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I desperately need to finish 8 of Higurashi too, I’ve put it off for ages. I started House in the Fata Morgana on a whim. Door 1 was so insufferable that I was tempted to drop the whole thing. Then Door 2 opened up with an incredible hook and I’m all in now.
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Nov 28, 2020 18:35
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I'm still stunned that someone in the Umineko LP thread solved it.
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Feb 9, 2021 03:24
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Took me like half a year to get through House of Fata Morgana, which I loved to pieces despite its (intentionally) overwhelming uncomfortable/horrifying tone. God what a great character story. Finished Buried Stars in about a week, comparatively, which I also really enjoyed. I was ready to be annoyed with its central premise of "reality tv celebs are stuck in a building with twitter being their only access to the outside world." Instead, its a really gripping story about toxic work cultures in the entertainment industry, how that sort of environment destroys your sense of self, and adding on the pressure of parasocial relationships that are ready to lash out at you a moment's notice. Not perfect, but its a compelling mystery that's gonna stick with me.
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May 1, 2021 02:36
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The realization of exactly how dumb Krauss can possibly be is incredible. A really underrated reveal
Nerdietalk fucked around with this message at 14:37 on May 22, 2021 |
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May 22, 2021 14:33
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Sharkitten posted:Ten hours in World's End Club and I just hit the credits. Well, um, I presume this is not remotely the last credits sequence in the game knowing Uchikoshi's other games and all that. I'm still having a lot of fun with it: it's just presented really cutely and every single one of the characters is charming. Runs really good on the Switch, too. Original release let you go a bit farther onto the second ending path, but it cut off before the last few levels. Still REALLY mean.
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Jun 5, 2021 01:41
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AFancyQuestionMark posted:Does anyone know anything about Buried Stars? Is it good? Genuinely loved Buried Stars. The premise of "five reality tv celebrities and an intern trapped in a collapsing building with only twitter to contact the outside world" shouldn't be as good as it is. But all the moving pieces just work well together. Digging into what's true about the characters and what's the personality that's been forced onto them by the reality show production staff adds an intriguing mysteries with high tensions all around. The characters are just really interesting with messy histories. Trapping them in an enclosed space and watching them lose their minds as fake-twitter exposes secrets and smears them and raise the emotional stakes was just a blast. Only major complaint is that its that there's a couple joke endings you can trip into that really distracted from the core interesting drama.
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Aug 29, 2021 20:42
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The first door's such a slog to get through, but it really escalates from there into such a fun, impactful ride.
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Sep 7, 2021 04:05
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I really loved the whole vibe and story of Buried Stars. It’s relatively more grounded nature adds a lot of nuance and layers cause even if the translation isn’t perfect, there’s plenty that can be left unsaid while still speaking to the world these people are living in. The pettiest peeve I had was that I don’t think it had the best understanding of what counts as a popular tweet for these celebs on Twitter/Phater. Like when characters are going “this jerk dissing us has almost a thousand likes! We gotta stop him!”, it’s a little silly. Boost up that number a little before committing to this bit, please.
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Dec 4, 2021 21:34
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I really need to get a hold of Ciconia, I'm craving that When They Cry vibe
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Dec 19, 2021 06:42
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Started playing Hermitage: Strange Case Files. Urban fantasy mystery about a magic bookstore and the people that come to visit it. Its clearly inspired by Persona art and its got a really gritty tone to it. What really makes it work for me as a mystery is that the game isn't interested in getting too bogged down in magical details. The human elements to the mystery is more important than magical mechanics. Who curses someone to have horrific visions and hallucinations, where do monsters come from, and how can people move forward from those incidents of pain. Its kind of a slow burn but once it gets rolling, it gets rolling. Major spoilers for the end of the first case, the entire emotional climax of the case gutted me in a way I didn't expect. The story revolves around two high school girls suffering from jealously, bullying, and fraught emotional tensions. By all accounts, their friendship should be over by the time the story wraps up. Yet the two of them decide they don't want to stop being friends. Despite all their betrayal and heartbreak and how much WORK it will take to find true peace, they're willing to put in the work because of how much they truly care about each other. Their magical adventure have left them with physical and psychological damage that can never be fixed, but they can at least try to find a future together. Its stunning and the game hammers it home with a truly harrowing climax. If that's the first case, I desperately need to see the other cases as well.
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Mar 1, 2022 20:41
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Finished Misericorde, gonna rotate these characters in my head for months while I try not to feel dread waiting for future volumes.
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Apr 6, 2023 05:39
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fez_machine posted:Hidden Gems: Can personally rec all of these. Methods' broader mystery isn't that interesting (to me) but the relationships between everyone in the Detective Competition and the rotating focus of the story is such a fascinating narrative to follow. You never know who the story will focus on but it so effortlessly manages to make the viewpoint characters unique and their conflicts compelling. I wouldn't call Lady in Mystery a fair-play mystery, but what makes it work is the fixation on the social scenarios. Its very much set in 1700s Korea and takes extensive efforts to explain how the rules and codes of conduct influence people's motivations. It felt like I was learning history. It ruled.
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Aug 11, 2023 03:06
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Actually, I would also highly rec Soulslayer as a fun mystery vn. Its a time loop mystery, but there's a strict three loop time limit, which forces you to center on investigating one suspect at a time. No matter who you investigate, you gain insight into a character and a greater understanding of what shaped their personality. Good mystery drama. Gotta love it.
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Aug 11, 2023 03:45
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I've spent way too much time in my life merging Umineko characters and Succession quotes in my head and on paper, if I go down that road again I won't be able to stop.avoraciopoctules posted:
I think GAA and 13 Sentinels really are some of the best VNs interspersed with gameplay I've ever played. The Switch version of 13S is also notable for giving characters different skills for different mechs. The normal version of 13S really let you spam sentries into victory, but scaling that down and giving everyone compelling mechanics to utilize really adds a new wonderful layer to the game.
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Nov 30, 2023 12:00
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Oh nice, I fully thought they were still different experiences.
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Nov 30, 2023 16:05
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After you finish the game, its smart to go looking through the image gallery for a special surprise.chrome line posted:The early bit that really sold me on Misericorde was when she's still the anchoress and the conversation quickly becomes "Hey isn't it weird that people get killed for being gay? Do you think about handsome men or beautiful women more often? How would you feel if a woman called you hot? Let's try and find a way to see each others faces!" Hedwig might be my favorite new protagonist of 2023, she's just so completely messy and stupid in so many understandable and tragic ways. Nerdietalk fucked around with this message at 20:29 on Feb 29, 2024 |
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Feb 29, 2024 20:25
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| # ¿ May 15, 2024 23:14 |
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Just finished Chrono Jotter today. Fascinating little game and extremely hard to describe. Its easy to see why the first translation went so poorly: much of the narrative is intentionally obtuse or unclear from the beginning. Ran Ibuki, the viewpoint character, casually refers to different events and oddities of her past that we're never privy to. She's been trapped in supernatural adventures for a long period of time and the narration takes a sort of pleasure in dropping lines like "Oh, this is just like when I encountered the Eclipse Silkworm or Mr. Blood. Anyway." But the original translation definitely wouldn't have been able to get across the unique emotional tone of the whole piece. The death game gimmick described on the steam page works so well because the cast has so fully adjusted to the murder around them by the time Ran shows up. Death is genuinely a game to them and they struggle to even recognize why someone might be alarmed in their cycle of destruction. In a poor translation, that lack of reaction to their gruesome surroundings could easily get written off as a clumsy writer. The real strength of the game to me was in the weird interpersonal struggles of the cast. Early Chapter 1 spoilers here: Ran's entire motivation is to be reunited with her girlfriend, at the cost of everyone else. So when she finds her girlfriend in the immortal deathloop game, she's immediately thrown for a loop by Ann suffering from 1) amnesia and 2) also perfectly adjusted to the murder games. Ann's intrigued by this relationship from her forgotten past, but she's also quickly unsettled by Ran's neediness and devotional loyalty. Meanwhile, all these other girls are quickly falling for the sopping wet mess that makes up Ran, building this messy cycle of broken hearts. There's a scene where Ann brushes off Ran's tears about the constant murder, while Ann's murderer expressed more sympathy to Ran's adjustment and feelings, that made my brain go absolutely feral. Its such a weird, specific tension and the game pulls it off really well. Long story short, I really liked it. Three mysteries, extremely linear, really interesting to pick through.
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Mar 30, 2024 20:03
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