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 Welcome to… I actually don’t know what the gently caress to make of this. User SimonChris dug up a twitter post of someone calling attention to the trailer for this game. They referred to said trailer as “unhinged.” Other users then jumped on the bandwagon of “Somebody has to subject themselves to this.” And so here I am, apparently. Fulfilling a  request.Okay, but what the hell is the game? Watch the official trailer and try to explain it yourself. Together BnB is a game crowdfunded on Patreon… I think. I’ve also seen someone suggest that it may have ties to some giant gaming company in China, but haven’t found any evidence to corroborate that. It’s being developed by AURORA Games (not to be confused with the French company, Aurora Game Studio). The game is some freakish combination of adventure, RPG, dating-sim, and shooter. You can drive around in the world's most versatile hatchback, wine and dine ladies, buy groceries, cook, and also run around the forest hunting wolves and poo poo with your unlimited ammo handgun. Is there a point to all of that? The game is currently in Early Access, but the developers have been clear (well, as clear as you can be when you have a tenuous grasp on the English language) that the game will have a focus on plot. Here is what they have as part of their Patreon pitch: “You will be playing the main character James, whose older brother owns a BnB. James was forced to take over the management of the BnB since his brother mysteriously disappeared. Besides searching for his brother through various clues, as a deputy manager, James also has to assist the beautiful tenants of the BnB, satisfy them and help them achieve their goals... Through the development of the plot in the game, you will gradually cultivate feelings and trust with female tenants, and gradually develop a deeper and intimate romantic relationship, but the crisis behind will also emerge gradually...” How the LP Will Work The LP will mostly be in Screenshot format, but I will be including some highlight videos to truly impart upon you the surreal experience of certain moments. Because this game is in Early Access (and I want to stress the “early” part) there isn’t a lot of stuff to do in terms of anything. As such, this LP will be an ongoing nightmare, instead of merely a temporary one. I’ll be returning to it as major updates are made (so long as I remember it exists anyway). This looks like a porn game. Is it a porn game? Yes and no? Based on the widespread whining taking place on the Steam boards, it seems that the game is intended to have adult content. On the other hand, the developer has stated that they are more focused on the plot as opposed to the porn. First and foremost, this is supposed to be an adventure game. There are apparently plans to include future R18+ DLC for the game, but obviously we won’t be touching any of that when/if it sees the light of day. Audience Participation? I guess? Because story content is currently limited, I’ll take requests from the thread as to what they want to see from this thing. Feel free to throw out suggestions as to what I should do or try, because there sure as hell isn't much for me to work with on my own. Updates: Day 1: 2/5 Stars Day 2: Trigger Happy Day 3: Establishing Boundaries Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 23:39 on Apr 23, 2021 |
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Apr 16, 2021 20:58
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Sindai posted:I was skeptical until I watched the trailer but it really is a work of art. I thought for sure that the "unhinged" description that the guy on Twitter labeled it with would only apply to the trailer. But when I finished playing it after about an hour and a half, I realized that I had this creeping sense of vague horror hanging over me the entire time and I'm not sure why. It's early access, so obviously you're going to run into some freaky jank when it comes to character models and stuff. But there's something else nagging at me with this game. I won't spoil what I run into during the second half of my recording, since it's going to comprise the next update, but just take a close look at that trailer and combine it with some stuff we learned in Update 1: -James' brother disappeared two days ago without a trace. The ladies say that he went out hunting, yet I wasn't able to find any kind of hunting gear or rifles or anything in the house. -Max keeps a loaded handgun in a desk drawer near his bed. -The trailer shows the entrance to a tunnel that has caved in, meaning that at least one entrance to this little village place we're in is impassable. The devs could have easily just used an invisible wall, but they intentionally decided on "tunnel cave-in" instead. -The BnB house complex place is incredibly ritzy and expensive looking, yet all the nearby houses I've seen are boarded up crapshacks that look like they've been abandoned for decades. -The fact that the game hands you a gun immediately and lets you pull it out anywhere is a little unsettling when juxtaposed with a borderline porn dating-sim. -If you watched my video of Update 1, you'll notice that the game is eerily quiet. Despite the music present in that trailer, there's no background music during the actual gameplay and even footstep/running noises are very subdued. -The developer's description of this game talks about helping the women achieve their goals. What exactly are their goals during a vacation at a secluded BnB up in the loving Rocky Mountains? -The description also ominously ends with some mention of an unfolding crisis. -The controls menu in the game has a key dedicated to something called a "bio-detector", which I haven't found yet but is apparently in this version of the game (although it doesn't do anything at the moment because that's where the story objectives currently end). Playing this game feels I'm in the early stages of a slasher flick. EDIT: Fruits of the sea posted:Those accents are driving me up the wall. It's oddly... Scandinavian? By way of Japan? That's the dialect I was trying to think of! For the life of me I could not remember the ESL accent their voices reminded me of. They all have moments where they sound vaguely Norwegian. I should check the credits and try and find out who the voice actors for these characters are. I suspect they are Asian (because I'm pretty sure this is a game from a Chinese studio), but at the same time it isn't entirely clear to me. I know it's stereotypical, but they don't quite have the Asian ESL accent that I normally hear in stuff like Visual Novels. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 16:04 on Apr 17, 2021 |
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Apr 17, 2021 14:08
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This may explain it. According to the credits, there are apparently only 2 voice actors in this game (as of now). Johnathan Lin and Tsai Ya Jie.Christine are the names listed in English. They are also listed in what I think is Chinese/Mandarin, but I can't tell for sure. I'm assuming Lin does all of the male voices while Christine does all of the female voices. I cannot find anything on these two people online, so I have no idea if they've ever done another voice role. I may have had better luck were I able to search their original names and not just their English names. Those two people are also listed as the Motion Actors, which... I'll be honest, I'm sort of baffled by the idea that there was motion capture for this game. Apparently this is a Taiwanese game, as the Motion Capture is credited to "Virtual Studio" and "Department of Animation and Game Design - Shu-Te University", which is located in Kaohsiung City, Taiwan. Anyway, that means that all three women are voiced by one person from Taiwan, which at least explains why all the characters have the same type of specifically strange accent. As for why these actors sound more Eastern European than Asian, that I don't know. I can only assume that it's some combination of no direction (the credits do not list a Voice or Casting Director), a shaky English translation of the script, and possibly too much effort put in to trying to convincingly pass as British and Russian citizens (when it comes to Emily and Vera). Good stuff. That aside, I'll be working on Update 2 in a little bit, so hopefully I'll have some more surreal adventures to share later on today. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 13:24 on Apr 18, 2021 |
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Apr 18, 2021 13:20
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 Day 2: Trigger Happy In which I run around shooting a bunch of stuff and getting progressively more unnerved. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fruits of the sea posted:Thank you for spending time researching this before I got around to it. I don't know why but the mystery compels me. No problem! I don't want to be stereotypical, but I worked with exchange students from Taiwan during my first year in University and as good as their English was, it wasn't to this level where I couldn't pinpoint what part of the globe they were coming from. The accents in this game were driving me nuts. Commander Keene posted:Goddrat is Nana's walk cycle super loving weird. She looks like she's got a limp more often than not. I think it's supposed to be a "cute" walk, but it looks incredibly strange to see someone shuffling across the floor that quickly. Not to mention that she manages a smooth shuffle even on concrete. FoolyCharged posted:If I had to guess they're probably the devs friends. The actual voice lines were very obviously single takes given there where several points where she starts using a synonym, stops, then uses the word in the subtitles. Looking over the credits, and given the fact that their Motion Capture was in a University department, I think this might be a group of classmates capitalizing on their Visual Arts degree. The same 6 or 7 names appear repeatedly in the credits and there's only like three or four names that only show up once. It's either a group of 5 or 6 friends, or its a graduate class's thesis project. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 21:37 on Apr 18, 2021 |
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Apr 18, 2021 21:35
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inscrutable horse posted:Definitely not a Nordic accent. Doesn't have any of the particular inflections, rhythms, tones, or such. I might peg it for a German, but that's a bit more outside of my experience. Definitely not German. I think the brother's voices are a little easier to pin down, after having listened to them a little closer. Nidoking posted:Of particular note is that if your car gets stuck and you don't want to call Roadside Assistance, you can usually free it by shooting it. The car apparently has very little actual mass when it comes to bullet impacts. The car was like the one thing I didn't try shooting at. I have to try this for next time. I want to see that in action. The car does seem to have little mass in general. I hit some small trees and rocks while driving around and there were moments where the car started moving around like it was made of paper. Neddy Seagoon posted:The way I see it, all three of them are in on it; Vera's clearly the brains of the scheme, Emily is the cold-eyed psychopath who probably gleefully stabbed the poo poo out of Max while smiling the entire time, and Nana's the faceperson lying to cover for everyone with her cutesy personality. I explained this game to my friend as well as the current theory that the women are responsible for Max's disappearance. He put forth the alternate theory that only 1 of them is responsible for it and the end goal for the story is figuring out which one. If that were the case, then my money is on Emily. Like you said, Emily looks like someone who would be in the news for stabbing somebody like 70 times. I heard that flubbed line, but I couldn't figure out what the intended word was. Regardless, that line could have easily done with a second reading. It stands out quite a bit. Quantum Toast posted:After seeing that rubber-limb ragdolling, I'm less surprised that this works than I am that it doesn't launch the car over the horizon like the Skyrim Space Program. I wouldn't describe the ragdolling as rubber-like. Those bastards liquify when you kill them. Like, it looks like they literally melt into goo on the floor. It is exceptionally disturbing to see. I should note that that reaction happens only with the brothers. The deer seem to ragdoll a little more normally. The women react like real people though. I have a GIF that I ended up cutting from the end of Update 2 where I pop Emily in the back of the head and she just slumps lifelessly to the side without any kind of insane ragdolling. The reason I cut it is actually because it looked too realistic for the goofiness of this casual LP 3D dating-sim. I used the other GIF because Emily is apparently immune to bullets from more than 3 feet away and it seemed like it would be a funnier ending.
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Apr 20, 2021 17:20
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Day 3: Establishing Boundaries This is the last update for this LP for a while (possibly). Unless some of you really want to see an update where I dump gifts on the BnB guests until I'm able to invite them to get wasted in the wine cellar. ----------------------------------------------------------- Neddy Seagoon posted:Oh that's easy, it would've been "pictures". Sorry, I meant that I had no idea what the word might be until you pointed out she was saying "pi" in the flubbed line. Once you pointed out she was saying "pi", then I realized what the flub was for. MythosDragon posted:This poo poo is hilarious lmao. And yeah, I figured there was only one voice actor the moment I heard the voices. I mean, god bless them they are doing their best. At least when it comes to the three brothers, you can kind of give the developers some wiggle room with the fact that their voices all sound like the same person is voicing them. I do think they could have tried to rope in at least two more women for the guest roles though. It's a little weird hearing a Japanese character, a British character, and a Russian character all share roughly the same voice. Obviously I'm not expecting indie developers to hire on native English/Russian speakers, but it wouldn't hurt to have some different pitches/tones. Rocket Baby Dolls posted:I have so many questions and there are no logical answers for any of them! The developers seem intent to focusing on story, although they aren't especially clear on if they mean "Main Story" or "Character Story." The recent update post they made talks a lot about Nana's story, which I assume is a character route of sorts. Personally, the thing that has kept me going with this game is the Main story. I'm almost positive it will not be as weird/creepy/dramatic as what I've been building up through the updates, but there's got to be a somewhat sinister reason as to why this guy's brother disappeared without a trace after discovering valuable ores. Not to mention the reason why strangers keep calling the BnB who know Max and yet do not identify themselves. Plus, my friend pointed out that the developers must have had some reason for making all the houses in the area run down shacks while the stores and BnB are super modern/new. If you bought an Unreal Engine asset pack, then surely you would have access to some building assets that match with the BnB/stores. Using dilapidated crap-shacks had to have been a conscious choice for the devs towards some kind of purpose. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 17:22 on Apr 23, 2021 |
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Apr 23, 2021 17:19
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ultrafilter posted:I'm really hoping someone will revisit this once it gets a full release. I mean, I took the request. I'll keep following the game so long as it keeps getting updated. Well, as long as I remember it exists that is. Not sure it will still be top of my mind if the next update ends up dropping 6 months from now or something. malkav11 posted:Assuming it gets a full release, which I would say is optimistic. Also, there's this to consider. MythosDragon posted:This poo poo is amazing, shame we jumped the gun, these things usually just stop updating eventually. Ehh, sort of. I think this game was too WTF to put off for a few years while it struggles through Early Access. I highly doubt it would have the same impact if someone tackled this long after it got a full release. This was definitely a "strike while the iron is hot" situation. To be honest, if the developers remain serious about this, then I think there will eventually come a point where we all get bored of this and it turns in to just another dime-a-dozen borderline 3D porn game. They could end up doing stuff like replacing the houses, restricting gun usage, adding in NPCs, and fixing the voice acting (they already plan to do the redub), and all that stuff is part of why the game is so weird. By popular demand posted:Just starting to read this lp and I never actually had to close a YouTube video for an uncanny valley response It's so much worse in motion, too. I have specifically avoided doing any kind of dating-sim stuff because I'm creeped out at the prospect of more scenes where they get right up in the camera. Can you imagine playing the developers' previous game? The one that somebody mentioned a ways back that was basically the dating-sim part of this except in VR? And before anyone even attempts to suggest it: I do not own a PC VR headset and that game isn't on PSVR, so there is zero chance I do that in tandem with this. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 01:26 on Apr 24, 2021 |
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Apr 24, 2021 01:21
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SimonChris posted:
Just to be clear, I won't be touching any of the "adult content" in the LP (I do value my SA account to some degree). Now, whether or not the LP can really continue under that caveat is debatable. They mention wanting to focus on story, but their next update seems geared more towards the dating-sim/porn aspects. They are definitely trying to please the fanbase who jumped on this because they thought it was going to be constant X-rated stuff, but as to how far they are willing to go in that regard, who knows? That said, I've been following patch notes and they've already made some adjustments to stuff that people here found hilarious. Supposedly the car physics are a little less wonky now, just as an example. That leads me to believe that they will eventually patch out all the stuff that makes this game so interesting in a rubbernecking kind of way.
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May 18, 2021 21:52
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FoolyCharged posted:But can the car still drive through lakes? We will see. So far there's only been talk about patching out the rock/branch collisions so that the car isn't getting stuck on every twig and pebble in the forest.
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May 18, 2021 23:04
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