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THAT SAID please avoid the fandom I've never seen a more rampant pit of would-be nazis.
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Jun 2, 2020 18:22
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I never finished Dies Irae, only playing 3/4 routes. I remember it being OK, but I wished the combat scenes were longer and being annoyed at the pretentious parts. Combat scenes are fun despite their brevity though.
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Jun 2, 2020 18:25
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MegaZeroX posted:I never finished Dies Irae, only playing 3/4 routes. I remember it being OK, but I wished the combat scenes were longer and being annoyed at the pretentious parts. Combat scenes are fun despite their brevity though. The final route (Rea) ends in a really bonkers fight scene, you should get back to it. Also it gets super pretentious. 
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Jun 2, 2020 18:25
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My fiance and I just finished Umineko. What an excellent (if sometimes exhausting) ride. Starting up Ciconia next. It'll be fun to get in on this series while it's still going. 
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Jun 2, 2020 21:37
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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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Redmark posted:This reminded me to finally finish it. I'm guessing Dies Irae was pretty controversial writing-wise The priest's deal is (late game spoilers): He's a traitor to the bad guys due to being mentally broken by running an orphanage that was used for child experiments or something. I forget exactly but he's unhappy with everything. You get explicit flashbacks to explain all of this in either Marie or Rea's routes. The rest of your points are valid even though I don't agree with them. I love this stupid chuuni VN.
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Jun 3, 2020 11:39
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After watching Knives Out last night I felt the urge to read Umineko so I grabbed the first arc from GOG's sale. Before I start, they haven't announced a release window for the Switch version, have they? Reading it like an ebook sounds better than sitting at my PC clicking away, but I'll see how it goes tonight.
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Jun 3, 2020 17:06
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I could not stop thinking of Jamie Lee Curtis' character in Knives Out as just Eva Ushiromiya.
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Jun 3, 2020 17:19
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Has anyone else played Exit/Corners? Small free puzzle game/VN that I played as it was being made last year. The puzzles are pretty good and the story is alright, though my favorite thing about it is that the protagonist is strongly implied to be a trans man.
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Jun 3, 2020 19:40
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StrixNebulosa posted:The priest's deal is (late game spoilers): He's a traitor to the bad guys due to being mentally broken by running an orphanage that was used for child experiments or something. I forget exactly but he's unhappy with everything. You get explicit flashbacks to explain all of this in either Marie or Rea's routes. 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.
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Jun 3, 2020 19:51
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When I read a review of Muvluv Alternative, people said there was like one particular H-scene that was horrifying in some way Is it possible to spoiler what it was about it that the reviewer was freaked out by without spoiling the story? I have played the first two games but not the last My wild guess is that you gently caress either an alien or a kid or since this is VN maybe an alien kid
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Jun 3, 2020 20:00
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Stefan Prodan posted:When I read a review of Muvluv Alternative, people said there was like one particular H-scene that was horrifying in some way No Wave fucked around with this message at 20:05 on Jun 3, 2020 |
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Jun 3, 2020 20:01
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No Wave posted:It's alien tentacle rape stuff but that scene is censored/cropped in the steam release anyways... the rest of the context of the scene makes it extra hosed up Perhaps best if nobody else gives any more detail than this given this is the All-Ages thread.
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Jun 3, 2020 20:33
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It's been years since I read Muv Luv but I remember enough to say: it's one scene in a 80 hour game that predominantly military sci-fi and drama. The scene in question is bad, but you should be able to skip it and enjoy the rest of the game.
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Jun 3, 2020 20:48
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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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StrixNebulosa posted:It's been years since I read Muv Luv but I remember enough to say: it's one scene in a 80 hour game that predominantly military sci-fi and drama. The scene in question is bad, but you should be able to skip it and enjoy the rest of the game. Yeah I'm still planning on playing it, I really liked ultimate and put up with Extra to get to the other two
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Jun 4, 2020 02:21
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Started Higurashi 3 earlier than anticipated just to take my mind off stressful things a bit. This one has Satoko on the cover, so my thought going in was that it probably wasn't going to be my favorite, since she's been my least favorite member of the club so far. As usual, the jump back into silly fun times at the beginning of these things is jarring after the endings of the preceding parts, but in a way where the contrast makes it more meaningful--you want to enjoy the good times while they last. Satoko still isn't my favorite character in the group, but I thought her coming over with Rika to cook and be sisterly was likable enough. Keiichi thinking poo poo like how he wants to see her smile forever might be harmless, but feels like the game's trying to have it both ways with him both being a surrogate brother and also using the same kind of language you see in romantic content in this genre, which the game also kind of lampshades by other club members teasing him spending time with her while his parents were out of town and how he raised all the flags (one of them even talks about it being an eroge, but I don't remember the specific quote). I laughed at the meta joke, but the situation is still weird. Anyway, things are getting tense again, though not in direct relation to the festival (yet?) since everyone's just worried about Satoko being treated badly by her uncle. So far it's been the least engaging start to the 'poo poo gets real' portion of these games for me, but even if the opening told me this is the shortest part, I assume there's still a decent amount of time for things to get more interesting. Update: Okay yeah so far I'm actively bored by this poo poo with Satoko's uncle. I'm sure there will be payoff when people start dying, but so far it's so repetitive and slow and mundane that it's kind of painful. Think I'll give it a rest for tonight and try again when I'm feeling less cranky. Update 2: Things did in fact get a bit more interesting when Keiichi started plotting to murder Satoko's uncle. It didn't come as a surprise, but it's still shocking in a way to be in this character's head as he pretty quickly decides to and then carries out a murder. Messing with the lighting a few times still leaves open the possibility that possession is real and happening to him this time, or he could just be an unstable person and that's where some of the paranoia in part 1 came from. The parallels of Keiichi with Satoshi from part 1 (where Rena noted that Satoshi'd started walking around with a bat before he disappeared) have paid off nicely here, even if Satoshi's ultimate fate still isn't clear. I'd still say this is my least favorite of the three parts I've read so far (I haven't quite finished this one yet, but I'll be surprised if that changes), but the resentment I was feeling about the repetitive 'we have to do something but we're powerless but we have to do something' conservations about child abuse have faded now that the stuff that was leading to happened. Plus I really really liked the first two parts, so falling short of them isn't the end of the world. Final Update for Part 3: Holy gently caress, that escalated quickly. I really liked the weirdness where everyone was telling Keiichi he'd done things from the other two games (though he made the choice not to go with Shion, opposite of part 2), and the body disappearing and Satoko saying her uncle was still around. It's like he stepped into a parallel universe, though I guess the soil had still been disturbed, the bat was still missing, the uncle wasn't home when Keiichi went over, and it's theoretically possible that the club members were trying to give Keiichi an alibi by talking about what he did at the festival (though Satoko choosing to boil herself in a bath still seems unlikely). Keiichi really isn't a very good murderer since he seems to confess at the drop of a hat, but I guess at that point he was just trying to maintain his sanity more than preserve his life. Speaking of him being a dumbass though, turning his back on Satoko by the bridge was definitely another "wtf are you doing idiot?" moment like leaving his house to see Mion at the end of part 2. Then holy poo poo everyone loving died!! I still don't know if I can raise this one up to the same level as 1 and 2 just because there was some tedium along the way, but that was the craziest ending by far. The cast review saying that the next part would have Shion as the new main character is pretty exciting too--I'd been wondering if there would be a POV shift for a while now, and I think getting a new POV will help with relieving some of the tedium I was feeling in the middle parts of this one. I guess Ryukishi07 hadn't finalized the structure of Higurashi at this point though since it referred to the first three as the first half and the next one as the start of the investigation arc? I'm not looking stuff up, but I'm pretty sure the first four are the Question Arcs and the next four are the Answer Arcs, but maybe it's not that clearcut idk. In short, I'm super excited to see where things are going, and any misgivings I had about a potential downturn in this one were pretty thoroughly alleviated. As with last time, I think I'd like to take a breather before jumping into the next one, but with my life being super stressful atm, this insane horror series seems to somehow offer stress relief, so I may jump back in sooner than planned again. Dr Kool-AIDS fucked around with this message at 15:59 on Jun 7, 2020 |
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Jun 5, 2020 03:30
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You can go at your own pace but for me, Higurashi part 4, without spoiling too much, was in itself a breather. (i think to square things away with what was said in the Part 3 cast party, part 4 is a (minor spoilers) shortish chapter which is sort of "between" the question/answer arcs- it's also one of my favorite chapters.
Feels Villeneuve fucked around with this message at 17:58 on Jun 7, 2020 |
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Jun 7, 2020 17:56
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Okay, thanks for the heads up. I'll probably read it this week then, and take the pause after the one.
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Jun 7, 2020 21:06
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Umineko's steam release translating Romance of the Three Kingdoms as "Record of the Three Kingdoms" is interesting to me. And then it casually references it and spoils the ending, which is hilarious. I'd actually be a bit mad if I hadn't beaten Dynasty Warriors 7 last year
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Jun 9, 2020 00:07
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StrixNebulosa posted:Umineko's steam release translating Romance of the Three Kingdoms as "Record of the Three Kingdoms" is interesting to me. And then it casually references it and spoils the ending, which is hilarious. I'd actually be a bit mad if I hadn't beaten Dynasty Warriors 7 last year That's a different historical text covering the same time period.
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Jun 9, 2020 00:54
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StrixNebulosa posted:Umineko's steam release translating Romance of the Three Kingdoms as "Record of the Three Kingdoms" is interesting to me. And then it casually references it and spoils the ending, which is hilarious. I'd actually be a bit mad if I hadn't beaten Dynasty Warriors 7 last year To expand, the Record of the Three Kingdoms is a contemporary historical text from a historian who lived at the time, whereas the Romance is a dramatisation from a thousand years later.
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Jun 9, 2020 01:31
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"Records of the Three Kingdoms" is the contemporary historical account that served as the primary basis for the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" novels (which was a work of fiction). Kinda hard to 'spoil' a historical event that appears in textbooks, lol. edit: beaten
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Jun 9, 2020 01:33
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I know about the record come on, this is a rag at the writer/translators: Why would Beato, no great scholar, reference the text and not the cool famous novel?
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Jun 9, 2020 01:38
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I wouldn't say it's hard to spoil. History is just a story that's real - it's kinda in the name. The extremely underwhelming way the Three Kingdoms period ends, following the genuinely extremely compelling action in both the records and the romance around 180-230 AD, is one of history's biggest wet farts of an ending to such a degree that yeah, I'd definitely say that's a spoiler if you're unaware.StrixNebulosa posted:I know about the record come on, this is a rag at the writer/translators: Oh, I think the record is more famous in Japan as an important historical text. I've seen it specifically referenced a lot more than just the Romance. IIRC it's because it features some of the earliest records of Japanese society? HerpicleOmnicron5 fucked around with this message at 01:43 on Jun 9, 2020 |
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Jun 9, 2020 01:40
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I finished Higurashi Part 4, and this time I mean it when I say I'll take a break for a bit before jumping into the rest. It helps my determination that the game actually encourages doing so as well, to pause and think about how everything fits together. I'm really tempted to reread at least some of part 1 now that I have more perspective, but I'm not jumping immediately into that either, even if I end up doing it. Rika knowing who was going to die the whole time is nuts, especially since she knows the cause of death, and that Sakoto's aunt is/would be abusive (I don't know if she would have had the opportunity to even show that she was abusive before Sakoto's parents died?), which seems like that would be more information than she'd know just from finding a list or overhearing a conversation somewhere. The game has consistently tried to leave the door open for a humans-only interpretation, but I'm really struggling to see how that could work at this point, even if that itself makes me suspicious and feeling like I must be missing something. I guess we know the village wasn't wiped out just because Rika died though, since she also died in part 2 but nothing similar seems to have happened. The suggestion that people could have been behind it was interesting, though I don't know who'd have motive in that part but not the others. When Ooishi was talking about the people who died before the incident, I couldn't help noticing that his subordinate was mentioned but Satoko's uncle wasn't. I guess that could possibly mean Keiichi killed him instead? He seemed to recognize the uncle's face though, and there's still the problem of the body missing when the police tried to dig it up anyway, so I don't know about any of this. One reason I'm curious to reread part 1 is that it feels like part 3 is the closest to a "canonical" ending right now since that's the one discussed at the end of part 4, and I want to see how reconcilable 1 is with 3 since I don't remember Rika dying in 1 but I'm not sure if Keiichi just didn't survive long enough to see her get killed. Also Rena's behavior in 1 seemed massively different from her behavior in 2, but then 3 showed glimpses of raged out Rena and the cast party said the personalities are the same in every part, so I'm wondering what it is that leads to her diverging behavior. The game stepping in to encourage me to think about all of this stuff before proceeding makes me feel like I should have more concrete ideas about what's going on by now, but it still feels pretty loving mysterious to me. Hopefully the mysteries are still just super elusive and the fun is meant to be in speculating, not in figuring stuff out, so I'm not the odd moron out who feels clueless.
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Jun 9, 2020 01:59
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The fun is meant to be in speculating (episode 4 staff party spoiler) which is what staff party Rena meant when she said that you were at the point when the story feels most alive, as there are still a multitude of possible directions for the rest of the story to take. There are a lot of things you can figure out though.
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Jun 9, 2020 02:17
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Sinteres posted:The game stepping in to encourage me to think about all of this stuff before proceeding makes me feel like I should have more concrete ideas about what's going on by now, but it still feels pretty loving mysterious to me. Hopefully the mysteries are still just super elusive and the fun is meant to be in speculating, not in figuring stuff out, so I'm not the odd moron out who feels clueless. It might be possible but if you were expected to figure everything out now there wouldn't be any need for answer arcs. You're definitely not a moron. Enjoy speculating (and let the rest of us keep enjoying watching you speculate )disclaimer: I only watched the anime for Higurashi
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Jun 9, 2020 02:18
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HerpicleOmnicron5 posted:I wouldn't say it's hard to spoil. History is just a story that's real - it's kinda in the name. The extremely underwhelming way the Three Kingdoms period ends, following the genuinely extremely compelling action in both the records and the romance around 180-230 AD, is one of history's biggest wet farts of an ending to such a degree that yeah, I'd definitely say that's a spoiler if you're unaware. TIL, huh. I admittedly come from the ignorant position of american who only saw China in the textbooks as a kind of mild footnote to the rest of Europe
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Jun 9, 2020 02:21
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Sinteres posted:The game stepping in to encourage me to think about all of this stuff before proceeding makes me feel like I should have more concrete ideas about what's going on by now, but it still feels pretty loving mysterious to me. Hopefully the mysteries are still just super elusive and the fun is meant to be in speculating, not in figuring stuff out, so I'm not the odd moron out who feels clueless. I’m still slowly reading Higurashi myself (had a lot going on so I’m only about 1/3 of the way through Watanagashi) but as someone with experience with the anime/the larger WTC franchise I will say the fun is in speculating at this point. But don’t worry about getting everything exactly right. If you end up reading Umineko after this (apologies if you have already) you’ll find that was written with the idea that someone could figure out nearly every single thing after the Question Arcs if they tried, but Higurashi is a little looser on that front and some of the most specific aspects of the mystery probably can’t be discerned right now. That said, I think you could definitely theorize about a lot of the mystery, from what I remember. And, yes, I get the impression this thread enjoys the liveblogging and speculation if you want to post it here.
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Jun 9, 2020 02:53
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StrixNebulosa posted:I know about the record come on, this is a rag at the writer/translators:
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Jun 9, 2020 05:01
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Some people may find it weird that Japanese people would be reading such ancient books, but note we do the same in the west. A really good thing to compare it to is Ancient Rome or Ancient Greece. We literally have stuff written by a Roman Emperor that is a bestseller (Marcus Aurelius' Meditations). It isn't odd to see Euclid's Elements on people's shelves.
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Jun 9, 2020 05:39
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Umineko ep 5 spoiler: Dlanor owns. That might be one of my favorite scenes in the entire game so far.
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Jun 9, 2020 15:43
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Thanks for the responses Re: Higurashi speculation (especially the reassurance that I'm not a moron, haha). I'll definitely post up some more thoughts before I start 5, and if they're all completely wrong we can laugh about it together when I finish.
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Jun 9, 2020 16:18
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Isn't there some kind of weird secret extra ending in Higurashi 8? Can someone post how to access it here (again) so when I finally get around to reading it I can find it and check it out? Thanks.
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Jun 9, 2020 16:24
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food court bailiff posted:Isn't there some kind of weird secret extra ending in Higurashi 8? Can someone post how to access it here (again) so when I finally get around to reading it I can find it and check it out? Thanks. Page 1: 17 18 31 16 11 13 27 38 Page 2: 1 15 20 14 8 19 30 37 Page 3: 7 2 22 29 28 21 3 9 Page 4: 23 4 24 26 12 5 36 32 Page 5: 39 35 33 40 34 25 6 10 From 41 and beyond there should be only one way forward. If you are using the scenario jump to get to this section after beating it normally there's IIRC a specific one you want to pick; in the original it was "Connecting Pieces" and NOT "50 Pieces" but again, not sure if it's different in the Steam release.
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Jun 9, 2020 16:36
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Raging Loop turned out to be really good. Haruaki is defintley among my favorite VN protagonists now, he's just so refreshingly honest in his narration on being a selfish manipulative scumbag that I can't help but be drawn into his antics. The feasts themselves are solid and do much to carry the narrative forward and keep things compelling in each of the main routes. As expected, the true ending felt rushed, relying way too much on several back to back last-minute mythology exposition sequences to be satisfying. Maybe it's because I have zero familiarity with Japanese mythology, but at least 70% of that flew right over my head. But the ending managed to hit all the right notes when it comes to emotions and characters, and that's what truly matters imho. Really looking forward to diving into Revelation Mode and the extras. Very good VN, would easily recommend.
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Jun 9, 2020 20:53
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LAMO the Revelation Mode owns. All these secretive and creepy villagers are actually just the biggest dorks around. Especially the mastermind. Every VN should have this from now on, it's great
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Jun 10, 2020 09:16
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I finished Chaos;Child's common route and now I'm starting from the beginning to trigger the other routes. Something weird that I just realized now is that Serika knew all along the sort of perverted things Takuru thinks about her in any given occasion and she's just ok with it all  Really though I kinda hate the usual visual novel setup of repeating the entire game just to trigger different routes, even if you can use skip mode.
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Jun 14, 2020 06:17
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I can't quite believe it, but Sekai Project just sent out backer codes for the European Vita edition of Root Double, three and a quarter years after the 'estimated delivery' date. Genuinely never thought I'd see the day.
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Jun 19, 2020 20:49
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