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Ramos posted:Oh noes, a work is exploring a similar theme but hasn't been named a masterpiece yet by the general literature community. Better shun it! Even if the game handles the matter poorly, all the people in the video are screaming is "This is uncomfortable!" Everything has a right to give any topic examination, even if it isn't up to par with what you prefer. You're on a registry, aren't you?
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Jul 22, 2016 23:55
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Rodyle posted:It is much like VA-11 HALL-A in that sense. And who wouldn't trust the opinions of some with a giant anime titty avatar when it concerns this awful anime game? ...anime
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Jul 23, 2016 11:30
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Gideon020 posted:Huh, looks like I'm getting CYPHER: A Cyberpunk Text Adventure instead. That does sound better. I tend to eat up anything that says cyberpunk on the tin, but goddamn the offerings have been disappointing. Mostly because they tend to wedge in a fourteen year old's idea of edgy depictions of drugs, prostitution, and corporate corruption without any nuance or subtlety. Valhalla isn't any different.
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Jul 23, 2016 12:39
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Rodyle posted:And that's why there's no point in this being a conversation. Oh, lighten up. There's the rollicking good fun of drinking and laughing at how this game has failed to do everything that article Really Pants posted said. It's not as though anything is sacred.
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Jul 23, 2016 16:05
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Dire Lemming posted:While I can't really argue with that considering the game we're talking about, it's hard to have a discussion when a significant number of posts don't actually offer any counterpoints. If this game does fail at everything it tries, it would be nice if the discussion about why it fails would be a bit more in depth than "it's bad because anime." Welllllllll.... Really Pants posted:yes but why is it so bad that this character who resembles a small child is also literally a sex object and loves being a sex object????? Pretty much that. The biggest problem, even if you ignore Dorothy, is that dialogue is already stilted and doesn't flow naturally. Having the text box truncate things even further only makes it read even weirder. But then I'm clearly not who this game was intended for when Donovan remains my favorite character in this mess. I get the feeling from all his anecdotes and Jill's reactions that the writers meant for you to dislike him.
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Jul 23, 2016 17:00
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Really Pants posted:What I'm actually saying is that you're demanding we put more thought and effort into this game than the creators did. This game is just tvtropes in a blender. Take Ingram. His big secret, the thing that's supposed to make him sympathetic and cancel out all the other bullshit (an argument some other article about this game used, no less), is that his ex-wife ran off with his daughter and she died. You find out about the ex-wife on day one only if you intentionally get his first order wrong and give him a sweet girly drink. I really loving hate that to unlock new dialogue you either have to be a lovely bartender or a lovely person. Am I supposed to find it tragic he paid lolibot 5000 to pretend to be his kid? That it says great things about his character he then DIDN'T gently caress her? No, it's still creepy, and he's still an rear end in a top hat. There's a dozen different ways you can approach this to make an initially abrasive character more sympathetic, and they just charged head first into "BUT HE HAS A CHILD AND SHE'S DEEEEEAAAAD!  "
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Jul 23, 2016 17:56
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Neglecting to ever mention there's actually a scroll to review dialogue feature is just bad game design, but I guess I could see where the writers wouldn't want anyone taking a closer look at the text. I forgot a lot about what I played before both because of the disjointed delivery, and because every drat conversation seems to go round in circles at least three times, restating the same point in various different ways when they could have just moved on, so I'd keep zoning out. I'd give them points for accidentally nailing drunken philosophizing, but it's just bad writing.
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Jul 23, 2016 18:25
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Pavlov posted:I can understand, in the abstract, why someone would want to do something like this in their game, but it just does not translate well into gameplay. Why would a player expect that loving up his first drink would open up a significant extra conversation? Does every character have special dialog for specific, unintuitive drink combinations you just have to trial and error into? That just sounds like a tedious way to encourage replayability. Fans of this game have seriously replayed over and over, throwing every possible drink combination at people, to see how that changes things for "maximum waifu potential." Some characters have favorite drinks they will never come close to describing to you, you just have to stumble into it. So if you love tedious, unintuitive bullshit, this is the definitely game for you.
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Jul 23, 2016 18:47
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Y-Hat posted:Luckily, with Ice T as a regular cast member, nobody needs to. Real or fake Ice-T SVU quote is a fun game to play.
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Jul 23, 2016 19:02
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My first spite avatar change and I wasn't even the one who bought that avatar.  I've been waiting for an excuse to get rid of the pussy cartel gang tag forever, though. Thanks Shibbo, you're a real pal.
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Jul 24, 2016 01:33
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Sazero posted:I stand by my "This game doesn't examine poo poo" statement from earlier. How can it when it's busy telling you poo poo instead of showing you anything? Boss is a badass. There's so much fighting on the streets. Trust us, ok, it's a grim future even though idol bot loves having her panties stolen.
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Jul 24, 2016 02:03
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HighwireAct posted:This game had a great narrative framework going for it The end of day report that shows you're a bartender struggling to get by would be great, if it meant gently caress all and wasn't just something they blindly lifted from Papers Please. What are the stakes here? Feeding your family? No, media subscriptions and room customization. They miss the point so badly it's comical.
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Jul 24, 2016 04:53
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EponymousMrYar posted:
There is a part coming up I actually enjoyed. ...for about 3 seconds because not being able to control the dialogue is loving torture when conversations are forever going in circles around drink orders.
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Jul 24, 2016 06:16
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Vall Hall A does some things right and deserves credit for it.
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Please don't put this game on the same level as Snatcher. And while we're at it, mods please rename this thread to Cyberpunk Honeypot Action cause holy poo poo I'm learning things about people I did not want to know. Anoia fucked around with this message at 12:59 on Jul 24, 2016 |
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Jul 24, 2016 12:52
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Small Frozen Thing posted:why did you make a video LP of a VN *takes a drink* Small Frozen Thing posted:More than I do with you, almost certainly. And another! Holy poo poo, I was wrong before, it actually does work. Anoia fucked around with this message at 17:10 on Jul 24, 2016 |
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Jul 24, 2016 17:08
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Rigged Death Trap posted:IMO if you're going to tackle uncomfortable subjects head on, dont let the uncomfortableness level dip until you've finished addressing it. If you do relent you'd risk muddling your message about it. Which this game quite utterly fails at. It tries to be parody yet wants you to take it seriously enough to connect, then nosedives right back down into parodic scenes and shallow characters, it doesn't fully commit. Parody can be a tool for the exploration of certain subjects, but that's it, a tool. Not the key. And The message doesn't even have to be anything deep or profound, just consistently delivered. Yes, this exactly. You've got today's internet subculture parodies all jumbled up in the cyberpunk dystopia and they do not mix well at all. The game careens from sex robots, to street warfare, to chan references references... and while it's possible to somehow juggle the heavy poo poo and the comedy like chainsaws and bowling pins, they failed. If you still enjoy it, well, hey, there's still the spectacle of seeing someone fumbling with all that, I guess.
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Jul 24, 2016 19:29
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Small Frozen Thing posted:Having now played this game a bit, I can actually agree with the thread premise, re: it is indeed bad. Wait... You never actually even played the game but you came in here saying you identified with Dorothy? 
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Jul 24, 2016 23:20
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I'm not sure which of you are trying to burn who at this point. Thread delivers.
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Jul 25, 2016 00:04
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Lovely Carnitas posted:This thread is so much more of a disaster than the game could ever hope to be. The VN is kind of a let down in comparison Isn't it great?
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Jul 25, 2016 00:06
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shibbotech posted:DEAR SIR ZENITHE, MASTER OF THE THREAD, MAY I PLEASE RUN A NET HIGH MINI LP INSIDE THE CONFINES OF YOUR THREAD Let's not mix bleach and ammonia.
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Jul 25, 2016 02:28
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I'm a VN apologist, but at the same time there aren't many that I like. The most recent thing that I really enjoyed was Love Detective, but I'm gonna go out on a limb and say anybody who likes this game will probably dislike its tone. I tend to trust VNs that are pay-what-want a lot more than poo poo like this, though it can still be a crapshoot. When DO you find a good one it's really great, but since RenPy made it easy for anyone to make there own it's gotten a lot harder to separate the wheat from the chaff.
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Jul 25, 2016 13:32
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shibbotech posted:I'm completely serious here, what VNs would you recommend for someone new to the genre? I generally enjoy mystery/suspense/horror in literature and film, and I'm sure there are examples of those floating about. I wouldn't be adverse to giving one a fair shake. I'm not really the best person to ask. I don't actually like a lot of the VNs that are out there. When I say I'm an apologist, I mean I feel more can be done with the medium that most people bother to attempt. I wish "pick a love interest to pursue" hadn't become the locked in standard that everyone associates with the genre, but here we are. Valhalla in particular pisses me off because there's some attempt at playing around with the standard formula, but it succeeds only in needlessly complicating it while also being especially gross with its "waifu" offerings. I'll have to ask my friend who's the real aficionado and get back to you on good horror/mystery games. If anybody else has suggestions, go hog wild. e: Oh right, I completely forget about the zero escape series. I liked those. Sometimes the time out to babble about pseudoscience gets tedious, though.
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Jul 25, 2016 13:53
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Sazero posted:Counterpoint: I don't post in the ADTWR subforum Winner.
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Jul 25, 2016 14:14
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Pavlov posted:The forth episode of Kentucky Route Zero just came out recently. It is also a game that is primarily dialogue of people making smalltalk in a fantastic setting, but the difference is loving night and day. A line by line analysis of that game still shows its quality. I can listen to people talk about TV repair or local folk songs and leave wanting more. It oozes style and quality, and manages to sound both more human and more refined than this game. The conversations people have with their normal, non-talking dog are more engaging than anything I've seen in this game so far. Yes. Everyone go play KR0. The makers of it actually deserve your money.
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Jul 26, 2016 05:54
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Bonus thread features: a glimpse into why ADTRW's VN thread is a place where many fear to tread. And also why it generates so many probations.
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Jul 27, 2016 20:13
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dmboogie posted:It was permanently locked two years ago. ...dang it's been a while since I looked at that forum. Is Zorak is even still mod? e: dmboogie, you should totally be the one to come guest commentate and defend the game, starting with why you chose to make your avatar the most boring character of all. Anoia fucked around with this message at 06:15 on Jul 28, 2016 |
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Jul 28, 2016 06:05
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EclecticTastes posted:The answer to both of these is, if I've understood the dialog correctly, Lilim are "true" AI in the sci-fi sense, and are essentially meant to grow naturally from a "child" state, much like a human would. Think something like that TNG episode where Data builds himself a child, but lovely animu. One can then assume that, like humans, Lilim can pick up some weird loving ideas growing up. As has been said, if it weren't for how poorly it's all written, the premise makes enough sense that it could be interesting. It's frustrating how this game has kernels of good ideas that are just hammered into paste.
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Jul 28, 2016 07:10
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Lord_Magmar posted:I mentioned earlier that putting the mentally/emotionally immature AI in a child body is probably meant to be a defense against people damaging them before they're mature, and also as a way to reduce the costs of producing them, because if they do get destroyed before they're mature it's less resources used. Plus once they are mature it's probably an upgrade not an entirely new body so again effective use of materials. Ghost in the Shell did this, to an extent. There was this whole case about "ghost dubbing", or copying people's consciousness over to AI, being an incredibly illegal thing that was of course being used for sex dolls. Made for a more "sophisticated" experience than homegrown AI, supposedly. There was musing on whether not not even an immature AI copy's suffering in the sex trade really mattered... but then if the original was dead, and a traumatized copy was all was that remained, what then? Great series, GitS.
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Jul 28, 2016 08:35
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dmboogie posted:The catperson justification was taken from Read Only Memories, (which has some crossovers with this game) where it's even more stupid. Here Stella mentions it once and that's it and is generally chill, in ROM the game uses it as an excuse to call you racist against furries. It's really fascinating to me how people who love this game hate the jokes in ROM. Or just hate ROM in general.
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Jul 28, 2016 08:41
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I won't begin to declare ROM a magnum opus by any stretch, it's got its own problems. But of course I'm also biased in that its dev team was largely queer, and I respect what they were trying to do with the game. If your complaint is it's a bit too cheerful in outlook with its cyberpunk future, and this one dimensionally edgy load of tripe is what you consider a good answer to that (and it does seem like someone played played ROM and said "You know what's missing? Sex robots! Lots of them!" among other things) come the gently caress on.
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Jul 28, 2016 15:02
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drkeiscool posted:Er, did anyone in the thread actually say that ROM was too cheerful? I've been looking across other discussions about the two and no longer remember what was touched on here, but people seem to get the idea that because ROM doesn't go certain places with its subject matter, it might as well be cyberpunk lollipops and rainbows. It's an asinine argument, I know. Really Pants posted:I have no idea whether to count this as strike #512, or a small mercy And at $15 for the full game that's almost $5 an hour! Almost just like being a real bartender who's getting really lovely tips one night! Anoia fucked around with this message at 18:29 on Jul 28, 2016 |
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Jul 28, 2016 18:23
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Skippy Granola posted:Thanks for helping me not get tricked by reviews. Game Informer fuckin loved it. I think it's going to fall into the usual indie cycle the hot takes turning vicious in a few weeks, but we're not out of the Honeymoon period yet.
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Jul 29, 2016 00:00
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EponymousMrYar posted:It's more like a Micheal Bay movie where the production values are great and the story is there but the execution has holes in it and there's a myriad of flaws that some people can ignore/forgive and others that can't. There are explosions, they're just happening off screen and people keep running in to go "Wow, what a battlefield outside! Really just incredible!" Really Pants posted:There are plenty of games that don't appeal to me, but it still makes some kind of sense why other people would enjoy them. VA-11 HALL-A is completely boggling. There's all this glowing praise, and it's all the exact opposite of the truth. Now you know how I feel about Her Story.
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Jul 29, 2016 00:07
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GimmickMan posted:I have trouble believing a game that describes itself as "about waifus" but also contains the line "anime was a mistake" can be unironically about waifus. This is day 4 and there's like 20 or so, I'm willing to wait and see. Maybe they're just not very good at this satire thing? Satire was one of the first casualties of 2016, the concept no longer has any meaning at all now... unless the meaning is to write/do/say something godawful and then claim it's satire when called on it. People do that a lot these days.
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Jul 29, 2016 02:17
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dmboogie posted:The general atmosphere is what I like the most about this game, I think. See, I like slice-of-life and long, rambling conversations that don't really go anywhere. The dialogue is awkward when you stare at it for too long, but like the feel it's trying to get across. I think the characters are fun, the humor lands when it's not entirely based around dumb references, and there's some pretty heartfelt stuff later on. I also have a bridge to sell you that's long, rambling, and doesn't really go anywhere. I think I know the scene, though. I hated the game more afterwards.
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Jul 29, 2016 04:26
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Covok posted:When I first heard of this game, I read a review from some indie game website that took time to praise Dorothy as a "sex positive portrayal of sex workers." Ahahahahaha holy poo poo games journalism. There's only one scene I can think of (the tipping point where I started ranting about how no one working on this game understands drinking or human interaction) where the game isn't just outright telling you that boss is the best, coolest badass that ever was. Marketing must work amazingly on you folks. Anoia fucked around with this message at 12:53 on Jul 29, 2016 |
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Jul 29, 2016 12:48
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Catherine also teaches you about actual drinks, and manages to balance things surprisingly well between hanging out at a bar, trying to survive a nightly nightmare gauntlet, and ultimately deciding what the hell love really means to you. It's on the archive if you're lazy. Anoia fucked around with this message at 20:13 on Jul 29, 2016 |
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Jul 29, 2016 20:10
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Covok posted:Am I alone in thinking this game is a bit right-wing? No, you're right, it is.
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Jul 29, 2016 21:47
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If Dorothy had just been a sex bot in an adult body with no illusions about her job (she would probably need a new name then, because no more Lolita reference), then that article that praised the sex positivity would actually be on to something. But alas.
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Jul 29, 2016 22:35
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EclecticTastes posted:The name you're thinking of is "Dolores" actually, I had to double-check Wikipedia to make sure there wasn't some additional layer of horror to this shitshow. I think "Dorothy" is a reference to the much cooler and not-at-all-creepy android girl from The Big O (which involves a giant robot called Big O, not anything else one might infer from that title), R. Dorothy Wainwright. Dorothy's color scheme is similar to Big O's Dorothy, so it feels to me like they made a reference except the two have nothing in common about their characters but the writer is A. A huge weeb and B. A hack, so I wouldn't put it past him. I'll go ahead and ruin this for you: her name is Dorothy Haze, a la Dolores Haze. Maybe they were softening the blow and going for a two layered reference making her actual name Dorothy, but making her last name Haze makes it clear the gross fuckers knew exactly what they were doing. Anoia fucked around with this message at 23:24 on Jul 29, 2016 |
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Jul 29, 2016 23:21
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