bad ends.
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Jul 30, 2016 03:40
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It's very good.
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Aug 22, 2016 02:57
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I actually quite liked Mell (possibly because he's kind of goony  ) but idk about Nellie. She's probably the most stereotypically anime part of the game.
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Aug 25, 2016 03:05
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Is there anywhere you can buy Rose Guns Days? Witch Hunt seems to say it's not being sold any more?
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Oct 25, 2016 12:56
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I don't know what Ryukishi can even do at this point. As a writer whose forte is magnificent clusterfucks, what do you write after Umineko, once and future king of clusterfucks? Though tbh if he gets dai and zts aboard to write the soundtrack he could just print lorem ipsum a thousand times
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Oct 26, 2016 01:47
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Yes, they repeat the same days. The first two answer arcs "answer" a question arc in a non-literal way, while the last two are a bit different.
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Dec 28, 2016 20:57
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Any good reviews of Dies Irae? At first glance it seems to be like Fate but with even more focus on power levels, German, weirdos and complex world systems, and I'm not sure I like the sound of that.
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Jan 13, 2017 18:47
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If it's compared to Hellsing it must be at least somewhat self-aware, which makes me more optimistic about it. Though I don't know how the heroine routes fit into that; can't imagine Hellsing going full waifu.
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Jan 13, 2017 21:41
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Yeah, a while ago there was a conversation about similarities and differences between Fata Morgana and Umineko, but I think the biggest commonality for me was the sense of "holy poo poo this story is not about what I thought it was going to be about". Usually with a big twist in a VN you can see, if not the details, the form it's going to take. But when Fata Morgana showed what it was actually about I was totally blown away. (Not that it wasn't compelling before that. loving Jacopo  I liked the guy a lot so his self-inflicted downfall felt real bad.)
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Jan 19, 2017 04:37
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I got the bad ending from not clicking on a choice fast enough before it disappeared, which was the only time I got mad at the game. Dick move there. None of them are more than a short scene of "welp" so you're right, no point in seeing all of them.
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Jan 19, 2017 15:40
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I wish they'd go faster with the Fata Morgana sidestory (and of course that it ends up being good).
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Apr 1, 2017 00:22
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Kristopher posted:Out of curiosity, what would you say is your favorite of the Kai chapters? I've enjoyed all of the Higurashi games released so far, although I will admit the first chapter was a bit of a slog. Just kinda wondering what people consider to be the high point of the series, considering most of the games thus far have been pretty great. Tsumihoroboshi for me, mainly because I'm a sap and the scene where Keiichi remembers everything and starts crying while the others are all "wtf man" gets me every time. It's also kind of the turning point where things start looking up. edit: though, if you haven't read the answer arcs I suppose a fully spoilered response wouldn't be that helpful
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Apr 1, 2017 20:35
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So have these developers put out anything good other than Steins;gate? I haven't looked at any of their other stories but they all have scary reviews.
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May 26, 2017 01:11
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Raxivace posted:Like they really really really wanted you to pick up on the younger sister's incestuous feelings super hard. It was honestly kind of ridiculous how much they spelled it out before just straight up spelling it out at the end in an extended segment.. If it makes you feel better, this part has pretty much no relevance to the overall plot.
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Sep 14, 2017 04:39
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I like the 'main' Zero Escape characters but the plots are so overwrought that it retroactively ruins them for me.
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Oct 29, 2017 19:43
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Yeah, Higurashi has very nice moments that are very memorable, but there's not that much to say about the in-betweens. Whereas Umineko has got a hundred different things going on to dwell on, even in the crunchy bits between the major beats.
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Dec 20, 2017 07:16
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I don't think I was ever engaged enough by GSnM to be mad about any of the plot elements mentioned so far. It's like if every VN stereotype combined to form an 'ok' product. If you describe it to someone who knows about VNs but hasn't read any they'd be like "yup that's a VN".
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Jun 9, 2018 05:23
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Yeah I think Steins has to be one of the VNs most recommendable to average people (if we're not counting stuff like Ace Attorney). Probably Fata Morgana is number one in that respect, even considering the relatively anime first gate. I'd put 07th expansion up there if it weren't for ridiculous levels of 
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Apr 6, 2019 07:58
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Will forever be mystified the choice to localize as "X When They Cry". Yeah yeah yeah putting the animal word first, it sounds stupid.
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Apr 20, 2019 05:30
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Feels Villeneuve posted:Finished up to Higurashi Ch6 by the way. Yeah I think (checks notes) Tsumihoroboshi is the strongest chapter on a sentimental level. Of course Umineko has a lot of emotional content but it's kind of wrapped around a whole riddle wrapped in an enigma. But here it's just some people realizing how badly they hosed up and there's nothing else to think about.
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May 19, 2019 04:08
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AFancyQuestionMark posted:Imagine being the kind of person that advances the text before the VA finishes Some of us have mortal lifespans. These things are 5 million words long
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Jul 25, 2019 09:21
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No Wave posted:Question arc: That's why Gaap calls Beatrice "Riiche" - like, "bay ah triiche". Your comment made me realize that I've been pronouncing it wrong in my head the whole time. (That is, the primary stress actually being on "tri" rather than "Bea".) Guess I need to brush up on Italian phonology 
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Nov 30, 2019 03:18
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StrixNebulosa posted:The final route (Rea) ends in a really bonkers fight scene, you should get back to it. Also it gets super pretentious. This reminded me to finally finish it. I'm guessing Dies Irae was pretty controversial writing-wise It's kind of a weird VN where at first you think it's trying way too hard to be edgy/"deep", then you realize that it's just pretending to be pretentious, and then when the words pile up it gets tedious no matter how many layers of irony it's on. It's stuck between two worlds where half the story is a cosmic tale of incomprehensible demigods murmuring the word "foreknowledge" 7000 times in a row, and the other half is a straightforward shounen where you go asdafadfafga  *gain one power level*I feel like I should be fondly reminiscing over the epic parts but instead I'm thinking about how much of my life was spent mouse-wheeling through fake-German/Latin/Norse battle chants. (Seriously, pretentious or not the length and frequency of these did not respect the reader's time.) Also either the writing is too obscure, or I'm not smart enough to understand what the priest's deal is. He still gets points for style though.
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Jun 3, 2020 06:00
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Ytlaya posted:I've only played the first 2 routes I think, but isn't the priest being a traitor of sorts made clear in the first route or something? I remember he was trying to prevent the resurrection of Heindrich (but in a way that was also antagonistic to the "good guys") and had some weird deal where he idolized Heindrich but wanted to replace him or some such. It's not so much being a traitor that confuses me (as you say that was pretty clear) but the specifics of how he acts. In fact it's so confusing for me I can't actually recount any specific plot point, just a general sense of "what is he even doing" all the time. I think it's because I never really understood the mechanics of all the rituals going on, as well as how exactly it interacts with Lisa's bloodline (with Isaak, the castle, Rea, etc.). A lot of his motivation seems to be linked (maybe? I guess?) to his relationship with Lisa and Rea, but I could never work out how that connects with when he decides to act with or against someone (and he changes his tune all the time!)
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Jun 3, 2020 23:41
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AFancyQuestionMark posted:To be honest, they aren't wrong. The majority of all genre works in any medium are never going to "rise above the level of pulp entertainment" because they aren't trying to. Being well constructed, compelling and enjoyable is the target they strive for and what we as an audience are looking for. And that's perfectly cool. I'm not sure how true that is. A lot of VNs are quite ambitious, even if the plot is still based on "pulp" so to speak. Often I do quite like the premise or the idea or the tone of the thing, it's just that the execution is so frequently a let down (even relative to other categories of nerd media). I don't mind consumerism or pandering or whatever, if you're reading these it's probably table stakes. I think the kicker here is how much time a VN could potentially waste you. They tend to be better at drawing your attention but worse at becoming quagmire 7 million in.
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Jul 29, 2020 23:30
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Stefan Prodan posted:well sure but that doesn't really quite seem like the same thing as what I'm saying The thing is that Umineko tends to provoke a lot of discussion and analysis and such for long-time fans, but it's just not that relevant for people who are just starting the read. The game ends up speaking for itself. There's not a secretly wrong way to read it or anything.
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Aug 15, 2020 03:13
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In my opinion Steins;gate isn't the best VN but it has the least glaring weaknesses of any I've read. I'm sure it has flaws, but *waves hands wildly, "by VN standards"* Though now that I say that the cellphone message gameplay was pretty janky
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Apr 2, 2021 20:27
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Sharkitten posted:Watch out, you probably already know but kara no shoujo is one of them "adult games". Even excluding that, some of the violence in the game is really disturbing even to a person like me who is rather desensitized so check yoself. Also going to say that it has the absolute worst "gameplay" possible, which is not really what you want from your VNs. If you're going to read it follow a walkthrough strictly. As for Ciconia, do we have any idea when it might be fully released? I'm someone who usually likes to read completed stuff so I don't know why I bought it now 
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Apr 30, 2021 06:26
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I would have expected some proportion of "average" gamers to have bounced off of room 1 and dragged down the score. But maybe if you've bought the game you're already likely to have some tolerance for VN-isms.
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Jun 10, 2021 06:52
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Ketchupface posted:i have absolutely seen people reading umineko who have correctly figured out the culprit a couple murders into episode 1. it's possible to solve. Were these people keeping, like, a spreadsheet of all the things that happened? I read all of Umineko and quite enjoyed it but it was impossible to remember enough of the details to even contemplate solving anything. Hell, if put on the spot I couldn't even explain the solution now despite reading the whole thing. Maybe my brain is just not wired correctly for mystery stories
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Jan 17, 2024 03:28
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