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Greetings and salutations, everyone! Mia here (or Meta or Meta_Mia or whatever is fine please stop calling me Metameme I'm gonna cry) here, with my first Let's Play. Nico Yazawa Is Dreaming is a free fangame of Love Live School Idol Project, made by 7 Coloured LED. To quote the blurb, it is an RPG-esque(?) game about bringing smiles to everyone. Heck does that mean? Well, you'll find out by reading this. Or by playing it for yourself in English here. Or by playing it in the original Japanese here or here. It's a bit trial and error-y, but as it's an indie game all of it's for Deep Thematic Reasons. Why this game? I wanted my first LP to be three things: Short, Sweet, and most importantly: Niche as Hell. Having eyes on your LP is scary. What if someone says something like "you're deeply unfunny", or "you will never find happiness because you made a mediocre LP on SA once and I hope you die", or even the worst-case scenario, "Loving your prose! Can you do my favourite pokemon amputee sex slave romhack"? I'd never recover. With the ideal cruising speed of like, 5 views per update tops I'll overcome my debilitating stage fright. Wooo. Wow! It was short AND sweet! Since you're taking so long mind if I talk abou- Stopping this hypothetical version of you right there to say that I'd prefer people  Not Discuss stuff we haven't seen, either in-game or in the anime. I'd also prefer that people who've consumed every single piece of Love-Live media and have 15 metric tonnes of Rin Ramen stocked in their bunkers not make fun of me for not getting every reference this game makes, but I understand that it's bestial instinct.I have literally never seen Love Live. Great, neither did I when I played this! I still cried. Come join me, this'll be fun! Tabled Contents: In which The Cutest Idol in the Universe gets stabbed, with a knife In which The Cutest Idol in the Universe gracefully endures a Chuntorial In which The Cutest Idol in the Universe meets up with her entourage for the first time In which The Cutest Idol in the Universe brings a smile to her wardrobe designer In which The Cutest Idol in the Universe meets up with the entourage once more In which The Cutest Idol in the Universe brings a smile to her songwriter In which The Cutest Idol in the Universe checks in on her entourage one last time In which The Cutest Idol in the Universe brings a smile to her choreographer In which "The Cutest Idol in the Universe" is all alone. In which "The Cutest Idol in the Universe" faces reality. Nico Yazawa is a liar. Nico Yazawa is loved anyway. Nico Yazawa hesitates. Nico Yazawa takes her hand. Nico Yazawa is dreaming. Afterwords MetaMeme fucked around with this message at 20:31 on Apr 27, 2023 |
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Nov 15, 2021 07:06
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No harm in reserving a post, right?
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Nov 15, 2021 07:06
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Update 1: In which The Cutest Idol in the Universe gets stabbed, with a knife When we first start up the game, we are greeted to a white screen.  MUSIC: WHITE NOISE It fades into an ???ty void with the titular Nico Yazawa, #1 cutest idol in the universe 25 years running. She is currently in the student idol group µ's (pronounced muse), and will be serving as our protagonist this game.  ............... She unfortunately doesn't seem any more aware of our bearings than we are.  ...Where am I? Honoka Kosaka fades into view. Maybe founding and leading μ's might mean she can tell us where we are?  ...If we can hear her, that is.  I would like to clarify now that each dialogue bubble updates independently, and that Honoka is not in fact screaming Charlie Brown Adult noises at her every sentence Nico speaks like a comedy sketch.  A soft chime rings as Honoka pulls out the knife.   「Honoka reaches out her "knife" to me. and I———」   Don't screw with me. Why do I have to die to you of all people?  We hear the roll of a cymbal as it fades to white.  MUSIC: A CLOCK TICKS  Nico Yazawa Appears to have Died. Oops. Well, see you next update!
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Nov 15, 2021 07:07
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Well this looks interesting. And weird. And weirdly interesting.
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Nov 15, 2021 07:21
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game over already? this game is indeed short.
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Nov 15, 2021 07:51
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What the heck, op?
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Nov 15, 2021 08:34
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I know zip about the subject matter, but I heard 'obscure' so I'm here.
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Nov 15, 2021 16:14
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As I am a total sucker for anime trash, this has my interest and attention. Here’s hoping it’s as gay as the rest of the series.
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Nov 15, 2021 16:47
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How many times does she say her catchphrase op?
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Nov 15, 2021 17:53
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If Nico was top dog idol for 25 years, isn't she like 40 by now?
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Nov 15, 2021 17:58
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Here to add to your stage fright, sorry. I know precisely gently caress and all about the source material, but the art here is some odd mix of kinda bad but also clean and easy to "read" so I am finding myself oddly compelled by it.
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Nov 15, 2021 18:40
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I think it works really well, it's very expressive, which is definitely what it was aiming for, and the good legibility in something that looks slapdash just shows the artist knows exactly what they want. Well, this is obscure apparently, so let's go.
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Nov 15, 2021 19:28
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Interesting.
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Nov 15, 2021 19:37
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Libluini posted:If Nico was top dog idol for 25 years, isn't she like 40 by now? https://twitter.com/LionintheTrees/status/1173270410177069057
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Nov 15, 2021 19:54
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I’m part of the “never seen love live” crew, but I am rather interested in this! Visually it reminds me of a lot of games that were staples of my youth as someone with minimal income and only a laptop and a DS to play things on. I think a lot of interesting creativity comes from fangames of properties that aren’t video games or decide yo try and be a completely different gameplay genre and it’s nice to see some oddities like that here.
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Nov 15, 2021 20:37
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Looking pretty neat so far! Yet another +1 on the "never seen love live" train but I'm digging the character design so far - it looks like some of the art from older entries in the Touhou Project series cleaned up substantially. I get the sneaking suspicion that I've already missed something significant, but we'll have to wait and see. 
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Nov 15, 2021 20:45
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I don't really know much about Japanese idols (anime or otherwise), but this seems like an interesting game!
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Nov 16, 2021 02:46
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Why are there so many people what the heckNamtab posted:How many times does she say her catchphrase op? Libluini posted:If Nico was top dog idol for 25 years, isn't she like 40 by now? ZepiaEltnamOberon posted:I don't really know much about Japanese idols (anime or otherwise),
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Nov 16, 2021 04:50
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Update 2: In which The Cutest Idol in the Universe gracefully endures a Chuntorial Greetings and Salutations, everyone! Let’s see what a New Game gets us, shall we? MUSIC: BIRDS CHIRPING  ………chan!……chan, wake up.Nico-chan.Nico-chan! ……mgh……Give a girl a break, won’t you? We might have just been stabbed probably! ………Kotori…?The girl greeting us is Kotori Minami, a fellow member of µ's. She’s a second year at Otonokizaka High School, so a junior to Nico by a year. Nico’s not actually 40 years old, but a third year; I threw in ‘25 years running’ as 25 can be read as Ni Co in japanese. Sorry. MUSIC: CHUNTORIAL Where’s this…?Wait, wasn’t I with Honoka just now……? Jeez! This isn’t the time to be half asleep! Let’s get going! Everyone’s waiting for you! …………I really don’t understand what’s going on.…...Haah………...What?THE SONG USUALLY SEGUES INTO THIS BUT AUDACITY IS HARD Nico doesn’t seem to command much respect from her juniors. Maybe it’s because she’s the shortest one in µ's? Anyway, Let’s We found a Chunslime! We’ll be seeing lots of these. The eagle(heh)-eyed viewers might have picked up it has the same hair tuft as Kotori. She’s associated with birds in general, since her name can be read as little bird. Why Chun instead of like, chirp? I dunno, they’re weird like that. (・８・) Huh?? This is supposed to be an enemy?Are you kidding me?That’s a lost lamb.Not an enemy?A lost lamb.A lost lamb. Haah……Alright, let’s get into how combat works in this game. You press [Z] after pressing “Fight!” to… fight, I suppose. The yellow boxes show how many successes you need to completely fill the white bar next to it with red, ending the encounter. Got all that? No? Great! Because Nico didn’t either. MEATY THWACK; MUSIC SWELLS Just smack ‘em.  Wh-What are you doing, Nico-chan?! Huh? Why would you ever punch him?!?!?!What do you mean, why?It turns out violence ISN'T the solution. Bummer.  Ah, Um…Err… Use THAT to bring a smile to his face and it’ll be alright!Come on, now!Don’t call it THAT.Our attack has been replaced with Nico Nico Nii!, Nico’s signature catchphrase. The japanese word for ‘Smile’ can also be read nico, so the catchphrase is a cross between that, Nico’s name, and an appeal to diehard fans of the number 25252. MUSIC STOPS Beat. MUSIC STARTS AGAIN Hey, he’s not smiling.Hm… Well, yeah…If you do it out of nowhere, it’s not going to work......And such.It’s not something to smile about.Huh? Hey, w—That’s why! You first need to do a live to open up his heart!What did y—Now! Hurry up and try performing, Nico-chan!………So, let’s actually get to how combat works in this game. The yellow squares signify how many times we need to sing to their heart in a Live (attack string), and fill the right bar with red. Once it’s full, we’ll have brought a smile to their face and the encounter is over. Note that we don’t actually know how hard it’ll be to put that smile on their face until we convey our feelings at least once, just like real life. Luckily, we don’t need to worry about that just yet... As we’re the #1 Cutest Idol in the Universe.  When you defeat enemies, you receive experience points like just now!………Enemies? When you get enough experience points, your level and HP will go up.………It’s nothing…Hm?Ahem.When you level up, you’ll also get a thing called NP! You press X while exploring to open up a window where you can assign NP… And you can spend them to increase your stats or get consumables, so use them!! ………Nico-chan? Are you listening?…Hm? Ah. Yeah yeah, I’m listening.Come on! Let’s begin our fun adventure! Let’s gooo!And so our grand journey begins! Our two options are Search, which searches for enemies, and Stairs, which is crossed out. Presumably we must Search for the Stairs, but first… Let’s check our menu! Spend Some NP, Nico! posted:Singing - Increases Live accuracy. Hm? How much does Increasing Cuteness cost? Nothing? That’s a steal! It’s also moot, as Nico is already the cutest. Duh. The enemies on this floor are all Chunslimes: only need to be sung to once, no chance to fail, only one Nico Nico Nii to smile. You can beat them by accident while mashing Search, honestly. Finding the stairs is random in a predetermined range, so assuming that you’re playing optimally you can’t get screwed by RNG. Probably. Hm? What’s this? Stairs?Yep! They’re stairs! With these we can go even deeper into the dream!Dream…? Are we inside a dream?Hey, have you been listening to me at all?But you gotta be careful, Nico-chan!On my left, you can see the Alpaca Gauge, right?This alpaca is waiting for you to return with its neck held out.Huh? That’s nonsense.But if you make it wait too long, its neck will go back and then…!And then…?…… !!!!!!!!!……… !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!…………………Might as well, right? A new floor! There’s more enemies to encounter in the tutorial, but I didn’t see them in-game so here they are now: Our Angle and uor Devil. Good Chunslime and Bad Chunslime posted:On the way, I Chunslime Instructor is actually cut content re-added by the translator. They’re there to tell you that in this game you can run away since you only take damage after your Live. It’s got more than four times the boxes as the boss here, and is unperturbed by our Nico Nico Niis. The first comment they got back after this addition was that they were dying to strong enemies. You can take a horse to water, but you can’t make it read? Your HP slowly recovers by Searching, or quickly recovers by using a Hand Mirror. I did neither, which I’ll soon regret... Be careful, Nico-chan! I’m feeling a VERY strong Cute Power around here!Cute Power…?Since Floor 4 is the boss of the tutorial. Gaze upon my pecs, and Despair. MUSIC: HOW CLOSE IS TOO CLOSE TO PUNCH OUT, LEGALLY SPEAKING? Why would you say something so rude?!Huh? Well, it’s just…I-, I kinda feel bad now… Alright, alright.I just need to battle him, right? That’s all… This isn’t like some of the Fire Emblem games, where they average two numbers to get the actual hit range. 5% sounds negligible until it isn’t, and if you needed it not to die, them’s the breaks. This was in fact my fault however. If I just went to Level 4, I could have had an extra dance to make up for the miss or just perfect accuracy in general. I also would’ve had a full heal from the level itself and maybe even some mirrors for healing. Note that a Nico Nico Nii cuts the Live short regardless, so we’ll have “wasted” 2 sings either way. Turns out we needed those. Generally, if we’ve found the stairs on the penultimate floor, we can afford to grind until the Alpaca’s neck almost gives out. MUSIC STOPS The reason this is a SSLP instead of a VLP is so that I can cover up my numerous, numerous mistakes. Nico-chaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!!!Nico Yazawa Has Died, Again. Well, see you all next Update! MUSIC RESTARTS Just kidding. The alpaca’s neck grows back when depleted as well, so if you really really wanted to for some reason you could grind here forever. I actually missed again after the death, but letting things like “facts” get in the way of my narrative is for people who know what they’re doing. A nice tutorial! I cleared this first try on my first playthrough. Oh god, am I getting worse!? Isn’t it wonderful making people smile?People…?What?Hm?We’re just going back like that? After everything that happened?………Eh, whatever…Oh, wow! A certificate! That’s not even a reward in-universe! But we got an idol’s signature so actually it’s okay in the end really And a hearty cheer welcomes us back to… MUSIC: CLUBROOM The clubroom! Here’s our hub world, where we can interact with the rest of µ's. Next update, we’ll see who’s conspicuously missing from there! MetaMeme fucked around with this message at 06:48 on Nov 29, 2022 |
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Nov 16, 2021 04:50
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MetaMeme posted:
Looks like you might have had a bit of a formatting snafu here, inserting portraits where they're not supposed to be? I'd guess something probably went wrong with a find and replace. As for this game itself... I have absolutely no idea what any of this is, but colour me curious I suppose.
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Nov 16, 2021 05:15
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I think this might be a text reproduction of how nico was getting her word bubble covered up constantly in the gifs?
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Nov 16, 2021 05:18
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TeeQueue posted:I think this might be a text reproduction of how nico was getting her word bubble covered up constantly in the gifs? Yep! Felt it was a bit egregious to do again again again.
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Nov 16, 2021 05:20
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If I had a nightmare about getting stabbed, and I woke up to Kotori standing over my body, I would run away. She is not to be trusted.
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Nov 16, 2021 05:23
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In that case, I'd suggest having the interrupted lines end with a dash and putting the new portrait on a new line, rather than doing it like this. I can see what you're going for, but (at least to me) this parses like a mistake rather than conveying the interruption well. (I certainly don't blame you not wanting to have to make GIFs every time this happens, that would be incredibly tedious.) Obviously, you didn't ask for my feedback and you don't have to take the suggestion, but there's my 2c regardless.
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Nov 16, 2021 05:25
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she did it! she did the thing!
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Nov 16, 2021 05:36
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In my opinion, putting it on the same line makes the interruption seem more, well, interrupting. I'd prefer to see a dash to finish the interrupted statement just before the interruptor's portrait so it's obvious it's not a formatting error.
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Nov 16, 2021 05:38
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sb hermit posted:she did it! she did the thing! She’s going to Nico Nico Nii’d to do it a lot more before we’re done here, I’m sure.
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Nov 16, 2021 05:39
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TeeQueue posted:She’s going to Nico Nico Nii’d to do it a lot more before we’re done here, I’m sure. you've said this exact pun four seperate times in DMs are you really that proud of it
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Nov 16, 2021 05:41
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MetaMeme posted:you've said this exact pun four seperate times in DMs are you really that proud of it Yes. I love all my pun babies, especially the stupid ones. 
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Nov 16, 2021 05:43
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MetaMeme posted:"Loving your prose! Can you do my favourite pokemon amputee sex slave romhack"? i hate you for being the reason i checked the rapsheet, op.
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Nov 16, 2021 05:51
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SIGSEGV posted:In my opinion, putting it on the same line makes the interruption seem more, well, interrupting. I'd prefer to see a dash to finish the interrupted statement just before the interruptor's portrait so it's obvious it's not a formatting error. I rather like it with the dash added myself. MetaMeme posted:Why are there so many people what the heck We're here for the Nico Nico Nii's, I'd think Odd Wilson fucked around with this message at 06:06 on Nov 16, 2021 |
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Nov 16, 2021 05:59
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That Kotori chick is pretty cute.
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Nov 16, 2021 09:01
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MetaMeme posted:you've said this exact pun four seperate times in DMs are you really that proud of it to be honest, it's a really good pun, almost  tier
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Nov 16, 2021 10:09
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I have absolutely no idea what is remotely going on here but I’m along for the ride I guess.
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Nov 16, 2021 13:37
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So this game is all about maximizing the effect of that Nico Nico Nii~? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_lb--PWEMU
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Nov 17, 2021 03:11
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Gonna need a nico nico nii counter
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Nov 17, 2021 03:32
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My knowledge of Love Live is that I watched the first anime and I vaguely remember that I liked Nico best because despite the cute exterior she is actually a total gremlin. On that note, I love that her first instinct was not in fact to nico nico nii at the slime, but to punch its lights out. Anyway, thank you for showing us this weird game that I would otherwise never have known existed!
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Nov 17, 2021 04:56
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In which The Cutest Idol in the Universe meets up with her entourage for the first time Greetings and Salutations, everyone! This will be a very short update for you all and a very hellish update for me, since we will be meeting the rest of the school idol group Nico's part of, µ's! MUSIC: CLUBROOM Last we left off, we entered the clubroom. There’s like a 3 second gap between the end of that update and now but transcribing is hard okay   Ah, welcome back! Hey. The others are at their posts already. Their posts? The hell’s with that?More importantly, hurry up and do it!What? Do what? Huh? Don’t wanna. But Nico-chan, you’ll never go back to the real world if you don’t do it!What? Why?Aaah!! Stop asking questions! We’re all waiting for you, okay?!You picking a fight here?!H-, hey, let’s calm down here.Anyways, please do us this favor, Nico!Ah jeez, what’s with this… Anyway, welcome to the Clubroom! This is where the rest of µ's aside from Nico and Honoka, who stabbed us, are. We come here in downtime between dungeons to save, and more importantly make me realise I’m in over my head and explaining the jist of Love Live well enough for people to follow coherently is a task too Herculean for a first-timer. Anyway, The Menu™! Gawk at how hand-drawn some of the UI is! OooOOooOOo! Jokes aside, There’s 4 things to do here: Explore, Talk, Visit, and Save. Let’s go through them, shall we?  Explore shows us a preview of the next dungeon we’ll be going through. As previously stated, the first dream we’ll be tackling is Kotori’s, with 7 floors and Kotori herself as our partner. The line below about fangs is a 2ch joke that’s based on a children’s radio program that I could not even begin to explain to you. We still have options to go through, so let’s back out for now.  Selecting Talk lets us talk to the three other members of µ's that we’ll be… Kotori, before her dream posted:
Maki, on the first visit posted:
Eli, freshly dreamt up posted:
 Visit lets us visit the other members of µ's that we haven’t seen yet. Introductions… Will have to wait, since I need to show off the most important feature of the game. Drumroll, please... You’re gonna want to watch this. Game of the Millenium 25252/10 With that sorted out, let’s go visit some more of our fellow school idols, shall we? MUSIC: A “TRADITIONAL” ‘Yuuki No Reason’ REMIX  First off is Umi Sonoda, second year and childhood friends with both Kotori and Honoka. She’s the prim and proper type, with her father being a martial arts trainer and mother being a traditional Japanese dance instructor; with her being expected to inherit the combined dojo of both.  Huh? What’s with this place? Now then, please take a seat over there!Huh? Ah, sure.Now Nico, you must focus your mind!What?Focus your miiiiiiind!!!!!Ah, sure.How is it?Huh? What do you mean, how...Your mind has become clearer, has it not?!Hm?Has it not?!Ah, sure.Very well!!Now then, please do come again.Yeah...If we come here again posted:
MUSIC: I DON’T KNOW WHY NOZOMI GETS THIS ONE EITHER I’M PRETTY SURE ‘Kaguya no Shiro de Odoritai’ IS AN ENSEMBLE SONG?  Next off is Nozomi Tojo! She’s into fortune telling with tarot, the vice president of the student council, and was instrumental to µ's formation as well as being the person who Nico has known the longest. She’s also a bit of a cheeky prankster. Let’s get our fortune read, so we have something to blame if I mess up on the dungeon.  What are you doing here, Nozomi? Non non, no Nozomi here, just Non-tan.NonNonNoNozoNonTan?Nicocchi, it looks like you're in need of my fortune-telling, are you not?Not really.This is the card that will guide your path! drat, can’t blame my failure on bad RNG. It's "The Sun" tarot card!A bright future is waiting for you, Nicocchi!Do your best! I'll be cheering you on!Haah… Non, N’est pas Nozomi, Je m'appelle Non-tan! posted:
MUSIC: IF YOU CAN DECIPHER THE SONG OFF OF 10 SECONDS AND A TITLE OF ‘＞ω＜／’ BE MY GUEST  Next is Rin Hoshizora, first-year and resident catgirl of µ's. Funnily enough, she’s actually allergic to cats and dislikes fish, but considering my idol knowledge I shouldn’t be throwing stones. She’s part of a trio along with Nico and Honoka for the worst grades in µ's. My condolences? Huh? What's going on? Her name was Creme Puff, a female cat.She was 38 years old, can you believe it, nya?Whoaaaa.Heheh...What are you looking so smug for.Come back soon, nya!Huh? That's it?We came back like she asked, Nya. posted:
MUSIC: Strategy Meeting  Last on the docket is Hanayo Koizumi, a first year and the best friend of Rin. She’s the shy foil to Rin’s tomboyish bundle of energy, and is really big into idols, like Nico. She also likes food, and rice in particular. Rin also proposed to her in supplemental material, and they kissed. That last one’s not relevant to this game, I just wanted to share it.  Nico-chan! Welcome!What's with this place... What are you doing here?Please place your order!N-, no way, not even you are listening to what I'm saying?!Understood! Please wait just a second!You really aren't listening at all.Here you go, Nico-chan! Koshihikari from Uonuma!Whoa, that looks good...You've just gotta eat the king of all rice at least once!...So where's the rest of the meal?Hm?Well, I mean, this is just rice so...Hm?...Thanks for the food.I'll leave the bill right here, okay?!You're charging me for this huh...We look forward to seeing you again!Huh? I didn't even get to eat it.Yeah but like, I did want that rice. posted:
And that’s all to cover in the clubroom this time! Join me next time on my quest of madness as I attempt to explain episode 13 to people that haven’t seen episode 1. MetaMeme fucked around with this message at 09:42 on Nov 17, 2021 |
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Nov 17, 2021 09:33
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Looks like I'm up first! Let's do our best, Nico-chan!
Chun chun.
Just get it all over with, will you?
You have it rough too, huh… Ah, sorry. I’m just talking to myself.
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maybe I should watch love live first but we're too far into the LP for me to go back and correct my grevious mistake anyways, this game has heart, and a lot of inside jokes, and I love both.
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Nov 17, 2021 10:31
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I take it Honk's absence is significant...
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Nov 17, 2021 18:16
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